The Phantom Crystal

Power Outage

There is a beat of silence before Rae sighs heavily as she sits.  I look at her curiously.

“What?” I ask, barely resisting to roll my eyes as she tucks herself into Casper’s side, her dark purple sweatshirt standing out against the stark white sweatshirt that Casper is wearing.

Rae frowns, her eyes glancing at me then returning to the tv. 

“I just wish that they would think more about going off on these types of errands,” Rae says, shifting as Casper throws an arm around her shoulders. “I mean, we all know the dangers of just meeting up with a stranger stating that they have an item that you want to purchase, I’m just worried that one of these times, this person is gonna harm them, ya know? Mom and Dad are so well-known that I’m sure there are people out there who want to harm them.”

I tilt my head, thinking over my sister’s words. I’ve had this fear multiple times as well. Mom and Dad have been featured in so many different paranormal shows and many different scientific journals and magazines, so their faces are out there. I press my can against my cheek.

“I think I would be more worried if it wasn’t for the fact that Ian was the one who found this guy,” I say, humming. “Ian has so many contacts and hearing that he is going to be there is what helps me from worrying too much.” 

Rae’s lips pinch into a thin line. “I guess. But I’ve never really trusted Ian’s contacts. They always seem to be sketchy.”

“Babe,” Casper says, kissing her temple. “I’m sure your parents did their research before agreeing to this. Your mom was on her tablet the moment she got the phone call from what I could tell. Maybe she was doing research on the area and making sure that the meet-up place will be safe.”

My lips quirk. “Or she was merely reading more paranormal journals. You know she goes through spurts of wanting to read and reread as many of those journals as possible. Especially when she is about to start working on the Portal again.”

Casper throws me an aspirated look and mouths; 

“Not helping.”

“And that’s another thing!” Rae shouts, sitting up rapidly. “How do we know that that thing is even safe?! It literally melted iron! Did Dad show you the piece that got destroyed? It had a massive hole in it.” Rae slumps back, Casper moving his arm so she doesn’t land on it. “I just don’t want them to blow up the house and getting hurt.”

A sigh builds up in my throat before I quickly swallow it down. Rae will just get angry if she hears me sigh. It’s not like I don’t believe her or worry about the same thing, but there really isn’t much that we can do about any of this. Mom has been working on the Portal long before she met Dad and believes that the Portal will change how they can help those still trapped on Earth. I shift in my seat.

“I think Mom has made some tweaks to the Portal since she last fired it up,” I say, hoping to soothe my agitated sister. “And I highly doubt Mom would be trying to build something that runs the risk of exploding. Do you really think she would have built it in our basement while having kids running around?”

Rae mutters something that I can’t quite catch but I choose to ignore it as I go to sip my drink, only to find the can empty. My nose scrunches in distaste. Great. Placing the can down on the side table next to me, I turn my focus to the tv when the lights flicker.

The three of us glance up toward the ceiling as everything flickers one more time before finally going dark. I click my tongue in irritation. 

“Maybe a transformer went due to the wind outside,” Casper says, sitting up, his eyebrows furrowing. 

“I’ll see if the switcher will do anything, otherwise we’re gonna have to wait for the transformer.”

A grunt escapes me as I stand and pad my way over to the lab part of the basement. At least Mom and Dad keep everything on their tables so I don’t have to worry about kicking anything. Light streams in through the single window directly above the breaker box, which is also very helpful. I glance at my smartwatch. 3:12 pm. 

I pout.

Why couldn’t the power go out before I woke up? If the power doesn’t come back soon, the house is going to get really cold really quickly.

“Have you found the breaker box yet, Jack?” Rae calls out.

“I’m almost to it, I just gotta make sure it’s not locked,” I call back, standing on my tippy toes to reach the small metal box. Curse me and my short legs. 

“Okay, Casper and I are gonna run upstairs and grab blankets, just in case,” Rae says, her voice already further away. 

“M’kay,” I mutter as I brace myself on the table as I finally open the breaker box. Tapping on my smartwatch, I turn on the flashlight feature and point it toward the switches.

There are five different switches; Garage, Living Room, Kitchen, Upstairs, and Basement. Reaching out, I start flipping switches, waiting for a beat between each switch. 

“Is anything happening?” I call out as I reach the ‘Basement’ switch and flip it back and forth.

“No!” Comes a muffled reply upstairs, but I can’t really tell if Casper or Rae responded. 

I glance toward the lights hanging above the lab area. Nothing. Sighing, I step back from the breaker box, frowning at it. Seriously? Is it really just a transformer that went? And what could have happened to that transformer? Did someone hit it? Did a tree get blown on top of it?

Wonder if any of our neighbors are experiencing this issue. Shaking my head, I turn and head back into the finished part of the basement. Wonder if we still have that portable bonfire out in the garage. We could roast some marshmallows until the power comes back.

My steps falter when a flicker of blue light to my right catches my attention. Turning, I stare at the Portal, the hairs on my arms standing on end when the glass panel flickers on.

“What?” I mutter, stepping closer. My hand hovers over the panel as a soft whine emits from the Portal. “No power should be going to this. Mom disabled the power supply until she could find that part.” My eyes flicker toward the arc part of the Portal. My heart jumps into my throat as a small pinprick of blue light is hovering in the center of the Portal.

“Uh, Rae? Casper?” I call out, stepping back from the Portal. “We, uh, we have a situation.”

I bite my lip as the pinprick starts to grow and no reply comes from my sister or her boyfriend.

How is it doing that? It’s obviously getting power from somewhere. But where? 

I jump when the light suddenly expands out, engulfing the entire arc section of the Portal.

“Oh, s**t, Rae! Stay upstairs!” I shout out, frozen in place as the light twirls and spins. The Portal shouldn’t be working! It doesn’t even have all of its parts! What’s going on?

“Jack?” Rae’s voice calls down the stairs. “Why are you yelling? We can’t hear you. Do you need us?”

My stomach somersaults as I hear the stairs creak.

“NO!” I shout out. “Don’t come down h—“

Air rushes from my lungs when something solid slams into my chest. My back slams into the ground as something heavy lands on top of me, pinning me down. Choking on air, spots dance in my eyes as I try to focus on what just happened. Ringing fills my ears as a figure slowly comes into focus. My mouth dries and I shiver.

On my chest is a large greyish-blue humanoid creature. Their nose is beak-like, hooking down and large, nearly peeking over their overly wide mouth. Large soulless black eyes blink down at me and take up most of the creature’s face. The creature’s chest is very broad but tapers down to near a skeletal appearance. Long lanky arms push on my chest, leaving a very cold feeling as the creature shifts back and although they don’t have any pupils, I can just tell that they are glancing around.

My eyes flicker down as the creature moves and I realize that they are cradling something in their left arm. The ringing in my ears slowly fades as the creature moves but is replaced by a scream. Rae’s screaming.

The creature stops barely an arm’s length away but I don’t dare glance over at my sister, knowing that Casper will be there to help her out. The grey creature glances over their bony shoulder, curling in on themselves as they stare at the swirling light of the Portal. My body tenses when the creature turns back to me, their soulless eyes landing on me again as if studying me.

“Who—“ I start only to be cut off as goosebumps break out all over my entire body and the lights around us start going crazy. The creature jumps, whipping their head to look back at the Portal before turning back toward me, looking down at the thing in their arms.

“You will have to do,” the creature hisses, their lipless mouth pulling back into a sneer. 

My mouth falls open when the creature scoots toward me again. I attempt to shuffle backward, but the creature merely grabs my ankle and yanks me back toward them with surprising strength for such spindly arms.

Oh god. Oh god. What do they want? I vaguely hear Rae scream out for me as the creature hovers above me. My chest rises and falls frantically as the creature holds out the glowing object they are holding.

An icy blue crystal, the size of a softball, glows in the creature’s claw-like fingers and pulses softly. My eyes flicker from the crystal back up to the creature’s face.

“Wha-?” I swallow thickly. “What is that?”

The creature snorts. 

“Something that she wants and will never have. Now, hold still.”

Air catches in my throat as the creature turns the crystal over and lowers it until the tip is hovering just above the center of my chest. An icy chill seeps from the crystal down through my shirt. The creature suddenly lifts their empty hand and my stomach drops as I look over to see Rae, frozen in place with a bat in hand. Her eyes flicker between me and the creature, her mouth open as if about to speak. I turn back toward the creature.

“Let her go!” I say frantically. 

“Your sister’s fine,” the creature hisses. “She’ll unfreeze once I’m done. Now hold still so I can do this before SHE gets here.”

A sharp gasp escapes me when the creature lowers the crystal and the tip starts to enter my chest. A chilled pain seeps out through my chest but my body refuses to even twitch as the crystal continues to vanish into my chest. 

I’m going to die. Oh god, this thing is killing me. It hurts! I can’t breathe! Stop! Please, make it stop!

The icy fire spreads from my chest down to the rest of my body and I can feel tears sliding down from my eyes, my entire body stuttering as I try dragging in breaths that burn my throat. Through blurry eyes, I watch as the last bit of the crystal vanishes into my chest. The creature leans back, shooting another glance back toward the Portal before staring down at me as I try to get air without harming myself more.

“Keep that safe,” the creature hisses, tilting their head as they blankly watch me. “That is now a part of you and no longer my problem. Keeping that safe will keep YOU safe.”

Without another word, the creature drags themself back over to the Portal, their large legs leaving trails of black liquid on the cement floor. They wave their hand behind them and Rae stumbles forward with Casper quickly appearing next to her.

My vision wavers as the creature glances back toward me once more before dragging their body into the blue light of the Portal, instantly vanishing. Instantly the vortex of light flashes once before snapping off and the overhead lights flicker on. I blink lazily up at the ceiling, shivering as Rae and Casper kneel on either side of me. Rae’s mouth is moving but my mind can’t keep up with all the words rushing out of my sister. Her hands touch my cheek and I merely blink up at her. At least my shoulder isn’t bothering me anymore. Just my entire body now.

“I think-“ I mutter, my voice cracking and loud in my head. “I think, I’m gonna take a nap.”

Rae’s wide concerned eyes are the last thing I see before my eyes slide shut.