The Skin Thief

Chapter 13

Weight presses against my body, making my muscles feel tight and my stomach churn. It comes as quickly as it goes. Two steps. Two steps and I am on the other side of the portal. It was as though I walked through any other door, well apart from the strange heavy feeling.

Just as I think that it wasn't too bad, my stomach flips. Before I can even process what's going on or where I am, a bucket is shoved in my face. It arrives just in time for me to retch and vomit. I splutter and cough, my stomach continuing to flip and heave. Then, it is over.

I spit into the bucket as though that would get the horrible taste of bile out of my mouth. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work.

"Here," a gruff voice says and passes me a bottle of water. I eagerly snatch it out of their hands. I use the first mouthful to rinse my mouth before spitting it into the bucket. Then, I am gulping the water desperately.

"The first time through a portal is always a bitch," the voice continues. Beside me, Conner retches into his own bucket.

"Someone could have warned us," I grumble. That is met by a chuckle.

I ignore it and look around. We are in a small, dark room. A single light bulb glows from a damp ceiling. The light is dull and a strange orange colour.

Against one of the brick walls are large, old, wooden barrels stacked on shelves. On another wall is a metal shelf. This one has silver barrels and cardboard boxes with labels on them. From these containers, little tubes lead up out of the room.

I frown and narrow my eyes, trying to figure out what all these boxes are and what the tubes do. The sound of a throat clearing behind me has me spinning back around. Connor gestures back to the portal.

I look back into it, seeing the woods that we were just in on the other side. Officer Daller is there, and he waves at us. I smile and wave back. An unnerved shiver spreads through me at how unnatural this all is. In two steps, we have been transported to an entirely new world. I've understood the theory of the portals all my life, but actually using them and seeing them in person makes my head spin.

The man who gave me the bucket grabs my arm and gently pulls me away from the portal. Then, he closes a thick door. My eyes widen as I watch him lock it not with a key, but with some sort of contraption that scans his eye. As it flashes green, a wall appears over the door, completely hiding it all from view.

I face Conner. He looks at me with his mouth hanging open.

"Come on, let's get you two out of here," the man says.

"Please," I say, the smell of the damp and dust not helping my unsettled stomach.

I look at the man closer. As the confusion from travelling through the portal wears off, I start to really examine him.

He is an older gentleman, perhaps in his late sixties. His short, grey hair is cut and gelled neatly. His wrinkled face is cleanly shaven. Great, bushy eyebrows sit above dull blue eyes. In his left earlobe, is a single gold ring.

His thin lips pull into a tight smile. This reveals two gold teeth. One on his top row and one on the bottom.

"This way," he says, his voice deep and his accent strange. Well, not strange, normal for this country in this realm. Despite Conner and I having spoken the language with the accent for a month, it sounds odd hearing it in person.

He gestures to some creaky-looking wooden stairs. I frown. So far, none of this looks too dissimilar from our realm. Still, I do as instructed and walk up the stairs and through a door.

My mouth nearly drops open as we enter the main floor of a restaurant. Everything is so sleek and smooth. It is so...

I shake my head, unable to form the right word to describe what I'm seeing.