“I’m going inside,” Will said. “I have to follow him.”

“Do we go too?” Bet said.

Will had to make the decision fast. He didn’t know how long the pocket would stay open.

“No, stay here. I’ll talk to him alone,” he said. Then, before Bet or Ezra could argue, he stepped into the purple pocket.

Will stood, nearly against the wall of the house, amazed by what he saw next. It looked the same as the outside world, only everything was purple. It was as if he looked through some sort of violet-shaded sunglasses. Once inside, the pocket behind him closed. Beside him, stood Ezra and Bet.

They were both purple, and as they talked to one another, Will noticed that their mouths moved especially slowly. It was like they had been “wound down.”

“So, are you coming?” It was the man’s voice… but it came from the other side of the wall.

“I went in the pocket, now what?” Instead of getting an answer from the man, Swoop hopped off Will’s shoulder and flew through the wall. In a matter of seconds, she reappeared and landed again on his shoulder.

“I see your Cakrit knows what it’s doing. Trust it, and follow the sound of my voice.”

Will was determined to do this. He took a deep breath and walked through the wall. It only took a few steps for the edge to fade away and reveal the inside of the mysterious man’s home. It was all one wide and open room. There was a bed on one side and a place for cooking on the opposite wall. It had several cabinets and a wide stove with a slowly burning fire. There was a table and chairs nearby.

The man stood by the table, the dog curled at his feet.

“So, you’re in,” the man said. “Now, very simple… step out.”

“How?” Will didn’t know what to do.

“Use your Cakrit,” he said.

Will turned his body to shield the man from seeing what he did next. He reached into his pocket and carefully unsnapped the lid of his pill bottle. He slipped out a piece of Binder. When he turned back, the man was smiling.

Will gave the piece to Swoop, and as she ate it, he felt a wondrous excitement radiate through his body. She finished quickly and waited.

“Show her where,” the man said. “You have to point. That’s where the whole Darkhand name comes from. That and the gloves.” The man tapped his black leather gloves together.

Will extended his hand and nervously pointed ahead of him. Swoop immediately swept in front of him and turned a wide circle. It looked as if she cut a hole in the purple haze, through the pocket everything appeared as it did when he was outside of this strange, new world.

“Step out,” the man said. “I’ll follow.”

As soon as he did so, everything snapped back to the vision that he was used too. The purple haze over everything was gone. Will stepped a few feet from the pocket and turned around to examine it. It remained a purple patch. Will thought of it as a window. It looked to be the color of whatever world was on the other side.

Hardly a second passed before the man stepped out, followed by his shaggy dog. The pocket then puffed away in a haze.

“So how was it?”

“How was what?” Will said.

“How was your first trip to the Voidside?”

What is the Darkhand teacher’s name?

Schiff

Credic

Tal

This Poll is Closed