TSP Draft Two, Book One, Ch5-8

Previous: https://kaylinrosealexande.wixsite.com/kaylinalexanderbooks/post/tsp-draft-two-book-one-ch1-4

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

Read-aloud, pt. 1: https://www.tiktok.com/@kaylinrosealexander/video/7174474251381099822?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7168171927235937835

Enjoy!

Chapter five

Hello, Everyone

Aurora came out of Liz’s bedroom a few minutes later.

“Feel better?” I asked her.

She nodded.

“Liz gave us permission to explore her house,” I said. “I was waiting for you to wake up before doing that.

“Thanks, Alexia”

We walked into the kitchen. There we found a girl who looked about 17.

“Hi. I’m Carla Randall. That’s my brother, George.”

We turned to see a boy around 15 who was probably Carla’s brother George.

“Liz is our grandma,” said Carla. “Our grandpa

Charles is watching the news.”

We wanted to meet Charles so we followed the sound of the TV into a room where an old man was sitting on the couch.

Charles must have heard us come in because he turned the TV off and turned towards us. “Hello. I am Charles Gray,” he said.

After we introduced ourselves, we set up a game of cards. We had just started playing when there was a knock on the door. “I wonder who that is. We weren’t expecting anyone,” said Liz.

She walked towards the door and opened it. I heard a man’s voice but I couldn’t tell what he was saying. A few seconds later, Liz came back in the room and said, “Alexia, Aurora, it’s for you.”

Aurora and I looked at each other in surprise. We didn’t know anybody here, wherever we were. But we got up and walked to the door.

When we got to the door, a man in a black hat pulled down so low that we couldn’t see his face was standing there. He was also wearing a black cloak. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a stick (??)

“Hand over the treasure or everyone DIES!”

Chapter six

Creepy Guy’s Visit

What treasure? If I didn’t know what the treasure was then I couldn’t give it to him which means everyone dies! But I don’t see any guns, swords, or axes on him, just the stick. The stick is just a smooth black stick with a 1-inch white stripe on the top. It looked just like a….

Oh no. The “stick” is a real-life magic wand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After all I’ve seen in this place (the dragon Bobby, the vines that grab people who walk by, solid-gold buildings, clouds on the ground but no fog) a magic wand isn’t a big surprise.

But still…. If a magic wand is with THIS creepy guy, we’re in BIG trouble!!!

Just as I’m about to tell him off, Aurora steps up and said, “Hello Mister. I don’t know who you are or what you’re doing here, but we have NO idea what ‘treasure’ you’re talking about! So how about you just TELL us and we’ll all go merrily on our way!”

I was shocked. I did not expect THAT! Go Aurora!

I looked back at Creepy Guy. I think he was also surprised but his hat was so far down I couldn’t see his expression.

“If you really want to know,” said Creepy Guy. “I will tell you. I believe you would call it a metal detector.”

Chapter seven

The Treasure

OMG. I have a metal detector in my pocket! Why did I bring it to school anyway? I’m so glad I did! Otherwise Creepy Guy wouldn’t have his treasure and we’d be dead!

But now that I think about it… the “portal” was metal. We need this metal detector to find it! Creepy Guy has a few reasons for wanting it:

Reasons for Wanting the Metal Detector

• He wants it to find the portal and destroy it

• He wants to take it away from us so we can’t get back

• He collects them

• He lost something metal

• He is crazy

• He is obsessed with metal detectors

The first two make the most since, but the 5th one works too. I don’t like lying, but when something evil is present you have no choice but to lie.

“We don’t have it with us,” Aurora and I said at the same time. “Come back next week.”

“No,” said Creepy Guy. “Tomorrow.”

Darn it.

Creepy Guy left the room and out the front door.

We. Are. Screwed.

There is no way we can keep it away from him tomorrow.

“We need to put it somewhere.” Aurora said.

“Somewhere safe.” I added.

“But where?”

“Not sure.”

“Think, think, think!”

“Charles’ underwear drawer!”

“Yes! Liz said that drawer is always a mess!”

We snuck in Charles and Liz’s room. Aurora opened the drawer and I put the metal detector inside the drawer.

“What are you two doing?” a voice said.

Oh no.

We slowly turned around to see Charles standing behind us.

Chapter Eight

The Secret of My Life

“Well I understand.” said Charles.

We had just told him exactly what happened with Creepy Guy.

“I think that it’s time to tell you. Liz!”

What did he mean by, “I think it’s time to tell us.”? Tell us what?

Liz came into the room and said, “Come.”

Aurora and I looked at each other and shrugged.

We followed Liz out of the room and into the kitchen. She walked to the wall at the end. Why would Liz take us here? I thought. The wall is blank.

The wall was blank. Nothing was on it. But Liz just walked right up to it.

She lifted her fist and knock knockity knock knock knocked on the wall.

The wall swung open and a staircase appeared. Liz grabbed a lantern from the wall and led us down.

It was a long way down. The staircase was in a spiral so that made me really dizzy.

When we finally reached the bottom, Aurora and I were as dizzy as ever. We were also coughing and sneezing from all the dust. Our knees ached, but Liz seemed just fine. Like she’d done this a million times before.

“Welcome to our basement,” said Liz.

The basement was huge! There was random objects piled up in the corner of the room, there was robots, what looked like an obstacle course hanging from the ceiling, machines that I didn’t recognize, a bunch of fireplaces, and so much more stuff that I can’t name all of them.

“Sit down,” Liz said, pointing to some chairs.

We obeyed. “This might come as a shock to you…” said Liz. “…but you’ll get used to it.”

She took a deep breath and said, “Usually this is a family trait. Sometimes it isn’t. You two both inherited it.”

What the heck is she talking about?

“You might call it super powers or magical abilities. But it doesn’t matter. Because you both have them.”

It took a moment for her words to sink in. When they did, I screamed, “WE HAVE SUPER POWERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” at the exact same time as Aurora.

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