Faire Exchange: Chapter 33

Jeremy goes to another plane of existence.

Welcome to another chapter of Faire Exchange, here on Alex Scott’s Word Associations.

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Zoe took forever to go downstairs. She was such a worrywart that every step into this stupid basement took forever. Waiting behind her, Jeremy couldn't even budge until she finished a step and started the whole process over again. He'd thought scaring her would make her run, but all it did was make her mad at him. Just when he thought she was starting to like him. What was he thinking?

But eventually Jeremy and Zoe joined Gregg, Martin, Nadia, and Papu among shelves of boxes of various sizes, along with bizarre metal and clay artifacts. The doorway in the far wall led to an empty space…

…Or at least, it seemed empty. Somehow it felt like a looking straight down a spiral staircase, only without the stairs. "I guess that's the portal?" Jeremy said.

"We don't have to go in there, do we?" Zoe said.

"That's up to you," Bellagera said. "We intend to bring Rina back here one way or the other… Though I can't say how long it'll take. For what it's worth, we did eventually want to invite Earth kids to Faerie anyway."

"You haven't already?" Jeremy said. "I mean, this is an exchange program, isn't it?"

"I've been wondering about that!" Gregg said.

"Of course," Bellagera said, "but we thought it wiser to try our children in your schools first, to give our peoples a chance to get to know each other. If it was successful, then we could bring human children like you into our schools. Not that it'll matter unless we find Rina soon."

"So what do we think?" Martin said. "Do we go?"

"I say we vote on it," Nadia said.

"All opposed!" Zoe shot her hand into the air and kept it up while she looked around. Martin raised his hand as well. "All in favor?"

Nadia and Gregg both raised their hands.

That left Jeremy.

Granted, this wasn't exactly what he'd set out to do when he got here. He thought he'd meet with Rina, say he's sorry, and maybe he and Martin could even be persuaded to get the Bangle off her wrist. Compared to coming clean to Mom later, this should have been simple. Going to an entirely different plane of existence was a whole other tall order altogether.

On the other hand, he was at the point now where he did genuinely want to apologize. This was too much to go through if Rina just wanted some alone time. She was running from something terrible, hateful, and frightening, something she couldn't stand another minute. Something that Jeremy knew included him.

Besides, how many kids get to say that they've been to a different plane of existence?

He raised his hand.

Nadia lowered hers and turned to Bellagera. "Guess that's it. We're ready."

"All right, this way." Bellagera pushed a button on the wall by the doorway. The space inside it began to wobble. Without another word, he stepped into the wobbling space and vanished. Papu went next.

Nadia stepped up to the space. Gregg placed his hand on her shoulder. They nodded to one another, slipped in together.

Martin shut his eyes, took a deep breath, and stepped in.

Zoe motioned to the wobbling space. "Well? You voted for it."

"Yeah," Jeremy said. And now he knew how she felt at the top of the stairs. A whole other world, in just a few steps? Could he handle that? "Sure you don't need me to watch your back?"

"I've got my eye on you this time."

"Fine, fine, I'll go." Jeremy stepped closer to the space. "I can hold your hand, if that'll help."

"Touch me again and I'll slug you."

Worth a shot anyway. He really did blow it, didn't he? "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have… You know."

"Yeah, look, you don't like me, I don't like you. Let's get this over with."

"But I do like… Uh…"

Jeremy's face felt like it could fry an egg. Zoe's face twitched into bewilderment, and her angelic eyes slipped toward the floor. "Just get in already."

"Yes'm." Jeremy stared at his feet and walked into the wobbling space.

As soon as he took his second step through, the world seemed to pull him in every direction at once—upside down and rightside up and left and right and a direction or two Jeremy wasn't sure he recognized. Maybe one of them was meggle. Yet despite this, he was still moving forward, step by step, deeper into the basement.

Another step, and the sensation stopped. Jeremy was once again standing on solid ground.

And he was no longer in the basement.

The room was big and spacious, and massive, stylized statues of human (Wyrdnin?) figures stood along the walls. Copious amounts of sunlight poured down through a vaulted ceiling made entirely of glass. Gregg, Nadia, Martin, Papu, and Bellagera were standing and waiting.

Then Zoe appeared behind him, and the space in the doorway stopped wobbling. She looked around and gasped at everything around her. "Where are we?" She glanced at Jeremy, and Jeremy glanced away.

"This is a portal station for travel between Earth and Faerie," Papu said. "It's over a thousand years old, and they restored it to help with the Exchange."

"And you think Rina's close?" Jeremy said. "She couldn't have just meggled a hundred miles away?"

"Of course not," Bellagera said. "We're just a short walk from her house."