The air around us lurched like the atmospheric pressure increased. What on—? Jessica let out a high-pitched scream that pierced my eardrums, and Arlonne hissed at the sound. The creature’s jaw unhinged to grab her.
Dan shoved Jessica out of the way. The Ghost snapped him up, instead. Lyra shouted furiously and attempted a shot at the creature’s tail, the only place that wouldn’t endanger Dan more. Jessica screamed again.
The Ghost groaned and turned, and my heart fell with surprise. Oh no. It was leaving again, just like last time.
“It’s trying to escape,” I shouted, running forward.
“I don’t have a clean shot,” Cam cried, frustrated. Jessica wailed in the background, calling Dan’s name. Chandry volleyed herself over a fallen tree and grasped at the Ghost’s fleeing tail. It was a desperate move, but our only option. Her fingers missed. She rushed forward again for another try.
The air vibrated with energy, and I felt the barrier shift around us as the beast swiped through the air. For a moment, its claw went visible. Chandry missed the tail by inches as the beast propelled itself through… a portal that it ripped open just through psychic power.
The Ghost ripped open an actual portal in the barrier. Right in front of us.
Shock ran through me. Jessica gasped.
“It’s…” She trailed off, but her surprised eyes were trained on the portal. Could she see it? I didn't even know how that would be possible for a human, and a brief look at Lyra and Cam told me that it wasn’t visible to them. Before anyone could stop her, Jessica took off after the creature and jumped through the portal herself, screaming Dan’s name.
“She disappeared,” Lyra said, stunned. “What the hell is happening? Where did she go?”
Jessica saw portals and barriers, was what happened. The monster had been creating portals all this time. That was how it was able to suddenly appear in the forest without any previous warning. All the pieces fell into place. Had its portal torn the airplane in half?
“The beast ripped open a portal in the barrier,” I explained hurriedly. “Jessica saw it somehow. It’s still there, but it won’t last forever.” The edges of the portal were already decaying. The misshapen oval in the barrier was slowly disappearing, although Lyra couldn’t see it.
Part of me was tempted to let Dan and Jennifer go. Those two got themselves into this mess through lies and threatened us with exposure while wasting precious resources with their trespassing, but we were supposed to save people…
“We have to go after them,” Lyra breathed and caught my eye. She was angry, too, but we needed to do what we had come here to do. Human lives had to be protected. “We have to save them.”
This is maddening.
Chandry clapped her hands together and strode toward the portal, grabbing its vibrating edges. To Lyra and the other humans, it probably looked like Chandry was miming in the air.
“I can hold it open briefly,” she announced brightly. “I’m great with portals. Let’s do this.”
Arlonne snorted. “You actually came in handy after all.”
Lyra and Cam grabbed the rest of our supplies, and Sike helped Bryce. All together, we rushed through the portal and after the creature as Chandry held it open. The faint cry of Jennifer’s screams still rang in my ears.
What was on the other side waiting for us?
23
Lyra
My body was falling fast. I gasped as my feet hit land, but an odd vibration darted out from beneath the ground I landed on. Bryce huffed as he followed behind with Chandry, who was the last through the portal. A ghostly trail of Jessica's cry for Dan lingered in the air. When my vision steadied, I looked ahead and saw pearly white material with iridescent glittering.
There was light in the tunnel, but it was coming through the walls. The material of the tunnel was semi-translucent, with that pearly sheen that gave me the impression we'd stumbled into some odd, futuristic cavern. There was a constant dull hum in the background, and in the distance, I could hear the soft sounds of something bouncing off the walls up ahead. The echoes came like the ghostly sound effects of someone jumping on a trampoline.
Jessica was nowhere to be seen.
Dorian gaped at the landscape around us. He whipped his head back to me. "This is not the Immortal Plane."
Oh, I knew that the minute we crossed through the portal. How could it be? I stared with wonder at the white structure around us. Bryce stamped his foot on the ground and frowned, watching as the ground soaked up the shock and jiggled like gelatin. I pressed a tentative hand against the wall next to us. It crumpled softly under my touch and then sprang back as soon as I removed my hand.
"The portal," Arlonne said abruptly. "It's gone." I glanced back to where we had come from. Although I couldn't see it, Dorian's grave stare told me Arlonne was absolutely right. Our way back was cut off. And we were currently in some kind of… shiny tunnel?
Cam sucked in a labored breath. "This can't be happening. This place is mad." He gently prodded the wall and hissed with surprise at the warbling response.
"This place shouldn't exist," Sike muttered to himself. Bryce leaned more on his own weight, having recovered his bearings.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"It feels wrong," he said, rubbing his shoulders as he shivered. "It's like we've fallen into a pocket between the planes." I met Dorian's sure gaze. Sike’s reaction was similar to what Dorian’s had been when we’d first entered the Higher Plane, except from the sounds of it, this wasn't a plane at all. It was some weird in-between place that existed now. It's like the Leftovers created their own
