I'm so glad you like this so far! I'm actually kind of getting into a habit of writing new chapters often. Yay! :) Anywho, it's time for chapter 3!

The Portal

Where did I ask? My house, my room. When? Directly after school on Friday. Why?... Well, put simply, I was too afraid to go alone. And the letter told me to bring the others.

Now, let me tell you something. When I told the others about my plan, I got some, er, mixed reactions. From Terra, I got shock; from Gail, disbelief; and from Ghost, excitement. She loves planning things like this out.

"Okay, if we're going to do this, then we'll need-" Gail cut her off.

"Hold the phone! Who said we're doin' this anyway? Key, this is crazy! You could get killed, and I doubt Barbie Doll over there," she gestured to Terra, "is gonna go along with it, being the chicken shit that she is."

"HEY! I'm not chicken!" Terra said, her face going red, from embarrassment or anger, I don't know.

"Oh really? So you're going," Gail said, as more of a statement than a question.

"W-well…" Terra muttered. Gail gave her a pointed look, which ticked her off. "Okay! I'm going!"

"I think it already stands that I'm going," Ghost said stiffly. We all looked to Gail.

"Please? I, it's just that, this is really important to me, and…" I tried to think of a way to convince her. "Well, if we get in trouble, we're going to need someone who's good at fighting, right?" That seemed to grab her attention.

She stared at us for a moment, before sighing. "You idiots are really going through with this, aren't you?" We nodded. Another sigh. "Fine. I guess I'll go with you." Terra cheered.

"Yay! Now everyone's coming, so this should be easy, right? !"

"Okay, so, as I was saying, we're going to need a few things if we want to go through with this," said Ghost. We looked up at her. "First, I think that we should go at night. That way, no one will see us go. Plus, I doubt that they'll show up in the middle of the day, if they plan on kidnapping us.

"Next, since we're going at night, I think it goes without saying that we bring strong flashlights and a set or two of extra batteries. Also, our cell phones. If we're lucky, they won't find them, and we'll be able to keep in contact. If not… we tried. Plus, food. Water. Whatever, we might need it if, in the event that we're kidnapped, we have lazy kidnappers that don't feed their charges regularly."

For the next 20 minutes, she went on about things we should bring and why. When she was done, we ended up with a fairly long list:

Flashlight

Extra batteries

Food

Water

Blankets (at least 2)

Extra sets of clothes (at least 2)

Cell phones

Portable cell phone chargers

Notebook & Pencil (for writing important things down and/or entertainment)

Laptop (optional)

Hand-held gaming system w/ games (optional)

Pocket knife/Swiss army knife

Pepper spray (optional, because Gail and I don't have any)

Books (at least 1, for entertainment)

"Okay," Gail said slowly, "this is a good plan. Except for one thing; how the f-k are we supposed to carry all of this? !"

"I was thinking that we dump our schoolwork out and put it all in our backpacks. We'll share the load, of course," Ghost replied.

"Sounds good to me!" Terra said, saluting. I nodded, and Gail groaned.

"So, I guess we're really doing this, huh?"

"Yup!" Terra said cheerfully.

"I didn't ask you!" Gail snapped, smacking her with a pillow, hard enough to knock her over.

"Ow…" Terra groaned.

Let's just say this; sometimes, there are things that you think can only happen in an anime, that actually happen with us. Cool, huh?

So, anyway, back to the actual story.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and most of the next day discretely gathering supplies. At 5:00 pm, we met up at Ghost's house, and pooled our supplies. We had enough to hike to and from Canada. We decided that we were all set.

"Hold it!" said Gail. "Who's gonna carry what? Cause' I am not loading all this crap into my pack."

"How about this; anything personal we brought, we carry. General supplies will be shared," proposed Ghost

"General supplies…?" I asked.

"Food. Drinks. Blankets. Batteries. The works." Jeez, now that I really think about it, it sounds like we're running away, doesn't it?

"Sounds good to me!" chirped Terra.

"Yeah, whatever," mumbled Gail.

"So, it's settled," Ghost announced.

Basically, I brought my DS, my laptop, a book (Daughters of the Moon [book 1]), a pocket knife, a small memo book w/ two mechanical pencils, my iPod (fully charged), and the picture Ghost drew for us before; Gail brought her laptop, a Swiss army knife, two notebooks, a pencil (and a hand-held sharpener), and a small vial of rat poison (don't ask); Terra brought her PSP, 3DS, pepper spray, a laptop, and a flash drive (just in case); and Ghost brought two books (The first two Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul books), a pocket knife, and a lighter. Also, we all brought the regular supplies and some games for the systems we brought.

The food consisted of a bunch of stuff we could cook over an open fire or boil. We ended up bringing 17 bottles of water, so, we're good.

"Okay," said Ghost. It had reached 9:00 pm by the time we were done divvying up the supplies. "Time to go."

We made the short hike down to the pier (seriously, there was a reason we chose Ghost's house for the meeting; hers is the shortest distance from the docks), and waited.

It didn't take much effort to figure out which pier they were talking about; there were only three isolated enough to be considered a discreet meeting place, and only one was considered 'abandoned.'

Suddenly, we heard an odd humming noise.

"What the hell is-" Gail started, but she got cut off.

"How nice of you to show up," a man's voice came out of nowhere. We looked up, and there was a guy standing on top of a tall wooden pole. "We're glad you decided to come of your own will. You see, there's something we'd like you to… test out for us."

"And why the hell would we wanna do that?" snapped Gail.

"No reason. But, then again, who ever said that your own will is going to be taken into account?"

Suddenly, the whole dock started vibrating, and a ring formed around the four of us.

"What the f-k? !" screamed Gail, looking severely pissed off.

"Run!" cried Terra, and we tried to sprint out of the circle. But, before we could, a light shone beneath us, and we began falling.

For a moment, I fell, flashing lights and colors of all shades swirling around me. I couldn't breathe. My last thought was, I'm going to die. And then, everything went black.

I hope you liked this chapter! Please review!