Chapter 6 | Redirected
Upon materializing out of the portal, Ashley stumbled forward a little. Chris, whom had his vertigo more under control than her, grabbed hold of her to keep her from falling. Though it had been years since Chris had gone through a magical portal, his rustiness was better than her lack of experience.
She steadied herself, then took a look around at her surroundings. There were no tall pillars, marble floors, or servants as they were expecting. Instead, the stench of a thousand year's filth filled a dark cavern.
"I thought Ricky said that portal was supposed to take us straight through to the palace. Unless you guys have a much different definition of a palace." Ashley stated.
"No," Chris responded wearily, "This isn't the palace. It's the Badlands. I don't know why the portal took us out here, but we better get moving. There's a reason they call it the Badlands."
"Dare I ask... Why?" She questioned as they began to move.
He opened his mouth to reply, only to be cut off by her scream. Ashley jumped back when a hairless misshapen creature leaped down in front of them. Chris instinctively put his arm over her, though he had no plan on how to deal with it. Suddenly, from the darkness, the creature's back was met with a knife. It released a shriek as a manicured hand pulled the blade back out.
"That's why." Chris muttered to her. He dropped his arm from in front of her, but did not ease up. "What are you doing here?"
Out of the shadows, their savor stepped forward. Her red hair was pulled into pigtails, framing her sharp face. She gawked at his behavior, spilling over with sass as she spoke, ""What are you doing here?" Um, how about a "Oh, hey, Kylie, nice to see you for the first time in six years, thanks for saving my life within the first two seconds I came back to Salem"!"
Ashley giggled, "I like her."
Kylie straightened her back and dawned a proud smile, "Thank you! At least one of you appreciates me." She shot daggers with her eyes at Chris.
He sighed, "I'm sorry. I'm just a little on edge. Thank you, Kylie. What are you going in the Badlands? Alone?"
She twirled the knife around and stuck it in her waistband. Kylie tightened her pigtails as she explained, "I didn't come alone. The king sent Nikki and I to get some things from the troll market, but the normal path was blocked off. So we split up to try to find a new way. What are you doing here? And care to introduce the pretty lady?"
"This is Ashley. She's a friend of mine from the mortal world. I took her with me because she's a good fighter and I didn't want to make the journey back on my own. Ricky told me the portal in the Scranton crypts lead straight to the palace. It brought us out here, though."
Alarm washed over her face. Kylie quickly started to walk the direction they came, muttering, "No, no, no. That's impossible." She earned a look of horror when she saw the glowing portal. She turned back to the others, "This portal was deactivated centuries ago. It shouldn't be redirecting from the mortal world anyways."
"Is that bad? That it's going back to earth?" Ashley asked.
"Very bad." Chris replied. "That thing Kylie killed, it's nothing compared to what else is in the badlands. If any of those creatures got loose on earth, humans wouldn't stand a chance."
She looked up at him worriedly, "You can deactivate it again, though, right?"
"Whomever reactivated it will just turn it on again." He said.
