18 Through The Portal

Forty-five minutes earlier.

When Ovandarrak and Savyrran stepped through the black door, the first thing that welcomed them was the flood of light that hit their eyes. Since the twins had just come from a relatively dark beach, they had to squint their eyes to get them a little bit used to the light in the room. Once their eyes adjusted to the light, the two began to curiously look around them to see exactly where they were.

Savyrran's bright eyes twinkled when her eyes darted across the small room. Sitting on the ground with their eyes still looking at nothing were five children. It seemed the spell had not yet worn off and they had no idea what was happening.

"Markka." Savyrran whispered, walking towards the group of children. Even though it seemed the group of children where the only ones in this large room, Savyrran was still taking precautions in case there was someone else here with them.

"There is no one else here." Ovandarrak said as though he could read Savyrran��s thought. "This place looks like some kind of a hostel for children."

Savyrran had been too preoccupied with the safety of the children that she had not had time to actually look around her. Once she did, she was inclined to agree with her brother. Arranged in rows of the small room where several wooden beds made to fit children. These beds were a little smaller than the ones Savyrran and Ovandarrak had back at home, however, it was still large enough to to give them a good night's sleep. Whoever took the children must have prepared this room for them. Apart from the beds, they were no other furniture in the room.

In fact, upon closer inspection, there was no decoration at all. The walls and the floor were made of some kind of dark stones. There was only one window in the room, however it was so high that it was even impossible for a grown man to reach. For such a small room, it was unbelievably high. There was also a metallic door with an intricate locking system. No, they had it all wrong; this was no hostel. This was a prison. If not for the light in the room, this place would be an even colder and more desolate place than it already was. What kind of sick twisted individual would do something like this? By now, Savyrran had become very used to this feeling of rage within her. It was not like her to be angry. In fact, she could not remember ever been angry in the past. However tonight had been so full of surprises.

While Ovandarrak stood in front of the children, a nonchalant expression on his face, with his arms crossed behind him, his default posture, Savyrran went from child to child carefully inspecting to see if any form of harm had come to them yet. Apart from they being unconscious, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps, since this was the place the spell had taken them to, they were no longer moving around aimlessly. Instead they were sitting very still, their eyes unblinking.

Thankfully, back at the beach, with the help of Laffiti and the others, Savyrran was able to stop eleven more children from becoming victims of this evil ploy. Right now, only five children were here. Among them were Markka and Jari. The other three; two boys and one girl, were also people Savyrran knew and went to school with. At two years old, Jari was the youngest out of all the children in the room. Thankfully, Varran, Lokirrak's sister, had been saved back at the beach. She would have been the youngest had she been here. Savyrran gently patted Jari on the head, a sympathetic look on her face. Who would want to harm such a small child? They had to take all these children back home. She did not want to imagine how devastated Kasko would be if they were lost forever. For someone who was so much older than his brother, Kasko and Jari were very close. Savyrran had learned from Kasko that his mother died when he was only six. His father remarried seven years later, and after a year of marriage, Jari was born. The bond between the two brothers was like that between a protective father and his precious son.

"Oh no." Savyrran said. Her black eyes were blankly staring at the empty space which was supposed to be holding their only means of escape.

"What happened?"

"The door. It just vanished."

A chill ran through Ovandarrak's body, but his face remained calm. How were they supposed to return now? Certainly not through the room's door. That door looked like it belonged in a dungeon. Opening it without a key would be impossible even for Savyrran. Looking at how thick the metal was, Ovandarrak was not sure if his sister was strong enough to knock it down solely with her strength. The window was high too and even if Savyrran could reach it, the others could not. And that included him. Sometimes because of how smart and stoic he was, people mistakenly thought he was strong like Savyrran too. No he was not.

He never went through all those tough physical training like his sister. All he practiced were some simple mental training techniques and that was certainly not enough for a prison break. For a moment, Ovandarrak felt they had not really thought this through at all. But his sister was here. He had to trust her. He trusted her. Ovandarrak's attention was directed towards the door when he suddenly heard a loud noise coming from the huge metal door. His eyes twitched with concern. There was someone opening the door. He acted quickly.

He grabbed his sister's hand and then pulled her to his side as he sat on the floor. Savyrran was a little startled by everything, but silently followed his brother's lead when she heard the noise too.

"There's someone coming." Ovandarrak whispered to his sister. They were both sitting among the five other children in the same posture. "We have to blend in. Try not to blink."

For a moment, Savyrran did not understand what her brother was saying. But once she saw the lifeless look on Ovandarrak's face, that same expression she had seen the first time Ovandarrak was in the trance, she immediately understood. Quickly, she pretended be to be in a trance too just like all the other children. Maybe whoever was coming was the mastermind behind all of this. It was a great chance to gauge how strong this person really was to see what she was going against. Savyrran could not sense people's essence, however, she had always felt within her how strong someone was.

The twins heard a series of clicks coming from the door, until finally, the door started opening slowly. Even after unlocking it, it seemed whoever was pushing the door open was using a lot of strength to do that. Ovandarrak felt his heart beating faster than usual, however he tried his possible best to maintain his composure.

He felt grateful that he had been practicing those mental training techniques he read about in one of his books. Even though they were simple techniques, they still helped to keep him calm. If that were not the case, he was sure he would be wetting himself now from all the fear that was threatening to claw its way out of his stomach. Instinctively, he held his sister's hand and Savyrran gently rubbed his palm to assure him that she was here.