TSP Draft Three - Ch10

Overview: https://kaylinrosealexande.wixsite.com/kaylinalexanderbooks/post/draft-three-of-the-secret-portal

Read-aloud, pt1: https://www.tiktok.com/@kaylinrosealexander/video/7187034325077003566?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7168171927235937835

Previous: https://kaylinrosealexande.wixsite.com/kaylinalexanderbooks/post/tsp-draft-three-ch9

What's really odd is that this chapter was deleted in version two of this draft and I have no idea why. Maybe I wanted to completely rewrite it? I'm not sure.

Chapter Ten

November 22nd or 23rd. Who knows anymore? Time: I still don’t know

Place: William’s Place, the lab

Madison

Super Kelsey. Yeah, She’s Really Super

Over the next couple of hours, Mikey and I brainstormed.

Kelsey was still passed out from her lightshow, but she was starting to stir, which I took as a good sign.

Actually, I think we slept through a few hours, because for a while, Mikey had his eyes closed and the next thing I knew was I was opening my eyes to Mikey whisper-yelling for me to wake up.

Now that we were both awake, we could talk about what our powers might be and how we could get out of here. Wherever here was.

“He said I could withstand high temperatures,” said Mikey. “Do you think that means I can do something with fire?”

I shrugged. “What about mine? He said my cells could take the shape of any animal?”

Mikey smiled. “There’s only one way to find out!”

I was afraid he’d say that.

I closed my eyes, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. Maybe if I thought of an animal….

To be perfectly honest, I thought of a tiger. (I love tigers)

At first I didn’t think anything happened. Then my arms started to itch. I looked at them and saw brown fur. The next thing I knew, I was a cat. A domestic cat. Not a tiger.

I guess I couldn’t hold it for long, because a few seconds later I was human again. Sweat was dripping down my face. The good news was becoming a cat made me slip out of my restraints. I collapsed on the ground.

Mikey was smiling happily. “That was cool.” Then he looked like he was rethinking that. “Ish.”

I sighed. “How about you try that fire-thingy. Maybe you’ll have better luck.”

Mikey looked like he was going to explode from concentration. I looked over at Kelsey, but she was still unconscious. I looked back at Mikey, who had blue flames dancing on his hand. “Wow,” he whispered.

I smiled. “Cool.”

But soon the flames died out. Mikey’s face was sweating so much, I didn’t dare to ask him to do it again.

I stood up, still shaking from my metamorphous, and stumbled over to him.

He looked up at me. “You gonna help or what?”

I looked at my hand, and concentrated. It was easier than the first time, my hand soon grew bigger and brown fur appeared. My finger nails grew until they were replaced with claws. I smiled. It was only a hand, but I had managed to morph it into a bear claw. I cut Mikey’s restraints and he slipped out. He looked up at me. “Thanks.”

I willed my hand to change back into human. “Now what?”

“Your friend is still tied up,” said Mikey, looking passed me and at Kelsey. “Is it safe? I mean, she did turn into a….” He didn’t need to finish. Neither of us knew what that was, or what to call her now.

“Of course,” I said. “It only came out when she was angry.”

I slowly walked over to Kelsey, silently praying that William didn’t come in now.

I quickly poked her and drew my hand back. She’s your best friend! She won’t hurt you! But I wasn’t sure.

Kelsey opened her eyes; they were sill black. She screamed and her restraints dissolved into black smoke. She collapsed to the ground, sobbing.

I helped her up. She didn’t try to stop me. She looked at me, her eyes blue. “If you asked me if I wanted these kind of powers yesterday, I would’ve loved them. Now?” She cried softly.

Mikey came over like he wanted to help, but I shook my head. He was too short to carry her.

“How do we get out?” I asked.

“Hold on,” said Kelsey.

I barely had enough time to grab Mikey’s hand before we were inside a black cloud. We started floating up, up, up.

The ceiling was coming closer! I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the crash, but it never came. I opened my eyes to see sunlight.

Sunlight.

We had made it out.

Kelsey’s little cloud dissolved, and Mikey and I collapsed to the ground. I looked up at Kelsey. “Thanks.”

Kelsey shook her head. “No,” she said. “Something’s wrong. I feel wrong doing this. Just yesterday we were ordinary.” She looked around. “Actually, we don’t even know what day it is, or how long we’ve been trapped.”

She was right. We didn’t know. I didn’t even know where we were.

Besides the sun shining down, all we could see was a deep, dark forest.

In all fairness, I can see why I'd want to rewrite this. But also this is so much better than it was in Draft Two.

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