Ditching the Demons

Because You Never Know Where You'll Find a Magic Portal

Muffled talking could be heard from another cavern branch. Getting up and following the sound, Myra noticed that a very faint yellow glow also came from that direction. She also noticed that one of the voices was Dru's and he sounded a bit frustrated.

"And I'm telling you that we had absolutely no idea that this place was even here!" she heard him yell.

Sensing she was near the speakers, Myra slid up against the cave wall and hesitantly peered around the next corner. The image she beheld shocked her to the point of paralysis. Massive disheveled piles of paper littered the ground and a desk in the middle of the small room sized cavern which was lit with several candles. She could see two individuals behind the stacks, but was too distracted to take much note of them. Her attention was caught up in the massive light-blue swirling vortex behind them.

The next voice brought her out of her stupor. "Don't you dare talk to me that way you cheeky, young, whipper-snapper!"

Myra looked at the source of the high-pitched raspy voice, and saw a tiny, wrinkled old woman with a face she vaguely recognized. The elderly lady was standing on a chair and pointing her thin twisted finger into Dru's face.

In an attempt to get a better look at the stubby mass of wrinkles, Myra leaned further around the corner until she could no longer keep her balance. Predictably, this resulted in her stumbling into the room.

Dru's pointed ears rotated in her direction, followed immediately by his head. "Myra-darling!" he shouted excitedly, running over to her and grabbing both her hands.

He's obviously feeling better.

"Myra," he said again, while lifting her to her feet, "please help me convince this loony old crone that we didn't know about her and her stupid portal."

"I...I, um." Myra was at a loss for words because things were starting to look even more familiar. Not only the old woman, but the large swirling portal itself was extremely reminiscent of dreams she remembered from her childhood.

"Did you say 'Myra'?" the old lady asked. She got down from the chair and hobbled her way over to them. Staring closely at Myra's face she exclaimed, "Myra, sweetie, it is you. You probably don't recognize me, but as a child you used to come over to my house all the time where I babysat you. You called me Grandma Rosie."

Myra's face lit up in realization. "Grandma Rosie! Of course." She bent down and hugged the woman gently. "How could I have ever forgotten you?"

Grandma Rosie looked slightly guilty. "Well, I'm afraid that's the fault of my sister and I. We cast a forgetting spell on you after we found out that you had discovered the portal in our basement. I still wonder how many naps you skipped to come down here and play with the Kidegos."

Myra and Dru looked at her in shock. "You have a sister?/You let her play with Kidegos?" they asked at the same time.

Answering Myra's question, the old woman replied, "Yes, my twin sister who guards the other end of the portal. We switch sides every few day to give us both the chance to work on our memoirs," she said, gesturing to the piles of paper. "Half the time 'Grandma Rosie' is my sister, and the other half of the time it is myself."

Clearly growing impatient, Dru repeated his previous question, only much louder. "And you let her play with Kidegos?!!"

The old woman turned an angry eye to him. "Of course we didn't let her. We used her nap time to visit in the house's parlor and assumed that she was still asleep in the nursery, when apparently she was not."

"Apparently!" Dru fumed. "What were you doing babysitting a human child when you had a portal to the demon world on your basement anyway?"

Grandma Rosie gave an indignant huff that sounded like she was trying to clear her throat and ended up in a coughing fit. Myra led her over to the chair and helped her to sit down. Finally regaining the use of her voice, the old woman retorted, "At least I didn't bring her to this world on purpose." She glared darkly at Dru.

"Hey," he said, stepping back a bit. "We didn't have much of a choice at the time. What with that rabid pack of Zizazus on our tail, who seemed to think that it would be fun to dissect my darling Myra."

"Zizazus you say?" The old woman had finally decided to speak civilly to Dru. "Oh dear... Those creatures always had an enigmatic connection with Kidegos. They must have sensed the residual magic left with her contact with them."

"Of course!" Dru snapped his fingers. "No human has ever come into contact with Kidegos and survived. There's no telling what kind of effect the exposure to them had on her. It's no wonder other kinds of magic don't always work on her as they are meant to."

"Yes," The old woman agreed, "and unfortunately, now that the Zizazus know about her that means it would be too dangerous for her to return home."

Myra's eyes went wide. "Return home? You mean... that's right, you live at the edge of my town. Is that where the portal connects to? Oh please, can't I go home for just a little while? Just to let my parents know I'm alright?" She had, at some point, made her way to the floor and was now kneeling in front of Grandma Rosie, giving her the biggest doe eyes she could concoct.

"How in the Four Worlds did you remember that you could always persuade me like that?" The old woman's eyes twinkled. "Very well, but don't stay for too long. You're sure to find trouble as soon as the Zizazus find out you are back." She looked around and sighed, "Oh, they're already gone."

As it was, the moment she had said, "Very well," Myra had shot up, grabbed Dru's hand, and dashed through the portal before the sentence was even finished.

Coming out on the other side of the portal, Myra and Dru collapsed onto the ground, panting. Dru was the first to speak. "That was... an interesting sensation."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I, for one, never suspected going through a dimensional portal to feel like being beaten by millions of wet noodles."

"Typically it's not. This one is entirely unique in that respect." Dru replied, standing up and brushing himself off. He held out his hand to Myra, offering to help her to her feet.