The Umbral Gate, Part III

Author's Note: 2 points to anyone who spots the Goth joke.

“Torrance told me that if he had fully realized what she meant, he would have turned around and walked out. But to him, in full cop mode, it sounded like an idle threat made by rebellious teens who thought they had created a society apart from the rest of the world. He charged up the stairs and burst through the stairwell door into an upper hallway that smelled of an old fire. The walls were badly scorched and the linoleum tiles had melted away in a large circular section exposing the subflooring.

“Not knowing how stable the section of the floor was, he tried his best to circumvent it by cozying up to the wall and moving as if he were on a very narrow ledge. Three-quarters of the way across, the subflooring started to crumble under his feet next to the wall. A large section collapsed beneath him, giving him just a split second to jump for the non-burned area of the floor. Another section under his legs gave way and Torrance found himself dangling nearly 15 feet above the floor below, where several people stared up in bewilderment before going about their lives again. I guess that was just the way of life in the Warren, sometimes the ceiling fell in, you just dust yourself off and move on. Luckily for Torrance, his upper body was already firmly in place and he was able to kick his leg up and roll away from the hole.

“Unluckily for Torrance, he found himself staring at three pairs of black boots. The pair in the middle had a four-inch heel, were shiny enough he could almost see himself in them, and went all the way up the most beautiful pair of legs he could ever possibly imagine seeing in his life. She wore a matching vinyl outfit that looked like a pair of shorts and a tight blouse that exposed her cleavage. The coat she wore buttoned under her breasts, enhancing them even further and the tail of the coat nearly touched the floor. Her hair was long and black, with the sections framing her face colored an intense red. Which matched her equally red lips.

“Torrance started to stand muttering to the woman, ‘Nice boots.’ She smirked and Torrance became aware of the two frail looking creatures flanking her. Both were tall, easily six feet, but thin as rails. The one of the right wore a long black skirt that pooled around his feet and a mesh shirt. His hair was long and dark, and he wore sunglasses. There were odd tattoos similar to the eyeless girl downstairs tattooed on his arms. The one of the left wore shiny black pants, no shirt covered his hairless chest but he did wear a black velvet smoking jacket trimmed in blue. His hair was also long and pitch black, pulled into a ponytail. Torrance called them her goons. Both stooped and took him by the arms, and heaved him upward with little effort. He has assumed, due to their appearance, these two were the blow away in a stiff breeze types. He had assumed heroin or some other wasting drug. Their visage hid their strength well.

“The woman commanded them to bring him to the Chamber, which turned out to just be a large room on the top floor. Torrance was too stunned from his near fall that he wasn’t sure what was going on. He let the two goons lead him for a few seconds before planting his feet and attempting to break away. He caught them by surprise and was able to pull away. He drew his pistol and aimed it at them. ‘Hold it right there!’ he commanded to them, ‘No one is taking me anywere.’

“The woman stared at him impatiently and issued another command, ‘Get him.’

‘I’ll shoot!’

The two goons didn’t seem phased by his threat and closed in on him. Torrance pulled the trigger on the gun, once, twice, three times. Nothing happened. The pistol just clicked. Skirt grabbed the gun from his hand and tossed it to the side while Pants landed a punch into Torrance’s stomach, causing him to bend over in pain. Another blow to his back knocked him to his knees. Once again the goons picked up him by the arms and this time dragged him through the hallway, up two flights of stairs and into a large room. Torrance got dumped into a wooden chair and the woman took a seat in a chair facing him. The two goons flanked her once more.

“The room once had a skylight that ran the full length of the room. The glass had long since been smashed out. Torrance noticed the sky was unusual, the closest he had ever seen anything like it was the aurora borealis with intense wavering colors. It filled the sky and was so bright no stars could be seen. He knew nothing like that was going on when he entered the building. At that moment, he did feel like he was in another world.

“The woman asked him why he was there and he responded by asking who she was. He still had the residual confidence that his back up was on the way. She answered his question with a lot of stuff he didn’t understand. He understood the language, but none of the words made sense in the way she was using them. Her name was Dame Elsbeth of the Night Coven, guardian of the Umbral Gate. Everything she said boiled down to a few nuts and bolts. She was charged with the task to watch the Umbral Gate – the Warren, which for some reason was a link between her world and ours. Within the building the two worlds mingled casually, but it was her sworn duty to prevent our world from going into hers and her world from coming into ours. She was keenly interested in how Torrance had entered her world.

“Torrance described all the events that led up to that moment. After he mentioned the graffiti, Dame Elsbeth became visibly disturbed. She had Torrance describe exactly what he had seen. When he did all she said was, ‘they are attempting to circumvent the gate.’”

Rex interrupted me and pointed at the monitors. They had all gone to static. I reached over and toggled a few switched, turning the monitors off and on. They flickered back to their black and white images of various locations in the development site. Rex and I both cycled through the different views before stopping at one that had a lone dark figure standing in the hallway.

“That’s the fourth floor, East wing,” Rex said.

I didn’t say anything. There seemed to be a shadow enveloping the figure and I couldn’t even judge the size of the person. Whoever it was stepped forward and raised it’s face to the camera. As the face lifted, more light fell on it and both Rex and I gasped. It was a young girl with empty eye sockets. The screen flashed as it became inundated with light. As the light faded, the girl was gone.