The Umbral Gate, Part IV

“What in fuck was that?” Rex asked, using foul language in front of me for the first time.

“Not our concern.”

“Shouldn’t we report it? Call the police?”

I turned away from the monitors and told him to sit back. “The call was made, there is very little we can do right now except stay in this trailer and keep our fingers crossed.”

“I can’t believe you are shirking your responsibility,” Rex accused me.

I shook my head; “Let me finish telling you about Torrance, it will hopefully explain everything. The Dame Elsbeth summed up the situation for Torrance. In her world, there was a cabal that uses magic and crazy ass stuff like that, which I guess isn’t too strange given the other oddities, but they are bent on creating a domain in our world to escape the rules of their society and live here like gods. Dame Elsbeth claimed that not only would it be disruptive to our world but would signal a reign of chaos and destruction in hers.”

“This is crazy!” Rex shouted. “If you aren’t going to do your job, then I will.” Rex grabbed a flashlight and an extra container of pepper spray as he moved about the trailer in a huff. The boy had a sense of purpose. Guys like him don’t stay in jobs like this very long, but this time instead of just moving on, he was putting his life on the line. I wasn’t going to let him go, but I figured I’d let him burn off some of his nervous tension first. He finally got his stuff together and reached for the handle to open the door to the trailer.

“Hold up, Rex,” I said. Rex opened the door and took a step before stopping. Rex stood in the doorway aghast. He took two steps back inside the trailer and the doorway was filled with the form of a tall man. His face was pale and he wore a full-length black leather duster. Underneath the coat you could see a purple brocade vest covering a bone white satin or silk shirt. The man’s nose was a bit pointy and the goatee on his chin was perfectly trimmed. Along his brow and on his hands were odd black tattoos. Without hesitation he stepped into the trailer. As he put his booted foot inside, the entire trailer tilted slightly. The man was not a lightweight, though he didn’t look it. His height concealed his mass.

“Rex,” I said, “this is Torrance. Torrance, this is my partner, Rex.”

Torrance looked Rex up and down before he broke his silence, “Where were you rushing off to, Rex?”

Finding his voice Rex replied, “F-fourth floor, East Wing, there was something on the monitor.”

“Weren’t you told to wait?” Torrance asked.

“I’m just doing my job,” Rex replied, emboldened.

I stepped in. “I was telling him about your first experience with the Gate. He’s young and eager, though.”

Torrance indicated the building that was in the long process of being gutted and rehabbed behind them. “Nearly six years ago, this building was a falling apart, a haven for the lost, a hunting ground for all sorts of human predators. The interior may be undergoing a significant change, but it is still the Umbral Gate linking this world to a world unlike anything you can imagine. Inside that building is not your world, you have no authority there. Looking at you, you would most likely find your way to your grave in there.”

Rex lost his voice again and stood with his mouth agape.

Torrance looked over at me and asked, “What did you see on the fourth floor?”

“We saw the girl, the Gatekeeper,” I replied.

“How much did you tell Rex?”

“I told him everything up to Dame Elsbeth telling you about the cabal.”

Torrance looked back at Rex and told him to take a seat. “I want you to know what you may be facing tonight. You aren’t expected to do anything except keep yourself safe, which means no reckless charging into an area you were told to stay out of. Got it?”

Rex nodded.

“Good. When Dame Elsbeth of the Night Coven had me in the Chamber she told me about the cabal. The cabal is akin to the anarchist movement in our world, rebelling against the authority of the Night Coven. The cabal doesn’t care about the effect their actions may have on the world around them so long as they are freed from the dictates of the Lords and Dames of the Night Coven. To them, the Umbral Gate represents a chance to work their craft and live their lives without any authority. In our world, they wouldn’t have to bow to anyone. Their powers would be greater than anything we could imagine.”

Torrance looked around the small trailer and grabbed a chair to sit in so he didn’t have to stoop. He continued, “As the Dame told me this, there was an almost deafening noise from above. She and I looked up. Straddling the skylight was a giant winged reptilian creature – a dragon.”

Rex looked over at me as if I was suddenly going to shout “April Fools” but that wasn’t the case. I just nodded my head, affirming the truth of Torrance’s story.

“The dragon’s wings flapped and the wind nearly bowled me out of my chair. The Dame reacted quickly, reaching behind her and pulling out a staff that couldn’t have been there before. It just seemed to emerge from thin air. I rolled off the chair towards the wall when I saw her two goons, one I called Skirt the other Pants facing off against the two men I had originally spotted in the alleyway. They were members of the cabal. Something was blurring around them, though. At first I thought they had nanchaku or some other oriental weapon, but then I noticed their hands weren’t moving. There were six-inch wooden sticks spinning in a complex pattern around them. As they walked, the sticks continued to move relative to them.

“I crawled to the wall and glanced at the Dame fighting the dragon. She was fending off its massive clawed foot with her staff. Each time she struck it, a flash of white light burst forth from the staff.

“Pants lunged at one of the stickspinners, laying out a blistering attack at an incredible speed. His fists kept striking the spinning sticks, each blow was blocked by the twirling weapons. Skirt guy faced off with his opponent with the same effect. Though both of the Dame’s goons were relentless in their attacks, they were held at a standstill.

“I felt lost in the in that twisted other-worldly battle. For crying out loud, there was a dragon – a large greenish reptile from a god damned fairy tale on the roof above me attacking a woman with just a staff. How she was keeping it at bay was beyond me. Honestly, in my opinion at that time, both sides represented an equal threat to my survival, but the exit was blocked by the stickspinners and seeing that I had no desire to remain and see who would win out, the dragon or the Dame, I decided I needed to clear a path to the door.”

Torrance checked his watch and turned to me, “Which one is the fourth floor, East Wing monitor?”

I tapped one of the screens, “This one.”

“Keep a close eye on it," he commanded.

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.

The Umbral Gate Part II

“He said his regular calls were to oust loitering teens from coffee shops, take vandalism reports, and bust underage drinking, old guys who got off flashing Goth girls, and occasional possession of illegal substance kind of stuff. He said the only real gang activity was drugs, supplying the area’s insatiable demand for coke, x, and pot. This just meant that he kept a look out for possible drug activity to bust gangbangers, which earned him some attention down at the station. A cop needed a few big busts to get better assignments. So when he noticed some suspicious activity in an alley one night, he radioed in his location and set off investigating it.

“The alley was behind a building he said the police called the Warren. Abandoned for years, the ownership was constantly in question; it was filled with homeless kids and squatters. It was a different world inside. As Torrance headed down the alley, the two figures that caught his attention spotted him and bolted, climbing over the cyclone fence that blocked an entrance to the Warren and over a makeshift wooden barricade, disappearing inside. The wall where they had been standing had been tagged.”

Rex interrupted. “Like our wall?”

“I don’t know if it was like our wall, but Torrance said it was some pretty crazy graffiti, like nothing he had ever seen. He assumed it was a new gang moving in on the territory. He radioed in his location and told the dispatch that he was going inside the Warren after two suspicious male youths.”

I pulled out my brown paper lunch bag and pulled out a tomato. Being a bachelor meant not being picky about what you ate, and all I had in my fridge was three beers, this tomato, a container of potato salad, which scared me because I can’t recall the last time I bought potato salad, and a package of lunchmeat. I began eating the tomato and wiping juice off my chin.

“Inside the Warren was a different world. Torrance had said he had only heard stories about cops who went in, about how there are people everywhere, sleeping on top of conduits, in holes in the walls, and how the entire place seemed to be teeming with life that you can’t see. At night, by himself, Torrance was scared shitless, but his cop instincts told him to keep a cool and calm exterior. He moved through the halls quickly, his flashlight guiding him. He stepped over bags of clothes taken from salvation army drop boxes, kicked empty bottles of vodka and absinthe out of the way, and kept a close eye on the shadows.

“He could sense being watched, though he couldn’t see anyone. He realized that most likely the two men he was chasing had a much better knowledge of the layout of the Warren than he did. He knew he would have to proceed cautiously in case of an ambush.

“As he crept through the halls, he noticed a young girl slumped against the wall. Her head was pressed to her knees. He shined his light on her and asked if she had seen anyone come by in the past few minutes. She didn’t respond to him so he stepped closer and repeated himself. He was right up next to her, leaning over slightly, the flashlight held steady on her. Torrance began to repeat his question. The girl’s head snapped up. Torrance, already nervous due to being in the Warren by himself, startled and dropped the flashlight; which bounced and rolled into the trash. The bulb shattered from the impact, though it was supposed to be immune from such simple bumps and knocks.”

I paused. I could feel my heartbeat racing. I still remember Torrance describing all of this to me in such vivid detail. I wiped my mouth with a paper towel I was using as a napkin. Rex seemed enthralled, waiting for the next part.

“Her eyes,” I continued, “were just empty sockets. The skin of her face was as white as porcelain, as white as this piece of copy paper. Tattooed all around her eye sockets were intricate black markings – many looked like the graffiti Torrance had seen in the alley.

“She spoke to him in a raspy voice, a voice that sounded much older than the body it came from. ‘You don’t belong here,’ she said to him. ‘You should leave, you are in danger.’

“Torrance shuddered at the sound of her voice and the sight of her, though he couldn’t really see her now without his flashlight, but the brief moment he saw her face was burned into his mind. He was deeply affected by this girl, but he wasn’t going to let her know he was freaked out. In his most authoritative ‘move on, nothing to see here’ cop voice he asked if anyone had been by in the past few minutes. She answered in her raspy voice, ‘the ones you seek went up the stairs, but you won’t find them, they are not of your world and you have no authority in theirs.’”