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don’t
believe anything I say. You’ll have to see to believe me before it’s too late.
I know how to get you here.”
    He kept moving as Kendra met his strides
with hers.
    “I asked because you need to know the
truth. The only way you’ll believe is if you witness it yourself.”
    “Leave me alone,” she barked.
    “I’m not asking again.” His voice
strengthened, became stern, adamant. “You belong here.”
    Kendra paused and gawked to her left
where the glow spread, licked the floors in search of her. The portal opened
like a gaping, intensely bright void that waited for her. Kendra shook her
head. She’d rather stand and fight than to go into whatever that was.
    Liam flinched. He appeared distracted,
and lost focus as if he searched for something else, something she couldn’t
see. With another thrust of his fingers, another dart of his telekinetic
powers, he sent Kendra stumbling into the light with bright, terror-filled
eyes.
    Kendra felt the invisible force push
her, and it pushed hard. The intense power pulled her feet out from under her
so that she fell into the light without kind consideration. Her palms and knees
crashed against the dry wood. She tried to stand, but was glued at the points
of contact. She couldn’t move. She panicked and imagined how Liam and Julie
went through the very same thing: the terror, the racing heartbeats, the
perspiration in response to utter fear. Horror gripped her so fiercely she
couldn’t imagine surviving.
    She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t.
Her eyes darted across the room as the lights flickered. The light from the
portal would soon devour her, and her parents wouldn’t know what happened—again.
    The floor opened into a blaze of
glorious white light. Kendra found an outlet for her screams. The sound rumbled
through her throat and escaped her lips, but the noise of the near silent
portal muffled her cries. The portal sucked in everything in its path,
beginning with the lightest components, being air and sound.
    Her wobbly knees, feet, and hands melted
into the floorboards and blurred in the white light. She panicked even further,
if such a thing were possible. The fierce pulsations in the veins behind her
ears sounded like war drums, preparing her for an imminent odyssey.
    The portal made a crackling sound when
her extremities pulled away from her body. Coupled with sheer terror and utter
pain, Kendra gaped at the eternal white haze around the long and endless
flesh-colored smudge, which radiated from her body. Her legs and arms no longer
held shape. She felt the excruciating pain when an invisible force stretched
her body.
    She jerked her head up. With one final
cry, the light fully invaded her. The brightness erupted from her mouth,
nostrils, and eyes, lighting the room for one brief moment before dying and
taking the rest of Kendra’s body with it.
    The first time through was significantly
traumatizing. Before logic or reason could get a hold of Kendra, she lost all
control of her mental state, losing herself in the chaos and pain of radiant
white and pink lights. The assault on her senses made her conscience curl up
and shut down to protect itself against the unknown.
    ****
    The sound of gunshots tore a blaze
through the fabric of time. The bullets cut just close of the impending portal
opening, and bounced from the fibers of the portal. The bullets raced toward
Liam. Though slightly distracted by the growing white light near a tree off to his
left several feet away, he remained focused on the fight.
    The first bullet whizzed past his head,
and he saw the second coming as if in slow motion. He jumped from its path,
moving his head back to avoid impact. The bullet grazed his auburn hair, slicing
a few strands that floated away with the increasing wind from the portal.
    The clouds above him grew heavy,
writhing in torment at the tear in the space-time continuum. Lightning struck
in unlikely patterns in long arches with dozens of branches. The