Page 45 of Hunted

The sound of a ringing bell startled me, made me nearly jump out of my skin. I shot upright and scanned the living room, trying to identify where the sound had come from. “What in the world was that?”

Another ring.

“I don’t know,” Valerian said, also standing. “Where is it coming from?”

The ringing repeated once more, and I saw where it was coming from. There was an object on a desk, small, and black. It was oddly shaped, a handle set onto a box with numbers on it. It was making a sound I had never heard before, as if there were tiny bells inside of it.

“This is it,” I said, examining the small object. “What is it?”

Valerian came up behind me. “I don’t know,” he said, “But we shouldn’t touch it.”

Tallin leapt up onto the table on which the ringing object was sitting on. “Haven’t either of you ever seen a telephone?”

“A what?” I asked.

Tallin rolled his eyes. “Pick that handle up and put it to your ear,” he said, “Quickly! That’s probably your grandmother on the line.”

Tentatively, I picked the handle up and placed it to my ear. I thought I could hear a voice, but it was low, and distant.

“You’re holding it upside down,” Tallin shrieked.

I spun the handle around. “Grandmother?” I asked.

“Amara! Thank the Gods,” Helen said. “Are you alright?”

“I… I am. Are you… is this a trick?”

“No, dear, it’s me.”

“See?” I heard Evie say, “I told you it would take her a minute to figure out how to use that old phone.”

“Hush, sister,” said Helen. “Amara… listen to me. Did you all make it through the portal?”

“I did,” I said, adjusting the handle’s position against my ear. “We all did. I’m so glad to hear from all of you. Are you safe? Are you hurt?”

“We are safe, and none of us are hurt. I’m sorry it took us so long to reach you.”

“What happened?”

Helen sighed. “I thought the creature would have lost interest in us after you left, but it continued trying to break down our defenses. We have spent hours battling it, trying to keep the last of our sigils from burning out.”

“It kept coming for you…”

“I think the magic we used to send you away slipped past its senses. It thought you were still here, so it continued to attack our house. When it realized you were no longer with us, it lost interest and left.”

I smiled over at Valerian and Tallin, who were both crowding around me and listening to the conversation. “Where did you send us?”

“A safe place I have spent the last few days preparing. You should have enough supplies to get you to the crescent moon in a couple of days, and more supplies should… well, should anything go wrong.”

“You… aren’t coming?”

“No. There isn’t enough room for all of us there.”

“What if the creature finds us?”

“It will. It’s only a matter of time. But the cabin has protective sigils of its own, and it’s in the general area where an Arcadian portal can be opened. When the creature comes for you, you should be able to sense it. You can then use the sigil in the storeroom to return to the magic box. We can’t keep it from finding you, but we can keep it busy travelling from place to place.”

“So… you want us to stay here and… wait?”