Page 41 of The Other World

There was a giant crash and part of the door came down. There wasn’t time to argue.

“Fine,” I said. “Tell me what to do.”

She yelled for Nikolai and got him to start opening the portal, while she explained to me what I needed to do. It seemed pretty easy, but that didn’t mean it would be.

The portal kicked in, so we cleared a path through our barricade.

“Once the door opens, you’ll only have a minute,” said Mrs Spencer. “Make sure the stone and the sword enter at the same time, before you.”

I nodded. I was ready to go.

“Anyone who wants to go, go now,” she said. “Anyone who wants to stay in this world, I’ll reopen the portal once they’re gone. It’ll reset back to normal as soon as they’re gone, don’t you worry about a thing. We’re on the home stretch now!”

“Wait, what?” I said. I was almost at the portal, but I turned to stare back at her.

“Someone needs to stay here,” she said. “To make sure everything goes smoothly from this end. You just promise me you’ll look after my Sam. And I’ll promise to look after your friends.” She nodded to other-Tennyson.

I stepped forward and gave other-Tennyson a quick hug.

He squeezed me tightly, as if he didn’t want to let me go. “Thank you,” he said in a voice that was gruff from disuse.

I felt tears prick at my eyes. “Tell Althea goodbye for me?”

He nodded and I turned away. I’d miss him, but at least I’d kept my promise to get him home safe.

I glanced over at other-Nikolai. “You’re definitely the one from this world?” I asked.

“Hurry up and leave,” he said. “We haven’t got all day.”

With one last look at them, I turned back to the portal. Sword and stone first, I stepped into it.

I closed my eyes and pictured my own world. That hadn’t been part of the portal redirection magic or anything, but it seemed right. I pictured all the things I loved. My brothers. Hannah. My comfy bed. Delicious food. My favorite reading nook in the school library.

I took another step, and opened my eyes. It was night. We were at school, on the steps of the lighthouse, but I didn’t know if it was my school, my lighthouse.

I was shoved in the back by Nikolai, and stumbled forward. I moved out of the way to give the others space to come through. Next was Tennyson, carrying Althea, Sam, and then a couple of the prisoners.

“Are we home?” asked Nikolai.

“We’re home,” said Tennyson. “Can’t you tell? The air is different here.”

He was right, the air was different. Nothing tangible, it just feltright. Less hostile.

I’d hoped that coming through the portal would jolt Althea back to consciousness, but she was still out to it, still covered in weird bits of green slime. As happy as I was to be back in the real world, my heart sank as I watched her long dark hair trail down over Tennyson’s back as he carried her.

We weren’t even halfway back to the Golden House, when someone came bursting through the trees and hurtling towardus. I jumped back, with my fists up in a fighting stance, but it was only Hannah and Harper.

“I thought you were dead!” Hannah yelled, launching herself at Nikolai.

“Ew,” said Harper, looking at Althea. “What’s in her hair?”

I rolled my eyes at her.

Then Hannah screamed. She let go of Nikolai and flung herself at one of the escaped prisoners. Through her tears, we managed to figure out that he was her father. Her actual father. After everything, he’d found his way home. That alone made the whole ordeal worth it.

As we walked back through the forest, we filled them in on everything that had happened while we were gone.

“Well, I’m glad we stayed here,” said Harper. “That sounds perfectly awful.”

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