The Magic Portal in my Room

This story is by Arundhati Madhusudan and was part of our 2019 Summer Writing Contest. You can find all the writing contest stories here.

I usually wake up late on Saturday mornings, but today I woke up much earlier. I looked at the alarm clock. It was 12 am! I heard a knock on the door.

Who could it be? I went to open the door. A boy dressed as a wizard stood at the doorstep.

“Has the party started yet?” He asked in anticipation.

“What party?” I asked in reply.

He didn’t reply and barged in. Before I could protest, I heard another knock on the door. When I opened the door, a girl who was dressed up as an elf stood facing me.

“Is this the house where the party is on?” She asked in bated breath.

“Yes indeed. This is the right house.” The boy said, coming towards the door.

One by one many people dressed in costumes of magical beings came in.

I wondered if there was a masquerade ball running in the neighborhood.

Soon, there were colorful spotlights everywhere. I then saw a short boy dressed as a dwarf. He had a beard that looked so real. I had enough of this. I lost my cool and pulled at the beard. Surprisingly, it didn’t come out! The boy just squealed and said

“My chin hurts!”

Was he a real dwarf? I couldn’t believe it! Then I tried to pull out the wings of a girl dressed as a fairy, but they never came out.

“Aaah!” the girl shouted, “stop pulling my wings!”

I stepped back in fear. I just couldn’t understand.

Were they real? I thought to myself as a girl dressed up like a witch sat on a broom and flew up to the ceiling. She kept flying until she hit the ceiling fan and fainted. The girl dressed as an elf caught the witch as she and her broom fell to the ground. With a puzzled look, I screamed at the group, “What is happening? Who are you people and what are doing in my room at this late hour?”

“This is how we invite freshers into our magic circle.” The boy said.

“Why did you choose me?” I asked.

“Didn’t your mother tell you? You have magical blood”, The wizard added.

“My mother only told me I am O positive!”

The Wizard gave me a disgusting look.

The spotlight shone on me, and the wizard said “Greetings Magic Folks. Here is our new wizard- Arundhati of the Blue Cloudy Room. We will give you your first assignment on the next full moon.”

I was very surprised, and I wondered;

Is this a dream, or is it real?

Suddenly, my alarm clock rang. The spotlights were gone, and my room looked as if there was no party.

There was only one way to find out if it was real or not- I had to wait until the next full moon!

I waited with bated breath for the next 2 weeks. Time flew quickly and the D Day arrived.

Precisely at midnight, my doorbell rang. I leapt out of the bed and opened the door. They had arrived!

“So, it is true…” I said to myself.

“Your first assignment is to find the portal,” the wizard said.

“What portal?” I asked with a confused look.

“Your room is built on a magical portal.” The elf said.

“Where does the portal lead you to?” I asked

“It will take you to a parallel universe.” The elf replied

“So why do I need to find it?” I asked.

“You must help us go back home.” The Wizard said.

“How do I do that?” I asked.

Everyone else in the room stood very still and had an anxious look on their face. Why were they acting nervous? I wondered.

“We were in a space ship, going to the neighboring star system, to buy magic spices”, a magician explained.

“But on the way, our space ship hit an asteroid, and it sent us flying to earth.” He continued. “Now our ship is in no position to fly at light speed. Our only option is to go through the portal, which is a worm hole, and reach home.”

“Why can’t you find the portal yourselves? You know how it looks and works.” I questioned, hoping I wouldn’t have to be a part of their problem.

“We are asking you for help because only You can open the portal. The magic blood that runs in your veins gives you the ability to find and open the portal.” The magician said.

I looked around perplexed. My room was a mess with too many things. How could I find a magic portal here? How will I even know what it looks like? I turned around to get some answers; but they were gone! I went towards the door and tried to open it, but couldn’t.

“They must have locked me in…” I thought.

How strange.

I thought about getting out by the window, but even that was sealed from outside. Something was fishy.

Then I sat on my favorite chair and closed my eyes to think. A germ of an idea was forming in my mind.

I hunted for my compass. After a frantic search for 10 minutes I found it under my clothes. I started combing every square feet of my room with the compass with an eye on the needle. After spending nearly an hour on what looked like a futile expedition, something strange happened. At one particular square near the North east corner of my room, the compass needle lost its bearings. It was oscillating wildly and randomly switching between clockwise and anticlockwise directions!

I looked closely on the floor tile and touched it gently. The tile slid over to reveal an empty space. It started to expand like a bubble. In no time it became the size of a zorbing ball.

I had not noticed, but the magic group had broken in to the room and their eyes gleamed with delight. A wizard who seemed to be their leader looked at me apologetically and said “I thank you so much for finding a way for us to go back home. But I must apologize for what I am going to do next.”

I was puzzled by the last line.

Suddenly the was a commotion and 6 Aliens popped out of the black ball and they were all in some sort of uniform and armed with light sabers! Before I knew what was happening, they apprehended the entire group and handcuffed them.

One of them then looked at me and bowed to me. Then he explained that he and his colleagues were from the Inter-galactic-police and were on the lookout for some fugitives who had escaped from their prison. The magic group were actually criminals on the run and had spin a yarn to fool me into finding the portal to escape.

But as luck would have it, the opening of the portal had been detected by the inter-galactic-police and they arrived just in time to apprehend the fugitives. They had also saved me from whatever fate the wizard had in mind for me!

They thanked me profusely and asked me to step away to the corner of my room as they were going to go back through the Portal and seal it.

It was all over in 3 seconds and all that was left were a few fumes from the square tile on the north east corner of my room.

Was it all a dream?

Will the portal open again?

I wonder every night.