The GATE

by scifipony

26 - Shades of Narnia

The new shed looked seriously dilapidated.

It wasn't like the Shoal family was poor, and in a few days you could get trucked-in new siding or even a pre-fab from Amazon! This had been hammered together from garbage discards from an old building on the property that dated back to the last millennium. It was rusted and displayed the yellow and green stains of paint sand-blasted by decades of dust. Every idiot and his father had shot at the crap, but, somehow in the last week—overnight I'd bet—they'd put it up over a perfectly serviceable ATV shed. I'd been blown off when I'd asked why yesterday.

So, now I was going to find out what it was for?

Daniel scuffed the ground with a shoe, lost in thought, raising a little dust cloud. I snorted as I arrived. He held his .22 rifle pointing down as if he were going to take a hike and worried about snakes.

"You haven't changed since we were ten when you broke that window with the baseball."

"Huh?"

"How you show your nerves." I pointed at his feet and he straightened right up.

"Dad tanned my hide."

"And it would have been worse if you hadn't immediately told, or had lied instead. Though I guess it must have hurt if you still remember."

"It did."

"Look. Maybe I should go if you're having second—"

"No. No! You were right. And I know I'm right, now. You gotta see this." He grabbed the door to the shed. The pulls were U-shaped bent pipe, handy for padlocking a chain around. Both a hefty padlock and imposing chain lay on the ground. The door creaked as it opened—surprise!—on rusty hinges.

The dusky high-ceilinged interior looked empty, except for some barrels and a small motorcycle. The ATVs and the much smaller, squatter shed that housed it, were gone but for hard packed dirt and an edge of wilted weeds.

It looked empty... because it was dark. Outside, the sun hid behind the clouds and was dipping below the mountains, but the sky was still bright. Bluish light seeped through seams and buckshot holes. As Daniel closed the door and the fluorescent light began to dominate, what I saw made less and less sense.

"Give your eyes a moment."

"For what? Seriously, you could have put in something brighter like LED lights—"

"Grandpa's a cheapskate," he deadpanned.

I snorted and stepped forward. "A flashlight would—"

He caught my wrist. With the rifle balanced at its midsection, he sketched an arch.

I blinked twice, then I saw a curve floating midair.

The hair on the back of my neck rose and I gasped as my heart began beating faster. My mind interpreted it as a heat mirage, despite the dark. As my perception added details, I got a sense of mass. While my mind insisted it was a slightly flattened black water balloon, my eyes saw something translucent, like I was looking at a bubble.

As if to prove it was a bubble of something, a static discharge crackled, sending mini-fingers of lightening across the ovoid surface.

Creepy shadows flitted about. The shed made a few clanking noises as it cooled from the midday heat, which further set me on edge.

"What the heck?"

Daniel said, "Uncle Rick found it Thursday—" It was Sunday. "—up in the hills a few miles west. Said it was basketball-sized, and when he used the butt of his rifle to poke it, it rolled away from him. It was at the low spot in a gully. It's like oil and water where water is everything not it, even— even the ground. That's how he shepherded it here—and grew bigger as he did. Grandpa thought—"

"Doesn't surprise me. Valuable, right?"

"Ohhh, yeah."

"So you built the shed around the trophy?"

Daniel moved so he was more in my field of view since my eyes were locked on the almost gel-like thing. "It's more than a trophy."

I said, "I'm thinking of that creature movie we watched last month— The Abyss."

He laughed and looked at it, waving his rifle butt at it. It shrank slightly away. Nevertheless, he said, "Not alive. But—but there is somewhere-else on the other side. 'To the right and a mile down the path...'" His voice trailed off.

The building took that moment to creak again, almost behind us. I stiffened, unwilling to take my eyes off of the apparition. I said, "If there is a somewhere else over there—a cave, another shed, maybe?—it's very dark."

"Yeah. And it is..." His eyebrow crunched together. "Darker than usual."

I spared a few moments to look at him. Briefly our gazes met, then returned to the nothingness beyond.

"You don't mean a Narnia The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe-somewhere else, do you?" My body went cold with my last word and I chuckled, yes, nervously.

If it was a prank, and it had to be a prank, not that he ever did pranks... F-me if it wasn't a really convincing prank... I wasn't ready to have my conception of reality shattered, but, I had to admit, part of me was thrilled thinking about it.

"I'm not sure I believe that," I lied.

Mostly. I hoped it wasn't true.

Mostly.

He said, "I wouldn't in your place. It's odd, though— Last time I looked, there was some sort of orchard. Even in the moonlight, you could see that..."

I heard a hint of something wooden sliding and a reverberation that sounded like a pool cue. There was a pool table in the great room of the now vacant lodge that the two of us used midweek when there were fewer guests.

I looked back at the shed doors. I saw the same bent-pipe U-shaped handles. It almost didn't register—because it ought not have been there—but then I saw a thin dark rod inserted through both handles.

I inhaled sharply, reflexively. A glance confirmed Daniel hadn't moved. Now my hair definitely stood on end.

Loath to put the whatever the sphere was behind me, I nevertheless turned completely around, but saw nobody.

Where had the rod come from?

I realized amongst all the other weirdness, there was a slight breeze. When my gaze floated upward, I found a pair of eyes looking down at me.

Comments

[keroko]

Okay, so first contact went the other way, perhaps. Changeling? It's usually changelings.

[Black--Soul]

What the hell? The portal can be move? Thats new...