The Portal Read online

  The Portal

  By

  Charles Sterling

  * * * * *

  Published by:

  Charles Sterling

  Kindle Edition

  Copyright © 2019 by

  Shahid Junior Aziz

  Thank you for downloading this eBook!

  *****

  Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  I hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

  *****

  Table of Contents

  Title

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 1

  I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be in a movie. Not as an actor, no – but as an actual character. What movies or books usually fail to portray is that, the heroic man fighting the monsters, or the professional agent tracking bad guys, or a man in space encountering aliens, they’re all trained for it, and in some ways prepared for it. They adapt to their environment to be able to better maneuver around and let the story progress smoothly. Those who are unprepared for the adventure ahead usually turn out dead. One doesn’t just pick up a random man from the streets and place him in a pit of dragons, that man wouldn’t know what to do – he’s never even seen a dragon in his life. And yet we still say, I wish I was there. That man in the pit of dragons survived, somehow, right? So would I – I would love to be in a pit of dragons.

  How did he survive though, despite being so unknowing and so terrified? Well the answer is, it doesn’t matter how he survived. He survived because the storyteller wanted him to survive. The storyteller is this man’s god.

  The only excitement that ever happened was always in my head, as I wrote and scribbled down scripts and novels and short stories. At the back of my head I was always contemplating if my stories would ever work out or not. You know, I look at the big screen and see the most amazing worlds and characters and creatures, and then I thought, I can do something like that! Let me just think up a rhino with large spider legs. Oh wait, the legs are not strong enough to hold up the rhino’s body, so we’ll make them a bit fatter and more muscular. Also, to make it more deadly we’ll give it a large scorpion tail. Let’s see, a rhino with spider legs and a scorpion tail… what else is missing? Ah, of course! It must be able to fly too. We’ll give it some large bats wings, and for the final touch – to make sure it’s a deadly predator, we’ll give it some shark teeth.

  Can you imagine this beast? Just for a second; a rhino with muscular spider legs, a giant scorpion tail, bats wings and a nasty, terrifying shark jaw.

  Well, I don’t have to imagine one. CAUSE I’M RIGHT ON ONE!

  I screamed for my dear life as I clung to the stupidest creature ever thought of. It blitzed through the ravine like a race-car with no seatbelt. Its huge scorpion tail bounced back and forth, up and down, barely missing my fragile body with its sharp sting every time the rhino’s body rocked back and forth.

  I kept yelling for it to stop, but I was probably agitating it more. My tense body refused to let go of its back. Random twigs and splashes of cold water from the puddles and creeks uninvitingly hit my face. The last thing I wanted was for it to roll over like a giant insect and ironically squish me to death.

  As the land smoothened out and the trees were behind us, the rhino thing was bull-charging ahead towards a cliff right next to a river that stretched down into a waterfall.

  My panicked screams of telling it to stop continued, to no avail. Why couldn’t the idiot that invented this rhino make it talk too?

  As it reached the edge of the cliff, it bounced up high into the air and spread its dark bat wings to take flight.

  Oh my! The sight was gorgeous! If I fell off now I would receive a pleasant landing against the rocky floors below. But that’s fine, now that we were airborne, perhaps the beast can relax a little and let the breeze calm its nerves. And to be quite fair, maybe I could calm my nerves too. The world was quite magical after all! The snowy mountains miles away, the soft purple and blue skies as the sun was slowly setting, and the bright green nature filled with possibly the weirdest creatures ever.

  I let out a shaky sigh and straightened my back a little. Everything was going smoothly – for a few seconds. The rhino’s wings began struggling and flapping almost desperately. We were losing altitude, and in panic, the beast began tumbling in the air and growling for its dear life.

  Are you serious? You gave it wings and it can’t even fly? Why?!

  It landed harshly upon the ground, bouncing me right off. My shoulder, hip, and back of my head were badly bruised against the uneven terrain. I could barely stand. All I saw was blurry light for a few moments before the picture began clearing up. And guess what the picture was?

  Its vicious shark maw stared me right in the face. It threatened me with its giant scorpion tail pointing at my tiny human body.

  I began screaming, and it began screaming with me! It went in circles around me like a dog sniffing a mouse. My body trembled and tensed. The rate my heart was beating at felt like it would jump right out of my chest. I scurried on the floor away from it, but the more I moved back, the more it moved forward.

  “Oh god, Jesus, please, get away!” I finally covered my eyes with my arms and curled into a ball on the floor. I felt its rhino horn nudge my body and turn me over like a toy. Beyond fearing death, I simply feared the thing itself. One could even say, this thing is scarier than death. The emotional pain hurt more than the physical one, and thus I didn’t even feel my cuts and bruises anymore.

  For a while, I didn’t feel anything, nor did I hear anything. I wasn’t even sure if the rhino was next to me to begin with. Was it? Dare I look? After a whole minute of waiting, I decided to peek.

  It was right there, chilling. It folded its spider legs into some weird sitting position and hugged its own body with its scorpion tail.

  I just stared at it while being in the curled position on the ground. I didn’t want to move and risk agitating it again.

  And that’s about it. For the next half an hour, it was all about not moving. My heart rate evened out, but my hands and legs were still shaking. The stinging cuts and bruises were slowly rising again, but my deeper concern was still the rhino.

  Okay, I slowly uncurled my body. The monster was still looking at me with pensive eyes, as if pitying my sorrowful state. After a full minute, I managed to get my body up into a sitting position, facing it. Behind me was the faint sound of the waterfall and a gentle river going down.

  Maybe if I ran into the water? Would I be able to escape then? Surely that thing could outrun me… Okay, I’m not going to do anything rash yet.

  “Hi,” I said once, my voice too raspy from all the screaming I did before. I cleared my throat out again and said “hi” one more time.

  It blinked.

  “I’m Raymond, what’s your name?”

  It just blinked again.

  This was awkward. The sun was going to set soon. I looked left and r
ight slowly. My rational thinking started getting back to me. What was I doing again? I was watching TV. What else…? I was having beer – I was… I remember laughing at this movie, and oddly enjoying it. It was called ‘Hybrid’, and it was about the strangest animal combinations. There was an elephant that had butterfly wings instead of ears, and a cat with a penguin’s body. I also remember birds with monkey faces. I believe the story was about an island where a mad scientist created a machine where he literally put two animals or insects into the same container, started up the machine, and voila. Then he set them out into the wild.

  Then I remember the scientist pushing it to another level, where he combined a few creatures together – and he got this… thing, that was in front of me right now.

  I simply said ‘oh god no,’ and stood up to refill my drink. As I walked away from my couch, past the TV towards the kitchen, I remember hearing a lot of static. My body stopped moving, and I felt extremely numb. I looked down to see myself disintegrating into little photons and pixels and getting sucked into the screen against my will.

  Then when I opened my eyes, I was on top of this thing.

  So, using my superior human intellect, if I were to think logically – this is a part rhino, part bat, part scorpion and part spider. Oh yes, and part shark, how could I forget? And using my superior human knowledge of having watched hours of animal channels, I could probably deduce that I can simply get up and walk away, and it won’t do anything. Just like if you would walk away from any of the five individual animals.

  After internally agreeing with my master plan, I slowly got up on my legs. The moment I did, it let out a horrid screech and roar, unwrapping its scorpion tail into an offensive position.

  I instantly sat back down. Bad idea! Freaking terrible idea. What was I thinking? Superior human intellect my ass. This creature must be totally irrational in its way of thinking! I needed to do something better.

  Fast forward three hours of sitting and doing nothing later, the rhino shut its eyes. Its tail was back in a curled position. My only movement in these few hours was a flinch, for I saw a snake pass by. What species you may ask? A giraffe snake. It was literally a spotted giraffe pattern snake, with a small giraffe head.

  But anyways, when the rhino looked asleep enough, I began making my escape. The river behind me provided enough background noise to mask my quiet movements, and I was steadily on my way out. As planned, I got into the river to make my escape, praying to god its shark jaw didn’t allow it to swim. The steady current took my body away, and all I had to do was float through the night.

  I’m not sure how lucky I was exactly, but thanks to the night I was able to see a few lights in the distance. I slowly swam to the edge of the river and slowed down before climbing out peacefully.

  The lights were right up ahead, a few minutes’ walk through the jungle-like forest. It was safe to say, nothing killed me. I heard the strangest and scariest sounds reverberating through the night. Some felt like they were inches from my ears, others felt like distant roars and screeches. For some reason, the most unsettling sounds were the clicking sounds. Because apart from giant insects I can’t imagine what else would make them.

  I managed to get through the horror show. Up ahead was a large metal dome surrounded by a perimeter of lights. It seemed like the only place a human could safely reside in – in the middle of all the wilderness, just a giant base with lights covering the perimeter. I’ll just knock on the front doors! Surely he would let me in.

  After picking up speed and running for the door, just before escaping the darkness of the forest, I felt a heavy mass tackle me down to the ground. I yelled out in panic and was instantly shut by a hand that covered my mouth. The other hand covered my eyes, the other hand wrapped around my body, the other hand wrapped around my legs, oh god! What was this weird creature? Was it a centipede gorilla mix that had forty gorilla arms coming out of it?

  No, it wasn’t that bad actually. When they opened my eyes and let me go, I sat next to a campfire with a bunch of them around me.

  “You’re all human? Or not really…” I looked again, “you’re half human half animals?”

  “Who are you?” the man with a cow’s head asked in a deep and aggressive voice.

  “One of his henchmen?” a woman’s voice asked behind me. She had the head of a female lion. All seven of them had perfect human bodies except the skin was all fur, and a perfectly fitted animal head resting on the shoulders.

  “No,” I said, “No! I’m just, lost, I… I barely made it alive here. I thought the scientist would help me get out of here.”

  “Doctor William will not help you, he will just turn you into one of us,” said the cow person.

  “How do I get back then?” I asked out loud.

  “Help us destroy his machine, and kill the doctor,” said the dog person.

  “Oh no, no guys, this is your story. Look, I’m a writer, I know this is all imagined and somehow turned to real or something, or maybe I’m dreaming,” I got up and began walking backwards, “but I’m not getting involved in your hour long action sequence of trying to overcome evil and having justice prevail. I’m sure in the end you’ll all turn human again, and you’ll be great people no doubt,” they all circled around me, “but I mean, I have a home to get back to, you know, I have friends, I don’t want to risk dying, no one wants to die, right?” My nervous rant wasn’t getting through to them.

  “Fine, go then,” said the cow leader guy. “There is no place for cowards here.”

  “Maybe he’ll join us when he grows some fur,” the lion smirked and everyone laughed.

  “Yeah, yeah okay, sure, I’ll see you all!” I turned around and realized what a mistake I made.

  The forest was pitch black, and was filled with terrifying noises.

  “Well? What are you waiting for?” the cow man remarked.

  “I’m going!” I rebelled at him.

  “Any moment now,” said the goat headed guy.

  I went in. Yes, I know, I can’t believe it either, but something told me I didn’t want to get mixed into the plot of the movie. Something told me that there might be a portal out of here, and that I would find it alone.

  I got further away from their little cozy camp, and saw absolutely nothing anymore. It was so dark, I just barely managed to walk while feeling for the trees in front of me. Then I decided to stop. The clicking sounds started again. Horrifyingly, they were right above me. I did not move a single inch. I lowered my breathing and pretended to be a tree. Hopefully the thing wouldn’t see me and go its way. Even if I had to stand still the whole night, I would.

  I heard the clicking sound almost circle around me as the branches moved a little. This was where I was highly regretting leaving those guys. You can already tell my superior human intellect was equivalent to a rock.

  Moments later, it became quiet. Almost too quiet in fact. I began relaxing my tense shoulders, and my heart wasn’t beating so loudly anymore. All I needed now was patience.

  In an instant, I felt something sharp and dense pierce my back and come out the other end of my chest in a single thump. My body shriveled and my breath stopped. I was lifted up like a sack of meat hanging on a hook. Any bit of light that I managed to see was completely gone. All I felt was something tearing away at my flesh bite by bite, and all I heard was the loud clicking right next to my ear accompanied by my own screams.

  That was it; I was devoured, and eaten, by the large clicking monster which I did not even get to see.

  When I next opened my eyes I saw my own floor in my own house. The unsettling memory and feeling of being eaten felt like it happened a few seconds ago. Uncontrollably, I began screaming and feeling my own body with my hands. I squirmed and jerked my limbs randomly, hitting the table and the wall next to me. My voice just wouldn’t shut up.

  Seconds later, there were loud knocks on my door.

  “Raymond?! Raymond! Open up!”

  The knocks continued. I slowly came back
to my senses. “Mrs. White?” I asked myself. I crawled up to my door. She was still knocking frantically. After pretending to be as composed as I could, I unlocked and opened the door.

  “Goodness gracious! Raymond! What was that all about?” she forced her way in, looking around. There was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary – a broken beer glass on the floor, a turned on TV, and a relaxing living room.

  She looked back at me, raising her eyebrow.

  “A spider jumped on me,” I said.

  “A spider?” she came closer and patted my shoulder.

  “Yeah, I have a terrible phobia, you know…”

  “No yes, I understand. It must have really gotten into an uncomfortable place for you to scream like that though, heh!” she slapped my back a little. “Get yourself together, you probably scared the spider more than yourself.” The slightly aged lady walked out my door, relieved that it was nothing.

  I sat on the couch, holding my face. “No way…” I rocked back and forth a little, “no freaking way!”

  I quickly grabbed the remote and flipped through the channels. There was nothing weird about it. The movie Hybrid was over and some comedy was playing. I closed the TV and made up my mind to unplug it and throw it in the garbage outside. I felt very impulsive! My fist had to go through the screen before I come to my senses.

  But as soon as I turned off the TV through the remote, there was a large black screen, with a white text written on it. Right on top of the white text were four bold red letters, ‘PRTL’.

  “Pre Recreational Tech Library – Dear PRTL user, you have been chosen as a part of the program to help sustain the digital world from a breakdown and subsequent destruction of the real world’s servers.

  Your cooperation is obligatory and failure to oblige will result in your indefinite death. Within your body’s core is an implanted cluster of nano-pixels that need to be constantly sustained through re-visiting the digital world. Your pixels are tied to your heart, and if they die out, your heart will stop with them.

  Channel minus one will display a timer that accurately reads how much time you have left until your pixels need to recharge.