The Seerstone Chronicles Part 1

The Portals

He looked at me in confusion, and pulled out a white stone from his pocket. It seemed to be glowing faintly. He looked from it to me, confused.

"You could not be...?" he stepped closer to me, and the stone glowed brighter. I backed up some more and it grew fainter again. I hit the chain link fence, running out of room to back away. Had I traded one danger for another? I eyed the guns on the ground, about six feet from me. Fight or run? Guns hadn't helped Chaz... and I hardly knew how to use them.

"You are the seer?" He asked, sounding confused. He still held the stone up in the air in front of him, looking as though he was struggling to process.

"I am not a Seer, whatever that is." I said, shaking my head quickly. "Thank you for your help, but I need to go..."

I turned to run off down the alleyway, but he stepped forward and grabbed me in a strong grip, faster than I thought possible. I gasped as he pulled me to a stop.

"Let me go!" I demanded, trying to pull free.

"Are you the Seer?!" He demanded, looking conflicted. The stone in his other hand began shining now, rather than glowing. It was almost shining like a beacon.

"I am Ciara- Ciara Folk." I said, shaking my head. "I'm not whatever you think I am!"

"Faulk?" He repeated, eyes widening.

"Let me go!" I demanded. A car drove by on the street below, not seeing my predicament in the shadows, and I began to panic. Surely people heard the gunshots earlier?! Surely people would come running...

"You ...must be the Seer, there is no other conclusion to make..." He said, shaking his head. He looked conflicted and confused. "You need to come with me."

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" I snapped. I tried to shake my arm away, but he was incredibly strong.

"I beg you- please, listen-" he pled, holding onto me tightly. "I need to do this, I need to take you with me."

"Like hell you do!" Another car passed, "There was a gun shot, and if I scream people will come running!" I warned, almost believing it myself. "They're probably coming already. I'll scream until you let me go! I will!"

"Please do not." He said, reaching into his pouch at his side. He pulled out a clear crystal orb and placed it onto the ground, still pulling on my arm as I struggled. I felt like an upset toddler struggling in the grip of a parent. Only this man was not my father... he was some strange warrior from a LARP session gone wrong. The orb rolled into a puddle, and I gasped in a breath to scream.

Slowly light began to pool out into the muddy, dirty water. I exhaled loudly, forgetting I was about to scream as water poured out in a spiral across the concrete, white and stunning and liquid. It was no longer a black scum puddle, despite the clear stain in my shirt. I temporarily stopped struggling, shocked at what I saw. It spread out and swirled until it was bigger than a large manhole cover, lighting up my face and the face of my angel man brightly.

"You were meant to follow me." He said softly, seeing the awe in my face.

He pulled me towards the light and I resisted as the center of the swirling light began to bend inwards. It was bending into the cement itself, like there was suddenly a growing cyclone of glowing white water, and the cement had become liquid somehow around it.

"No!" I shook my head as he attempted to lead me after him into the water. "No, no no! Please, no!"

He tugged me in one swift movement, pulling me into his arms roughly and lifting me off my feet and over his shoulder. I might as well have been a rag doll.

"I am sorry!" He said, quite contrarily to his actions as he jumped with me into the white glowing cyclone that kept growing.

I struggled and cried out as the world flashed a bright blinding white, then turned suddenly pitch black. It was suddenly chilly and the air felt heavy.

I felt him put me down as he swayed, obviously as disoriented as I was. I moved to clamber away, and he caught my lower arm desperately. His grip was like iron.

"Where am I?!" I gasped. My voice echoed at least three times in the dark expanse, and he pulled me closer.

Am I... am I... am I...

"You are in the void." He whispered, pulling me closer again- more than I was comfortable with. "And there are things here, so please do not shout and announce our presence just yet."

As my eyes slowly began to adjust, I saw that there was a pedestal some distance away, with a glowing orb. It was a black orb, similar to the white one that he had thrown down, but glowed an eery green glow. My angel captor bent down and picked up a round white stone at our feet, and I saw it was the orb he had thrown down earlier. It was no longer glowing, but as he pocketed it my angel abductor began to glow faintly again, as he had done in the alleyway.

"The portal is being held open." He said, looking at the black orb anxiously. "I do not know how time differs from your world to ours, so we must hurry."

I saw a green glow faint behind the pedestal on the ground... but the ground was rippling.  It was water, I realized- a dark and barely visible water in the darkness. We must be on some kind of black rocked miniature island... in some kind of dark cavern lake maybe? Surrounded by eery water as black as the rock, except for where something seemed to glow underneath it, beyond the pedestal. It was creepy.

"Take me back." I said, refusing to move when he began to tow me towards the pedestal. I planted my feet. "Take me back home!"

My voice echoed again, 'home...home...home...'

He shushed me, looking around us anxiously. I saw nothing.

"I cannot take you back, I need you to come with me." He hissed with frustration, hand tight in my arm. "I do not have the time to explain. My men and I are trapped- we will all surely die without your help, and we already traveled deep into Maerve at great expense and personal loss to get this far. I have been through the void three times already to find you!"

I saw the desperation on his face. The way he looked at me as though willing me to see the situation for what it was. But I shook my head, my heart racing.

"I don't want to go with you anywhere, take me back right now!" I snapped. Tears began to flow from my eyes as the panic turned to dismay.

He looked agonized as he realized I was crying. He looked from me and back to the orb. Its green light was beginning to dim. He bowed his head for a long moment, thinking deeply. Would he listen? Would he return me home? He seemed genuinely sorry.

"I ...am truly sorry." He admitted, shaking his head in finality. "But I cannot doom my people to destruction. I cannot damn the prophecy."

I opened my mouth to yell at him, saying he had the wrong girl, but my air left me with a woosh. He grabbed me and football ran with me thrown over his metal clad shoulder, up to the orb. I kicked and screamed, and out of the water green little specks of light began to rise as my screams echoed wildly. To my surprise and dismay, he ran past the strange glowing orb and jumped into the water, where the faint green glow emanated from somewhere below its surface. The water swallowed us up, drowning my cries.

He tried to swim down towards the green light below, and I struggled to get free of his grip. The thick dark water surrounded me, and as I made a final effort I grabbed the hand that was near my neck and I bit it hard. He thrashed in surprise, and I saw air leave his mouth as he attempted to cry out in pain. It was not enough, though, and he pulled me down deep towards the shrinking light.

Would the light go out? As we grew nearer, I struggled from lack of air. Eventually I stopped struggling at all, and my vision grew dim while my lungs screamed at me. I blacked out.