Portal From the Underworld

Angel watched the restroom door. A small, stout woman, barely taller than the doorknob’s height, with lime-green hair and a bright, reflective safety vest had gone in several minutes earlier and still hadn’t come out. She hadn’t locked the door, so the green “Vacant” still showed. Angel was so busy watching the door that she didn’t see the woman with the squirming baby until she was already at the door.

Angel opened her mouth to warn her that the room was occupied, but before she could say anything the young woman had gone in and locked the door. With the red “Occupied” showing, Angel wondered what was going on. Was the other woman still in there? Little person or no, she’d be hard to miss.

When the young mother re-emerged with her baby, Angel decided she couldn’t wait any longer. If the green-haired lady was still in there, that was on her.

There was room for a toilet, a sink, a baby-changing station that folded down from the wall, a waste basket below the paper towel dispenser, and just enough room and handholds for wheelchair users to qualify it as “accessible.” What there wasn’t, was a stout, little, green-haired woman in a yellow safety vest.

Angel looked at herself in the mirror above the sink while she washed her hands. I must’ve not been looking when she came out, she thought, or maybe she didn’t go in and I didn’t see it right.

There was a smaller voice that she ignored, trying to tell herself that maybe she didn’t see the woman at all. Angel rubbed the stubble on her head as she walked out. Her coworkers had teased her about having a breakdown and “going full Britney.”

She pretended their comments didn’t bother her, but they did. They wormed their way into her brain like a parasite, infecting her with self-doubt. Her fingers touched the burn at the back of her head. It wasn’t serious, but the pain reminded her that she’d had a good reason to shave her head.

A kid at his birthday party with silly string, plus his auntie with her back turned was a predictable outcome, judging by the amount she’d already had in her hair. The introduction of the birthday cake with lit candles, though, turned the next spray into a flaming projectile.

She still felt awful that she’d ruined his birthday party. There’s something about a grown woman screaming with her hair on fire that puts a damper on the mood. The ER doctor that shaved the back of her head to get at the burn — mostly first degree with a patch of second degree — was kind enough to shave off everything else. It was that or leave the ER looking like a horror movie villain.

Angel returned to the bench to wait for the bus. She still had forty minutes to wait. It was the big downside to living in the boonies — spotty public transportation. She found herself watching the restroom without meaning to. A thin woman with ghostly pale skin and deep brown hair, wearing a safety vest like the one worn by the woman that had disappeared, stepped into the restroom.

When the woman didn’t immediately lock the door, Angel jumped up from the bench and burst into the restroom. She was ready to apologize but there was no one there she could apologize to. A faint odor of ozone hung in the air, as though an electrical appliance had shorted in the room.

She ran her hands along the sink. When her fingers touched a spot of water on the edge of the basin, a shock ran up her arm, making her jump back.

Even as she boarded the bus for the hour-long journey home, she was trying to rationalize what she’d seen and felt. Maybe she’d seen a man and he’d gone into the men’s restroom. That, combined with static, probably from sitting on the plastic bench, explained it.

Her sleep was fitful, and she woke unrefreshed. The oddity of the restroom bothered her. She didn’t have to work that day, but she packed a lunch in her backpack and took the bus to the city anyway. Ignoring that it made her look suspicious, she watched everyone that came by in a yellow safety vest. The men’s room had a conspicuous “Out of Order” sign hanging from the knob and police tape crossed over it.

She was halfway through a sandwich when a thin man in a yellow safety vest looked at the “Out of Order” sign and walked past to the women’s room. Angel did her best to not look like she was watching. She saw him knock, then duck into the women’s restroom from the corner of her eye.

The door hadn’t had time to close completely by the time she got to it and burst in. The air crackled around the man as he sprinkled water from the sink at his feet. Angel grabbed for his arm and heard a crackle and pop as she was blinded by a blue flash.

Her vision returned, albeit with spots. The man was gone, as was the water he’d sprinkled on the floor around him. She dropped the now-squashed half sandwich into the waste basket and looked at the sink. Feeling silly, she cupped a hand under the automatic faucet and let the collected water drip on her feet.

She felt the hair on her arms stand on end, then found herself standing on a flat stone at the edge of a spring. The air was warm and heavy with the scent of lilac. Hummingbirds drank from flowers on a vine that Angel couldn’t identify. As her gaze shifted away from the immediate surroundings, she found herself facing unbroken wilderness.

Behind her was a road, not of asphalt or concrete or cobbles, but appeared to be an unbroken, smooth slab of granite. She walked out to the center of the road and looked down it. Flanked by trees on both sides, it led straight into the hills where she could see a glimpse of a city.

The sound of wheels crunching over gravel came from behind and she spun around to see what had to be a car. All the parts were there, four wheels with inflated tires, windows, doors, and a driver and passenger. Beyond that, though, it was odd. There was no room front or rear for an engine, and with how quiet it was she guessed it was electric.

The mismatched pair got out. The short woman with green hair she’d seen the previous day, and who she guessed was the thin, pale woman she’d seen after. She hadn’t noticed then, but the thin woman had ears with tall points on them. The shorter woman had her hair pulled up and had smaller points on her ears.

The two approached Angel and the shorter one spoke. “I’m Arva, and she’s Elynia. You’re a human, ain’tcha?”

“Uh, yeah, yes I am.” Angel looked around her again. “Where are we?”

“On the highway between the village of Ost and King City,” Elynia said, “by the Underworld Spring. Who are you, and how did you get here?”

“Oh, sorry. I’m Angel, and you both disappeared in the bathroom yesterday, so today I followed a man in—”

“An elf, you mean,” the thin one interjected.

“Elf?”

“Like me. He’s an elf, not a man. Man hasn’t been here for centuries,” Elynia said.

“So, you’re an elf.” Angel pointed at Arva. “Does that mean you’re—”

“A dwarf, right.” 

“Uh, okay, an elf, who was sprinkling water on his feet, and he popped away in a flash of blue light.” Angel shrugged. “I did what I saw him doing and then I was here.”

The small, stout woman said, “You shouldn’ta’ seen that. Ah well, what’s done is done. You’re the first human to cross in what … six, maybe seven-hundred years or thereabouts.”

“Um, cross? Cross what? You said the Underworld Spring. Is this the Underworld? Am I dead?” Angel thought she should be fearful, but all she felt was curiosity.

“No. This is the Overworld. You’re from the Underworld.” Elynia pointed at the spring. “That spring is one of the ‘matching places’ between our worlds. Humans built a city near it and turned the spring into a ‘Park and Ride’ as you call it. Beneath that parking lot and bus stop is the spring, and that’s where the water for your restrooms comes from. It’s the water that ties the realms together.”

“At least until it dries up on your side or ours,” Arva said. “You said he went into the ladies? Why didn’t he use the men’s? It works just the same.”

“Oh, it’s out of order or something. But there’s police tape, too, so—”

“Never mind, I don’t wanna know. The Underworld’s a mess.” Arva let out an exaggerated sigh and snorted. “I don’t suppose we’ll have time to make a crossing today, seeing how we got a human to take to the watch.”

“I can tell you’re all sorts of sad about that,” Elynia said. “Well, Angel, would you like to join us in the car, and we can head to the city? If not, we’ll call the watch to come get you.”

“They’ll just make us do it,” Arva said, flashing a badge.

“What if I just go back to the spring and sprinkle the water on my feet? Wouldn’t I return home?”

“You might, but the watch’ll still come after you.” Arva opened the car. “If you go with us, we can get your promise to secrecy and let you go. Otherwise, we noticed that humans don’t pay attention to people in safety vests. Especially when there’s a group of them, say, lugging all your belongings out of your home. No one would see the watch take you, and your neighbors would assume you moved.”

“Okay, so disappeared or go to the watch and promise to keep mum.” Angel thought for a moment. “Is it in the village, or the city?”

“The city, of course,” Elynia said.

“Well, I guess I could take a look at your city, but I’d really like to check out the village. The air’s so clean here, is everything electric like your car?”

“It’s not electric,” Arva said. “It runs on magic.”

“Right. Because that makes so much sense.” Angel crossed her arms. “I’m not a gullible child.”

“Yet you activated an ancient portal with a sprinkle of water, popped up to the Overworld, and think that everything still needs to work as it does in the Underworld.” Elynia laughed.

“Oh, yeah, that.” Angel got into the car and sat down, followed by the dwarf and elf. “Okay, take me to the watch.”

The doors closed and the car pulled onto the road and took off at speed. No one controlled it, and there were no controls to do so. “Mighty bold to just take command of my car,” Arva said.

“Take command? I was talking to you.” Angel sighed. “Sorry.”

“It shouldn’t take orders from anyone but me,” Arva said, “but you shouldn’t be able to activate the portal, either.”

“I told you I saw magic in a human yesterday.” Elynia wore a smug expression. “This is the one I saw.”

“I didn’t think it possible.” The dwarf stared at Angel. “I guess magic’s not completely dead in the Underworld, then.”

The city rose up before them, spires instead of skyscrapers, parks and green spaces everywhere, and the soft murmur of conversations without the noise of machinery. The watch building was a two-story stone structure that was clearly equivalent to a police station.

Angel entered to gasps as uniformed dwarves, elves, and others she couldn’t identify right off, turned to face her. She gave an awkward wave. “Hi. I’m a human and I got here by, uh, following a guy.”

After two hours of confused questioning, magical testing, and lots of ogling by the other officers, Angel signed a promise to not tell anyone else in the “Underworld” how to cross. She also found a common sense of humor in the dwarf and joined her and Elynia for an early dinner in the city.

Angel checked the time. “Crap. The last bus home is in ten minutes. I won’t make it back.”

“Why don’t you stay at my place tonight? We’ve got to put on the stupid vests and go back to the Underworld tomorrow anyway,” Elynia said. “You’ll get to see at least a little of the village.”

“Yeah, I could do that.” Angel thought for a minute. “What are you two doing at lunch tomorrow? I know this great place downtown. Little hole in the wall that does the best Mexican.”

They discussed their plans for the following day as they filed out of the restaurant and piled into the car for the drive to the village.