Chapter 2

  Victor and Albert didn’t hear the creature shifting in the underbrush behind them. Their minds were full of the portal, the swirling colors, and the strange silence that had fallen over the forest. The only sounds they noticed were their own quick breaths and the crunch of leaves beneath their boots.

  They hurried along the path, whispering.

  “We have to tell Dad and Raime,” Albert said. “They need to see this.”

  The trees rustled more than the wind could explain.

  Victor paused, a frown creasing his brow. “Did you hear that?”

  Albert didn’t answer. He was staring behind, pale. “Vic…”

  Victor’s eyes locked onto the figure in the shadows—hunched, thin, with unnaturally long limbs and that single, glaring purple eye. It was watching them. Frozen for a moment, his breath caught in his throat.

  Then the creature moved.

  In a fluid, almost liquid motion, it broke from the underbrush and sprinted toward them.

  The twins screamed.

  They turned and ran, barreling through brush and roots, breath coming in gasps.

  “Albert! Run faster!” Victor shouted, grabbing his brother’s arm.

  The twins bolted, adrenaline pounding in their chests as the creature closed the distance behind them. Leaves and branches crushed beneath its claws.

  Back at the camp, the scream echoed in the clearing while the father and son duo was still working.

  Raime jolted to his feet. “That was them!”

  Alessandro was already rising, running to the car for his rifle case. “Go! I’ll be right behind you!”

  Raime didn’t wait. He sprinted into the woods, lever in hand, following the sound of his brothers’ cries.

  Alessandro stayed just long enough to snap open the case and yank the rifle free, grabbing some bullets and swinging it over his shoulder as he ran.

  By the time he reached the source of the noise, Raime found the twins up on a tree—Victor clinging to a branch, Albert wedged into the crook of the trunk, both screaming for help —while the creature clawed at the bark, trying to climb after them.

  What the actual fuck is that!? Was Raime’s first thought.

  The scene was surreal, he was expecting them to have fallen somewhere or to be chased by an animal, not that this monstrosity was after them.

  Raime, after the first moment of shock didn't hesitate. His brothers were in danger, and the beast was nearly upon them. He ran out from behind the underbrush, raised his makeshift weapon, and struck as hard as he could.

  The lever struck the creature in the shoulder with a sickening thud. It shrieked and was flung to the ground, writhing in place.

  Then it recovered after a moment and its head snapped toward the tree.

  The creature’s unblinking purple eye fixed on Albert, a cruel smile spreading across its jagged maw. As soon as their eyes met, without warning, an invisible force slammed into Albert’s mind.

  His hands shot up, clutching his head as a sudden, excruciating pain exploded behind his eyes—like a hammer pounding relentlessly inside his skull.

  “Aaaaah! My head! It’s burning!” Albert gasped, then losing balance he fell from the tree in a heap.

  “Albert!” Victor shouted. He didn’t know whether to reach to his brother or stay out of the monster’s sight.

  Raime stepped between the creature and his family with a wild look on his face, twisted between fear and fury, he squared his shoulders and tightened his grip on the heavy steel lever. The creature hissed, it stood back up and faced him, its right arm hanging limp at its side.

  He advanced too but was immediately stopped in his tracks by an intense headache that tried to split his skull as soon as he met the monster’s eye with his. With a yell of defiance he bounded forward nonetheless and swung the lever hard, connecting with the creature’s left side. A sickening crack echoed as the bone spikes splintered and the beast let out a harsh, guttural growl, not expecting retaliation after using its powers.

  It staggered back but quickly recovered, eye blazing with pain and rage.

  The next moment it lunged straight at Raime, claws aimed to shred him open.

  Raime barely had time to lift the lever.

  The creature slammed into him, pushing him back a step and tearing holes through his jacket. He grunted, and braced himself, for all its viciousness the monster wasn’t that physically strong—more terror than muscle, while he was at least double the weight and a head taller. Raime kicked it spartan style away from him and then swung again towards its injured side. The steel lever clanged against bone, the other arm of the creature broke too trying to block the strike against the heavy lever and its body was sent to the ground.

  “Raime! Move!” Alessandro shouted from behind, rifle raised and ready to fire.

  Raime glanced back for a moment then darted a few meters to the side leaving a clear line of sight for his father.

  BANG!!

  The monster, who just managed to get on its feet, screeched in pain as a hole appeared on the right side of its chest. It looked first at itself, in pain and confusion, then to the man from which the sound came from.

  BANG!!

  Another shot hit it near center of mass and the creature staggered back.

  “Die you piece of shit!” Shouted Alessandro while cycling the bolt. He stalked closer, aimed at the creature for the third time and pulled the trigger.

  BANG!!

  The shot entered through its eye and flew out from the back of its head leaving in its wake a trail of grey and black fluids that splattered on the ground. The creature fell and twitched one last time before going still.

  Raime stood over the creature’s body, chest heaving, lever still clutched tight in his hands. The black blood was already soaking into the dirt beneath it. Alessandro lowered his rifle slowly, eyes still sharp, scanning the tree line.

  Victor climbed down the tree and rushed straight to his brother.

  “Albert! You okay?!” he cried.

  Alessandro ran to stand beside his son. Albert’s face was pale and sweaty, but his hands were no longer clutched to his head.

  “It… it doesn’t hurt anymore,” Albert mumbled, blinking fast. “It was like... like a fire in my brain. And then it just stopped.”

  “You scared the hell out of me, buddy,” Alessandro said, brushing his hand through his son’s hair.

  Raime walked over, grimacing as he looked at the twins. “What the hell was that thing? And why was it after you? ”

  Alessandro watched the faces of his sons and asked in a serious tone. “That thing for sure is not a deer. Do you know from where it came from?

  Victor glanced at his brother, then back at the adults. “We don’t know why it followed us, but we saw something... It should have come out of this—this glowing... thing. Like a big floaty puddle in the air. All shimmery. And it was movin’. Like a wormhole! But real.”

  “A portal,” Albert added, voice small but serious. “It was floating between trees. It’s over there.” He said, pointing in the direction of the portal.

  Raime raised his brows, skeptical. “A portal?”

  “Uh-huh,” Victor nodded fast. “We didn’t make it up. You gotta believe us!”

  “You saw that thing!” added Albert.

  The forest was silent again.

  The twins sat next to each other on the ground. Albert’s eyes darted around like he expected the creature to twitch back to life at any second. Victor stayed close, as if his presence alone could keep anything else from happening.

  “It’s really dead?” Albert asked, peeking over at it.

  “Yeah,” Victor replied, trying to sound confident, even though his voice was still shaky. “Dad shot it in the eye. That’s… super dead.”

  Albert blinked, then wrinkled his nose. “It stinks. Like burnt garbage and wet dog had a baby.”

  Victor chuckled weakly. “Yeah. Kinda cool, though.”

  “Gross,” Albert muttered. Then after a pause: “I kinda wanna poke it.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “No poking,” both Alessandro and Raime said at the same time without even looking.

  Raime followed up, glaring. “It wasn’t enough that it nearly killed you to stop you from messing with it?”

  Albert grinned a little. “Nope.”

  Raime rubbed his forehead. “Unbelievable.”

  Alessandro stood nearby, still watching the creature’s body with grim focus. Black ooze pooled beneath it, thick and slow. The thing’s skin shimmered like oil, stretched over a skeleton that looked all wrong—too thin, too many joints, the bones bending in strange, inhuman angles. Even more now that both its arms were broken.

  “I swear,” he muttered, “This looks like it crawled out of a nightmare.”

  Raime didn’t answer right away. He stared back at the trail, toward the spot where the shimmer still waited, somewhere beyond the trees.

  Finally, he broke the silence. “Well, something sure as hell came through something.”

  Alessandro caught the direction of his gaze. “No. No way. That thing almost killed all of us. You want to go toward where more might be waiting? No. We need to get out of here and call someone. The police. The army. Somebody with better weapons and less to lose.”

  Raime turned on him sharply. “Look around dad, do you see a signal tower? There’s no reception up here. There never was. You think anyone’s gonna believe us if we show up rambling about portals and monsters without a shred of proof?”

  Alessandro hesitated. “So what, we just walk back in there and take pictures? Hope we don’t get torn apart by a second one?”

  Raime exhaled, a deep weight behind his voice. “If we don’t… someone else might. What if more come out and start heading down the mountains? There are families living nearby, you know it, kids and older folks too. We can’t walk away knowing we left that door open.”

  Victor, quietly listening, looked at his dad. “It’s just over there, it’s not that far.”

  Alessandro crouched in front of them and ruffled Albert’s hair. “You’ve been brave. Both of you, you ran and then climbed like I taught you. That’s what kept you alive, but it’s unnecessarily dangerous to go back.”

  Albert looked down. “But I wasn’t brave. I was really scared.”

  Albert stood up, brushing dirt off his pants. “I want to be brave… like Raime! We’re not saying we walk into the portal or whatever. Just... look. Take pictures. We show people and then we get help. Real help.”

  Alessandro rubbed his temple with one hand, the other still resting on the rifle. “You two don’t understand. You nearly died. That thing scrambled your brain, Albert. This isn’t a game, and not even an adventure. We have no idea what we’re dealing with.”

  “But it’s right there,” Raime said firmly. “We’re already here. We just fought off one of those things. We know what they can do now.”

  “That’s exactly why we should leave!” Alessandro shot back. “We know they can kill. We’re lucky to be alive.”

  “But we’re armed now. You’ve got the rifle, I’ve got the lever—”

  “That lever won’t do shit against a second one if it comes from behind while you’re out there posing for pictures!”

  “Then you cover me. You’re not alone in this.”

  “I have two kids to keep safe,” Alessandro said through clenched teeth. “That is my job.”

  “We’re not kids,” Victor muttered.

  “You’re ten.”

  “I’m ten and I climbed a tree faster than that thing could catch me!”

  Alessandro looked at him, something hard in his eyes. “That’s not courage, that’s adrenaline and panic. You don’t win fights with panic.”

  “We’re not fighting. We’re just looking,” Albert said. “Dad, please. We can’t pretend it didn’t happen.”

  Raime stepped between them. “Let me go first. Just me. You stay back in the trees with the rifle, keep the twins with you. I’ll go up, take the pictures, come right back. That’s it. No hero shit.”

  Alessandro let out a long sigh. His shoulders sagged a little seeing all of his sons against him. “Five minutes. That’s all. If I see anything move, I’m pulling you back by your hair.”

  Raime gave a tight nod. “Fair.”

  “You know that even with video, they might think it’s a fake, or a prank” Alessandro argued.

  “Then we take the body, too,” Raime said grimly. “We wrap it in a tarp, throw it in the back of the truck. Dead weight or not, it’s our way to being believed.”

  Alessandro sighed again, a headache already starting behind his eyes, and not caused by the monster, well… not directly. Then he clapped Raime on the shoulder, and added more softly, “And son… I saw what you did. You stood your ground. Protected them. I’ve never been prouder of you.”

  Raime didn’t speak, but something in his posture shifted. He nodded once, jaw tight, then looked away.

  Alessandro looked at his sons. “You two—no wandering. You point Raime the way, then stay with me. Not one step ahead. Clear?”

  “Yes, sir,” they chorused.

  “Let’s move then.” Raime said.

  Before heading out, Alessandro stopped Raime with a hand on his arm.

  “Hold up. Let me check you over, that thing got way too close.”

  Raime sighed but turned around, pulling off his jacket. The fabric had a few ragged tears where the creature’s claws had scraped him, but there were no deep gashes. Just bruises forming along his arms and a few shallow scratches on his shoulder.

  Alessandro gave a relieved nod. “No bleeding. You’re good.”

  Raime slipped the jacket back on, wincing slightly. “I’ll live.”

  “You’re damn lucky,” Alessandro said. “And a damn good fighter, too.”

  He handed Raime the steel lever — still stained with the creature’s black blood, but straight and strong.

  “Keep this close.”

  Raime looked down at the tool that had saved his life and gave a grim nod. “It’s heavy, but I’m starting to like it. I’m not letting go of it.”

  “You should give it a name,” Victor said with a grin. “Like the Nightmare Smasher or something.”

  Albert eyed it with reverence, a twinkle returning to his eyes after the terrifying ordeal.

  Raime glanced down. “It’s just a lever.”

  Victor shook his head. “Not anymore. You smashed a monster with it. That makes it a magical weapon now.”

  “Totally,” Albert said, nodding hard. “Like… forged by dwarves. Or enchanted by old wizards!”

  Raime smirked. “It was forged by Grandpa in the barn.”

  “Same thing!” Albert declared. “Except cooler, 'cause it's real!”

  Victor looked thoughtful. “What about... Bonecrusher?”

  Albert made a face. “Too boring. It needs personality.”

  Raime raised an eyebrow. “Personality?”

  “Yeah,” Albert said. “Something with punch. Like… Monster Buster! Or—oh! Thunk! Because it went THUNK when you hit that thing!”

  Victor laughed. “Yes! Thunk!”

  Raime groaned. “You want me to go into the woods carrying something named Thunk?”

  Albert threw his hands up. “It’s perfect! You saved us with it. It’s not just a lever anymore. It’s a hero weapon!”

  Raime looked down at the tool in his hands. “Grandpa made this to fix fences and dig roots. Not to split monster ribs.”

  “That’s why it’s awesome,” Victor said. “It’s like… old magic. Except the magic is family magic.”

  Albert nodded solemnly. “And also Thunk sounds funny.”

  Raime chuckled despite himself. “Alright, alright. You win. Thunk it is.”

  Victor raised an imaginary sword. “All hail Sir Raime, Wielder of Thunk!”

  Albert puffed out his chest. “The Beast Bonker! The Purple-Eye Popper!”

  Raime rolled his eyes, but his smile lingered. “Let’s just hope I don’t have to use it again.”

  Alessandro, rifle now held in hands, the weight of it familiar. “You boys done knighting your brother?”

  “They named the lever Thunk,” Raime said flatly.

  Alessandro let out a soft laugh. “Could be worse. Could’ve been Bonk.”

  “Not you too.”

  “I hate this,” Alessandro muttered. Breaking the joking atmosphere.

  “I know,” Raime replied quietly. “I do too. But if we walk away and someone else gets hurt…”

  He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t have to.

  Alessandro exhaled through his nose, then looked back at the boys. “They don’t leave our sight. Not for a second.”

  “Agreed.”

  The moment settled between them.

  “Alright,” Alessandro said, racking the bolt of the rifle. “Let’s go find this damn thing.”

  With that, they moved out. The four of them slipped into the woods, the crunch of leaves beneath their boots sounding louder than usual in the silence.

  The deeper they walked, the more the forest seemed to shift. The trees closed in tighter. Light filtered through the canopy in thin, oddly colored beams. The usual bird chatter was gone. No insects buzzed. The forest felt… waiting.

  Victor glanced back. “It was just up ahead. We saw it past that log.”

  “And the air started feeling weird right about here,” Albert added, hugging himself as he walked. Their earlier banter had vanished, swallowed by the forest’s stillness.

  As they crested a shallow rise, everything changed.

  A strange silence fell — thick and heavy. The breeze stopped. The air tingled faintly against their skin. Then they saw it.

  The portal shimmered in the clearing between two crooked trees, like a wound in the world. The air rippled around it — colors shifting like oil on water, swirling inside a tall, oval shape that had no defined edge. It wasn't transparent, nor fully opaque — more like a shimmer of heat or a stretched patch of reality.

  “There it is… It’s still here,” Victor said.

  Albert took a few steps closer but kept his distance. “It looks… different now. Shinier.”

  Alessandro narrowed his eyes. “It’s not reflecting anything. It’s like it’s swallowing the light.”

  Raime adjusted his grip on Thunk. “That’s not just air. I don’t know what it is, but it’s thick. You feel that? In your chest?”

  “I feel it,” Alessandro muttered. “Like it’s pressing back.”

  Albert whispered, “You think it’s… alive?”

  “No,” Alessandro replied. “I hope not.”

  “It looks like a hole in the world,” Raime said.

  Alessandro turned to the twins, his voice firm. “You two stay back. Stay in the trees where it’s safe.”

  Victor nodded quickly. Albert looked like he might argue — but then just swallowed and said, “Okay.”

  Raime stepped forward slowly, eyes locked on the shimmering oval. “Let’s take the pictures and get the hell out.”

  He raised his phone, hit record, and began circling to one side, careful not to get too close. The shimmer distorted the screen like a warped lens, refracting the image with oily hues.

  “This thing gives me the creeps,” Raime muttered. “Why’s it between these two trees?”

  “Maybe it needs an anchor,” Alessandro replied. “Or maybe it’s just… coincidence.”

  “No way this is a coincidence,” Raime said. “This is here on purpose.”

  They both fell quiet.

  The air near the shimmer was colder now — not freezing, just off, like shade that had weight.

  Raime moved off to the side, trying to get a clearer angle. His view was blocked by one of the crooked trees. He squinted and stepped closer.

  “Hold up,” Alessandro warned. “That’s close enough.”

  “I just wanna get an angle from the side. It’s not showing up well from where I am.”

  He stepped past the tree and onto a patch of moss.

  There was a flicker that passed through the air for a moment, like a glitch in reality. Everithing froze, and then a low hum that could be felt in the bones announced the change.

  A silence fell so thick it seemed to mute the whole world.

  In that still moment, all four of them stood frozen — staring at the glowing blue text that shimmered mid-air, inches from their eyes.

  [System Initialization Commencing…]

  [Planet Designation: MWOASS03]

  [Primary Sapient Species Detected: Homo sapiens]

  [Activation of planetary System Nodes]

  [Dimensional Rift Protocol: Activated]

  [System Integration Status: 0.001% Complete]

  [All sapient beings, please stand by]

  “…What the hell is this?” Alessandro muttered.

  Victor blinked, trying to wave the translucent interface away. “Is it… a hologram?”

  “It’s in my head,” Albert whispered. “I didn’t even blink and it was just… there.”

  Raime didn’t speak. His jaw was clenched, eyes still locked on the air in front of him. The words hadn’t disappeared, not yet. His fingers flexed unconsciously around the lever.

  Then, slowly, the system message faded and disappeared. The world came rushing back.

  And the shimmer pulsed.

  A low woomph echoed from the portal — deep, like something exhaling after holding its breath for a thousand years.

  Then came the light.

  The shimmer flared — too bright — and in a flash, it expanded outward into a perfect sphere. The warped light exploded in a thunderclap, the sound muffled like it came from underwater.

  Alessandro was thrown back, landing hard on the grass.

  “RAIME!” he shouted.

  Everything inside the sphere had vanished — Raime, the trees, the moss, the rocks.

  It didn’t disintegrate.

  It was replaced.

  In that space now stood alien terrain: dark soil veined with violet roots, foreign grasses, and a faint glow to the air — twilight light where it shouldn't be. The forest smelled… sharp. Metallic.

  Victor and Albert stood frozen.

  “What just happened?” Albert whispered. “Wh-where is he?”

  Alessandro staggered, heart pounding. He ran to the edge of the new terrain — a perfect circular border where Earth ended and something else began.

  “…No…” he breathed. “No, no, no…”

  He turned to the twins.

  “Stay there!” he shouted, voice cracking.

  He took a step forward, then stopped — afraid to trigger another pulse.

  In front of him, the shimmer stood like frozen in time.

  And a message from the system appeared in front of Alessandro.

  [Rift temporarily locked. See Administrator for further details.]

  Nothing.

  “…Raime?” he whispered.

  The name echoed back in the wrong kind of silence.

  Raime was gone.