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The Portal
How far would Mira allow herself to think back, she wondered, as she flipped restlessly through her journals. It seemed like only yesterday that she'd began her journey to Palade Keep. The trip alone filled nearly two journals pages with tales of her adventure.
Perhaps, Mira thought, it would be best to start at the beginning. After all, that is where most truely exciting tales began.
At the beginning...
Chapter One
Mira Hengleson had hated to move from Boston to the hole in the wall town of Murvie, Kentucky but her father had given her little choice in the matter. It didn't matter that Mira was in the middle of her senior year of high school, or that she had already applied at the community college. Mr. Hengleson had been given a job opportunity and had taken it. As a traveling salesmen, a dying breed in her opinion, he went where the jobs were.
And here she was. In the middle of no where.
Mr. Hengleson slowly turned in to their driveway, pushing a strand of his graying blond hair out of his face, blue eyes glancing over at her as he drove. Mira knew he was concerned about how the move would affect her. But then he was always concerned at first.
The house lay at the far end of the town, surrounded by nothing but trees and an eerie forest on the other side of a very old wooden fence.
"Here we are, Mir." He said, turning off the engine of the U haul and looking over at her from the drivers seat.
Mira looked at the 2-story house and missed their apartment building immediately. It appeared the house might have been white at one time in its existence, but now the light brown paint peeled back in spots. An old swing swayed in the breeze on the covered porch, and she could see what looked to be a black cat curled up on one of the front steps.
Mr. Hengleson put his hand on his daughters arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "It looks worse on the outside. I promise." He took the keys out of the ignition and opened his door. "Come on, lets go in. We'll unload the truck later."
Taking a deep breath, Mira nodded. I can do this, she thought, opening her door and making her way around to the front of the truck to stand by her father.
There was a chill in the air that made her pull her blue windbreaker closer around her. She followed her father up the stairs, where there was indeed a cat fast asleep on the porch, and up to the front door.
Mr. Hengleson opened the screen door to reveal a small white envelope pinned to the door with a piece of tape. Pulling lightly, he detached it and held it in his hands.
"Who's it from?" Mira asked, noting the look on her father's face. He didn't look like he'd expected the letter, nor did he seem happy to see it.
"Nothing." He said, putting the envelope in his coat pocket. "I'm sure it isn't important. I'll look at it later. " Flashing her his brilliant white smile, he said, "Lets go inside."
He unlocked the door, swinging it open to reveal a small entry hallway with small pegs on the wall, and a coat rack in the corner to the left. They walked a little further in to the house. Flipping the lights on, revealed a plainly furbished living room with a couch, small red rug with odd symbols on it, and various paintings scattering the walls.
"What, no tv?" Mira asked, smiling at her dad.
He laughed, shaking his head. "No, sorry. The landlord said the last tenant broke it, but I'm sure there's a store in town we can get one at once I start making money."
That was fine with Mira. She buried herself in books and writing in her journals. It passed the time, and kept her content.
Following her father further in to the house, Mira found herself standing in front of a long wooden staircase leading up in to the darkness.
"The kitchens off to the right," He motioned right, "and my bedroom is to the left." Turning a switch on the wall by the staircase he said, "Yours is upstairs."
They went up the stairs, stopping at the top. There were three doors in the room. two were on either side of the staircase. The third was straight ahead of them, at the end of the hall.
"Which one is mine?" Mira asked, curious which room would be hers, but sad that she'd only end up leaving again as they had many times before in the past.
Mr. Hengleson pointed to the door on the right. Mira walked to the door and as she opened it, her father said, "I hope you like it."
Turning on the lightswitch, Mira first noticed the bookshelf that covered half of the left wall which was full of old looking books. To the right of the door was a small twin sized bed with a blue comforter on it. The wallpaper was pale blue with fluffy white clouds on it that she could almost reach out and touch they looked so real.
At that moment, she heard Mr. Hengleson's cell phone ringing in his pocket. She turned to see him pop it open and answer and felt a small part of her happiness die.
He came up to her a minute later, the familiar expression on his face. "I'm sorry, sweetie, I have to unload and then head back to town to pick up my car. They have a route ready for me to start and I need to be there tomorrow morning." Mr. Hengleson put his hands in his pockets and pulled out a set of keys. "Here, these are for you. The large silver one is for the house. I'm not sure what the other 3 keys are."
Giving him a big hug, Mira closed her eyes and smiled and for a moment was happy. Everything would be ok, she told herself. Her father would get in a rhythm with his new route and he'd be back in a week tops. Then it would all be okay.
She watched her father leave from the window in her bedroom. They'd spent a nice couple of hours unloading the Uhaul but now he'd left to retrieve his car, and she was left to unpack the boxes in her bedroom.
She started with the clothes box closest to the small dresser by the bed. After a few minutes of unpacking Mira had managed to fill all but the bottom drawer. But when she went to open it it was locked. Sure enough, there was a silver embellished lock in the bottom right corner of the dresser drawer.
A locked drawer?
Ok, that was odd. But maybe one of the three keys the old tenant had left would work. After all, it was furniture left over from their stay there.
Mira flipped through the keys and tried the first one. It didn't fit.
Dang.
Two more to go.
Nope.
Mira sighed. This was stupid. She wasn't exactly given a lot of clothes space. She was going to get that drawer open even if it ended with her picking the lock!
Last key. Taking a deep breath, Mira inserted the key in to the lock. It fit! She turned they key, unlocked the drawer. She placed the keys back in her pocket.
There was a strange sigh and a small cloud of brownish dust came up out of the opening.
Mira stifled a cough and finished opening the drawer.
Laying at the bottom of the drawer was a small piece of paper folded in half. Mira lifted it out, dusting off the paper and unfolding it.
Drawn on the paper was a long hallway with three doors. Two were on either side of a staircase. But the third door had yellow light all around it and was at the end of the hall.
She felt a chill rush up her spine. No way. That was a picture of the hallway outside her room. It had to be.
Intrigued more than she had been in a long time, Mira stood up and exited the bedroom, still holding the paper in her hand as she approached the door at the end of the hall.
As she reached the door, Mira told herself the drawing could be just that. The past tenant might have simply had a child who had a good imagination and liked to draw. Allowing herself to be carried away was silly, if not childish. She laughed to herself. Ah yes, but she was only 17 after all. Being a child was acceptable. Why not have a little fun with it?
Opening the door, Mira climbed the staircase that lead up to the attic. There was a cord by the end of the staircase that was attached to a lamp.
But when Mira pulled it, the only light that came down covered a small round ball that sat atop a round table in the center of the room.
As she came closer she saw the round ball was actually a mannequin head and around its neck was a silver chained necklace. Hanging at the end of the necklace was vibrant green piece of jade.
How beautiful, she thought, taking it off the mannequin and putting it around her own neck.
Mira noticed a mirror off in the corner, stuffed behind some boxes, and went and fetched it, leaning it against the table. It was dirty, so she cleaned it with back of her shirt sleeve and took a step back to admire the necklace.
It looked quite nice. The silver lay flat against her alabaster skin and the jade almost seemed to begin to glow as she held it in the palm of her hand.
Mira absently turned it over as she edged closer to the mirror to admire the stone.
It was then she noticed there was writing engraved on the back of the pendant. Turning the stone just so, she read it aloud to herself.
"The burden this stone carries belongs to you." Burden?
The stone began to glow even brighter in her palm. No longer did Mira think it was a play on the light. She looked in the mirror, and sure enough it was glowing, but even stranger the mirror began to swirl and pulse, almost as if it were speaking to the stone.
Mira tried to remove the pendant, but she couldn't take it off. She could only get it to her temple then an invisible force would shove it back around her throat.
Meanwhile, the light from the mirror increased in intensity, enveloping Mira before she had the chance to move away.
She had only a moment to scream then darkness stole her consciousness.
----To Be Continued----
 · Wed Dec 06, 2006 @ 02:59am · 0 Comments |
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