Witchy Wishes for Christmas

Chapter 4

"So that's what 'the throat' was referring to."

Aiden and Jo turned around almost simultaneously, looking at me.

"What are you talking about?" my cousin asked.

We were standing in the room the round Hobbit-door had led us to. Just like the door, it was circular and white, the walls reminding me of porcelain, though I couldn't say what material they actually consisted of. The room was empty, except for a big well square in the middle, made from old, rough stone blocks covered in vines and dirt, as unfitting for the clean and shiny room as false lashes would be for Rambo's face.

"Well, in the logbooks, the students sometimes called the portal 'the throat' and wherever we'll end up 'the belly'."

"Didn't know they had poetic aspirations," Aiden remarked.

Akela was sniffing around the well, the only one of our group who dared go closer.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Jo remarked. "This is too easy."

I had to agree. I had expected refined security measures, or at least a strong ward, but the portal lay before us without any hindrances.

Some portals were so easily accessible you didn't even realize you had just passed through one - like switching street sides. Others were more elaborate, for example an elevator in which you had to choose a specific floor-number combination or a shimmering silver curtain you could only enter at midnight in the light of the full moon. Some portals went so far that one could only see or pass trough them if in possession of certain items or characteristics - such as belonging to a certain bloodline or having a gargoyles ruby heart.

That this portal was only guarded by a simple locked door and no magic traps or precautions whatsoever made me feel twitchy. Maybe the teachers didn't feel the need the guard it any more extensively, but it made me suspicious of Ms. Jenkins reasoning once again. I doubted that she was unable to access the pocket just because of a locked door.
Akela backed up a few steps, and before I realized what he was about to do, took a huge leap, disappearing down the well.

"Scheiße," Jo cursed, lurching forward and grasping the waist-high ledge of the well. "I don't see him! I don't see anything!"

I was right behind her, and though I tried my best to make out something, the inside of the well was filled with inky blackness. For a second I almost thought it was solid, like black glass.

A hand covered my shoulder, and then Aiden was stepping onto the ledge.

"Wait a minute," I cried, but it was too late. He'd already taken a step forward and fallen down the dark tunnel as well.

"Mist, verdammter, bringen wir es hinter uns," Jo was still cursing but slowly started to heave her silver-clad, clump-like body onto the ledge. Instead of standing up, she simply took a deep breath and then rolled, letting gravity carry her down the hole.

And suddenly I was the only one left.

"Okay, think about it," I started pep-talking myself. "Senior students do this all the time. It can't be that dangerous."

Swallowing I knelt on the ledge, looking down. I still couldn't hear or see anything. I brought first one then the second leg forward, letting them dangle over the seemingly endless drop. The well was huge, at least the size of a jacuzzi, but still ... what if I bashed my head against one of those walls? Before the darkness hid them, they consisted of unforgiving, rough stone. I was quite sure my head would loose that battle.

A cold breeze teased my ankles.

"Don't be coward," I told myself. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes - and then pushed away from the ledge.