The Rift (3 page)

Neil rolled his eyes. “Sure, just because I’m
Japanese, that means I emerge from the womb with a katana. Pieter,
that joke got old in middle school.”

Pieter grabbed Vero’s hand and began to walk
into the field. She planted her feet in the ground.

“
Pieter…”

He kept walking until her arm pulled taut. From
the time he had first asked her out, Vero knew that with Pieter,
she’d wind up in some impulsive, bizarre situations. That field
didn’t seem appealing, but he sure did. Pieter turned and gave a
friendly grin; his light tug dragged her forward. Neil followed;
Gloria trailed farthest behind.

The hard, dry dirt crunched beneath Vero’s
step. Short, prickly grass tickled the tops of her feet. The moon
and some lights across the street illuminated enough to show forms
and shapes. They rounded a cluster of trees and walked toward where
the light had vanished. The plants concealed the street.

“
Why are we doing this, again?”
Vero asked.

“
Come on, you really want to end up
walking down a bike path?” Pieter replied.

In other words, a last-ditch effort to salvage
the date.

“
Does Pieter really need a reason
for the things he does?” Neil asked.

“
Resisting boredom, usually,”
Pieter said.

Neil opened his mouth as though about to say
something. Instead, he fell backward with an “Ack!”

“
You all right there?” Pieter
asked.

“
I ran into something,” Neil
said.

Despite the darkness, Vero could see that there
was nothing for Neil to run into.

“
Watch out for those air
molecules,” Pieter said. “They can be mean in a gang.”

Something floating in the air caught Vero’s
attention. She moved toward it, and it became a… a tunnel. The
inside looked like rock, but it cut straight into the air. She
moved her head around to the back, and the tunnel
vanished.

“
Come around this side,” she
said.

Neil came around. “What in the world? How is
this…” He reached forward and touched the inner edge. “It’s some
kind of optical illusion. It’s… invisible from the back. The
back—that’s what I ran into.”

Vero stared straight into the tunnel. It was a
bit taller than her and extended about a hundred feet. At least, it
looked like it extended about a hundred feet, but that was
impossible; they’d have seen it earlier. Something lurched through
it. On the far side, a fire burned.

She pointed down the… the whatever it was.
“Someone’s coming.”

For the first time in years, Vero considered
the reality of Hell. She seemed to be staring down a tunnel leading
there.

The silhouette looked like a man. He stooped in
the tunnel, which put him well over six feet. One hand held his
stomach, the other a backpack.

Vero stepped back. She’d have run, but Pieter
held her hand. The same quality that compelled him to explore empty
fields kept him from doing the sane thing and dashing for his car.
In most people, she’d call it bravery. In Pieter, stupidity. Gloria
backed slowly toward the street.

The man emerged into the moonlight. His
clothing looked… well, a bit formal. Not quite what she expected
for a man—or demon—walking out of Hell. Metal buttons fastened his
long-sleeve shirt together down the front, and a dark stain spread
where he held his hand. An axe blade peeked over his back. Again,
Vero tried to back away. Pieter didn’t budge.

“
We’d take you to our leader, but
the Secret Service probably wouldn’t let us get close,” Pieter
said. Half a smirk emerged from an otherwise serious
face.

Vero tried to wiggle free of her boyfriend. She
considered punching him.

“
I don’t catch your meaning,” the
figure said. He spoke perfect English, with no accent.

He didn’t seem like demon material. He looked
too human. And his face seemed kind, though tensed in
pain.

Maybe this was some kind of science experiment
or secret technology. But if someone had invented some kind of
teleporter, no way it would appear in an empty field in SLO. That
left, what… aliens? Magic? Another world?

Pieter gave a little bow. “Forgive me for not
introducing myself. I am Pieter Walters the Third, king of
Emptyfield. Here is my queen, Veronica Mendoza. And this is my
loyal chambermaid, Neil Matsumoto with his mistress, Gloria
Stone.”

“
Chambermaid?” Neil
said.

The figure appeared dumbfounded. “King? Then…
you’re aware of this place? How did you know to be
here?”

For just an instant, Pieter’s grin faltered. He
waved his hand as though tossing something behind his back. “Your
name, first, fair traveler?”

“
James. James Weatherton. Your…
Highness.”

Somehow, it didn’t really surprise Vero that
Pieter’s reaction would be humor. Running still seemed like a
better idea to her.

Reality TV. That might explain it. In the dark,
maybe they simulated that tunnel with mirrors… or something. She
had no idea how to create a tunnel in midair, but if anyone could
do it, Hollywood could.

“
Does that tunnel lead to another
world?” Neil asked. He sounded almost hopeful. “Or just somewhere
else on earth?”

The man stared at him. “Who are you all,
really?”

“
King of this plot,” Pieter
replied. “Don’t question me again. We came here in answer to the
prophecy.”

James’s jaw dropped open.
“Prophecy?”

“
Of course,” Pieter said. For an
instant, Vero believed him. Except for that smirk. “Now, tell us,
thou traveler from another world, why hast thou cometh?”

James stared at Pieter for a moment with a
bewildered look. He bowed his head slightly. “I apologize for my
appearance, Your… uh… Your Highness.” Half a smile curled on
James’s lips. “But I’m here with a warning for your world. I need
sanctuary. Will you help me?”

“
No problem,” Pieter
said.

“
You’re hurt,” Gloria said. She
stepped forward, bolder than Vero had seen her all night. “Do you
need me to call an ambulance?”

“
A what?”

“
An, uh… a doctor.”

James wavered for a moment. “I…”

A voice echoed from the tunnel in a nasally,
singsong voice. Vero heard something like James’s name—it sounded
more like “Jamasu”—but she couldn’t understand the other
words.

“
We have to go now. Those are
enemies,” James said. Under his breath, he muttered,
“Dirk…”

“
Into the bushes, shall we?” Pieter
asked.

He let go of Vero’s hand and headed for the dry
creek. As soon as he released her, she nearly bolted. But he waved
her on, and she followed, unsure what he had planned. He had
something planned, right?

“
That man’s really hurt,” Gloria
said.

“
You coming with?” Vero
asked.

Gloria glanced across the field. Her voice
trembled. “I don’t want to run off by myself. Not if there’s more
of them coming through.”

“
Me, neither,” Vero said. “Look,
it’s probably some TV show or something. Just… keep your head low.
Don’t say anything dumb, yeah?”

“
This is so awesome,” Neil
said.

“
You think this is a game?” Vero
snapped at Neil, who shrugged.

“
Maybe. Could be LARPers. But
either way, we’re neutral. James is the one they’re after, not us.
But man, if this is real, this is the coolest thing that’s ever
happened to me.”

Turned out Neil was mildly insane. Or else… No.
He was in on it. He and Pieter. A practical joke. That made as much
sense as anything else. Only, Pieter didn’t seem smart enough to
engineer that tunnel… thing. Maybe Neil had.

The others jumped into the dense bushes. Vero
paused outside.

“
Come on, pretty girl,” Pieter
said.

“
But there’s ticks in there,” Vero
replied.

James groaned.

The voice again called from inside the tunnel,
and hiding in the bushes suddenly didn’t sound like a bad idea. The
crackly branches scratched her on the way in.

“
Having fun yet?” Pieter
whispered.

“
This some practical joke?” Vero
asked.

“
Nah,” Pieter replied. “You think I
could make something that sophisticated?”

“
Then how? What?
Prophecy?”

James stood near enough to hear their
conversation, but he gave no reaction.

“
Thanks. I thought the prophecy was
a nice touch, don’t you think? Anyways, this is way more
interesting than some bike trail, yeah? But if it gets sketchy, we
bail.”

He didn’t consider this sketchy? Vero nestled
against a tree branch and stared at his silhouette.
Unbelievable.

Though, given what Vero knew of him, this
reaction seemed about right. The only thing she’d seen him serious
about—sometimes—was their relationship. Usually, she loved that
humor. It’s how he first stuck out from everyone else at school.
But right now, she wanted to strangle him.

“
This is actually dangerous,” Vero
whispered.

“
Come on, you think something that
dangerous could really happen in SLO? And wouldn’t you rather face
it with a laugh anyways?”

Two men stepped out of the portal and into the
moonlight. A tall one, pale skinned like James, held a sword. The
other, short and dark skinned, walked with a slight slouch. He held
some kind of metal club.

“
That’s Jed. This is bad,” James
whispered. He glanced at the four of them and sighed. “I should
have jumped for it before they came through.”

The tall one, Jed, called out something
incomprehensible in his nasally voice. Again, he mentioned James’s
name.

James gave Pieter a desperate look. “Are you
sure you’ll help me?”

“
For sure,” Pieter
whispered.

James opened a button on his backpack and
muttered to himself, nearly too faint to hear, “This is a bad
idea.”

Without a word, the little guy leaped straight
up. Vero lost sight of him through the trees. She
gasped.

“
Ignore them,” James whispered. He
removed a metal band of some kind from his backpack—it looked like
an enormous bracelet—and handed it to Pieter. “Don’t let these fall
into their hands, whatever happens. Put this on.”

“
What’s it do?” Pieter
asked.

“
It’s a soul armor,” James said,
pulling a metal rod out of the pack.

The short one landed, about where he’d jumped
from. He said something to Jed in a low voice.

“
Soul armor, great,” Pieter said.
“That totally explains it.”

James pulled on the rod, flipped it over, and
pulled again. It grew with each tug. It had to be some kind of
telescoping rod. When he’d finished, it looked like a sword. That’s
all that could explain that. Yet with every weird occurrence—the
tunnel, the jump, now some expanding sword—the sinking fear in
Vero’s stomach got worse and worse.

James handed the sword to Pieter.

He handed a bigger band to Neil—a leather belt
with a large metal buckle—and told him to put it around his waist.
Neil eagerly did so. With a quivering hand, Gloria took a thin band
and strapped it around her chest, just above her breasts. James
pulled out another rod and spent about fifteen seconds pulling it
out into some kind of club with a circle of wings at the top. The
two men searched the perimeter of the field.

“
It that a mace?” Neil
asked.

James nodded. “The soul armor will give you
unimaginable strength once activated. That’s what makes them so
strong, able to jump so high. Concentrate on the band—but not yet.”
As he spoke, he pulled on another small rod and extended it into a
long stick. “They’ll see you as soon as you turn it on. The weapon
and band work together.”

He handed the stick to Gloria.

“
Gloria,” James whispered. “That
band has to touch your skin, to press against your heart. You need
it under your clothing.”

Gloria looked around at them, then held up her
hand. “Eww, creepy. No.”

“
That’s important.”

She backed into the bushes a little. “Look, no,
I’m not taking off my shirt…”

James ignored her and faced out toward the
field. Jed was stomping toward them, whacking bushes with his
sword. “Listen,” James said. “Once I go to fight, focus on those
bands. Feel the energy flow inside you. Then help me. I don’t think
I can beat them alone. Your world… it’s in danger.”

“
Umm, what?” Neil said.

“
Wait a few moments, then activate
the armors. Come, Sir Matsumoto. You seem a noble man just waiting
for some kind of real challenge in this life.”

The taller man, Jed, moved close enough to hear
them. Neil shut up.