Abigail Foley - Bryce Dallas Howard
Neal Kepner - Christian Bale
Brady Hutton - Taylor Lautner
Sloan Abshire - Catarina Scorsone
Cole Atkins - Robbie Sheehan
Lianna Westan - Ashley Greene
Veronica Compton - Jessica Capshaw
The sun was beginning to set as Abigail looked out of the small window of Neal’s apartment, Brady berkata he would meet them at the perpustakaan in two days’ time, news that Abigail met with a mixture of both anxiety and an overriding excitement; this was the type of adventure she’d always dreamed of, right? She turned away from the window to see Neal replying to Brady that they’d be there as arranged and that he better have some good explanations to his earlier emails. Abigail couldn’t help but like this new, tougher side to Neal that she hadn’t really gotten to see before and was glad that it was someone like him that she’d been pulled into this journey with.
“Well, might as well make myself useful. Pass over those coffee cups will you?” Abigail asked as she made her way over to the tiny kitchen, taking the cups off Neal as she went. “Thank you” she berkata cheerfully.
“You know anda don’t have to do that, right? Just leave them…I can do them later.” Neal yawned, he felt bad that a guest was offering to clean up, even one that wasn’t strictly invited. He smiled.
“I have drank about half of your entire coffee supply in just one day, so I figure it’s the least I can do” she answered him. She stopped then and thought to herself how much had happened in this one day; was it really only this morning that her and Neal were squabbling over a perpustakaan book? It seemed like forever ago, and now here they were on the edge of a war in a world a guy she’d only just met had thought was fictional. In fairness, she’d been carrying around that artikel of his for so long now that they might as well have known each other for years. She laughed to herself which made Neal look over, one eyebrow raised, Abigail just shook her head.
“I should be going soon” she berkata when she’d finished with the washing up “Don’t worry, I can walk myself home” she winked at him.
Neal pushed himself up from the meja tulis, meja – “Nah, I need to stretch my legs anyway, I can come with you.”
“What a gentleman” Abigail smirked.
They both grabbed their coats from the door and headed out. When they reached Abigail’s house it was pretty dark and she wondered if he’d be alright walking back on his own.
“You good with walking back oleh yourself? I mean, you’re not afraid of the dark, are you?” she asked sarcastically, she loved teasing him.
“Hah, please” Neal scoffed and they both laughed.
“Well, I’ll see anda at the perpustakaan in two days then…” Abigail told him.
“You will.” He replied “And wear something pretty, we are meeting a soldier, after all.” And with a wink Abigail watched as he walked off.
**
Abigail was awkwardly leaning against a pillar outside the perpustakaan two days later, waiting for Neal, and Brady, of course. She couldn’t sleep last night, not helped in part oleh nerves about today. What she couldn’t work out was whether they were down to finding out lebih about this war they had been dragged in to, atau because she knew she would be seeing Neal again; it had only been one full hari since she’d last seen him but she’d been missing him and didn’t really mind admitting it.
She was beginning to think it was silly of her not to ask for a foto of Brady so she knew who to look out for, when two people came in to view from across the road.
“I guess this guy looks..soldiery” she mumbled to herself as they got closer. “Who’s the girl, though?” Oh how she wished Neal would just hurry up and get here already, she wasn’t liking the thought of having to greet these two strangers on her own.
“You must be Neal’s girlfriend” Brady had appeared in front of her before she’d even realised, and she was caught slightly off guard. Girlfriend?
“Well, yeah, friend” she answered, shaking his hand.
“You’re Brady” it wasn’t really a question.
“And this is Sloan, my friend from Alius; she helped me to get here.” He said, inclining his head toward Sloan who, for some reason, looked disappointed.
“Hi” Abigail turned to her.
“Where’s Neal?” Sloan snapped impatiently while Brady just laughed. Abigail found this slightly rude but tried not to let her annoyance show.
“He should be here any time now” she answered, making a point of smiling, she wanted to make a good first impression even if no one else did.
Just then Neal walked up the street, his face going lebih wary as he noticed that Brady was already there, that left him with no time to properly catch up with Abigail while they waited. He sighed as Sloan skipped up to him.
“Hi Neal, I’m Sloan Abshire, Brady’s friend from Alius.” Abigail noticed that she was being much friendlier with Neal than she was with her, and no one could ignore the way she kept fluttering her eyelashes at him.
Is she flirting with my–…Neal? She thought incredulously feeling her face flush with anger. It wasn’t helping that Brady was laughing while they watched Sloan and Neal walk back over to them, Sloan with her arm linked in Neal’s.
“Hey, Abi!” Neal smiled at her as they all gathered back together on the perpustakaan steps.
“Hiya Kepner!” she replied, pleased when it looked as though their closeness had annoyed Sloan.
“I’m Brady.” The soldier extended his hand which Neal shook. “I’m pleased to finally meet you.” Neal nodded his head in return, still feeling unsure about whether to trust these newcomers. It went quiet for a while with no one really knowing what to say and Abigail could sense Sloan’s glare on her. Well, I was here first, she thought, if Sloan wants to get her claws in to Neal, she’ll have to get past me. Then she couldn’t believe she was getting so jealous of someone who didn’t even belong in this world; she scoffed.
Neal was the first to break the silence, either oblivious to the tension around him atau purposefully choosing to ignore it.
“So, Brady, this war anda were talking abou-“
“Whoa, not so loud, we can’t have any randomer knowing about this.” Brady interrupted, making Neal click his tongue impatiently and Sloan shoot a pointed look at Abigail.
“Fine! Shall we go inside then?” Neal glanced around at the group before turning around and leading the way in to the library, with Abigail and Sloan squeezed up deliberately close to him on either side.
"So", Neal berkata as the four of them got to a quiet corner in the library, talking quietly. "What is this world of yous?"
Sloan sighed. "It's a long story, handsome."
Abigail glared at her angrily, but stayed silent.
Brady turned to look at Abigail and Neal and started telling them the story of Alius, the people that lived there, the threats that used to live there. The threats that were now coming back.
"And what do anda need us for?" Abigail asked. "To fight? Because that is-"
"You will learn how to fight", Brady interrupted. "Don't worry, we'll teach you. And it's not only you, we've got lebih of anda people to contact."
"Who?" Neal asked. "How do anda decide these people?"
Sloan sighed again. "It's kind of confidential, and we're not sure of that either, but... We... okay, one hari we snuck into the city hall where the elders live."
"Why?" Abigail asked.
"It was a sunday. We were bored", Brady said. "That's beside the point. Anyway, we found this bookand it had a lot of names in it, including yours."
Neal raised his eyebrows. "And anda just decided to google my name?"
Sloan nodded. "Yeah, actually. We googled all of them and found anda all, from the other world."
"How do anda get to this world?" Abigail asked. "Do anda have like a portal?"
"Yes", Sloan berkata it like it was obvious.
"Well, of course, silly me", Abigial snorted in sarcasm.
Neal eyed them in confusion, then turned to look at Brady. "And why do anda think we're meant to do your battles?"
"Not do our battles", Brady said. "Help us."
"Why?" Abigail asked. "Why should we help you? What do we get out of it? Why us?"
"You ask a lot of pertanyaan we can't really answer, ginger", Sloan muttered.
"Do anda wanna take this outside?" Abigail snapped, causing both the girls to stand up and glare at each other angrily.
Neal shot a confused look at Brady, who simply mouthed: "Girls."
"Should we focus?" Neal asked, causing Abigail to turn to look at him.
"Yeah", she sighed, sitting back down.
"So, when will anda two come with us?" Brady asked.
"Where?" Neal asked.
"To Alius", Sloan said. "Obviously."
At this Abigail grabbed onto Neal's hand and said: "We'll be right back." She begun to walk him towards the perpustakaan cafeteria.
"What?" Neal asked.
"We are seriously not going off with those two. We barely know them. They might be some crazy stalkers", Abigail snapped.
"What, like you?" Neal snapped back, which made Abigail's eyes widen. Neal sighed, shaking his head.
"No, I didn't mean it like that", he rushed to say.
"Neal, I don't know... I don't know why any of this is happening, but if I've learned anything in my life it's that anda can't trust people you've just met. Let's make them tampil us this portal before we do anything else. Please." she held onto his arm, which made both of their hearts beat faster.
Neal nodded. "If that's what anda want."
"It is", Abigail assured him. "Besides, if it's a trap, I..", she sighed. "I don't want anda to get hurt."
Neal smiled at her and then offered his free hand. "Shall we go?"
"Yes", Abigail smiled, grabbing onto his hand and so they walked back to Brady and Sloan.
Once they reached their meja again Neal decided to cut to the chase and so didn’t sit down. Abigail, following his example, stayed stood too while still holding onto his hand; She realised this but didn’t pull it away, finding comfort in being connected to someone as familiar as Neal when they were being thrust into a world of strangers. ‘Familiar’ she thought, she’d only known him a few days and already she felt like they’d been friends forever – maybe even lebih than friends… she snapped her mind back to the matter at hand, this wasn’t the time to get carried away.
“Well if you’re going to try and convince us to come back to Alius with anda you’re going to have to tampil us this Portal properly first, we’re not just going to walk blindly into some contraption on your say so” Neal was demanding of Brady as Abigail joined the conversation again,
“Mm, I cinta it when guys are assertive” Sloan purred, Abi ignored her.
“Or trust anda to take us where anda say you’re going to take us, we’re not stupid anda know” Sloan made a noise after Abi berkata that, it sounded like it meant ‘are anda sure about that?’ but Abigail didn’t respond, she also wasn’t childish – unlike some she could mention.
“Fine, we need your help, I guess that gives anda room to negotiate” Brady reasoned “But we do need to get moving if we’re going today”
“Let’s go then” and with that they all left the library, Abigail tightening her grip on Neal’s hand, and feeling lebih than a little pleased when he squeezed hers back.
The air had turned chilly oleh the time the group had gotten outside and Abigail pulled her jaket further around her. Brady, who had been leading, abruptly stopped and turned around to face the group, startling Sloan who had had to pull up short behind him. With a ‘tut’ she shook her head at him but the curve of her mouth berkata she’d done it in an endeared way, Abigail thought that if it had been her in front of Sloan she’d have received a lot worse than a ‘tut’.
“We need to head somewhere quiet: this portal isn’t something you’d see every hari and we wouldn’t want to be interrupted oleh some pedestrian, the poor idiot’d think someone’s spiked his drink”
Abigail secretly giggled at this and answered “there’s a park nearby with some rocks…”
“Oh wow, rocks” Sloan remarked sarcastically, “you do know this portal has to be big enough for humans, not ants”
“well if you’d let me finish, I was gonna say that behind the rocks is a cave, not a very large one, but big enough for humans” she shot a pointed look at Sloan, but she just shrugged
“come on then” and with that they headed off in the direction of the park, Neal leading this time.
When they all found the caves at the back of the park, Sloan, checking there was no one else around, drew something out of her pocket. It was a long, thin and see-through object cut to a point at the bottom. With a start Abigail realised it was a crystal, and an expensive looking one at that.
“This is the crystal from the elders – it controls the portals and anda can’t create one without it. Technically it should be locked away at the town hall right now, but rules are made to be broken right?” She looked down at Neal and Abigail’s interlocked hands and then up at Neal’s face before flashing a devilish grin at him and winking. Abi could only guess what that implied.
“Yes, thank anda Sloan we don’t have to tell them everything” Brady whispered in his friend’s direction
“Actually I’d rather anda did” Neal chipped in “but don’t worry, we won’t spill your criminal activities”
With that sorted the 4 of them moved further into the cave. It was only a small luar angkasa (about 7ft tall and 12ft wide) but they all fit inside comfortably. Abigail watched as Sloan moved towards the dinding and placed the tip of the crystal against the stone, explaining the method as she carried it out.
“You have to etch the number of vertical lines on the dinding with the crystal that match the number of people who are going through” Sloan then proceeded to carve 3 lines, pausing after the 3rd and flipping her head round to look at Neal
“Are anda sure anda want your girlfriend coming with us?” she teased “We could have a lot of fun over there on our own anda know” Neal looked taken aback, Abigail didn’t look amused at all. ‘The cheek’ she thought, and she also didn’t approve of keep being called Neal’s girlfriend so mockingly, she didn’t want him going off the idea before it even had a chance to happen.
“Erm, I can speak for myself thanks” Abi berkata out loud this time “and if anda don’t let me through God help me I’ll – “
“Alright ladies” Brady snapped impatiently “Sloan, stop messing around and finish the portal”
To Abi’s surprise the other girl did what she was told and drew one lebih line to complete the group. selanjutnya she begun to trace a lingkaran around the outside of the strokes. “Once this lingkaran is complete and all the lines are encased inside of it the portal will begin to open” She was about half way round the circumference now “so anda might want to step back”
Neal, Abigail and Brady all moved backwards until they were a few steps away from both the Portal and Sloan, then once the crystal reached the puncak, atas of the etching again, the lingkaran was full, and Sloan had fallen into place beside Brady, Abigail gazed open-mouthed as the Portal began to take shape. It was right what the soldier had berkata before, Abi thought, about it being like something anda wouldn’t see every hari – the outline of the gateway seemed to shimmy as the stone pealed back and a shiny, metallic liquid seemed to take its place. It ate away at the inside of the lingkaran like acid dissolving through metal until there was a gaping hole as tall as Abigail herself where there had once been nothing but rock and Sloan’s drawings. Abi could sense Neal at the side of her tensing up. All of this was so strange. The liquid door began to swirl, spiralling slowly at first but then frantically picking up speed like a tornado until all 4 of the group could feel themselves being blown backwards and nearly knocked off their feet. Then, with one last blast of air, the portal stopped spiralling, and the earth stopped feeling like it was being tipped off its axis, and everything was still.
“Wow” Abigail breathed; she felt dizzy and shaky with adrenaline, and at seeing the wild look in Neal’s eyes when he regarded her she could tell he felt the same. “That was…”
“Something else?” Brady offered “Just wait til anda step through it” He looked at Neal and Abi with a grin of anticipation, and they grinned back. What was the point of being anxious? This was an out-of-this-world experience – literally – and despite any concerns, they might as well roll with it.
“What are we waiting for then?!” Abigail inquired vigorously, and with that all four of them set off towards the portal; Sloan and Brady in front and Abi and Neal behind, hands linked together once again.
Whilst looking at the sight in front of her, Abigail tried to think of something that was lebih beautiful than what she was looking at at the very moment. She could not come up with anything.
The portal had taken them to Alius, alright. They were standing in a huge, large, endless, even, field full of green, fresh-looking rumput that almost looked good enough to eat. There were trees here and there, and farther back there was a field of corn. atau something else, Abigail didn't really know what grew in Alius. But she saw no people, nor did Neal.
"So this is Alius?" he asked, and Abigail wanted to slap him for sounding non-impressed. He let go of her hand and walked around a little. Abigail tried to focus on the view, but felt that when Neal was anxious, she could at least do the courtesy of paying him attention.
"What is it?" she asked.
"It's deserted", Neal said, turning to look at Brady and Sloan. "Where is everyone?"
"They're probably in the capital praying", Sloan berkata plainly. "The ones who still believe in the old gods go to the church every hari at this hour. Only the children and rebellious adults stay. There's a reason we picked this time to pick anda two up."
Brady nodded.
"You're not believers, then?" Abigail challenged them.
"We believe in what we see", Sloan said. "Now, let's go. We'll take anda to my home, no one will be there at this hour, and then we can go meet a few friends who will cinta to see you", she glanced at Neal while saying this, and suddenly Abigail got the urge to strangle her again.
Brady smiled in amusement as he watched Sloan begin to walk off, and then gestured for Neal and Abigail to follow, which they did.
"Is this a good idea?" Abigail whispered to Neal as they walked. "We barely know these people, and we certainly know nothing of this place. Neal..", she groaned.
"What, are anda getting cold feet now?" Neal asked in disbelief as he turned to look at her. "You're the one who's been excited from the start."
"Yes, well, now..", Abigail bit her lip. "I..I don't like them."
"You mean anda don't like Sloan", Neal smiled a little.
"No, that is not what I meant", Abigail snapped. "What, do anda like her?" she asked with wary eyes.
Neal smirked. "If you're jealous, I-"
"I am not jealous", Abigail smacked him on the arm, causing him to laugh even harder. "Shut up."
"Okay, sorry, sorry..", Neal stopped laughing after a moment. A part of Abigail was disappointed. She loved seeing his face light up when he laughed. Then anda could truly see how handsome he was.
"I'm not jealous", Abigail felt the need to say again. "She is very pretty, though, and I.."
"I think you're prettier", was the only thing Neal had to say to make Abigail shut up. She turned to look up at him in surprise.
Neal only smiled before resuming his walk to follow Sloan and Brady, and Abigail had no choice but to follow.
They reached Sloan's home, a large house, lebih like a mansion, with large rooms and staircases and a garden. In many ways it was a lot like their world, but Abigail did see that there were no machines that ran with electricity. Was this what Alius was? Just the same as earth, only a few centuries backwards?
"Make yourselves comfortable", Sloan berkata plainly as she strut around the house. It was clear that this girl did not lack confidence.
Suddenly they heard sounds from upstairs and a moment later a beautiful woman with golden hair, in her thirties, walked down the stairs with the same strut Sloan seemed to possess.
"Veronica", Sloan seemed surprised for the first time. "What are anda doing here?"
"Who is Veronica?" Neal whispered to Brady, who seemed tense.
"Sloan's father's sister. I'm not sure if we can trust her", Brady whispered back. "We didn't know she'd be here."
"Who are these?" Veronica gestured at Abigail and Neal, and Sloan groaned.
"Can anda just go to the damned church and pretend anda didn't see us?" she whined.
"I gave up on religion, I got bored", Veronica chuckled before turning to the guests. "I asked, who are you?"
Something about her tone made Abigail a little scared of her. Why? Should she be scared?
"They're my friends", Brady rushed to say. "No need to worry, Veronica."
The scary tone in Veronica's voice was gone as soon as it had come. "I'm not the kind of person who worries. I baked a lemon pie. Would anda guys want some?"
In the awkward moment no one had any choice but to nod.
Abigail eyed the lemon pie and couldn't help but to think that it looked almost the color of Veronica's hair.
Veronica, like her niece, was a very beautiful woman. She had bright blue eyes and her curly hair reached bit past her shoulders, no further. She had a light, casual tone when she told them of Alius and her ex-boyfriend who had tried to steal from her before she'd chopped his head off. Abigail wasn't sure if she was joking atau not.
"So, anda two", her piercing blue eyes turned to look at Neal and Abigail. "How are anda liking this new world?"
"What?" was all Neal had to blurt out.
Veronica smiled. "I dated this lovely lad once. He was charming, young, everything a girl could want. But I could only see him once a fortnight, he said. And he never told me why. He led me to have midnight swims with him at the moon lake, he taught me to make lemon pies here when no one was home. But it was essential that no one else ever saw him. anda know why?"
"Because he was from our world?" Abigail asked wearily.
"No", Veronica snorted. "He was a ghost. Some ghosts are so precious about their privacy. Why do they care? They're already dead", she berkata casually as she broke a slice of the pie for each of them. "But he told me about your world, and all the wonders there. He even offered to take me there. But he never did. Can't say I blame him. I hear someone found out there was a ghost around and started hunting him. All supernatural things are known to live in Alius, but only a few of them are accepted. That is mostly due to the elders."
Abigail suddenly felt happy they'd met this woman. She was telling them a lot lebih than Sloan atau Brady had. Or, well, at least lebih interesting things.
“You say ‘all supernatural things’ have been known to live here…” Neal began, “well what sort exactly? Are we talking zombies, demons, vampires..what?”
Veronica finished another bite of pie before answering, obviously choosing to ignore the lines of tension around Brady’s eyes. “No need to look so worried kid.” She answered Neal . “We’ll bother them before they bother us, anda don’t stumble across crazy supernatural creatures every hari of the week.”
Neal didn’t look convinced.
“Anyway, if anda really want to know the things that go ‘bump in the night’ around here, you’ll have to settle yourself in, there’s quite an extensive list.” Veronica continued.
Brady cleared his throat of pie before rushing to stop Veronica from her stories, something that disappointed Abigail a lot; just as we were getting somewhere too she thought.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea somehow, we don’t want to scare them off before they’ve even seen the place.” Brady started, with a tone to his voice that made Abigail think that arguing with him would be a really bad idea.
“We’ll want to know everything at some point though before we take part in this stupid war of yours.” Neal interrupted shooting a back-me-up type glance at Abigail who merely nodded, she had momentarily forgot about the impending war and had to keep telling herself that this adventure was lebih than just a way to get closer to Neal; it was important and she needed to remember that.
Sloan sighed then, which made Abi break away from her thoughts, back to the current situation. “Yeah, yeah, you’ll find out soon enough. In fact, I could take Neal for makan malam and let him in to all our secrets.” She winked at him from across the meja and Abi clenched her fists together on her lap.
“No, thank you.” Neal laughed. “I’d rather we all stayed together.” oleh ‘We’ he meant himself and Abigail, who relaxed oleh his side at his words.
“Whatever. Let’s just go tour some stuff. I’m bored.” Sloan snapped back impatiently, dropping her plate in to the sink with unnecessary force as she strutted towards the door, pausing just outside to see if any of them were following her.
“Well come on then, we haven’t got all day.” She muttered.
Brady rolled his eyes at her, something Abigail had noticed that he did often, and pushed himself up from his chair. Neal followed and offered his hand to Abigail who took it gratefully and smirked over at Sloan.
Neal turned to look at Sloan’s aunt. “Thanks for the pie, Veronica. It was nice to meet you.” Abigail nodded her head in agreement while Veronica just waved away their thanks with as much as a smile as she could manage with a mouthful of pie; shame a certain someone couldn’t be lebih like their aunt, Abigail thought.
“Oh, and anda didn’t see us here, remember?” Sloan cautioned to Veronica.
“See who, where?” she retorted in mock confusion before winking and turning for the stairs.
It was just the four of them left in the dapur now and Abigail wished they’d asked Veronica to tag along; after all, she was the first person from Alius that she was half way to liking.
“Shall we?” Brady asked, motioning them all out of the door. “We don’t have long left until the elders all get back from church.”
Sloan sighed. “Because that would be such a fun thing to explain to them; why we’re fussing around 2 rogue strangers from, well from wherever you’re from, and secretly recruiting them in a war that barely anyone knows anything about. Yeah, we really better get going.”
Stop blabbering on and lead the way then. Abigail wanted to say to her, wow this girl really knew how to wind her up.
“Anyway, it’s been too long since I’ve caught up with normal people, and I want to see Cole.” She continued, with a butterfly-feeling in her stomach that she couldn’t explain.
“That would be Cole Atkins, our friend.” Brady informed them. “Lianna will be there too.” He added with a smile. “They can’t wait to meet you.”
Sloan let out an exasperated sigh, as much as to say ‘they’re in for disappointment’, then led them all out of the house, making sure not to look at Abigail who’s hand was still linked in Neal’s.
As the four of them hurried down the still deserted streets of Alius towards the centre of town, to a air mancur that Brady had explained was their usual meeting place, Abigail couldn’t help but think about the look on Sloan’s face when she was talking about Cole. Sure, she probably didn’t mean for anyone to notice her softened expression at the sound of his name, but, well Abigail did notice it, and for some reason it made her believe that it wasn’t really Neal that Sloan was interested in at all. She giggled to herself as they passed a group of laughing children (who, thankfully, were too invested in their game to notice the strange additions to their world); maybe things were looking up after all.
"What are anda laughing about?" Neal asked, leaning closer as they walked.
Abigail blushed a little but shook her head quickly. "Nothing."
Neal gave her a smile before turning back to their companions and spoke up after a moment: "You think it's aman, brankas for us to walk around everyone like we're commoners? We don't exactly look like your folk."
"At this time it's safe", Sloan said, but Abigail noticed that she didn't use any flirtatious expressions and had withdrawn her compliments as well.
"And if one of the gloomy elders sees us?" Abigail challenged her.
"Then we'll run. atau say you're our cousins. Whatever. We'll dodge that bridge when we come to it."
"It's cross", Abigail said.
"I know, human girl. I say dodge. Got a problem with that?" Sloan asked plainly.
Neal smirked at this, and Abigail felt herself blush. She hoped desperately that Neal wasn't smirking because Sloan was super funny atau something..
"We're here", Brady announced after a moment of silence when they arrived to meet the spoken friends, Cole and Lianna.
Sloan walked over to Cole straight away, and Abigail could see him give her a smile before turning his suspicious eyes to their direction.
"Are these them?" Lianna broke the silence.
"Yeah, this is Neal and Abigail", Brady said. "And these are Cole and Lianna."
Neal and Abigail waved awkwardly. Cole and Lianna just stared at them in awe.
"What?" Abigail finally asked.
"Nothing, it's just kind of surreal finally meeting one of you", Lianna said. "Or, two of you." She seemed kind. A hell of a lot kinder than Sloan.
"Well, uh, it's nice to meet anda as well", Neal berkata awkwardly, walking a step closer, followed oleh Abigail, whose hand found his again.
Lianna noted the motion and gestured. "You're boyfriend and girlfriend, right?"
"No, just friends", Abigail berkata reluctantly.
"I think someone wants to be a bit lebih than that", Sloan muttered under her breath, and all Abigail could hope for was that Neal hadn't heard as well.
"Well, do tell us about your world", Cole urged. "What is it truly like? We haven't gone there that many times."
"They'll want to hear about our world. They met Veronica", Brady sighed.
Both Lianna and Cole made a face at this, and Abigail could not understand why.
"What's wrong with Veronica?" she asked.
"She's insane. Completely out of it", Cole said.
"No, she's not. She just speaks her mind and does what she wants. And yeah, she practices dark magic every once in a while. But it's no big deal."
The beautiful, angel-faced Veronica with the dimples on her face? Abigail could scarce believe it.
"Is she a witch?"
"You don't have to be a witch to do magic. She dated a warlock once and then mencuri his spellbook", Sloan shook her shoulders. "She does what she wants whenever she wants. I think that's admirable."
"More like crazy", Cole said.
"Shut up", Sloan hissed.
"Yeah, I think we really want to know lebih about this world", Neal said, and Abigail agreed.
Brady sighed. "Fine. Come with us", and so they followed the group again. This time they led them to a cave that was nearby a lake. Even though it was a hot day, there were no swimmers around.
"You guys don't swim here?" Abigail asked.
"That lake is haunted. A great sorcerer once drowned there, and now they say that if anda swim there, anda get pulled under and never get back up", Lianna said.
"Veronica swore she has been pulled under and that she kicked that sorcerer's sorry ass", Sloan said.
"I think we've agreed not to listen to anything Veronica says", Brady said. "So, what do anda want to know?" they all turned to look at Neal and Abigail.
“Well…” Abigail started, “Personally I’d like to know lebih about the supernatural creatures that we’ll be sharing our beds with, figuratively speaking, of course.”
Neal snorted. “You know we should probably start with something a bit lebih straight forward, like what the war’s all about and who we’re going up against, anda know, the important stuff. Myths and monsters can wait.”
Abigail felt herself going red and shot Neal a dark look; he’d made her sound childish and she didn’t like it.
“Neal, can I talk to anda for a minute?” She snapped as she got up and walked a few paces away from the group. Neal looked taken aback but followed her anyway.
“Did anda have to say it like that? anda made it sound like I was stupid atau something, like I didn’t know why we’re here.” She folded her arms in a defensive manner but couldn’t bring herself to be totally angry with him, not while he was standing this close.
“Sorry but we gotta get our priorities right.” Neal berkata as he too folded his arms across his chest. “And right now I’d say the priority is finding out about this war.”
Abigail could sense the others staring at their little confrontation and sighed at what a weird first impression they were probably having on Cole and Lianna.
“Fine, but just so anda know, I do know what I’m here for, but I’ll still get jawaban to my other pertanyaan to. And don’t act like you’re not interested in these creatures either.” She smirked at him a little as he said; “Yeah, yeah. But priorities.” And rolled her eyes as she followed him back to the meeting place where Sloan was looking at them with an amused expression on her face. We are never going to get on. Abigail thought in exasperation.
Lianna was the first to speak when they re-joined the group.
“It’s okay, anda know, it is a lot to take in, and you’ve only been here a day.” She started. “But it’s getting late and we better hurry up before the elders get back from church.” She gave Abi a reassuring smile before looking to Brady to continue.
At least Lianna seems nice. Abigail thought to herself. Much nicer than Sloan anyway. I guess that takes the number of likeable people in Alius up to the grand total of…two, including Veronica. Great.
Brady was busy explaining to Neal that the initiators of the war were two brothers who had a vendetta against the town’s people for beating them in the past, when Abi turned her attention back to the conversation.
“…So that’s why we think the war’s going to start again. I mean the brothers have had plenty of time to make a plan and update their strategies, so it’s only a matter of time.” Brady was saying. Lianna, Cole and Sloan all nodded in agreement.
“Why are we needed then?” Abigail asked.
“Like we’ve explained before, we’re not 100% sure why you’re needed.” Sloan cut in, sounding agitated. “But your names were in the book and now here anda are.”
“Oh, yeah, the book anda stole.” Abigail rolled her eyes and received an annoyed look from Sloan in return.
“Now, now ladies, let’s keep it calm.” Cole interrupted them. “Sloan’s right, you’re needed but we don’t exactly know why, but if anda want to gabung the good side -” He signalled around himself to his friends “-you can fight with us.” He winked at them and Abigail looked over at Neal to see his reaction which was a mixture of disbelief and anticipation.
The sky was turning a reddish purple colour overhead and Brady decided that it was time that they all cleared out of the square.
“We should be going now.” He told them. “There isn’t long left until the church closes.”
“Right, so will anda be sending us back through the portal?” Neal enquired.
“No time for that, Kid.” Sloan answered, “You’ll have to stay here for the night.” She produced a set of heavy looking rusty keys from her pocket and dangled them in the air between her and Neal.
“Courtesy of the elders. Well, it would be if they knew about it.” She laughed, and after seeing the confused looks on everyone’s faces she said; “Well I might have borrowed them from the city hall when we took the book and the crystal.” She confessed. “But obviously it’s a good job I did.” She smiled widely and high-fived Cole’s outstretched hand.
“What do they open?” Abigail asked.
“Well, duh, the old guest house that hasn’t been used in about a million years.” Sloan answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Lianna decided to expand a little; “We don’t get many visitors since the last war.” She explained.
“Right, well anda two…” Brady berkata pointing to Sloan and Cole “…take Neal and Abigail to the guest house, and me and Lianna will hang around the church for a bit in case any of the elders decide to leave early and we can hold them off a while.”
They all nodded consent and stood, Neal and Abigail standing awkwardly as the friends berkata goodnight.
“Come on then.” Cole called to Neal and Abigail, the mischievous look never really leaving his eyes. They all hurried to the bottom of the road where the guest house was situated, just outside of the square. Sloan unlocked the door and it let out a high pitched squeak which confirmed that it hadn’t been open in years.
Once they had all stepped inside Sloan threw the keys to Neal, who caught them easily before they fell to the floor, and then turned to leave.
“So, you’re just leaving us here?” Abigail asked.
“You’re not scared, are you?” Sloan mocked.
“You guys will be fine, just pick a room, sleep in it and we’ll come and find anda tomorrow, okay?” Cole went on. “Sweet dreams”. And with that him and Sloan turned and walked back out on to the street.
Neal locked the door after them before turning back to Abigail who was making her way up to the first floor where the bedrooms were.
“I don’t think you’re stupid.” He berkata when he had caught up to her. “It’s just we needed to-“
“You don’t have to explain, Neal.” Abi cut him off. “And I know I’m not stupid, we wouldn’t be here if I was, we’d still be back in that perpustakaan hunched over some old buku that were never gonna give us any answers.” She said, playfully nudging him in the ribs.
He smirked. “But we also wouldn’t be here if I had never used my wonderful powers of intuition to work out the right password.”
“Hah, lucky guess.” She teased back and they both started laughing as they reached the landing.
They stood for a while, both looking at each other but not quite knowing what to say, before Abigail cleared her throat.
“Night, then” She whispered.
“You know, if anda really are scared, I could sleep in your room tonight.” Neal started. “On the floor, obviously.” He rushed to finish.
“Cute. But no, I think I’ll be fine. And IF I was scared it’s only because anda didn’t let me find out about the supernatural monsters so now we’re basically entering in to the unknown.” Abigail couldn’t help but remind him about before.
“Well, if you’re sure.” Neal replied, shaking his head in amusement. “Let me know if anda change your mind.”
Abigail heard the hint in his tone and blushed a little.
“You’re not that irresistible, anda know. In fact, I don’t even like anda that much.” Of course this wasn’t true, and they both knew it.
He chuckled. “And that’s why anda carry my artikel around with anda 24/7.”
Abi blushed deeper, and because she couldn’t answer back to that, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed Neal on the cheek.
“Night, Kepner.” She smiled before letting herself in to the first unlocked room. She could sense him watching her as she walked away, and she was still smiling as she closed the door behind her.
Neal Kepner - Christian Bale
Brady Hutton - Taylor Lautner
Sloan Abshire - Catarina Scorsone
Cole Atkins - Robbie Sheehan
Lianna Westan - Ashley Greene
Veronica Compton - Jessica Capshaw
The sun was beginning to set as Abigail looked out of the small window of Neal’s apartment, Brady berkata he would meet them at the perpustakaan in two days’ time, news that Abigail met with a mixture of both anxiety and an overriding excitement; this was the type of adventure she’d always dreamed of, right? She turned away from the window to see Neal replying to Brady that they’d be there as arranged and that he better have some good explanations to his earlier emails. Abigail couldn’t help but like this new, tougher side to Neal that she hadn’t really gotten to see before and was glad that it was someone like him that she’d been pulled into this journey with.
“Well, might as well make myself useful. Pass over those coffee cups will you?” Abigail asked as she made her way over to the tiny kitchen, taking the cups off Neal as she went. “Thank you” she berkata cheerfully.
“You know anda don’t have to do that, right? Just leave them…I can do them later.” Neal yawned, he felt bad that a guest was offering to clean up, even one that wasn’t strictly invited. He smiled.
“I have drank about half of your entire coffee supply in just one day, so I figure it’s the least I can do” she answered him. She stopped then and thought to herself how much had happened in this one day; was it really only this morning that her and Neal were squabbling over a perpustakaan book? It seemed like forever ago, and now here they were on the edge of a war in a world a guy she’d only just met had thought was fictional. In fairness, she’d been carrying around that artikel of his for so long now that they might as well have known each other for years. She laughed to herself which made Neal look over, one eyebrow raised, Abigail just shook her head.
“I should be going soon” she berkata when she’d finished with the washing up “Don’t worry, I can walk myself home” she winked at him.
Neal pushed himself up from the meja tulis, meja – “Nah, I need to stretch my legs anyway, I can come with you.”
“What a gentleman” Abigail smirked.
They both grabbed their coats from the door and headed out. When they reached Abigail’s house it was pretty dark and she wondered if he’d be alright walking back on his own.
“You good with walking back oleh yourself? I mean, you’re not afraid of the dark, are you?” she asked sarcastically, she loved teasing him.
“Hah, please” Neal scoffed and they both laughed.
“Well, I’ll see anda at the perpustakaan in two days then…” Abigail told him.
“You will.” He replied “And wear something pretty, we are meeting a soldier, after all.” And with a wink Abigail watched as he walked off.
**
Abigail was awkwardly leaning against a pillar outside the perpustakaan two days later, waiting for Neal, and Brady, of course. She couldn’t sleep last night, not helped in part oleh nerves about today. What she couldn’t work out was whether they were down to finding out lebih about this war they had been dragged in to, atau because she knew she would be seeing Neal again; it had only been one full hari since she’d last seen him but she’d been missing him and didn’t really mind admitting it.
She was beginning to think it was silly of her not to ask for a foto of Brady so she knew who to look out for, when two people came in to view from across the road.
“I guess this guy looks..soldiery” she mumbled to herself as they got closer. “Who’s the girl, though?” Oh how she wished Neal would just hurry up and get here already, she wasn’t liking the thought of having to greet these two strangers on her own.
“You must be Neal’s girlfriend” Brady had appeared in front of her before she’d even realised, and she was caught slightly off guard. Girlfriend?
“Well, yeah, friend” she answered, shaking his hand.
“You’re Brady” it wasn’t really a question.
“And this is Sloan, my friend from Alius; she helped me to get here.” He said, inclining his head toward Sloan who, for some reason, looked disappointed.
“Hi” Abigail turned to her.
“Where’s Neal?” Sloan snapped impatiently while Brady just laughed. Abigail found this slightly rude but tried not to let her annoyance show.
“He should be here any time now” she answered, making a point of smiling, she wanted to make a good first impression even if no one else did.
Just then Neal walked up the street, his face going lebih wary as he noticed that Brady was already there, that left him with no time to properly catch up with Abigail while they waited. He sighed as Sloan skipped up to him.
“Hi Neal, I’m Sloan Abshire, Brady’s friend from Alius.” Abigail noticed that she was being much friendlier with Neal than she was with her, and no one could ignore the way she kept fluttering her eyelashes at him.
Is she flirting with my–…Neal? She thought incredulously feeling her face flush with anger. It wasn’t helping that Brady was laughing while they watched Sloan and Neal walk back over to them, Sloan with her arm linked in Neal’s.
“Hey, Abi!” Neal smiled at her as they all gathered back together on the perpustakaan steps.
“Hiya Kepner!” she replied, pleased when it looked as though their closeness had annoyed Sloan.
“I’m Brady.” The soldier extended his hand which Neal shook. “I’m pleased to finally meet you.” Neal nodded his head in return, still feeling unsure about whether to trust these newcomers. It went quiet for a while with no one really knowing what to say and Abigail could sense Sloan’s glare on her. Well, I was here first, she thought, if Sloan wants to get her claws in to Neal, she’ll have to get past me. Then she couldn’t believe she was getting so jealous of someone who didn’t even belong in this world; she scoffed.
Neal was the first to break the silence, either oblivious to the tension around him atau purposefully choosing to ignore it.
“So, Brady, this war anda were talking abou-“
“Whoa, not so loud, we can’t have any randomer knowing about this.” Brady interrupted, making Neal click his tongue impatiently and Sloan shoot a pointed look at Abigail.
“Fine! Shall we go inside then?” Neal glanced around at the group before turning around and leading the way in to the library, with Abigail and Sloan squeezed up deliberately close to him on either side.
"So", Neal berkata as the four of them got to a quiet corner in the library, talking quietly. "What is this world of yous?"
Sloan sighed. "It's a long story, handsome."
Abigail glared at her angrily, but stayed silent.
Brady turned to look at Abigail and Neal and started telling them the story of Alius, the people that lived there, the threats that used to live there. The threats that were now coming back.
"And what do anda need us for?" Abigail asked. "To fight? Because that is-"
"You will learn how to fight", Brady interrupted. "Don't worry, we'll teach you. And it's not only you, we've got lebih of anda people to contact."
"Who?" Neal asked. "How do anda decide these people?"
Sloan sighed again. "It's kind of confidential, and we're not sure of that either, but... We... okay, one hari we snuck into the city hall where the elders live."
"Why?" Abigail asked.
"It was a sunday. We were bored", Brady said. "That's beside the point. Anyway, we found this bookand it had a lot of names in it, including yours."
Neal raised his eyebrows. "And anda just decided to google my name?"
Sloan nodded. "Yeah, actually. We googled all of them and found anda all, from the other world."
"How do anda get to this world?" Abigail asked. "Do anda have like a portal?"
"Yes", Sloan berkata it like it was obvious.
"Well, of course, silly me", Abigial snorted in sarcasm.
Neal eyed them in confusion, then turned to look at Brady. "And why do anda think we're meant to do your battles?"
"Not do our battles", Brady said. "Help us."
"Why?" Abigail asked. "Why should we help you? What do we get out of it? Why us?"
"You ask a lot of pertanyaan we can't really answer, ginger", Sloan muttered.
"Do anda wanna take this outside?" Abigail snapped, causing both the girls to stand up and glare at each other angrily.
Neal shot a confused look at Brady, who simply mouthed: "Girls."
"Should we focus?" Neal asked, causing Abigail to turn to look at him.
"Yeah", she sighed, sitting back down.
"So, when will anda two come with us?" Brady asked.
"Where?" Neal asked.
"To Alius", Sloan said. "Obviously."
At this Abigail grabbed onto Neal's hand and said: "We'll be right back." She begun to walk him towards the perpustakaan cafeteria.
"What?" Neal asked.
"We are seriously not going off with those two. We barely know them. They might be some crazy stalkers", Abigail snapped.
"What, like you?" Neal snapped back, which made Abigail's eyes widen. Neal sighed, shaking his head.
"No, I didn't mean it like that", he rushed to say.
"Neal, I don't know... I don't know why any of this is happening, but if I've learned anything in my life it's that anda can't trust people you've just met. Let's make them tampil us this portal before we do anything else. Please." she held onto his arm, which made both of their hearts beat faster.
Neal nodded. "If that's what anda want."
"It is", Abigail assured him. "Besides, if it's a trap, I..", she sighed. "I don't want anda to get hurt."
Neal smiled at her and then offered his free hand. "Shall we go?"
"Yes", Abigail smiled, grabbing onto his hand and so they walked back to Brady and Sloan.
Once they reached their meja again Neal decided to cut to the chase and so didn’t sit down. Abigail, following his example, stayed stood too while still holding onto his hand; She realised this but didn’t pull it away, finding comfort in being connected to someone as familiar as Neal when they were being thrust into a world of strangers. ‘Familiar’ she thought, she’d only known him a few days and already she felt like they’d been friends forever – maybe even lebih than friends… she snapped her mind back to the matter at hand, this wasn’t the time to get carried away.
“Well if you’re going to try and convince us to come back to Alius with anda you’re going to have to tampil us this Portal properly first, we’re not just going to walk blindly into some contraption on your say so” Neal was demanding of Brady as Abigail joined the conversation again,
“Mm, I cinta it when guys are assertive” Sloan purred, Abi ignored her.
“Or trust anda to take us where anda say you’re going to take us, we’re not stupid anda know” Sloan made a noise after Abi berkata that, it sounded like it meant ‘are anda sure about that?’ but Abigail didn’t respond, she also wasn’t childish – unlike some she could mention.
“Fine, we need your help, I guess that gives anda room to negotiate” Brady reasoned “But we do need to get moving if we’re going today”
“Let’s go then” and with that they all left the library, Abigail tightening her grip on Neal’s hand, and feeling lebih than a little pleased when he squeezed hers back.
The air had turned chilly oleh the time the group had gotten outside and Abigail pulled her jaket further around her. Brady, who had been leading, abruptly stopped and turned around to face the group, startling Sloan who had had to pull up short behind him. With a ‘tut’ she shook her head at him but the curve of her mouth berkata she’d done it in an endeared way, Abigail thought that if it had been her in front of Sloan she’d have received a lot worse than a ‘tut’.
“We need to head somewhere quiet: this portal isn’t something you’d see every hari and we wouldn’t want to be interrupted oleh some pedestrian, the poor idiot’d think someone’s spiked his drink”
Abigail secretly giggled at this and answered “there’s a park nearby with some rocks…”
“Oh wow, rocks” Sloan remarked sarcastically, “you do know this portal has to be big enough for humans, not ants”
“well if you’d let me finish, I was gonna say that behind the rocks is a cave, not a very large one, but big enough for humans” she shot a pointed look at Sloan, but she just shrugged
“come on then” and with that they headed off in the direction of the park, Neal leading this time.
When they all found the caves at the back of the park, Sloan, checking there was no one else around, drew something out of her pocket. It was a long, thin and see-through object cut to a point at the bottom. With a start Abigail realised it was a crystal, and an expensive looking one at that.
“This is the crystal from the elders – it controls the portals and anda can’t create one without it. Technically it should be locked away at the town hall right now, but rules are made to be broken right?” She looked down at Neal and Abigail’s interlocked hands and then up at Neal’s face before flashing a devilish grin at him and winking. Abi could only guess what that implied.
“Yes, thank anda Sloan we don’t have to tell them everything” Brady whispered in his friend’s direction
“Actually I’d rather anda did” Neal chipped in “but don’t worry, we won’t spill your criminal activities”
With that sorted the 4 of them moved further into the cave. It was only a small luar angkasa (about 7ft tall and 12ft wide) but they all fit inside comfortably. Abigail watched as Sloan moved towards the dinding and placed the tip of the crystal against the stone, explaining the method as she carried it out.
“You have to etch the number of vertical lines on the dinding with the crystal that match the number of people who are going through” Sloan then proceeded to carve 3 lines, pausing after the 3rd and flipping her head round to look at Neal
“Are anda sure anda want your girlfriend coming with us?” she teased “We could have a lot of fun over there on our own anda know” Neal looked taken aback, Abigail didn’t look amused at all. ‘The cheek’ she thought, and she also didn’t approve of keep being called Neal’s girlfriend so mockingly, she didn’t want him going off the idea before it even had a chance to happen.
“Erm, I can speak for myself thanks” Abi berkata out loud this time “and if anda don’t let me through God help me I’ll – “
“Alright ladies” Brady snapped impatiently “Sloan, stop messing around and finish the portal”
To Abi’s surprise the other girl did what she was told and drew one lebih line to complete the group. selanjutnya she begun to trace a lingkaran around the outside of the strokes. “Once this lingkaran is complete and all the lines are encased inside of it the portal will begin to open” She was about half way round the circumference now “so anda might want to step back”
Neal, Abigail and Brady all moved backwards until they were a few steps away from both the Portal and Sloan, then once the crystal reached the puncak, atas of the etching again, the lingkaran was full, and Sloan had fallen into place beside Brady, Abigail gazed open-mouthed as the Portal began to take shape. It was right what the soldier had berkata before, Abi thought, about it being like something anda wouldn’t see every hari – the outline of the gateway seemed to shimmy as the stone pealed back and a shiny, metallic liquid seemed to take its place. It ate away at the inside of the lingkaran like acid dissolving through metal until there was a gaping hole as tall as Abigail herself where there had once been nothing but rock and Sloan’s drawings. Abi could sense Neal at the side of her tensing up. All of this was so strange. The liquid door began to swirl, spiralling slowly at first but then frantically picking up speed like a tornado until all 4 of the group could feel themselves being blown backwards and nearly knocked off their feet. Then, with one last blast of air, the portal stopped spiralling, and the earth stopped feeling like it was being tipped off its axis, and everything was still.
“Wow” Abigail breathed; she felt dizzy and shaky with adrenaline, and at seeing the wild look in Neal’s eyes when he regarded her she could tell he felt the same. “That was…”
“Something else?” Brady offered “Just wait til anda step through it” He looked at Neal and Abi with a grin of anticipation, and they grinned back. What was the point of being anxious? This was an out-of-this-world experience – literally – and despite any concerns, they might as well roll with it.
“What are we waiting for then?!” Abigail inquired vigorously, and with that all four of them set off towards the portal; Sloan and Brady in front and Abi and Neal behind, hands linked together once again.
Whilst looking at the sight in front of her, Abigail tried to think of something that was lebih beautiful than what she was looking at at the very moment. She could not come up with anything.
The portal had taken them to Alius, alright. They were standing in a huge, large, endless, even, field full of green, fresh-looking rumput that almost looked good enough to eat. There were trees here and there, and farther back there was a field of corn. atau something else, Abigail didn't really know what grew in Alius. But she saw no people, nor did Neal.
"So this is Alius?" he asked, and Abigail wanted to slap him for sounding non-impressed. He let go of her hand and walked around a little. Abigail tried to focus on the view, but felt that when Neal was anxious, she could at least do the courtesy of paying him attention.
"What is it?" she asked.
"It's deserted", Neal said, turning to look at Brady and Sloan. "Where is everyone?"
"They're probably in the capital praying", Sloan berkata plainly. "The ones who still believe in the old gods go to the church every hari at this hour. Only the children and rebellious adults stay. There's a reason we picked this time to pick anda two up."
Brady nodded.
"You're not believers, then?" Abigail challenged them.
"We believe in what we see", Sloan said. "Now, let's go. We'll take anda to my home, no one will be there at this hour, and then we can go meet a few friends who will cinta to see you", she glanced at Neal while saying this, and suddenly Abigail got the urge to strangle her again.
Brady smiled in amusement as he watched Sloan begin to walk off, and then gestured for Neal and Abigail to follow, which they did.
"Is this a good idea?" Abigail whispered to Neal as they walked. "We barely know these people, and we certainly know nothing of this place. Neal..", she groaned.
"What, are anda getting cold feet now?" Neal asked in disbelief as he turned to look at her. "You're the one who's been excited from the start."
"Yes, well, now..", Abigail bit her lip. "I..I don't like them."
"You mean anda don't like Sloan", Neal smiled a little.
"No, that is not what I meant", Abigail snapped. "What, do anda like her?" she asked with wary eyes.
Neal smirked. "If you're jealous, I-"
"I am not jealous", Abigail smacked him on the arm, causing him to laugh even harder. "Shut up."
"Okay, sorry, sorry..", Neal stopped laughing after a moment. A part of Abigail was disappointed. She loved seeing his face light up when he laughed. Then anda could truly see how handsome he was.
"I'm not jealous", Abigail felt the need to say again. "She is very pretty, though, and I.."
"I think you're prettier", was the only thing Neal had to say to make Abigail shut up. She turned to look up at him in surprise.
Neal only smiled before resuming his walk to follow Sloan and Brady, and Abigail had no choice but to follow.
They reached Sloan's home, a large house, lebih like a mansion, with large rooms and staircases and a garden. In many ways it was a lot like their world, but Abigail did see that there were no machines that ran with electricity. Was this what Alius was? Just the same as earth, only a few centuries backwards?
"Make yourselves comfortable", Sloan berkata plainly as she strut around the house. It was clear that this girl did not lack confidence.
Suddenly they heard sounds from upstairs and a moment later a beautiful woman with golden hair, in her thirties, walked down the stairs with the same strut Sloan seemed to possess.
"Veronica", Sloan seemed surprised for the first time. "What are anda doing here?"
"Who is Veronica?" Neal whispered to Brady, who seemed tense.
"Sloan's father's sister. I'm not sure if we can trust her", Brady whispered back. "We didn't know she'd be here."
"Who are these?" Veronica gestured at Abigail and Neal, and Sloan groaned.
"Can anda just go to the damned church and pretend anda didn't see us?" she whined.
"I gave up on religion, I got bored", Veronica chuckled before turning to the guests. "I asked, who are you?"
Something about her tone made Abigail a little scared of her. Why? Should she be scared?
"They're my friends", Brady rushed to say. "No need to worry, Veronica."
The scary tone in Veronica's voice was gone as soon as it had come. "I'm not the kind of person who worries. I baked a lemon pie. Would anda guys want some?"
In the awkward moment no one had any choice but to nod.
Abigail eyed the lemon pie and couldn't help but to think that it looked almost the color of Veronica's hair.
Veronica, like her niece, was a very beautiful woman. She had bright blue eyes and her curly hair reached bit past her shoulders, no further. She had a light, casual tone when she told them of Alius and her ex-boyfriend who had tried to steal from her before she'd chopped his head off. Abigail wasn't sure if she was joking atau not.
"So, anda two", her piercing blue eyes turned to look at Neal and Abigail. "How are anda liking this new world?"
"What?" was all Neal had to blurt out.
Veronica smiled. "I dated this lovely lad once. He was charming, young, everything a girl could want. But I could only see him once a fortnight, he said. And he never told me why. He led me to have midnight swims with him at the moon lake, he taught me to make lemon pies here when no one was home. But it was essential that no one else ever saw him. anda know why?"
"Because he was from our world?" Abigail asked wearily.
"No", Veronica snorted. "He was a ghost. Some ghosts are so precious about their privacy. Why do they care? They're already dead", she berkata casually as she broke a slice of the pie for each of them. "But he told me about your world, and all the wonders there. He even offered to take me there. But he never did. Can't say I blame him. I hear someone found out there was a ghost around and started hunting him. All supernatural things are known to live in Alius, but only a few of them are accepted. That is mostly due to the elders."
Abigail suddenly felt happy they'd met this woman. She was telling them a lot lebih than Sloan atau Brady had. Or, well, at least lebih interesting things.
“You say ‘all supernatural things’ have been known to live here…” Neal began, “well what sort exactly? Are we talking zombies, demons, vampires..what?”
Veronica finished another bite of pie before answering, obviously choosing to ignore the lines of tension around Brady’s eyes. “No need to look so worried kid.” She answered Neal . “We’ll bother them before they bother us, anda don’t stumble across crazy supernatural creatures every hari of the week.”
Neal didn’t look convinced.
“Anyway, if anda really want to know the things that go ‘bump in the night’ around here, you’ll have to settle yourself in, there’s quite an extensive list.” Veronica continued.
Brady cleared his throat of pie before rushing to stop Veronica from her stories, something that disappointed Abigail a lot; just as we were getting somewhere too she thought.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea somehow, we don’t want to scare them off before they’ve even seen the place.” Brady started, with a tone to his voice that made Abigail think that arguing with him would be a really bad idea.
“We’ll want to know everything at some point though before we take part in this stupid war of yours.” Neal interrupted shooting a back-me-up type glance at Abigail who merely nodded, she had momentarily forgot about the impending war and had to keep telling herself that this adventure was lebih than just a way to get closer to Neal; it was important and she needed to remember that.
Sloan sighed then, which made Abi break away from her thoughts, back to the current situation. “Yeah, yeah, you’ll find out soon enough. In fact, I could take Neal for makan malam and let him in to all our secrets.” She winked at him from across the meja and Abi clenched her fists together on her lap.
“No, thank you.” Neal laughed. “I’d rather we all stayed together.” oleh ‘We’ he meant himself and Abigail, who relaxed oleh his side at his words.
“Whatever. Let’s just go tour some stuff. I’m bored.” Sloan snapped back impatiently, dropping her plate in to the sink with unnecessary force as she strutted towards the door, pausing just outside to see if any of them were following her.
“Well come on then, we haven’t got all day.” She muttered.
Brady rolled his eyes at her, something Abigail had noticed that he did often, and pushed himself up from his chair. Neal followed and offered his hand to Abigail who took it gratefully and smirked over at Sloan.
Neal turned to look at Sloan’s aunt. “Thanks for the pie, Veronica. It was nice to meet you.” Abigail nodded her head in agreement while Veronica just waved away their thanks with as much as a smile as she could manage with a mouthful of pie; shame a certain someone couldn’t be lebih like their aunt, Abigail thought.
“Oh, and anda didn’t see us here, remember?” Sloan cautioned to Veronica.
“See who, where?” she retorted in mock confusion before winking and turning for the stairs.
It was just the four of them left in the dapur now and Abigail wished they’d asked Veronica to tag along; after all, she was the first person from Alius that she was half way to liking.
“Shall we?” Brady asked, motioning them all out of the door. “We don’t have long left until the elders all get back from church.”
Sloan sighed. “Because that would be such a fun thing to explain to them; why we’re fussing around 2 rogue strangers from, well from wherever you’re from, and secretly recruiting them in a war that barely anyone knows anything about. Yeah, we really better get going.”
Stop blabbering on and lead the way then. Abigail wanted to say to her, wow this girl really knew how to wind her up.
“Anyway, it’s been too long since I’ve caught up with normal people, and I want to see Cole.” She continued, with a butterfly-feeling in her stomach that she couldn’t explain.
“That would be Cole Atkins, our friend.” Brady informed them. “Lianna will be there too.” He added with a smile. “They can’t wait to meet you.”
Sloan let out an exasperated sigh, as much as to say ‘they’re in for disappointment’, then led them all out of the house, making sure not to look at Abigail who’s hand was still linked in Neal’s.
As the four of them hurried down the still deserted streets of Alius towards the centre of town, to a air mancur that Brady had explained was their usual meeting place, Abigail couldn’t help but think about the look on Sloan’s face when she was talking about Cole. Sure, she probably didn’t mean for anyone to notice her softened expression at the sound of his name, but, well Abigail did notice it, and for some reason it made her believe that it wasn’t really Neal that Sloan was interested in at all. She giggled to herself as they passed a group of laughing children (who, thankfully, were too invested in their game to notice the strange additions to their world); maybe things were looking up after all.
"What are anda laughing about?" Neal asked, leaning closer as they walked.
Abigail blushed a little but shook her head quickly. "Nothing."
Neal gave her a smile before turning back to their companions and spoke up after a moment: "You think it's aman, brankas for us to walk around everyone like we're commoners? We don't exactly look like your folk."
"At this time it's safe", Sloan said, but Abigail noticed that she didn't use any flirtatious expressions and had withdrawn her compliments as well.
"And if one of the gloomy elders sees us?" Abigail challenged her.
"Then we'll run. atau say you're our cousins. Whatever. We'll dodge that bridge when we come to it."
"It's cross", Abigail said.
"I know, human girl. I say dodge. Got a problem with that?" Sloan asked plainly.
Neal smirked at this, and Abigail felt herself blush. She hoped desperately that Neal wasn't smirking because Sloan was super funny atau something..
"We're here", Brady announced after a moment of silence when they arrived to meet the spoken friends, Cole and Lianna.
Sloan walked over to Cole straight away, and Abigail could see him give her a smile before turning his suspicious eyes to their direction.
"Are these them?" Lianna broke the silence.
"Yeah, this is Neal and Abigail", Brady said. "And these are Cole and Lianna."
Neal and Abigail waved awkwardly. Cole and Lianna just stared at them in awe.
"What?" Abigail finally asked.
"Nothing, it's just kind of surreal finally meeting one of you", Lianna said. "Or, two of you." She seemed kind. A hell of a lot kinder than Sloan.
"Well, uh, it's nice to meet anda as well", Neal berkata awkwardly, walking a step closer, followed oleh Abigail, whose hand found his again.
Lianna noted the motion and gestured. "You're boyfriend and girlfriend, right?"
"No, just friends", Abigail berkata reluctantly.
"I think someone wants to be a bit lebih than that", Sloan muttered under her breath, and all Abigail could hope for was that Neal hadn't heard as well.
"Well, do tell us about your world", Cole urged. "What is it truly like? We haven't gone there that many times."
"They'll want to hear about our world. They met Veronica", Brady sighed.
Both Lianna and Cole made a face at this, and Abigail could not understand why.
"What's wrong with Veronica?" she asked.
"She's insane. Completely out of it", Cole said.
"No, she's not. She just speaks her mind and does what she wants. And yeah, she practices dark magic every once in a while. But it's no big deal."
The beautiful, angel-faced Veronica with the dimples on her face? Abigail could scarce believe it.
"Is she a witch?"
"You don't have to be a witch to do magic. She dated a warlock once and then mencuri his spellbook", Sloan shook her shoulders. "She does what she wants whenever she wants. I think that's admirable."
"More like crazy", Cole said.
"Shut up", Sloan hissed.
"Yeah, I think we really want to know lebih about this world", Neal said, and Abigail agreed.
Brady sighed. "Fine. Come with us", and so they followed the group again. This time they led them to a cave that was nearby a lake. Even though it was a hot day, there were no swimmers around.
"You guys don't swim here?" Abigail asked.
"That lake is haunted. A great sorcerer once drowned there, and now they say that if anda swim there, anda get pulled under and never get back up", Lianna said.
"Veronica swore she has been pulled under and that she kicked that sorcerer's sorry ass", Sloan said.
"I think we've agreed not to listen to anything Veronica says", Brady said. "So, what do anda want to know?" they all turned to look at Neal and Abigail.
“Well…” Abigail started, “Personally I’d like to know lebih about the supernatural creatures that we’ll be sharing our beds with, figuratively speaking, of course.”
Neal snorted. “You know we should probably start with something a bit lebih straight forward, like what the war’s all about and who we’re going up against, anda know, the important stuff. Myths and monsters can wait.”
Abigail felt herself going red and shot Neal a dark look; he’d made her sound childish and she didn’t like it.
“Neal, can I talk to anda for a minute?” She snapped as she got up and walked a few paces away from the group. Neal looked taken aback but followed her anyway.
“Did anda have to say it like that? anda made it sound like I was stupid atau something, like I didn’t know why we’re here.” She folded her arms in a defensive manner but couldn’t bring herself to be totally angry with him, not while he was standing this close.
“Sorry but we gotta get our priorities right.” Neal berkata as he too folded his arms across his chest. “And right now I’d say the priority is finding out about this war.”
Abigail could sense the others staring at their little confrontation and sighed at what a weird first impression they were probably having on Cole and Lianna.
“Fine, but just so anda know, I do know what I’m here for, but I’ll still get jawaban to my other pertanyaan to. And don’t act like you’re not interested in these creatures either.” She smirked at him a little as he said; “Yeah, yeah. But priorities.” And rolled her eyes as she followed him back to the meeting place where Sloan was looking at them with an amused expression on her face. We are never going to get on. Abigail thought in exasperation.
Lianna was the first to speak when they re-joined the group.
“It’s okay, anda know, it is a lot to take in, and you’ve only been here a day.” She started. “But it’s getting late and we better hurry up before the elders get back from church.” She gave Abi a reassuring smile before looking to Brady to continue.
At least Lianna seems nice. Abigail thought to herself. Much nicer than Sloan anyway. I guess that takes the number of likeable people in Alius up to the grand total of…two, including Veronica. Great.
Brady was busy explaining to Neal that the initiators of the war were two brothers who had a vendetta against the town’s people for beating them in the past, when Abi turned her attention back to the conversation.
“…So that’s why we think the war’s going to start again. I mean the brothers have had plenty of time to make a plan and update their strategies, so it’s only a matter of time.” Brady was saying. Lianna, Cole and Sloan all nodded in agreement.
“Why are we needed then?” Abigail asked.
“Like we’ve explained before, we’re not 100% sure why you’re needed.” Sloan cut in, sounding agitated. “But your names were in the book and now here anda are.”
“Oh, yeah, the book anda stole.” Abigail rolled her eyes and received an annoyed look from Sloan in return.
“Now, now ladies, let’s keep it calm.” Cole interrupted them. “Sloan’s right, you’re needed but we don’t exactly know why, but if anda want to gabung the good side -” He signalled around himself to his friends “-you can fight with us.” He winked at them and Abigail looked over at Neal to see his reaction which was a mixture of disbelief and anticipation.
The sky was turning a reddish purple colour overhead and Brady decided that it was time that they all cleared out of the square.
“We should be going now.” He told them. “There isn’t long left until the church closes.”
“Right, so will anda be sending us back through the portal?” Neal enquired.
“No time for that, Kid.” Sloan answered, “You’ll have to stay here for the night.” She produced a set of heavy looking rusty keys from her pocket and dangled them in the air between her and Neal.
“Courtesy of the elders. Well, it would be if they knew about it.” She laughed, and after seeing the confused looks on everyone’s faces she said; “Well I might have borrowed them from the city hall when we took the book and the crystal.” She confessed. “But obviously it’s a good job I did.” She smiled widely and high-fived Cole’s outstretched hand.
“What do they open?” Abigail asked.
“Well, duh, the old guest house that hasn’t been used in about a million years.” Sloan answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Lianna decided to expand a little; “We don’t get many visitors since the last war.” She explained.
“Right, well anda two…” Brady berkata pointing to Sloan and Cole “…take Neal and Abigail to the guest house, and me and Lianna will hang around the church for a bit in case any of the elders decide to leave early and we can hold them off a while.”
They all nodded consent and stood, Neal and Abigail standing awkwardly as the friends berkata goodnight.
“Come on then.” Cole called to Neal and Abigail, the mischievous look never really leaving his eyes. They all hurried to the bottom of the road where the guest house was situated, just outside of the square. Sloan unlocked the door and it let out a high pitched squeak which confirmed that it hadn’t been open in years.
Once they had all stepped inside Sloan threw the keys to Neal, who caught them easily before they fell to the floor, and then turned to leave.
“So, you’re just leaving us here?” Abigail asked.
“You’re not scared, are you?” Sloan mocked.
“You guys will be fine, just pick a room, sleep in it and we’ll come and find anda tomorrow, okay?” Cole went on. “Sweet dreams”. And with that him and Sloan turned and walked back out on to the street.
Neal locked the door after them before turning back to Abigail who was making her way up to the first floor where the bedrooms were.
“I don’t think you’re stupid.” He berkata when he had caught up to her. “It’s just we needed to-“
“You don’t have to explain, Neal.” Abi cut him off. “And I know I’m not stupid, we wouldn’t be here if I was, we’d still be back in that perpustakaan hunched over some old buku that were never gonna give us any answers.” She said, playfully nudging him in the ribs.
He smirked. “But we also wouldn’t be here if I had never used my wonderful powers of intuition to work out the right password.”
“Hah, lucky guess.” She teased back and they both started laughing as they reached the landing.
They stood for a while, both looking at each other but not quite knowing what to say, before Abigail cleared her throat.
“Night, then” She whispered.
“You know, if anda really are scared, I could sleep in your room tonight.” Neal started. “On the floor, obviously.” He rushed to finish.
“Cute. But no, I think I’ll be fine. And IF I was scared it’s only because anda didn’t let me find out about the supernatural monsters so now we’re basically entering in to the unknown.” Abigail couldn’t help but remind him about before.
“Well, if you’re sure.” Neal replied, shaking his head in amusement. “Let me know if anda change your mind.”
Abigail heard the hint in his tone and blushed a little.
“You’re not that irresistible, anda know. In fact, I don’t even like anda that much.” Of course this wasn’t true, and they both knew it.
He chuckled. “And that’s why anda carry my artikel around with anda 24/7.”
Abi blushed deeper, and because she couldn’t answer back to that, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed Neal on the cheek.
“Night, Kepner.” She smiled before letting herself in to the first unlocked room. She could sense him watching her as she walked away, and she was still smiling as she closed the door behind her.