Astral Realm

I never believed in the occult or the supernatural. Ghost, witches, vampires, demons...….. it was all malarkey. Just Hollywood propaganda to get you to splurge on bad movies and cheap Halloween props. At least that's what the three of us thought, until my friend, Mike, found that book.  

"Ok, so what the heck is it?" I asked.

"Come on, Jake..." said my friend Donnie, "...I know you have trouble reading, but I thought you'd at least be able to recognize a book when you see one." he joked.

"Shut up!" I shouted as I playfully shoved him.

"Come on you guys, focus!" cried Mike. "I'm telling you, this book is legit. If we play our cards right, we can have everything we want at the tip of our fingers." We had never seen Mike so excited and determined. It was inspiring, yet slightly disturbing.

"So what is it? One of those self help books? Or one of those 'get rich, turn twenty dollars into two thousand dollars', sort of schemes?" asked Donnie.

"Nah, none of that" said Mike. "This book has power. Real power! Like turning the impossible into reality."

"You mean, like magic?" I asked half jokingly.

"Exactly!" yelled Mike.

Donnie and I looked at each other in shock, then burst into a fit of laughter.

"Man, you made me sneak out of my house in the middle of the night for this?!" yelled Donnie.

"I know right?!" I said in between bouts of laughter. "I mean, Mike, I haven't played dungeon and dragons in years, but if that's what you wanted, we could have dusted off the game and went a couple of rounds." Donnie and I roared in laughter as we slapped each other high five. 

We looked up and expected Mike to be upset, yet he stood there with a smirk on his face. He wasn't smiling at our jokes. He had a devious smile, as if he knew something that we didn't. Like my grandmother would say, 'he looked like the cat that ate the canary'.

Mike then opened the book to a page he had book marked and yelled out the word, 'Ignis'. Suddenly, flames shot from his hands like a stream of water and set the nearby bush on fire.

"OH!" screamed Donnie as we both fell to the ground. We scrambled to get away from the burning bush.

"Yo! What the heck was that, man?!" I cried

"You believe me now?" Mike asked sarcastically. He knew we had no choice but to believe him.

"Yea...yea, we believe you" stammered Donnie.

"Where did you get something like that?!" I demanded. 

"Some guy gave most of his possessions to my dad, in order to get bonded out of jail." said Mike.

"Your dad is one of the highest paid bails bondsmen in the county" said Donnie. "I thought he only dealt with cold, hard cash. What made him take a plain, old book as payment?"

"Plain, old book?! Did you not just see what that 'plain, old book' can do?!" I shouted, still in disbelief.

"That's the thing..." said Mike "...my dad has no idea what he has! He accepted the book, of course. He said with the condition and texture, it looked like an antique. He was holding it until he could get it appraised on a later day. He never even cracked the book open. I took it, just curious to see what was inside. And when I read one of the words out loud.....well, you've seen for yourself."

"This is nuts..." I said, "...and dangerous!"

"This is awesome!" yelled Donnie. "What was that word again?"

"Donnie, No!" I shouted.

"Ignis!" he yelled.

I dove on the ground and covered my head with my hands. To my surprise, nothing happened.

"Hey, what gives?" asked Donnie. He sounded so disappointed.

"It won't work like that..." said Mike while shaking his head, "...if it were that simple, everyone would have magic just from speaking."

"You're telling me there are rules to this?" asked Donnie.

"Sort of" said Mike.

"And you've figured them out, on such short notice?" I questioned.

"Of course." said Mike. "What? You thought I just did one spell and came running to ya'll? Last thing I needed was to attempt to pull off a trick and it failed." It actually made sense.

"Alright, so what did you find out, Harry Potter?" chuckled Donnie.

"So far, I've only discovered three important factors needed to pull off a spell." Mike explained, "First, the book has to be opened on the page that the spell caster intends to use. Second, the spell caster has to physically be touching the book. It won't work if the book is across the room. Lastly, the spellcaster has to yell out the name of the spell, if you don't speak it out loud, it won't work."

"Man, you came up with all of that by yourself?" I asked.

"Hey, what can I say? I can do amazing things when I'm motivated."

"Speaking of motivated, what exactly are you motivated to do?" I asked. "You never said how we can use this to get what we wanted."

"Can I see the book while y'all talk?" asked Donnie.

"Sure" said Mike. "Just don't read any words out loud until we discuss it first."

"Cool." said Donnie.

As Mike handed Donnie the book, I got a closer look at it. It didn't look like what I would expect. In the movies, books like that would have vibrant colors, all kinds of weird symbols, or glow a crazy color. This book was black with a silver colored out line. It didn't even have words written on the cover. I did noticed that inside the book were different book marks with all types of colors.

"What's with all the different color book marks?" I asked.

"Those are my labels." answered Mike. " The pages with the red book marks can help us fight crime or stop disasters, red is for adventure and danger. The pages marked with the blue book marks is for solving mysteries and helping out those less fortunate, blue is for peace. And the pages marked with green book marks can help us get rich, the color green should be self explanatory."

"Man, you've really put a lot of thought and planning into this" I said.

"It's what I do" smirked Mike as he patted himself on the back.

"What about the black book mark?" I asked. Mike's whole demeanor changed and a wave of fear swept over him.

"Don't worry about that page" said Mike solemnly. "It can't help us, just leave it alone."

"Whatever you say" I said. If it was enough to make Mike nervous, I wanted no parts of it.

"This page even feels wrong..." said Donnie. "...I mean. what the heck is 'Astralis Regnum' anyway?"

"NO DONNIE!" screamed Mike. But it was too late. It was a flash of light and then a big boom. We were dazed for a minute, but when we got our bearings, we realized that we were on the other side of town, the book was gone, and the sky was...red?!

"What happened?" I yelled. 

"Donnie screwed us, that's what happened!" screamed Mike.

"Me?!" said Donnie

"Yes, you!" yelled Mike! "I told you, not to yell out any spells unless we talked about it first. And out of ALL the spells you could've blurted out, you had to say that one!

"It's not my fault!" said Donnie. "I forgot how the spells worked. Plus why didn't you just warn us?"

"Stop!" I yelled. "This isn't getting us anywhere. And there's no need to panic."

"Oh there's plenty of reason to panic" said Mike. The sweat poured from his head like a running faucet.

"Really, it's not that serious." said Donnie. "I mean, I've seen enough movies to know, we were on one side of the town, now we're on the other side. Simple teleportation."

"That doesn't explain why the sky looks like it's on fire" I said.

"This isn't a teleportation spell" said Mike, his voice trembling. "And we're not in town, at least not in 'our' town."

"Just tell us what's going on" I demanded.

Mike sat on the curb and dropped his head. "The spell you read, 'Astralis Regnum', when translated to English, its called the Astral Realm. Where we are, it looks like our world, but its another plane of existence. I don't know it's the spirit world, an alternate universe, or just a shadow version of our world. All I know is, this place is wrong, and we don't belong here.

"How many times have you been here?" I asked.

"This is my third time" said Mike. " The first time was out of curiosity. I thought it was an illusion or dream spell. The second time, I almost didn't make it back."

"Well if you've been here before, then you must know how to get back?" i asked

"Yes" said Mike. "We have to go to the spot that looks like the location where Donnie chanted the spell. Our physical forms will be there, plus the book. We have to touch the book and yell the words 'Domum'.

"That's it?" asked Donnie. "That sounds easy"

"Simple..." said Mike, "...but far from easy.

"Come on..." protested Donnie, "...we got a scenic, stroll across a bright colored version of our town. Ooooohhh, red sky, how scary." he mocked.

"That's not what you have to worry about" said Mike. His face was as pale as a ghost.

"So what's the problem then?" asked Donnie.

As if on cue, a loud growl pierced the air that made the ground tremble beneath us. The sound was otherworldly, and was unlike anything we'd ever heard before. The closest thing to describe it was if a bat's screech combined with a lion's roar.

"What the hell was that?!" I yelled.

"That...That is what you need to worry about." said Mike as he almost collapsed to the ground.

"What is that sound? Man, that can't be real, can it" asked Donnie. He sounded like he was on the verge of tears.

"I don't know what it is." said Mike. "All I know is, it chases me every time I enter this realm. And I don't want to think about what will happen if it catches us." 

"Well, I'm not waiting around here to find out! Let's go!" yelled Donnie as he grabbed us and pulled us in the direction we needed to go.

We non stop for at least two miles without getting tired. Must be a side effect of being in this realm. We were near the location where the spell was cited. I could see the book and our physical bodies mere feet away.

"We're almost there!" I yelled. As we approached the spot, a tall gruesome creature jumped between us. The creature was at least seven feet tall with deer like antlers on his head. It's eyes were narrow like a lizards. I had sharp claws that looked like butcher knives on his hands. It's teeth were small, but curved a pointed, like one hundred fish hooks. It's hot breath radiated on us like an electric heater in the middle of winter. I didn't know what the creature was, but I think I recognized the look in its eyes...it was hungry.

We we all paralyzed with fear. Fearful that one false move could cause the creature to pounce on us. All seemed lost.

"You guy's head for the book, I'm gonna try to distract it." whispered Mike.

His words snapped me out of my daze. "Are you crazy?!" I snapped. "You won't last five seconds!"

"I won't. But maybe I can last long enough to buy you guys some time." said Mike. "After all, I'm the one who got us into this mess."

"No you didn't..." said Donnie, "I got us into this, I'll be the one to get us out. ALL of us. But i need both of you to help. Are you with me?"

"Yes" said Mike.

"Not much of a choice" I said.

"Ok. On three, we rush it."

"WHAT?!?!?" Mike and I said in unison.

"Trust me..." said Donnie, "...it's either all of us or none of us"

"On three..." he started. My heart was beating so hard, it felt like it would jump out of my chest.

"...one..." Mike clenched his jaws and rocked back in forth in place. He was sweating bullets.

"...two..." the creature snarled in anticipation, like it knew what we were planning and was delighted by the challenge.

"...THREE!" yelled Donnie. I closed my eyes and darted ahead. We all lunged forward at the creature and to my surprise, we actually managed to topple it. The creature lay on the ground, with us on top of it. For a split second, we actually felt triumphant. That feeling quickly evaporated as the creature grabbed me in one hand, and Mike in the other. He brought me closer to his face. It's breath was so hot that I thought it would melt the skin off of my face. It opened its jaws and I said a quick prayer, for I knew this was the end.

"IGNIS" yelled Donnie.

Fire exploded from the palms of his hands as he set the creature a blaze. It howled in pain as it rolled on the ground to put itself out.

"Mike!" yelled Donnie. "What were the words again?!" he asked, panicking.

"Domum!" yelled Mike. " But it's got to be on the page. It's 205!"

Donnie turned the pages in the book like his life depended on it, which it did.

"Got it!" yelled Donnie. "DOMUM!" And with a flash of light, we were back home. Our home. I never thought I'd be so happy see my small, boring town.

"We made it" I said as I let out a sigh of relief.

"I can't believe it" said Mike.

"Well, believe it," bragged Donnie, "I told y'all to trust me. You'd be amazed what I can do when I put my mind to it."

"Yea, you saved us..." said Mike, "...of course you're the one who put us in danger in the first place!" he teased.

"It was your book, Voldemort!" Donnie joked back.

"All I know is, I'm glad to be home."

We all high fived and started to head home, when we froze in horror. The nice, cool, fall breeze was replace by a sweltering blaze on the back of our necks. The warm air on our backs was quickly followed by low growls. We didn't need to turn around to know what had happened...the creature had come to our world.