Interdimensional Ghost Story Thread

"Daaaaddyyyy! Let me help!" Four year old Karen yelled while tugging at the back of her father's shirt.

Pausing briefly to pat her gently on the head Bran replied; "Sorry honey, but you're just too small and I don't want you to get hurt. Maybe you're mother has something you can do, why don't you go see?"

Pouting cutely she kicked at a pebble underfoot and said; "Okay daddy, if I have to…"

"Good girl! Now your Uncle Theran and I have got to help them get these trade-goods in the warehouse and the oxen in the barn before that storm gets here." Settling the crate he was holding more securely upon his shoulder he turned back to Tucker, the caravan's cook and said; "Karen here will introduce you to her mother Katya. She is the one you'll want to talk to about restocking food and medicine before you head further into the mountains."

Looking down once more at his daughter he said; "Now hurry along; once you've introduced Tucker to her, I'm sure mommy will find something for you to do. She should be in the backroom taking inventory of her herbs and potions."

Cheered up at the thought of helping her mother, she yelled over the rising wind, "Okay daddy!" then grabbed Tucker's hand and practically dragged him to the shop.

With a laugh Tucker looked back over his shoulder and yelled to Bran, "Quite a handful of a little girl you've got here!"

Grinning, Bran replied, "You aren't kidding, but at least she tries her best to be good!"

As they passed through the doorway Karen yelled, "Mommy, you got a customer! This is Tucker, daddy told me to int'oduce him to you!"

"I'm coming!" Katya yelled from the other room.

A couple seconds later she entered, wiping her hands on her apron she said; "So, Tucker was it? It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Clasping his hand she continued, "I assume you're with the caravan and looking for supplies? So then, what is it that you'll be needing today?"

"Quite a few things I'm afraid. I have a list here, but before we get into that I have a question. I couldn't help but notice your daughter's beautiful necklace and was wondering where you got it and if there was any chance of acquiring more like it?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to ask my brother, Theran, about that. You see he is an elemental mage and he made it with the help of all four of his Elementals. Basically it isn't just for decoration, it also allows us to find her should she become lost, protects her from minor dangers, and calls in the Elementals who made it should any serious danger threaten her. Speaking of which, it needs to be recharged about once a month and it is about due. Thank you for reminding me."

Turning back to face the storeroom she yelled; "Undine! It's time to recharge Karen's necklace, please gather the others and do so right away! Thanks!"

Facing Tucker once more she continued; "You can ask Theran about the necklace later, for now though, let's just get your supplies together. So then, let's see that list."

Looking over at her daughter for a moment she said; "Honey, go see if Undine has found the others yet. You need them to recharge your necklace right away. Remember how much trouble it was to recharge it when we left it for too long and the charge ran out completely last time? We don't want a repeat of that!"

Looking at Tucker's list she continued absently as she read it; "You see when the charge is low, the Elementals merely have to touch the correct stones for a few seconds to imbue them with more power. However, once the charge has been completely depleted, the spells need to be totally redone before they can charge the stones once more."

As the adults wandered among the shelves looking for the goods on Tucker's list, Karen headed out to find Undine like her mother had told her to.

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Meanwhile Sebastian also wandered among shelves, though these held merchandise of another sort all together…

The crickets in the container he held chirped loudly and thumped against the sides of it as they jumped around trying to escape. Hardly noticing, he merely tightened his grip on it without even glancing down.

"Hey Sebastian, snap out of it already! Every time you've come in here since that display was put in you stand in front of it and space out. If you want that new reptile habitat so badly why not just buy it and get it over with? If you don't have the money and can't borrow it from your parents then I have a proposition for you. Just keep in mind that it is dependant on getting your parent's okay."

At Sebastian's questioning look Brandon, the pet shop's owner, clapped his hand on Sebastian's shoulder and continued; "If you're interested and your parents say it is alright you can come help me out in the store for a little bit after school. The child labor laws say I can't actually hire you but if you "volunteer" to clean the reptile cages and take out the trash I doubt anyone would mind. Work hard every day for one month and I'd say you'll have earned that new habitat for your gecko. So then, are you interested?"

"Ye, ye, yes sir! Tha, that sounds great!" Sebastian said, stuttering somewhat in his excitement.

"Excellent! Let's get you rung up and I'll write your parents a note for you to take home so they'll know the offer is genuine, but remember, it is still up to you to sell the idea to them! I'll be expecting a phone call in forty-five minutes or so with an answer either way."

"You better make that one and a half hours or so, dad doesn't get home until about seven and I'll need a chance to talk him into giving his permission." Sebastian quickly interjected.

"Alright then, so call about eight o'clock with the answer. I just need to know whether or not to be expecting a helper tomorrow afternoon." Brandon answered while he wrote the note.

When the call still hadn't come by eight-thirty, two hours later, Brandon began to worry. Having known Sebastian for several years it just seemed out of character for him to not do as he had said he would, so Brandon judged it time to call Sebastian's parents to be sure everything was alright.

Judy, Sebastian's mother, answered the phone; "Hi Brandon, what's up?"

"Hi Judy, is Sebastian home? I was expecting to hear from him a half hour or so ago but he still hasn't called. I had an offer for him but it required your okay, he was going to ask you and his father, then call me up with the answer by eight."

"No, I haven't seen him since he left to buy the crickets. Being a Friday night his curfew isn't until nine though so I hadn't thought anything of it, but you're right, it isn't like him to not follow through when he says he'll do something. I'll call around to some of his friend's houses, maybe he just met up with some of them on the way home and lost track of time."

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At this same time, back in the other world…

"Bran, is Karen with you? Her dinner is getting cold!" Katya yelled as she emerged from the doorway.

"No she isn't. I haven't seen her since I sent her in to find you." He yelled over the wind as he emerged from the storage warehouse next door where he had just set the last crate in place.

Exiting the warehouse right behind him Theran spoke up, "I haven't seen her for a while either, but we shouldn't panic. Her necklace hasn't sounded the alarm or called in the Elementals so she must be alright. Let's look around some before doing anything else, there's no sense in wasting energy on the tracking spell if she just fell asleep in the backroom or something."

A little while later they still hadn't found her. They had however found Rin sitting at Theran's workshop-door, whining and scratching at it. Opening the door they found the room to be empty, though there was a mess as though someone had cast a spell and not cleaned up afterwards. Rin proceeded to sniff around excitedly, but after a few seconds she settled in front of the Water magic-circle, whining even more excitedly than she had been before.

Flowing over to it, Undine examined it closely. With an expression of confused alarm she beckoned for Theran to come over and check it out as well.

To his eyes it looked fine, but when he focused his magic upon it he straightened up in shock. Turning to his brother-in-law and sister he said, "The portal is closed but even so I can tell the destination has changed. It no longer leads to the Water Plane and I can't tell quite where it does go. Wherever that is, I am not familiar with it." Taking an even closer look, he continued; "That's not all either, the structure of it has also changed, from what I can tell this is a one-way portal and this side is the entrance, not the exit. She must have tried the summoning spell and messed it up. I have a nasty feeling that she is on the other side, wherever that is."

Hearing this Katya looked terrified and began to yell at him, "So hurry up and get her back here!"

He shook his head, saying; "It's not that simple sis, this is a one-way portal, remember? If I just reopen the same portal she won't be able to come back through it. I need to figure out the inter-dimensional path it took and open a new two-way portal to the same destination in order to get her back."

Her fear making her angry, she continued screaming at her brother; "Then hurry up and get to work already! We need to get her back here RIGHT NOW!"

Annoyed at her for directing her anger at him, but aware that it just stemmed from her fear for her daughter, he responded as gently as he could; "I will work as fast as I can, but I can't concentrate with you yelling in my ear like that. Please go outside, I'll send Sylph for you as soon as I can get the portal open."

Upon hearing his gentle reprimand, Katya burst into tears. Placing his hands on her shoulders, her husband led her out the door while whispering reassurances in her ear, though he continued to glance back at his brother-in-law in concern. Seeing Theran making preparations and knowing that he loved his niece as much as they loved her, he was reassured. Now if only he could only get his gut to believe what his mind was telling it…

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And so the search was on in both worlds...

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Meanwhile Sebastian was just waking up, slowly becoming conscious of what sounded like a little girl sobbing nearby. Sitting up with a start he flinched and grabbed at his head; "Ouch! What happened? Last thing I remember was my house just coming in sight and then I was waking up here with a headache… Kyle, it had to be Kyle and his gang... They must have jumped me as I was going by that alley then dumped me here, wherever here is."

Forcing his eyes open and moving gingerly Sebastian looked around to find the source of the crying. Spotting a faint flickering light over to his left, he carefully stood up and approached it. Peering around a pile of boxes he found the source of both the sound and the light; a young girl in a white shirt and gray coveralls who was huddled over what he thought was a candle, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Hello, who are you? Did that mean Kyle put you in here too?" he asked gently so as not to scare her any worse than she already was.

Eyes wide with fear, she spun around to face him, "N-no, I don't know any Kyle. My spell messed up and dropped me here… Who are you? My name is Karen."

"Spell?" he said in surprise, then thought, "She must have been pretending to be a sorceress or fairy or something of that sort and gotten lost. Her friends or family have to be around here somewhere, they must be worried sick! Oh-well, at least she has stopped crying… for the moment anyway."

With a rather wry grin he asked, "Aren't you a bit young to be casting spells?"

She gave him an annoyed glare and said, "No! I learned to make a light clear back when I was two! See?" and thrust the light out towards him.

Positive she was either going to drop it or blow it out the way she was swinging it around, he made a grab for the candle thinking to steady it. His eyes widened in shock as his hand passed directly through where the candle stick should have been. Taking a closer look at it, he realized that the light, which he had up until then assumed was a candle's flame, was actually floating in midair a few inches above the girl's empty hand. He thought unsteadily, "Maybe her talk of "spells" is more than just a child pretending after all! "

Taking a deep breath, he then muttered; "No, no it can't be. Magic isn't real, there has to be some sort of trick to it!"

With an angry glare, she began lecturing him; "Yes it is! On the Plains where I'm from they start teaching us as soon as we can talk! Some even become powerful Mages, like my Uncle Theran."

With that angry look in her eye he was positive she would start yelling again if he said the wrong thing. Things were bad enough without dealing with her having a temper-tantrum as well so he figured that he better be very careful how he responded to her tirade. Maybe distracting her was the best way to go… "So anyway, what spell were you trying that messed up and sent you here?" he asked.

Her expression went from angry to sad as she responded; "Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Theran, even all his Elementals were busy, so I was trying to summon an Undine of my own so I'd have someone to play with… At first everything looked like it does when Uncle Theran calls his Undine but then the portal turned black and sucked me in, next thing I know I'm landing on those crates over there."

Following her finger he saw another stack of wooden crates a little past where she had been sitting, one of which was smashed to pieces, as though something heavy had slammed into it, with shards of wood poking out everywhere. Looking back and forth between the wreckage and the little girl who supposedly had just crawled out of it, he just couldn't picture it, anything that had been in there should have been torn to shreds and her clothes didn't even seem to be torn! Upon taking a closer look though, he realized that while it wasn't immediately apparent in the dim light, the elbow of her left sleeve had some blood on it and there was a matching stain on one of the broken boards near the back of the pile of wreckage. "I didn't realize you were hurt! Come on; let me see what I can do to help…" he said as he reached for her arm.

"Okay…" She said, carefully holding the arm out for him to check.

First he looked the sleeve over carefully in case it was stuck to the wound, finding nothing but the bloodstain and a small tear he gingerly rolled it up out of the way. What he found was just a small scrape and a couple large splinters. "Ooo, it's gonna hurt but these splinters have to come out."

Letting go of her arm, he began digging around in his bag, just grateful that those bullies had left it with him. Finding what he was looking for, he pulled out a first aid kit from which he extracted some gauze pads, a roll of medical tape, a few alcohol swabs, and a pair of tweezers. Gently grabbing her arm once more with one hand and the tweezers with the other he said; "Just bear with me and hold as still as you can, okay?"
Eyes wide with the anticipated pain, she bit her lower lip and slowly nodded.

Realizing that while he had gotten her name, he had never given his own, and hoping to keep her mind off of what he was doing to her arm he said while working; "Oh, I'm sorry, I never did introduce myself, did I? My name is Sebastian! I have a pet gecko, do you have any pets?"

Lured in by his genial tone, she forgot all about her arm and responded excitedly; "Yeah! I have a dog named Rin! Her fur is all brown and black and red and she's so big I sometimes ride on her like the caravan guards do on their horses!"

Having just pulled the last splinter free, he picked up one of the alcohol swabs and said; "She sounds beautiful! How long have you had her?"

"I got her last summer when a caravan from" she said, finishing up with a yelled; "Oww! That stings!" and trying to pull her arm away as he rubbed the swab over the scrape.

Swiftly tightening his grip he finished as quickly as he could, saying; "I did warn you it would hurt but it needed to be done, this helps keep it from getting infected. Anyway, now I just need to put the gauze on it so it stays clean."

As though her yell had caught something's attention, even as he taped the gauze in place they both felt the hair rise on the backs of their necks and the temperature suddenly dropped by at least twenty degrees. Their breath clouding the suddenly chilled air, a feeling of dread filled his gut. Hesitantly he whispered; "I think I know where we are now… This has got to be the old Williams house; it has a reputation for being haunted."

"Haunted? What does haunted mean?" she asked, huddling close to him for warmth.

"Haunted means that" *Thump, thump, thump* they suddenly heard what sounded like footsteps coming down the steps from the main house. Spinning around to look at the source of the sounds, they could clearly see the empty staircase leading up to a door into the rest of the house. Backing slowly away from the staircase, he continued quietly, "Haunted means that there is at least one ghost on the property."

"A ghost! You mean there is a Necromancer around here?" she exclaimed in alarm.

"A Necromancer? That word sounds familiar; some sort of evil wizard isn't it? No, at least I've never heard of one in the real world, just in movies." He replied, still keeping his eyes glued to the staircase.

Being used to having the mostly invisible Sylph around, Karen wasn't nearly as bothered by sounds with no visible source as Sebastian was. Sounding genuinely confused, she asked; "What are movies?"

In startled disbelief he finally snapped his attention away from the staircase to stare at her. Seeing the real confusion on her face he finally began to accept that this little girl truly wasn't from the world he had grown up in. Even one of the Amish, who had no TV's, would have at least known the terms she had been questioning. "Movies are stories told through moving pictures and sounds." he explained in a whisper.

Her expression cleared as he spoke, "Oh… Uncle Theran sometimes has Sal make pictures in the fire to go with his stories, but they don't have any sound."

As if in counterpoint, even as she said the word "sound" a rattling noise came from the outside basement-doors, almost like someone was checking to be sure they were padlocked. It seemed as though whatever was moving around didn't notice them unless they made a loud noise. To test that theory, Sebastian quietly scooped a rock up off the dirt floor and threw it against the far wall. The reaction was immediate, the rattling stopped cold and about a second later some of the boxes began to shift over near where the rock had hit as though someone was searching for the source of the sound.

Taking her arm he whispered in her ear, "Come on, we gotta get out of here!" and pulled her towards the external door, hoping that the door was really unlocked and the ghost's rattling had just mislead them. Gently pushing against it, so as to not cause it to rattle again, he found that it really was locked after all. Pulling her away from the door and towards the stairs, he whispered once more; "It looks like we'll have to go through the main house, so come on and be just as quiet as you can!"

Pulling her arm free, she whispered back; "Okay. Do you think we can get out up there?"
Worriedly he shook his head, "I hope so, I really hope so…" A few seconds, and several steps, later, he continued under his breath, "I know there is no other way we can go, but even so climbing towards that door has me feeling like a rabbit walking knowingly into the wolf's den. With every step we take up the staircase that feeling of dread increases, becomes more focused... It's like whatever is causing it, is becoming more aware of our presence with each passing moment."

Seemingly in response to his muttered comment, a dead silence fell abruptly over the cellar, which only heightened his sense of impending doom. Using his own voice as something familiar to focus on and help himself stay calm, he continued muttering; "If this were one of my computer games, right about now I'd be expecting something nasty to pop out of that door and attack us…"

Though the sound of his voice helped him stay calm, the words he was muttering began to upset Karen who had been viewing this as a great adventure, at least, once she wasn't alone in the dark that is. "Attack us? Why would they attack us? We haven't done anything!" she whimpered in fearful confusion.

I snapped my head around to look at her in shock, I had been so focused on the door that I had almost forgotten she was there. "No, no. I was referring to a game. I don't think anyone is going to actually attack us!"

Pressing against his leg and looking around nervously Karen responded; "Oh, okay… If you say so…"

I placed my hand on the doorknob and paused for a moment to take a deep breath and relax. If I went through it fearfully, Karen might well panic and I didn't know how I would deal with that.

Opening the door we slowly walked into the main house. As soon as we cleared the door though, things went crazy! The door slammed shut behind us and a knife that was on the counter suddenly floated into the air!

I pushed Karen behind me and crouched down to be as small a target as possible. Even as I did so, the knife flashed across the room and slammed into the crack between the door and doorframe, wedging it shut far beyond our strength to open. Now we had no choice, we had to go through the house…

I looked over the counters carefully to make sure there weren't any more loose knives lying around. Then, taking Karen by the hand and pulling her along behind me, I slowly walked through the kitchen towards the door leading into the dining-room. With every step I hoped that no drawer opened and let fly more cutlery.

All was quiet as we walked from room to room, our footsteps echoed on the hardwood floor. However, that changed when we came to the entryway. We approached the front door, thinking we were free. When we were got within a few steps of it, the heavy armoire that stood beside it let out a loud cracking sound and toppled over to block the door. There was no way past and our options became that much narrower.

By now Karen was beginning to panic and I wasn't too far behind, but I couldn't let her know that. "Calm down, we'll make it out of here!" I told her, squeezing her hand gently as I did so. She seemed reassured and I took heart from that, so I said; "Let's try the living-room windows next!"

We headed in there and went straight for the window closest to the door. As I reached for the sash the shutters slammed tightly shut in front of my face. Refusing to give up I started to head for the next window but the shutters on it slammed as well. As if something had learned my plan the shutters began to slam one by one as I turned to face them. The room became progressively dimmer as the light of the streetlamps was shut out. Soon, the only illumination came from Karen's dimly flickering spell-light and the few stray glimmers that made it through cracks in the shutters.

Looking down at the scared little girl beside me, my resolve hardened, we would get out of here somehow! "Come on Karen, lets try the backdoor, and if that doesn't work we'll try the second floor windows!"

True to my word, we headed to the backdoor only to find it locked securely. Finally, we started up the stairs. When we did so the atmosphere lightened, it was as if whatever was haunting us was pleased.

We emerged in the second floor hallway only to find all the doors closed. Advancing down the hall I tried each door as we came to it, but to no avail. They were all either stuck tight or locked. As we reached the midway point in the hallway, a door at the far end slowly swung open with its hinges squealing, seemingly of its own accord.

Refusing the obvious choice of heading right for the open door, I continued trying each closed one before passing it by. Eventually it became completely clear that we had no real choice but to do what the ghost wanted and go into that room. Pausing outside the doorway we heard a low hum coming from within.

Finally, with a disappointed sigh, I tightened my grip on Karen's hand and went on through into the room.

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At about that same time Theran finished tracing the route that Karen's portal had taken through the void. His eyes snapped open and he yelled; "Sylph, go get Katya and Bran for me. I'm about to open the portal!"

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Back in Sebastian's world Judy was just hanging up the phone; "Well, that's it, I've tried all his friends and no-one knows where he is! Its time to call the cops and report him as missing…" she sobbed.
Still sobbing she dialed 911 and made the report. She, in turn, was told that a car would be sent out immediately to check out the route he had been taking.

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Katya burst through the door, Bran not far behind. "You found her?" she yelled immediately.

"No Katya, but I have found where her portal went. If she stayed by the portal we just need to send someone through to get her, otherwise someone will have to search. I have to stay here to keep the portal open, I can already tell there isn't enough power on the other side to reopen it if it closes." Theran replied calmly.

"Open the portal now, I'm going to get her!" Katya said emphatically.

"Honey, please let me, we don't know what is out there." Bran interjected.

"I know that, that's why I should go first. You didn't grow up training to fight from the time you could walk!" she snapped at him.

"Hold up sis, the first one through won't be either of you. I'm sending Sylph through before anyone else. Not only can she go where no human can, but if anything happens I can just re-summon her here, none the worse for wear." Theran interjected.

Unable to argue any further, they simply nodded then stood back while Theran proceeded to open the portal.

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As soon as it was open I drifted through, imagining I probably look nervous, despite being nearly invisible.

Clearing the portal I stopped in shock, feeling as if I could hardly breath. The density of magical energy was so low here as to seem a vacuum to a creature of magic like me.
After a moment I regained her bearings and took a look around. The darkness was absolute, but I could still expand my other senses and feel what was around me. Sensing the broken wood and the traces of blood on the splinters I was alarmed, but quickly regained my composure. The amount of blood was simply too small to be at all serious so there was no need yet for alarm.

Flowing out the nearest door I noticed that it was locked from the outside, no way Karen could have gone that way. Next I floated back into the building and up the stairs only to find the door up there was also closed tightly. Blowing under the door I examined it from the other side and found the knife, wedged tightly in the crack. Try though I would, I couldn't grip the knife well enough to pull it free and didn't want to simply blast the door down and possibly alert enemies to my presence so I left it closed and went on. After all, my first priority was to find Karen and either retrieve her or report back for help.

As I floated around the first floor, it quickly became apparent to me that someone had wanted to trap whoever had been here, and that probably meant Karen. There was however, no sign of actual threats to her safety beyond the knife wedging the door shut.
Heading up the stairs I heard Karen's voice from above me and began to get excited. Unfortunately there was something else there as well, something that felt somewhat familiar and would have raised my hackles if I had any.

The closer I got to Karen the greater that sense of uneasy familiarity grew and the more I dreaded what I would find.

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Theran had been monitoring Sylph's emotions through their connection as the only way he had to determine what was going on the other side of the portal. Feeling her unease and dread he decided that it was time to send her some backup. "Undine! Something is up and I think you should go help Sylph. Just be sure to keep your senses open and be careful!" he said tensely.

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Undine swiftly flowed through the portal like Sylph before her, and like Sylph, she stopped in shock as she cleared it and felt the near vacuum of magical energy. Unlike her sibling though, she knew it was manageable because of Sylph's lack of problems earlier, so she quickly regained her bearings and rushed upstairs to her sister's aid.
She swirled up the stairs, under the door, and past the blocked entryway. She then flowed past the shuttered windows, and up the last staircase to meet up with her sister. Together they headed into the room where that oh-so familiar and decidedly uncomfortable aura was coming from.

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We entered the room, the entirety of which was lined in shelves and counters. Every surface was covered in various parts and components. Looking at all the stuff laid out before me I couldn't help but think that you could almost stock an electronics store from this room alone.

Karen darted around in front of me; "Pretty!" she exclaimed in awe filled tones, looking wide-eyed at a softly glowing contraption in front of the only chair in the room. It was about four feet tall and comprised of a base and five round towers, one shorter central tower and four taller corner towers. The light came from an orb atop the central tower which bathed the room in a soft golden illumination.

Karen reached her hand out slowly towards it and before I could even react something snatched her back away from it and a disembodied voice whispered; "No, don't touch. It's dangerous."

I stared in silent shock for a few minutes, almost unable to believe the evidence of my own senses. If it wasn't for what I had been seeing all night, I doubt I could have processed it at all. Gradually I became conscious of a sound like a storm, wind whistling and water sloshing, coming from the hallway behind us.

Spinning round to look, I saw a woman apparently made of water come through the doorway behind us and felt a rushing wind blow past me. The wind seemed to be making a beeline for Karen… This was a night of nonstop strange occurrences and by this point I had decided nothing else could faze me, so I merely turned to look.

The wind swirled around her, ruffling her clothes and blowing her hair around. It seemed to be examining her for injuries or something and paused by her bandaged elbow. I felt like I was being scrutinized both by the water-woman and the wind, though before tonight I would have thought that was nonsense. I just hoped they found me acceptable.

By this time Karen's attention was taken away from the glowing orb and was on the wind instead; "Sylph! Sylph! I was so scared!" Looking up she noticed the water woman as well and yelled; "'Deen! You came too!" She was beaming happily by now.

"My arm hurt and I was so scared, Sebastian here fixed it and got me out of the cellar!" she told them while pointing at me. The one she called 'Deen turned to stare at me mutely and I had the impression she was examining my every thought. The wind that she called Sylph swirled round me and I got the same feeling from it as well. It gave me the creeps to be examined so closely by creatures I hadn't even believe existed before then.

Finally they seemed satisfied and turned towards a spot to the right of the contraption. 'Deen's gaze was cold and hard as ice, as if she didn't like what she saw there. A voice coming from the empty air in front of her whispered; "What are you? I have never seen anything like you before…"

With a voice like the angry roaring sounds of a waterfall Undine spoke for the first time since I had seen her; "I'm an Undine, a water elemental. What is a ghost like yourself doing bothering my charge?"

The wind swirled around her and a voice like the hum of a gentle breeze said softly; "Calm down Undine, give it a chance. I saw no signs that it caused any harm to either of the children."

"Your charge? You mean that child? She, no, they, invaded my home, disturbed my rest such as it is. I do not seek to cause harm, but they must pay a price for disturbing me. Do for me what I cannot do for myself. Reveal to the world my greatest invention. Unveil my Perpetual Generator!" the ghost then whispered in answer to Undine's question.

Nervously I spoke up; "Your Perpetual Generator? You mean that glowing thing? I-I will do my best, but you said it was dangerous. How do I get it out where I can show anyone?"

The ghost answered; "Don't be scared, just be careful not to get too close to the glowing orb. That is where the energy is stored. The girl was reaching straight for the orb, she would have been fried had I let her touch it."

I gulped then stuttered; "O-o-okay. So I just need to be careful not to touch the orb or jiggle the towers too much?"

"Yes… Maybe now I can truly rest… As soon as you unveil it my unfinished business will no longer be unfinished!" The ghost responded in an excited whisper.

"There is no way I can move it on my own, will you help me with it? Sylph? And 'Deen, was it?" I asked.

"Yes, I will" said Sylph.

"You may call me Undine, only Karen calls me 'Deen." Undine said, then added tersely, "Yes, I'll help." apparently still upset with the ghost's presence.

Carefully I took hold of one edge of the base and Undine took another, I couldn't see Sylph but I assumed she had hold of a third edge. Gently we lifted, surprised at how relatively light it was.

Floating as she was, Sylph couldn't trip on anything, so we had her be the one to go backwards through the door and down the steps. She slowly guided it downstairs and to the entryway.

Seeing the armoire still blocking it I asked; "What do we do now? That thing is way to heavy to move!"

Undine gave me a half-smile, the first she had shown since I first saw her, and said; "You'd be surprised, Elementals are far, far stronger than you seem to think!"

She flowed under it and straightened up, lifting it easily over her head, and tipped it out of the way. It crashed loudly to the floor, this time on its side against the wall instead of across the hallway. She looked at it and rubbed her hands together with a self-satisfied look on her face before rejoining us around the generator.

Karen had been following us as we carried it downstairs so I asked her; "Karen, would you mind seeing if the door will open?" and with a smile at finally having something to do she ran to the door and rattled it, but was unable to open it.

Taking a closer look at it I saw that the armoire had apparently hit the knob as it fell. The doorknob was bent at an angle that left little doubt that is was broken.

Undine spoke up; "Don't worry, I've got this." She put her hand against the door right over the catch and there was a loud thudding sound. When she moved her hand there was a small hole where the latch had been and the door swung open on squeaking hinges.

"Grr… Quite damaging my home!" The ghost growled quietly.

"You damaged it first when you dropped that armoire on the doorknob!" Undine snapped.

I couldn't see the ghost's reaction but I got the impression he was sulking after that reprimand.

We hurried to get the generator out on the porch where I was to wait for the cops. At least I assumed that by now they had been called about me disappearing.

"Do you mind removing that knife wedging the cellar door shut so we can get Karen home without damaging your home again?" Sylph asked.

"Why do you need to go down there again? You're already outside!" The ghost asked.

"Think about it, you have two Elementals and a girl who casts light spells here. This isn't exactly our world! The portal home is in your basement." Sylph relied.

"I suppose… Come on then!" the ghost answered, its voice retreating in the direction of the kitchen.

I was curious about the portal so I went with them as they followed the ghost to the cellar. As we drew away from the generator the glow dimmed and Karen once again cast her Illumis spell to light our way.

As we descended the cellar steps a dim gray glow became visible in front of us. Following it we rounded the stack of boxes blocking off the corner where I had first found Karen and saw a mass of swirling gray energy in front of us. That had to be the portal!

"Something is wrong here! That portal was completely dark when we came through!" Sylph said nervously. "Let me try it first. The worst that can happen to me is having to be re-summoned."

Though I couldn't see Sylph I watched the spot where Undine was looking and saw a flash from the portal a second later.

"That's not good!" Undine exclaimed. "We better wait until she gets back before trying it."

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Theran felt Sylph try the portal and the brief pain as her energy field was disrupted. She was spat back out of the portal, her energy incoherent enough as to be unrecognizable to those there. He promptly re-summoned her and began questioning her. "What happened?" he asked.

"Ooh, I've got a headache…" was her first response, followed a second later by; "Something is wrong with the portal. I tried going through and it wrenched me apart!"

"I know that much!" I said, "Tell me what it looked like and how it was behaving!"

"It was glowing a dim gray and appeared to be swirling around, almost like a whirlpool."

"Alright, anything else?"

"No, that was all we could see."

"Sounds familiar… Tell me, is there a ghost in the vicinity over there?"

"Yes… It seems friendly. But what does that have to do with the portal?"

"A ghost lets off an energy field mixed with its aura that disrupts portals. They become one-way only and disrupt anything going through from the wrong side. It isn't something the ghost can help either, but the only way to stop the disruption is to banish the ghost."

"You should know that besides Undine, Karen is also with a human boy and the ghost. Also, the ghost saved her life once already! Though the ghost was grumbling about how they had disturbed its rest "such as it was"."

"Sounds like it may actually cooperate with being banished as long as we make it clear that it will be able to rest once we do so… Katya! It seems you'll have to go through after all. A Mage is needed to banish a ghost and I'll still have to remain here to keep the portal open. I need to teach you the spell, but in the mean time I'll have Sylph go back through and let them know what is going on."

--------------

After a moment's hesitation I floated back through the portal to relay the message.
Not wanting to upset the ghost I decided to leave out the comments about banishing it and said; "Karen! Your mother will be coming through soon. They said something about her needing to come cast a spell before they can bring you home."

Karen was beaming with joy upon hearing that her mother was coming. She ran over to Sebastian where she grabbed his hand and began yelling that he had to meet her mommy.
He knelt beside her, placing his hands on her shoulders he said; "I'd love to meet your mommy sweetie. However I made a promise to reveal that generator and someone has to have noticed it by now. Now I can't wait here for her, I have to head back there to make sure no-one gets hurt by touching it."

Pouting she answered; "Okay… but when mommy gets here you just gotta meet her!"
He laughed and agreed.

Turning to the Elementals he asked; "Sylph, Undine, could one of you stay here to tell her mom where we are? I assume the other will want to stay with Karen and I though."

Undine volunteered to stay, stating that since Elementals apparently weren't known around here, it was better if she stayed out of sight.

Draping his arm over Karen's shoulder and guiding her to the stairs he said; "Come on, lets go wait by the generator. There is more light up there. Undine will make sure your mommy finds us."

She rubbed her eyes and said; "Okay…" then let out a huge yawn.

They sat down beside the generator as soon as they got outside. Karen snuggled up tightly against Sebastian and quickly began to doze.

Uncomfortable, he gently shook her shoulder and said; "Karen… Karen… Your mommy will be here soon, don't you want to stay awake for her?"

She just mumbled something incoherent and shivered before snuggling even more tightly against him.

"Huh… I guess not." he muttered. Then he carefully worked his jacket off and draped it over her to stop her shivering.

--------------

I arrived at the front door and paused to look for Karen. Seeing my daughter's sleeping form snuggled up against the boy I sighed with relief. I smiled as he carefully draped his jacket over her, thankful that my daughter had met such a nice person during our separation.

As I watched, another person came up the walkway towards them. Reluctant to reveal myself yet I waited, watching and listening to those out on the porch.

"What's going on here?!" the figure yelled.

"Mr. Saunders? Is that you?" the boy asked in response.

The figure paused with a start, then said; "Sebastian? What are you doing here? Do you have any idea how worried your mother is? She has your dad AND the cops out looking for you!"

Sebastian winced; "I was afraid of that… How late is it anyway? I've totally lost track."

"It's almost midnight! And you still haven't answered my question, what are you doing here?" Mr. Saunders snapped in response.

"Kyle and his gang jumped me and locked me in the basement here. I've spent most of the night just trying to get out! Now I can't leave until Karen's mother gets here, I promised I'd stay with her until then." Sebastian answered.

"Karen? Who is Karen?" he asked.

Lifting the edge of his jacket to show the little girl sleeping beneath it he said; "This is Karen. She was locked in there too."

I started out to claim my daughter, but stopped abruptly when a voice from empty air spoke up in a loud whisper; "Don't forget your other promise…"

Sebastian answered in a rather wry tone of voice; "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten!"

Mr. Saunders spoke up nervously; "Who are you talking too? Who else is here?"

The corner of Sebastian's mouth quirked upwards and he said; "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Before tonight I wouldn't have believed it either!"

Taking his nerves out on Sebastian, Mr. Saunders yelled; "I asked you who else is here! Now speak up young man!"

Taking a deep breath Sebastian replied; "Okay, just remember that you asked! The one that spoke a moment ago was the ghost of Mr. Williams. Also there are a Sylph and an Undine that followed Karen here."

Getting angry now, Mr. Saunders yelled; "A ghost? And what in the world is a Sylph or an Undine?"

Roused by the yelling, Karen sat up and mumbled; "Mommy? 'Deen? Where are you?"

Hearing my daughter call for me, I emerged from the doorway with Undine only a step behind. Taking one look at Undine, Mr. Saunders fainted. Sylph, who had been right beside him, caught him and lowered him gently to the ground.

"Huh, I guess I won't be revealing it to him then…" Sebastian said wryly, then turning to me he tilted his head to the side and raised one eyebrow before continuing; "Karen's mom I assume? You're beautiful!"

Going by his mannerisms, I thought he was so deeply in shock by this point that he simply wasn't really reacting anymore, not that I could blame him. Going by what I had witnessed so far, it seemed clear that magic and magical creatures like the Elementals and ghosts were pretty much unknown here.

Rushing to Karen's side I hugged her tightly saying; "I'm here sweetie, I'm right here and so is Undine." Turning to Sebastian I smiled and answered; "Thank you for the compliment. Yes, I'm Karen's mother. Thank you for taking such good care of my daughter."

Bringing his hand to his head, Mr. Saunders moaned; "Ahh… What happened?" Then he opened his eyes and saw Undine again. He promptly went even paler and looked for a moment like he was going to faint again. "Wha…wha…what is that?!" he exclaimed while pushing himself away from her, not even bothering to get to his feet first.

""That" is the Undine I mentioned." Sebastian said with a smile, then continued; "And I believe she would prefer you call her a "she" rather than a "that"".

"He's right you know." Undine giggled, sounding, for the first time since Karen went missing, like the young teenager I thought of her as. I guess that she was finally able to relax knowing that Karen was safe and I was here to take command.

Sebastian turned to Mr. Saunders and said; "I promised Mr. Williams that I'd do my best to reveal his Perpetual Generator to the world. I hope revealing it to you is good enough. You've seen what I've seen, but I doubt anyone else would believe any of it!"

Mr. Saunders replied; "Did you say his Perpetual Generator? I thought he died before getting it working!"

Sebastian responded; "Nope, he got it working, it just didn't have enough of a charge yet for it to glow or make noise. Just look at it now, glowing and humming away!"

"You mean that's it? It looks like a piece of modern art, not a generator."

The ghost interjected; "Yeah Sam, that's it alright! Just don't touch the glowing orb, or it'll fry you to a crisp! Five years building a charge with nothing but me to draw on it and its built up quite a bit of power! It puts out just about the same amount of energy that a household uses."

The ghost's voice took on a awe-filled quality; "Just imagine, one of these in every house, every business. No power shortages ever!"

Mr. Saunders spoke up; "Hugh, is it really you? I can't believe it, we all thought you were gone!"

The ghost answered; "No Sam, I've been here the whole time. Just me, alone with my thoughts for five whole years. It almost drove me crazy! Only the thought of eventually revealing my generator kept me sane."

"Oh Hugh, I'm so sorry! If I'd have known… If I had known I'd have been here! We've been best friends since we were Sebastian's age, I'd never knowingly abandon you!"

"Don't worry about it Sam, all I want to do now is rest but I can't shut off my thoughts or my senses. Every time someone comes close now, its like nails on a chalkboard. Maybe now that my generator has been revealed I'll be free to sleep."

"That sounds horrible, I really hope you're right Hugh. In the morning I'll call the media, reveal it to the world for real."

"Thank you Sam, thank you." The ghost's voice faded for a moment then came back louder than ever; "I can't reach my lab! I can't reach the back of the house! What's going on? Why can't I reach it? I've always been able to before!"

I broke in; "Hugh was it? It's because the generator is further away from it. You're linked to it now. I'm sorry, but wherever it goes, you'll have to go too."

"No, no, no… This can't be happening! Release me, release me, RELEASE ME!" As his voice grew louder and more desperate the shutters began to bang, the door began to slam. Leaves swirled around us and even rocks began to break loose from the soil as his power ran amok. As he drew more power for his tantrum the humming died down and the glow began to fade from the generator.

We were being pelted by small rocks now and larger ones began to tear themselves free from the ground.

"Mr. Williams, Hugh! Stop it, I can help you!" I screamed over the sounds of crashing rocks, slamming shutters and rising wind. "I can help you! My brother taught me how to free ghosts from their connection to the material plane. It should work here as well as it does at home!"

Nothing I did seemed to get through to him, everything became more and more chaotic by the second. It seemed that the whole house would be torn apart if it was allowed to continue when suddenly Karen couldn't take it anymore and began to cry. As her sobbing screams cut through the night air everything stopped abruptly.

"I… I'm so sorry. I completely lost control for a minute… but I didn't mean to scare her… I'd never hurt a child." The ghost's voice, almost sobbing, came to us. "Please, if you really can free me, do whatever you have to do!"

I nodded as I went to comfort Karen who was still crying. "I'll do what I can, but the first thing's first, I have to calm Karen down."

As soon as Karen was quiet again I performed the short ceremony and sprinkled the potion Theran had given me over the generator. As the ceremony reached it's conclusion a sigh reached our ears; "Finally, I can rest in peace…" There was no sign of the ghost after that.

As Karen said her goodbyes, Mr. Saunders quietly cried, his grief over losing his friend renewed by the night's events. Finally I said my own farewells and we left Sebastian and Mr. Saunders to head back through the portal and home.

----------

"Mr. Saunders? Mr. Saunders?" I gently shook his shoulder to get his attention. After a moment he turned his tear-streaked face to look at me. "Mr. Saunders, can you please call my mommy to come get me? I really want to go home now…"

For a minute he just stared at me blankly, then seemed to come to his senses; "Yes… Yes I'll call her for you Sebastian. Just come along to my house." He said, his voice still choked with sorrow.

I followed him to his house and waited as he made the call. After a little while my dad pulled up followed seconds later by a cop car. They questioned me about what had happened, but didn't believe anything I said about a little girl from another world, ghosts, or Elementals. Eventually they sent me to the hospital to be checked out because of the bump on my head, thinking that perhaps I'd imagined everything after getting hit on the head like I had been.

After a thorough exam they finally let me go home. I fell asleep in the car and by morning, I half-thought I'd dreamed the whole thing. Later that day though, Mr. Saunders stopped by to check on me. What he mentioned brought the whole thing back to my mind, as clear as can be. I know it was real and Mr. Saunders knows it was real. Even if no-one else believed us, at least we had each other to talk about it with.

First to finish (like a boss). A lot of depth (if you plan on using in a game especially). If you do plan on using in game make sure to get emotion and expression to bring your dynamic and intriguing story to full potential If you plan on using in a game what kind of game would it be? Anyways I enjoyed the story, if this was to be a prologue you hit top-notch Whether you using it for game or just as it is, its entertaining (the characters had lots of expression and theme and setting was quite rich). Keep at it guy

This story is just a stand-alone short story I did for a friend. It is sort of a crossover between her character's world and my character's world, Sebastian belongs to her.

In "Ideas and concepts" I posted the idea I have for a game, but it got no feedback beyond 2 posts in the poll, one good, one bad, and nothing telling what about it was liked and what was disliked. Indiedb.com
I'm sort of torn as to how much to post and how much to keep back except for the dev team.

I read your other post and there is so much to offer from this story and it can go very far and has much potential. Knowing that it was a cross over of worlds (thus the name I assume) that's really cool how you meshed them Personally I would with hold such writing because you don't want people stealing any material, however nothing wrong with small bits to get people interested or sharing your art work with the community. With Silver Symbiosis I dig how you gave the exact parameters, setting, and practical use of the story. Seems well thought through as well.

Thank you! ^_^