Forgotten

Chapter Thirty Five

The portal wasn’t hard to find; at least not if you knew where you were going. Jason led us through the airport, past the check in counters and the security check. The whole time I could feel something pressing against me, getting thicker which each step. It must have been what Zane was telling me about, how you could feel when you got close to the portal.

Somehow, Jason got us through security easily which confounded me. He’d simply said a few words to one of the cops who quickly got us around it before patting Jason on the shoulder and leaving. Instantly, Jason was walking again, past all the terminals.

“What did he say to him?” I asked Zane.

He glanced at me. “You mean the security guy? He knows him from when he visited Earth before all this was happening. Kyle’s from Astoria too. He knew what we were doing and that he had to help us.”

“Why didn’t he want to come with us?”

Zane shrugged. “He can’t. He has a life here with a family and friends and obviously a job. Not to mention, he has no magic.”

“Okay, I got it,” I said before Zane could continue. Maybe he rambled too when he got nervous.

Everyone stopped and I almost ran into Zane’s back. I barely managed to save myself from what would have been a very embarrassing moment. Once I was stable, I tried to find the reason we’d stopped. My eyes landed on the wall in front of us. It was mesmerizing. There was a purple vortex looking thing spinning in it. How could no one see that? Jason was grinning at the vortex portal and everyone else looked almost as relieved. They must be homesick. Strangely, even I felt a sort of connection to the spinning wheel of doom.

“Who wants to go first?” The words had barely left my lips when Jason was diving into it. His body seemed to dissolve into the portal. “I guess that answers that…”

“Yup, see you on the other side,” Missy replied before following him. Drake wasn’t far behind.

Blake glanced at Kia. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, let’s go.” He took her hand, causing surprise to flit across her face, and led her into the portal with him. Aw, they looked so cute. Kia deserved a happy ending… or to be happy until we die facing her.

Zane turned to me. “It’s now or never… But if you didn’t go, I’m guessing they would just come back and pull you through.” His words actually made me laugh.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. And I want to see what Astoria is like.”

“Don’t get your hopes up.” I didn’t have a chance to ask what he meant before he was placing a hand on my back and gently pushing me into the spinning vortex.

Everything blurred as darkness entered my vision. I couldn’t hear anything or smell or see or taste. The only thing keeping me calm was Zane’s hand, still firmly on my back. It assured me I wasn’t alone. And then, as abruptly as it had started, it was over.

I heard the crunching of leaves as I fell. I landed on my hands and knees, my suitcase somewhere to my right. I heard Zane land next to me, though with much more grace. A hand entered my vision and I took it, letting Zane pull me to my feet. And then… then I just gazed around in horror.

The scenery reminded me of the nightmare that had used to haunt my sleep. The trees were black, the branches twisting downward around in an unnatural pattern. They were bare of leaves; all of them had fallen to the ground. The leaves around our feet were silver and metal-like. I was surprised they hadn’t cut into me when I’d fallen.

But what was most obvious was the lack of light. The sky was black, devoid of stars or a moon. The only thing that allowed me to see was the faint glowing in the air. It was just enough to outline where things were.

I felt Zane’s hand tighten around my own and I looked over. I was almost not surprised to see that all color had left him. And I meant that literally. He was entirely grey scale and the blue green color of his eyes that I loved so much had faded into a color similar to that of the leaves.

“This is Astoria?” I asked in a whisper.

He shook his head. “It wasn’t always like this. It used to be beautiful and colorful until she came. She took control and everything just slipped away. Color, light, beauty, comfort. It all disappeared. Our only hope of restoring it is to kill her.”

“So we’d best get a move on.” Jason’s face and tone were hard; all of his earlier enthusiasm had vanished.

“Okay, let’s go,” I said quietly. He started walking and we all followed, Zane and I stayed in the back. He didn’t let go of my hand once and I was glad. I wanted to cry; even if I didn’t remember the earlier Astoria, I knew it was beautiful. And then she ruined it.

I wasn’t sure how long we walked for; time seemed to be just as nonexistent as everything else. But eventually, we did come to a stop outside of a barbed fence. Looking through it, I could see unicorns wandering around, grazing on the dead grass. Their bodies seemed to glow and sparkle.

“Why aren’t they like everything else?” I asked, unable to look away. They seemed so strong, undefeatable.

I could hear Kia smiling when she said, “They’re untouchable. No one knows why, but they withstood her darkness. It’s probably because of the purity they resemble. Unicorns are the epitome of beauty.” I could tell that much just from looking at them.

“Come on,” Jason said, unaffected. He started to scale the fence.

We all got over the fence without much trouble; they had figured out how to do all this in the past year and I had been in the circus. I was extremely thankful for that right now; if I had gotten a normal job, my body would have forgotten all of this. It was nice to know I wasn’t slowing everyone down.

I expected catching the unicorns to be more difficult, but all we had to do was get in before they came running over. I was a bit scared they might trample us, but they stopped before they could. I counted them as they stared at us.

“Ten,” Drake stated, interrupting my count. I had gotten to eight before he spoke. “There are ten of them and seven of us; how convenient…”

“Yeah, choose one and get on it. We don’t have a lot of time to spare.” Jason was on one of the unicorns before he’d finished speaking.

Following his instructions, I approached the one closest to me. It nudged me with its nose and I smiled. I went over to its side and then stopped. I had no idea how to get on a horse. I glanced around and watched as Kia slung herself onto one of them before following her example. Shock filled me when it actually worked.

Hello, I am Aqua. The words were conveyed in a soft voice that resonated through my mind. I started, looking around for the voice.

Kia giggled from beside me. “Victoria, they can talk to us through our minds and you can talk back the same way. You’re not going insane.”

“Thanks,” The word was genuine even though a blush filled my face. 

Aqua, are you still there? I felt silly talking to myself, but at least it wasn’t out loud.

She neighed and I heard words go through my head again. Yes, I’m still here. And you’d best hold on Miss, we’re leaving soon.

I headed her advice and wrapped my hands in her mane, clutching my legs tighter for support. It felt familiar; something from my old life, but I was still worried. What if I fell off? What if a tree branch knocked me off?

Don’t worry, you’ll be fine, Aqua reassured me. 

I gulped. Alright, let’s do this…

“Is everyone ready?” Jason yelled out, as his unicorn turned. We all nodded or replied with a yes, and then we were off. We were racing towards our probable doom… on talking unicorns.