The Portal

Thunder rumbled in the distance, the clouds in the sky looking even darker than they had a few minutes ago. The day the school had chosen for the junior class field trip was turning out to be a rotten one. The hour-long bus ride had been cramped, the bus being hammered by winds and the occasional spray of rain. Everyone had made a mad dash across the parking lot of the museum in an attempt to stay somewhat dry, which had been futile in the pouring rain.

"The forecast was supposed to be sunny today," complained a familiar voice from behind me. I had been staring out the front windows of the museum, intrigued by the unusual storm. I reluctantly turned and found my best friend, Arthur Stoll, standing there with an annoyed expression. Arthur had short blonde hair, blue eyes, and stood around five feet ten inches tall. His normally fluffy blonde hair was matted to his head, soaked with rainwater.

"I told you to bring a jacket in case it rained," I said with a shrug. Arthur shot me an unamused look before turning back to face the rest of the class.

"You don't have to remind me how much more prepared you always are," grumbled Arthur as he gestured at my outfit. A faint smile flickered across my face. He was right of course, I had worn a leather jacket and a pair of jeans while almost everyone else was in shorts and a shirt. Arthur was always teasing me about how I always over-prepared for stuff but I was the one laughing this time. While he was soaking wet, I was nice and dry, my thick brown hair not even slightly damp thanks to my hood.

"This trip is starting out pretty rough," Arthur stated bluntly. That was quite obvious, getting rained on and then having a problem with the museum getting us all signed in wasn't exactly ideal. Several teachers were up at the front desk talking with the head curator about the museum's error.

"I'm sure it will be fine," I said, brushing off his negative concerns.

"They couldn't take us somewhere fun for once? Our field trips always take us somewhere lame, last year was a nature trip to Lake Newman and before that was a picnic at Jamestown Park, both of which barely qualified as field trips," he continued without regard to my response. I had already heard this complaint about fifty times on the bus ride over as if I was the one in charge of school field trips. It was quite notorious at our school how bad the field trips tended to be, they were always cheap or just downright boring.

"Just the other day you were excited to come here, didn't you say you wanted to see their new exhibit," I pointed out. Arthur was a huge history buff, so I didn't understand why he was so unhappy.

"Okay, you got me there. I am excited to tour the museum, I just don't like how the weather turned from sunshine to pitch black skies," admitted Arthur with a thin smile. Nodding, I turned and peered back out the window at the violent storm raging outside. Arthur was right, the forecast was supposed to be sunny skies for the whole day. Instead, a monster storm had popped up out of nowhere the second we had gotten on the bus. I had never seen anything like it before, it was certainly odd.

"Alright everyone, get with your groups so we can start the tour," shouted Ms. Williamson about twice as loud as necessary. She was an old and grumpy English teacher, infamous for handing out reprimands over the slightest error. Arthur and I tended to escape most of her wrath but I wasn't going to test my luck today.

Arthur and I quickly hurried over to our designated chaperone, Mr. Johnson. He was the chemistry teacher and quite an odd guy. He was short and had already lost most of his hair even though he had just gotten out of college. He could easily be described as jumpy and a pushover, he had only just started teaching and was uncertain of himself in every regard. Brandon Hayes, the star athlete of our class took delight in messing with Mr. Johnson, tormenting him whenever he felt like it. How Mr. Johnson had ever been chosen as a chaperone was beyond me, he could barely keep track of his geeky-looking glasses.

The rest of our group arrived quickly after Arthur and me, most of them looking relatively uninterested in this field trip. A quick count revealed there were twelve of us, six boys and six girls. I recognized most of the group but there were a few unfamiliar faces that I had only seen around school a few times. My expression quickly turned sour when I looked closer at who was in my group. Brandon Hayes, a six-foot-three athlete with smoothly cut black hair and a smug glint in his eyes. His abundance of natural talent would take him far in life but it also meant he was used to getting what he wanted, hence the rude personality.

Next up was Reyna Underwood, standing at five feet ten inches with naturally curly brown hair. Her expression was as serious as it normally was, her sky blue eyes looking especially unwelcoming today. Brandon had been bothering her on the bus so I guess I had to cut her some slack, especially since she was now in a group with him. Reyna was a very outspoken person, never straying away from upholding her values. She was a driving force in almost all of the school clubs and never backed down from a challenge, at least not that I knew of.

Standing next to Reyna was her friend, Holly Caldwell. She was shorter than Reyna, standing at five feet and seven inches tall. She had long blonde hair that flowed down to her waist, without a single curl or twist to it. Holly also had blue eyes like Reyna but that's where the similarities ended between the two. While Reyna was fierce and outgoing, Holly was shy and mousy in her personality. That wasn't to say she wasn't outgoing in her own way, she was always drawing blueprints for inventions she planned to build in the future. It was quite apparent to everyone that she would become an engineer or inventor of some sort. I wasn't very close to either of the girls but we weren't on bad terms either.

Moving on, I only recognized three more of the people in our group. Blake Pearce, standing at six feet one inch, only an inch taller than me. He had light brown hair, messy and untamed just like my dark brown hair. I had been told several times that we looked pretty similar. Blake was perfectly average at everything he did, whether it was sports or school, he didn't stand out in a bad way or a good way. I kind of respected him for that, he easily floated between social circles with no one really having a problem with him but no one being too close to him either. The only exception was his two sisters and younger brother, he was always talking to and checking on them at school. They had a very close relationship from what I could tell.

Lastly, there was Niko Payne and his personal shadow, Natasha Snider. These two were never far apart from each other, mostly because Natasha was completely enamored with Niko. Both were about five feet ten inches tall, Natasha having short brown hair and Niko having black hair. Niko was a bit of an odd guy, always getting in trouble for not doing work or starting a fight with another student. He was somewhat oblivious to how much Natasha had fallen for him, I guess he hadn't given much thought to why she was always around him. Both always wore dark clothes all the time and weren't very friendly. I usually steered clear of them, they were both a mess in my opinion. I didn't recognize the other three girls or the final guy in the group, I didn't have any classes with them.

"Okay everyone, we have been assigned the new exhibit to look at first," squeaked Mr. Johnson as he nervously scratched his head. I could see Arthur's face light up a little bit at the mention of the new exhibit. It had been half of the reason this was the location of our field trip and the reason why Arthur was so excited to be here. Apparently, some ancient ruins had been found roughly a hundred miles from here, ones that were unlike anything seen in the region before. Arthur, being a huge history buff like me but also extremely interested in archaeology, had been ecstatic when he learned of the discovery. I personally wasn't that thrilled to look at a bunch of old pieces of stone that used to be buildings but whatever.

"Mr. Johnson, how long is this whole thing going to take? School is already boring enough without field trips to dusty museums," complained Brandon. Why did he always have to whine about everything that inconvenienced him in the slightest? Yesterday he had complained about how cold the school was, this morning it was how cramped the bus was. It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't always do it constantly.

"We are going to be here the whole day Mr. Hayes, nothing I can do about that," sighed Mr. Johnson. With that, we all began to move toward the new exhibit. We passed a variety of war and political exhibits, along with a few science ones mixed in. We eventually made it to the new section, a recently constructed extension of the museum built specifically for the ruins which had just been transported here a few days ago. My classmates and I would be some of the first of the public to see the mysterious ruins. Two shiny oak doors guarded the entrance to the new exhibit, huge posters advertising the ruins on the walls adjacent. An old curator stood right in front of the doors with an unhappy expression, glaring right at us.

"Hello, we are here to view the exhibit. We are from the local school," explained Mr. Johnson nervously. The man grunted and fished out a ring of keys from his pocket, unlocking the doors and swinging them open. Our group quickly walked into the room only to have the curator clear his throat suddenly, causing all of us to look back questioningly.

"Don't touch the exhibit, no photos, and no goofing off," instructed the man right before he slammed the doors shut.

"Yikes, talk about grumpy," mumbled Arthur under his breath. I nodded, that guy sure hadn't been too happy to see us. Also, no photos? I'd only heard of a few museums that did that and only for specific exhibits that could be damaged by a camera flash. Why would they have that rule for a bunch of old ruins?

"Spread out and take a look everyone," said Mr. Johnson with forced enthusiasm. All of us gradually split off and began examining the massive pieces of stones, except for Niko and Natasha, who immediately got on their phones. I glanced at the nearest ruin, a massive boulder coated in strange markings similar to runes. The small information panel in front of the stone had little to offer, the markings on it weren't any known language. They believed it had been part of a temple in the center of the dig site. What purpose could these things have ever served anyways? Drawing a bunch of random symbols on a stone seemed strange to me, did they think it brought good fortune or was it something to do with some kind of god?

"Grayson, come check this out," said Arthur from across the room. Leave it to him to find something interesting during the first few seconds of being here. I tore my eyes away from the stone and turned to see what Arthur was looking at. It didn't take long to spot him standing in front of the biggest arch I had ever seen. It must have been about fifteen to twenty feet tall, with only a couple of feet between its peak and the ceiling of the room. I quickly walked over to join Arthur who was reading the small information panel in front of the arch.

"What does it say about this thing," I asked while looking the arch over more closely. It was also covered in strange markings but these ones were much bigger, each one roughly the size of my head. What tools could they have used to so precisely etch these marks into stone?

"Not much, they found it in the center of a temple in the middle of the settlement. The weird thing about it was that it was found in the middle of the room, it didn't lead anywhere," replied Arthur. That was pretty bizarre, why build such a big arch in the middle of a room? Was it part of some alter maybe?

"Maybe it was part of their religion," said a voice to my right. Arthur and I both swiveled our heads to find Reyna and Holly standing a few feet away from us. Holly was looking the arch over with extreme concentration while Reyna simply glanced at the arch before turning to us. I assumed it had been her who had spoken, though I didn't understand why she was talking to us. She didn't associate with Arthur or me much, maybe she was just bored and wanted to talk.

"There are fourteen symbols on the front and the same fourteen on the back, each of them different from the other," remarked Holly quietly. All three of us turned and found her observation was correct, there were fourteen symbols on each side, and both sides were the exact same as the other. I hadn't noticed that, did each symbol stand for something important to their culture? One symbol looked like a flame, another looked like a snowflake in my opinion, and several others didn't look like anything to me.

"That one look like a tree," said Arthur as he pointed to a symbol located at the base of the arch. I had to admit, it did faintly resemble a tree with no leaves.

"Do you think all of these symbols are stuff? That one looks like fire and that one over there kind of looks like a cog," said Holly excitedly. I briefly glanced at her to find that she was grinning ear to ear. It had slipped my mind how much she loved to solve things, even if they weren't a puzzle. Her eyes were already darting from one symbol to the next, her well-worn notepad already out of her pocket.

"What would that one be then genius," said a rude voice from behind us. All of us turned to find Niko and Natasha standing there, with Niko pointing to a symbol at the very base of the arch. The symbol didn't actually look like anything, just a jumble of lines and shapes. Still, I didn't like the tone of Niko's voice or the smug look on Natasha's face. Very few words out of their mouths were ever kind or helpful, I had no idea why they were always so nasty to everyone. Maybe if we didn't pay any attention to him he would just leave us alone.

"Why don't you just mind your own business," said Reyna with a frown. My teeth gritted, Reyna of all people would escalate the situation.

"Why don't you shut your mouth," fired back Natasha aggressively. Reyna's eyes narrowed and she stepped toward Natasha, who quickly did the same. Things had turned south too quickly for my liking. Arthur suddenly stepped between Reyna and Natasha in an attempt to stop things from getting physical. I quickly stepped forward as well, no way I was going to leave Arthur to deal with this on his own. My actions had an unfortunate consequence though because Niko immediately stepped right up to me, sizing me up. He hadn't done anything when Arthur stepped between the two girls, did he see me as a threat compared to Arthur?

"What's your problem Winters? Can't you and your friend just mind your own business," growled Niko. I was right, for some reason he thought I was responsible for Arthur''s actions. Why did he think I was out to get him? We had never really talked before so this was pretty weird. I narrowed my eyes and I put on a brave expression despite my body being wracked with nervousness. I didn't want to fight Niko since I would definitely lose, he had way more experience with fighting than I did. He was the target of a lot of bullying, mainly because of his attitude and talent to attract trouble. I had personally seen Niko take more than a few beatings from Brandon and his friends for mouthing off.

"I think they look like skeletons," said Holly abruptly. All of us froze, confused by what Holly had just said. Everyone turned back to look closer at the image Niko had pointed at. Now that she mentioned it, the image did look like several skeletons mixed together. How had she seen that through all the crudely drawn lines?

"I still don't see anything," shot back Niko immediately. It didn't matter if he could see the skeletons in the image or not, he was craving a conflict.

"Me neither," said Natasha quickly after him.

"There is something there, you two just aren't looking hard enough. Maybe if you actually tried you would see it," said Holly offhandedly. Oh no. Could Holly be anymore insensitive to the situation? Niko bristled at the comment and his hands clenched into a fist, a nasty glint beginning to blossom in his eyes. Before I could even blink, Niko lunged toward Holly. Arthur jumped in his way while I stood there in shock.

"Niko wait, she didn't me-"

*Crack*

Arthur fell to his knees as Niko's fist suddenly slammed into his face. Niko didn't even stop to look at his handiwork, he just kept moving toward Holly. I rushed to Arthur's side to find blood streaming down his face from his nose. Thankfully it didn't look broken, just bruised. I looked up to see Reyna rushing to protect her friend, only to be grabbed from behind by Natasha. Reyna thrashed and kicked but Natasha didn't loosen her grip even a bit. That left only me to stop Niko, meaning I would be on the receiving end of his punches if I intervened. I couldn't just stand here and let him hurt Holly, and I especially couldn't let him get away with hitting Arthur. Mustering what little courage I had, I forced my body forward. Niko was almost right on top of Holly by the time I grabbed his right shoulder. His reaction was exactly what I expected, Niko spun around with his right arm cocked back. His fist zipped toward me but I managed to stumble out of its way. Unfortunately, a massive pain ripped through my gut as his left fist slammed into me. I let out a wheeze as all the air in my lungs vanished, leaving me gasping. My legs gave out and I shakily crumbled to my knees. Niko turned back to Holly, who had finally taken notice and was scrambling to get away from Niko. He was too quick though, cutting her escape attempt off. Without hesitation, Holly leaped over the rail guarding the stone arch in an effort to get away. Niko followed right after her, closing the distance almost instantly. Since when was he able to move so fast? Was it because he was angry?

"Mr. Payne, Ms. Snider, please stop this instant," sputtered Mr. Johnson from across the room. The rest of our group had finally taken notice of what was going on, with Brandon and Mr. Johnson rushing toward us. Brandon had a mask of pure rage on his face while Mr. Johnson was as pale as a ghost. Brandon was probably the only one who had a chance of stopping Niko, he had fought him several times before and was stronger than him.

"Screw off," replied Niko as he continued his rampage toward Holly. A scream of pain came from my left, Reyna had finally broken free of Natasha by biting her hand. Natasha gripped her hand as blood dripped down onto the polished stone floor.

"Hold still dammit," yelled Niko as Holly hid behind the stone arch. Niko swung wide his arm in a bid to try and grab Holly's face that was peeking out but missed and punched the arch.

*Boom*

The hairs on my body raised as the massive crackle of thunder and lightning echoed overhead. Everyone, including Niko, froze in place from the sound. The storm had moved right over the museum during our squabble and had somehow it had gotten even worse. I looked up at the ceiling and realized there was a massive glass dome overhead. I hadn't noticed it before because the usual sunlight that would have flowed through was blocked by the storm. The sunlight was now replaced by the twisting eye of the storm, arcs of lightning, and booms of thunder a constant background noise. The eye of the storm twisted and crackled with a power I had never witnessed in my life.

A high-pitched scream broke the trance over the room, once again causing me to turn my gaze back to Niko and Holly. Except, I didn't pay any attention to either of them. The arch's symbols had turned from dull etches to glowing blue images of power. What was happening? Was this storm causing some illusion or was I hallucinating?

The arch glowed brighter and brighter until a blue light suddenly began to glow in the middle of the arch. Electricity arced in the middle of the arch until a blue swirl of electricity and light floated in the middle of the arch.

"What is that," said Brandon numbly. I hadn't noticed that he and Mr. Johnson were standing right beside me. Both were as pale as ghosts and slack-jawed, probably the same as I currently was. I stood up off the ground and managed not to fall back down again from the mere presence of the swirling blue portal.

"I have no idea," muttered Arthur from a few feet away. He was standing next to Reyna and Natasha, who had completely forgotten their dispute that had happened only moments ago. Everyone in our group was staring at the swirling blue portal, totally entranced by its forceful presence. All of the hair on my body was still raised and I could feel a chill in the air. What were we supposed to do?

The air suddenly went from chilly to freezing, the temperature dropping at least a dozen degrees. A chilly fog descended on the room and the glass dome on the ceiling fogged over, completely removing any semblance of the world outside of this room. The swirling portal of pure energy sped up, the crackling growing to a thunderous roar. My hair whipped into my field of vision as a massive gust of wind hit me from behind. How was there wind inside the room when all the doors were closed? Before I could even question the anomaly further, I was sent flying into the air by another blast of wind that was the strongest I had ever experienced. I threw out my arms and legs to catch myself as I hit the hard floor, pain shooting through them from the force.

I gritted my teeth and looked around to find that everyone else had been thrown as I had, some much farther than others. Niko and Holly were nowhere to be found, their positions by the arch had been consumed by the growing portal. Had they been sucked into it? Did that mean they were dead, what happened when you touched the swirling vortex?

"Niko!"

A figure with black hair sprinted past me from my position on the floor. It was undoubtedly Natasha but that wasn't what alarmed me. She was making a beeline for the portal, she must have either seen Niko get caught up in it or come to the same conclusion I had. I scrambled to try and stop her but I was too late. I looked up just in time to see Natasha vanish into the portal, completely disappearing from sight.

"Grayson, help me," screamed a voice over the roaring wind within the room. I quickly turned and found Reyna being dragged toward the portal by what looked like a tendril of blue energy. Reyna was desperately clawing and struggling against the tendril coming from the portal but she was steadily losing ground. My body jolted into motion and I soon found myself grabbing her right hand and pulling. Adding my opposition didn't change anything, the tendril continued to pull Reyna toward the portal.

"It's not working, do something before it takes me," yelled Reyna hysterically. Never before had I seen her so panicked, a sight that made my heart twist.

"I promise you I will protect you," I blurted out. What did I just say? The words hadn't even crossed my mind, yet I had definitely spoken them. It didn't matter, I couldn't think about that right now. I pulled harder on Reyna's arm and tried to hold my ground in a futile attempt to save her.

"Grayson!"

A blur flew by my head and knocked into me, causing me to falter a little. I looked up just in time to see Arthur right before he disappeared into the portal. He must have also been grabbed by a tendril of energy. I whipped my head around to find a nightmare scene. Everyone but Mr. Johnson and I were being attacked and dragged away by the tendrils of energy. Brandon was thrashing and kicking to no avail, while Mr. Johnson feebly tried to help him. The other boy in our group whose name I didn't know looked to be unconscious, blood streaming down his forehead. His tendril easily sucked him into the portal and Brandon quickly followed after, screaming his head off. My eyes watched but barely registered as the rest of my group excluding Mr. Johnson, Reyna, and I was forcibly pulled into the portal. None of it mattered to me though, I was still desperately holding onto Reyna. Tears streamed down her face and I could see her sniffling.

"Grayson let go before you get pulled in too," she said shakily.

"Are you crazy? I can't do that, we have no idea what will happen to you," I argued fiercely. The vibrating power of the portal was growing closer and closer by the second, my time was running out.

"If you won't let go you leave me no choice," Reyna said firmly. Her face abruptly shifted from its teary state to one of determination. Her hands released from the tendril and she stopped dragging her feet. The tendril immediately jolted forward from the sudden loss of resistance. I scrambled to try and dig my feet in, trying so hard to stop the tendril.

*Whack*

My head snapped backward as Reyna's fist slammed into my face, causing me to loosen my grip on her for just a moment. That was all it took. Reyna was ripped from the ground and sent flying through the air. There wasn't even time for me to shout her name before she was gone. My body fell to my knees, a weight heavier than the Earth itself suddenly resting on my shoulders.

I had failed.

Why was this happening? Why had everyone but Mr. Johnson and I been taken? A crackle stabbed through the hair, making me raise my head to look at what had caused it. The sound had come from the portal, which was now shrinking and losing power. No tendrils looked to be coming out of the portal to come to get me.

Why was I not being taken as well?

"Mr. Winters! Get away from the arch," yelled Mr. Johnson from behind me. My vision flickered and my body shook. Why? What was going on? So many questions and feelings erupted inside my head. What should I do now? Reyna, Arthur, Holly, Natasha, and even nasty Niko, were all gone, possibly dead. It was too much for me to handle, what was I supposed to do?

"I promise you I will protect you."

Those words echoed through my head and all the noise vanished from my ears, my eyes finally focusing. I stood up straight, noticing that I had stopped shaking. An eerie calm descended over me and everything I had been feeling seconds ago was gone.

"I promise you I will protect you."

I had said those words to Reyna without hesitation, without thought, and without regret. There wasn't a chance in hell the last thing I would ever say to her would be a lie. My legs sprung to life, starting in a walk, then turning into a jog, and finally a sprint towards the portal. Mr. Johnson yelled something at me from behind but I didn't care. A feeling I had never felt before was consuming my body, there was nothing in this world that would stop me from going through that portal.

As I got closer though, the portal began to rapidly shrink to an even smaller size. It was barely the size of a door, I needed to go through it right now or I would miss my chance. I took a long stride and then leaped through the air in a diving motion. The portal shrunk to be the size of an umbrella, almost too small for me to fit through. I closed my eyes and prayed as I flew face-first into the portal.

My whole body tingled as I was absorbed through the swirling portal, a roaring sound completely blocking me from hearing anything. I began to spin and twirl through the air at a disorienting speed, I couldn't tell which way was up or which was down. These feelings continued for what felt like hours, a constant cycle of hell.

I was almost to my breaking point when suddenly I was hit with a blast of ice-cold air, causing me to shiver. An unmoving force slammed into me in full force, making my body come to a sickening stop. I sat on the freezing cold ground for several moments as my body gasped for breath and reorientated itself. My vision was a total blur from all the spinning I had done in the portal. One thing was for certain, I never wanted to experience that feeling of unending spinning and falling ever again. Not to mention my ears were still ringing from the roaring of the portal, I hope I hadn't lost some of my hearing.

After a bit, my eyes finally focused and my body reorientated itself with what was up and what was down. I looked around from my position on the ground and found myself in a massive room. Every part of the room looked to be made out of a dark grey stone, with pale white light coming from a crack in the domed ceiling. The air was freezing cold and I could see several piles of snow scattered around the room. I shakily zipped up my jacket and jammed my hands into its warm pockets. It provided at least a slight defense against the cold, far better than nothing. I turned my attention back to surveying the room when I saw something that made chills run down my spine.