"Hello to you too, Mom."

"Macy. Why are you here?"

"Grendel brought me."

"That cantankerous, stubborn old man," she muttered under her breath.

"Forget about him. You owe me an explanation."

"I owe you nothing."

"Some mother you are," I said, cuttingly, slicing through the emotional baggage in one fell swoop. How long have I been waiting to say that?

"You are not supposed to be here." Mom returned with equal cutting. Tit for tat. An eye for an eye that sort of thing.

If I had time, I would've been severely hurt but I knew time was of the essence. I didn't know how long I had with her. Would it be temporary or something more lasting? "Let's cut through the bull crap and get real here. You never planned on coming back home did you?"

"I couldn't. In order to keep you safe and by extension, your dad, I had to leave, never to return."

"Do you regret it?"

"All the time. But that does not change the fact that you're going home to live a normal life. I have no intention of allowing you to get caught up in this."

"Caught up in what?" Mom chose not to respond. "Mom? If that crystal thing goes two ways and I believe it does, you've been watching me grow up and you know once I've my teeth sunk into something I will not let go. I will badger you until you answer me."

Mom sighed. "It is not that simple. There's more at stake here than my family. All of Alluvia will die if I do not get you out of here."

"Because of my anti-magic?"

Mom laughed softly. "Grendel does not fully understand the concept of anti-magic. It is not what he thinks it is."

"What is it then?"

"Are you familiar with the concept of opposites attract?"

"As in magnetism?"

"Essentially. Like poles repel. Opposite poles attract. Magic and anti-magic are opposites that attract.  Grendel is of the camp that believes your anti-magic will destroy all Alluvian magic. That is simply not the case. It will enhance it. You see, when both worlds were once connected, each complemented each other, enhancing the magic to its fullest potential."

"How does that apply to me?"

"With a grave and headstone if I do not get you out of here."

Such a dire prediction had the effect of getting my feet to move faster. "Mordok."

"Correct. Thanks to your jumping into the middle of our fight, he now knows you're here."

"How was I supposed to know he was here in the cave? I didn't see him when I jumped."

"The crystal is an imperfect portal device. It only shows you a fraction of an image, not the whole. You are a scientist. You should know that."

"How do you know I'm a scientist?"

"The crystal operates both ways as you said. Although if I had known Grendel would send a portal via the mirror I would have stopped him. What was that old man thinking?"

"He wanted to teach me how to use my magic. The cave-in I accidentally caused put a stop to that."

"I am going to give him a piece of my mind. He just set about a chain of events that I have been trying to prevent."

"What kind of events?"

"The apocalyptic kind. Unless I get you home."

"I'd rather stay here with you."

"We cannot always have what we want."

I stopped in the middle of the tunnel. Mom had sacrificed so much to keep me and Dad safe. "You know Dad died don't you?"

"Yes. I know." Softness crept in, cutting through the hard edges.

"Then you know you're the only family I have left."

"I know."

"How can you send me away then?"

"I have made my peace with the past long ago. We must hurry, Mordok is coming."

We picked up the pace. I stuck close to Mom unwilling to lose sight of her and get lost in this labyrinth of tunnels. We rounded a curve and suddenly I slid to the ground, drained of all energy. We came to the same conclusion at the same time. Mordok. His magic was affecting me. Mom threw an arm under my waist and dragged me the rest of the way. We came to a halt beside a suspicious looking door. Wooden with metal hinges. A door in the middle of a cave. "Will wonders never cease," I muttered. 

Mom cast me a glare. From her pouch she tossed gray dust at the door, muttered an incantation and the door answered to her bidding by swinging inward. "Hurry." We entered a small room that had no parameters nor dimensions of a normal space. I couldn't feel my feet touching the floor.

"Where are we?"

"Null space. The space between your world and mine. "Best to create a portal where Mordok can't sense it." She whirled her hands into frenzied clockwise and counterclockwise. She pushed both palms forward then backward like aggressive Tai Chi. I saw nothing but her hands. There was no light save the torch. "Time for you go."

"Go, where? I don't see anything."

She pulled me forward, squaring me with the invisible Portal. I still saw nothing. With a wriggled of her fingers, my bathroom appeared. Strange to view it from this perspective. The white subway tile, glass step in shower, the black bowled sink. All the comforts of home. I was going back to my mundane, humdrum life and didn't like it. "Any chance you'll change your mind?"

"Do you want to live?"

"Most definitely."

"Then you must go."

Impulsively, I hugged Mom, something I longed to do since I saw her in the crystal. She put her arms around me for a brief time, the duration too short for me. She released me, turned me around and pushed me into the portal. The last words I heard were, "Don't come back."

"Nice sentiment Mom," I said. I stood in the bathroom where I had been before this crazy journey began. All that hard work to get to Alluvia and here I am, home again. Drained from Mordok's attack I burrowed under the covers and went to sleep.

I slept for hours according to the clock on my phone. I dragged my weary behind out of bed, certain a cup of caffeinated tea would jolt me out of it. Mordok had done a number on me and he hadn't been anywhere close to me. Imagine what he could have done to me if he had been in the same space. Mom was right. I didn't belong in Alluvia.

Morose, I wandered into the kitchen and made spicy orange black tea. I wanted flavor, something with a kick to it, to jolt me out of the sudden despair I felt. It weighed heavily on me. I turned on the TV. Maybe a sit-com or a sci-fi show would snap me out of it. I clicked the remote and sifted through the channels. Not a single sit-com or sci-fi show to be seen. I ran through the list again. "Huh. Weird." I clicked it off.

My stomach rumbled reminding of the hours since I'd last eaten. Grendel's stew. That had been spectacular. Nothing like it in this world. I studied the contents of my fridge and decided a trip to the store would be necessary. I would try and recreate Grendel's stew. I couldn't hope to find a Juntan anywhere on Earth so I'd use a close second. Lamb chops.

My car started easily which was kind of odd since it has been acting up as of late. I'd thought it had to do with the starter but I guess I was wrong. I put it into gear and backed out of my parking space. The streets were strangely empty for mid-morning. Had I lost track of the days? It couldn't be Sunday already.

I rifled through the produce section seeking out the sharpest flavored vegetables. Anything with a tang without being overly spicy. I grabbed some leeks, horseradish, ginger root, red potatoes, fresh green beans. Honey fit the bill for the sweet complimenting the savory. Mint went well with lamb so I tossed in a package of the fresh herb. The store held so few shoppers, I was firmly convinced today was Sunday. Most folks went to church or slept in. Rarely did anyone venture out until well after lunch. Made sense.

What didn't make sense was the attitudes of the shoppers. I greeted several with a smile and a nod and their eyes slid away as if they couldn't be bothered with such a simple greeting. Oh, well. Party hardy on Saturday night, hangover on Sunday. The cashier didn't say hello either. That should have been my first clue.

I chatted with the clerk. "Hello, how's it going?"

The clerk, a guy with big bones, lots of wavy hair paused in the act of running my stuff through the scanner. "What did you say?"

"I said, how's it going?"

His eyes darted nervously. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "We don't talk."

"What do you mean?"

He clamped his lips shut cutting off further conversation. From the speed in which he checked me out, I gathered he wanted me out of his line as fast as possible. Odd. I paid him and left with my two bags of groceries one in each arm. My peripherals noted the second odd thing. Suited people standing at the end of each cash register, hands behind their backs, sunglasses on their faces. They wore ear mikes too. Not one of them turned their heads but I felt their eyes on me anyway.

I waited until I left the store to speak. "Okay, that was freaky." The clues were mounting up.

The stew turned out to be disappointing. It tasted good, comforting even but fell short of Grendel's stew. I stored the bulk of it in my fridge and took a good portion of it to my neighbor, Ms. Clementine, an older woman with a bum hip. I'd often cooked food for her when she couldn't get out.  I knocked but she didn't answer so I left the container in front of her door.

I settled into my favorite cushy chair and turned on the TV. News, weather and sports all came in succession as per usual. It wasn't until the very end when the logo appeared that I sat up and took notice. My jaw dropped. A glass beaker and a DNA spiral took the place of the peacock. 

I checked the other stations. All of them had been replaced by scientific logos. I paused on a station when I heard the words, "Multidimensional Portal."

"No flipping way." I dialed up the sound. A newscaster reported on the to be scheduled launch of the portal invented by my boss, Dr. Celia Grant. I grabbed my phone, checked the video storage. I had hours of detailed video of Alluvia on there. "Forget Mordok. Mom will kill me herself."

Worse than that, I'd inadvertently pocket dialed the research lab and sent the recordings to my boss, Dr. Grant. "No f-ing way."

How could a cell phone from one realm, work in another realm? There were no satellites in Alluvia. No cell towers.  "Son of a-- I swear I turned it off." The answer came like a bucket of ice water. Magic had activated it.

Of all the things I'd imagined to go wrong in my life, this wasn't it.