by: Raven Merz
The whole room was spinning. No, literally, the entire room was rapidly circling, its occupants holding onto the curtains and bookcases, which were threatening to fall into the cyclonic portal that consumed the middle of the room.
“Close it! Close it!” Lyric, the youngest and most outspoken of the group, cried.
Her brother, Archimedes, heeded her and looked around the room, as if the walls that were quickly being stripped of their contents held the puzzle pieces for how to get him, his sister, and their closest friend, Rain, out of this situation.
He looked across the room to see that Rain was clinging to a bolted bookcase that, while secure, was slowly budging.
How…how? He thought, his heart beginning to race as well as his mind.
Lyric, who was gripping a curtain rod that she was losing confidence in, looked to her brother, her heart dropping seeing his uncertain expression.
“What are we going to do?!” Rain shouted, breaking the relative silence between all of them. She looked at both of her friends’ faces, only seeing worry.
The bookcase shifted more, and Rain’s heart leapt. She felt herself shaking, seeing the curtain rod that was keeping Lyric out of the portal begin to fall.
In an instant, her eyes saw the swirling edge of the portal just centimeters from Lyric’s feet, and the gap between the two was only closing as Lyric stumbled.
Without another thought, she abandoned her hiding place and ran to catch her friend, wobbling under the force of the room’s movement. She reached Lyric, just in time for both of them to fall into the portal.
Archimedes, having barely processed Rain’s crossing over to Lyric, called out seeing them both beginning to fall, knowing they were irrevocable.
“No!” he hoarsely pleaded, his lungs suppressed by the constant movement of the room. Reticently, he moved his leg forward, and that was all it took for the portal to rip him away from the wall and into its ominous belly, the opening swirling closed after him and leaving the disheveled room immobile.
The three were tossed about, still spinning in what was now complete darkness.
“L-lyric!??” Archimedes forced out into the blur, and felt his stomach turn when he heard nothing back.
After a few moments, the dark, empty plain that had consumed them was defined by a sliver of light that brightened up the whole tunnel. A little. Archimedes could see figures of Rain and Lyric, and when he saw they were moving, he felt a slight relief. His eyes began to hurt as the light increased in brightness, until they were briefly blinded by white light before landing on a grassy clearing.
“Ow…” the group heard Lyric say weakly before sitting up, rubbing her back from pain.
At hearing her voice, Archimedes sat up, ignoring the pain in his own back and shoulders, and rushed across the small clearing to embrace her.
Lyric, a little surprised, smiled in her brother’s arms and hugged him back.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” she said.
Archimedes nodded before letting her go partly, keeping an arm affectionately hung around her neck, and the two turned to look at Rain, who was just now sitting herself up after a particularly hard fall.
“I’m okay,” she assured them, her voice airy. “Just got the wind knocked out.”
Rain looked up to see her friends’ attentive eyes locked on her, and she suddenly felt flushed, smiling. She made her way across the clearing and joined their embrace, holding them tight.
This continued for a few moments, and eventually, the group broke away, sharing breaths of relief from the experience.
Lyric, having taken a moment to look at their surroundings, voiced,
“Where are we? How did we get here?”
Archimedes and Rain joined her, taking in the forest that surrounded them.
“I’m not sure,” Archimedes admitted, reaching for his messenger bag and pulling out his compass and map. His eyes flitted back and forth between the two, and he stated, “Somewhere in Central Europe. Probably Germany?”
“Cool,” Lyric returned, looking around with an appreciative glint in her eyes.
Rain smiled at Lyric’s contentment and looked back at Archimedes.
“How did we get here, though?” she echoed.
Archimedes finally broke his gaze with his map and said,
“I… don’t know,” he thought back to the drawing room the three of them had been locked in by the proprietor of the estate they’d been investigating. “All I remember is the portal opening randomly, and I had no idea what to do.”
Rain nodded. After a moment of contemplation, she said,
“What did the clue say again?”
Archimedes blinked. He’d forgotten about the clue.
“Right,” he said, digging into one of the pockets of his bag. He pulled out a small slip of parchment, grateful it wasn’t torn in all the action.
“Change will find you, be ready when it does,” he read.
Lyric and Rain looked at each other contemplatively while Archimedes just looked at the paper, confused.
“I remember this sounding like a fortune cookie, but I don’t know what it has to do with anything,” he expressed.
“Well,” Lyric cuts in. “We went to the Change estate for that reason, right? And Mr. Change found us.”
“But what does that have to do with the portal? And why did it take us to Germany instead of back home?” Archimedes inquired.
Rain’s face immediately flattened, and she turned red when she felt the other two’s eyes on her.
“What is it?” Archimedes asked gently. “Are you okay?”
Rain bit her lip and took a deep breath.
“I-I think the portal was there to help us find the change,” she stated.
Archimedes and Lyric both raised eyebrows in confusion.
“What change?” Lyric asked. “Are we all supposed to stay here?”
Rain shook her head.
“Not all of us. Just me,” Rain said sheepishly.
Now the other two now raised their eyebrows in shock.
“W-what do you mean?” Archimedes asked, sounding hurt.
Rain shut her eyes tight, fighting back tears, then said,
“I have family here.”
“You’re German?” Lyric replied quizzically.
Rain nodded. “I know I don’t look it,” she pulled at her dark curls, “but I am. I went to America after I graduated. My parents and I never got along, and I’ve been avoiding them too long, I guess.”
Archimedes, now teary-eyed, looked down at the clue that lay in his lap. The Wayfinder’s Guide had never failed them. If this is what the book wanted… but how could it be?
“I don’t want you to go,” Lyric said, voicing her brother’s internal voice. She was battling her own tears.
“I think I need to,” Rain replied, sympathy in her voice. She looked down for a moment, then nodded. “I’ve needed to for a while.” Her voice was now laced with regret.
Lyric slung her arms around her, her tears falling in true sobs now.
Archimedes watched, his tears falling silently and his heart aching with his sister. He took a deep breath, looking at Rain’s now determined face. She would hold Lyric as long as she needed, but then she would go.
He inched over to them and put one hand on Rain’s shoulder and one comfortingly on his sister’s back.
“You’ll write to us, won’t you?”
Rain smiled, feeling relief from the support. She nodded.
“Of course,” she affirmed, looking at Lyric. Lyric backed up, wiping her eyes.
“You better!” she managed to get out after calming herself down.
The three laughed and stood up, as if they all simultaneously knew it was time.
“Where will you two go?” Rain asked, centering herself.
Archimedes looked at his sister’s glossy eyes and puffy cheeks, and he felt a twinge in his heart thinking of when she would be old enough for them to part ways.
“I’m not sure,” he replied. “I think we’ll head back to the library first, let the book tell us where to go.”
He heard Lyric chuckle when he put his arm around her.
Rain gave a slight laugh, too, nodding.
“Best way to go,” she said. She then looked up at them, her eyes glistening. She took a sharp, deep breath, then said,
“This has been amazing. Traveling around, having adventures… it’s changed the way I see the world. And I couldn’t have done it without you guys.”
Lyric and Archimedes looked at her, fighting back tears again. The two looked at each other, and Lyric finally spoke up,
“Be safe, will you?”
Rain nodded, using a sincere smile to keep herself from crying. Then, embracing the tears that made themselves known, she rushed forward for a final embrace, holding the two tighter than ever before. She felt a few deep sobs from Lyric, and even a few from Archimedes, before stepping back.
The three just looked at each other with equal parts longing and endearment, and Rain forced herself to break away after giving Lyric’s hand a squeeze.
She took her compass from her pocket, finding the right direction to head toward the nearest town, then looked back.
“Goodbye,” she managed to get out, and waved to them.
They waved back and watched her go, waiting until they saw her disappear into the next chapter of her life.
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