Quickly, she continued her speech. “You see, the one redeeming quality this putrid planet has going for it is the fact that it is one of the newest entry points to an ancient galactic portal. A wormhole, as your scientists have come to call them. New portals, mean new opportunities for food.”
“A portal? To where?” I asked, surprised. In the back of my mind I was still trying to comprehend that my friends were now alien snake food.
“Anywhere in the Universe,” she smiled.
Taylor stepped forward, and asked, “Where is this so-called wormhole?”
With a hearty laugh, she instigated, “My boy, you’re standing on it.”
“What?” he gasped.
“That’s right, this school is the newest access point to one of the Universe’s oldest secrets. A doorway between worlds. A doorway that you opened, Mr. Ryan.”
“The Jynshee…” I mumbled, looking down at my arm. In my head I asked Ripley to backup her statement. Is that true, Ripley?
~ Yes. ~
Why didn’t you tell me?
~ When I was wished here by you I opened the portal but it should have closed when your wishes were granted. That’s the rules, you get your wishes and I cease to exist. The portal ceases to exist. I shouldn’t have evolved into this new state, this new form. Something else affected the way things have worked in the past. Something changed the rules. ~
Something, or someone?
~ I don’t know. ~
Queen Strickland snapped me back to reality again, and sounded off, “Finally, the why! Why am I here? Why do I need the collected life force of your friends? To put it bluntly, revenge.”
“Revenge?” I asked, stupidly. It sent her into a blind rage. She rose up reaching for the rafters of the building. Her tentacles twisted everywhere like a storm and her eyes blazed brightly with red-hot hate.
“Yes! Revenge! When you originally found the all-powerful Jynshee Orb and opened the door to this world with your first wish, you set in motion a chain of events that led me here. I didn’t want to come here. I hate it here! The unbearable heat of your sun, the stink of your oxygen coated skies, the taste of your meaty pink flesh. It all disgusts me!”
“Then why come here?” I argued.
“Because, Mr. Ryan, I had to! You brought me here. It was all your doing!”
Shaking my head, “What do you mean?”
She paused for a lingering moment, settling the mass of serpents along her back. Breathlessly, she began to speak. “I wasn’t the first one who came through the portal.”
“What are you saying?” I gulped. A nervous swell of butterflies spread inside my stomach. I knew what she was about to say even before she said it.
“He came through first. He came for the power of the Jynshee Orb. He was the hunter!” She smashed her fists into the floor, shaking the walls with the force. “He was our leader, our King! He…was…MY…King!”
“General Love,” I mumbled, terrified.
“Yes! You killed my King, my other half…my love…” Queen Strickland slowly circled around us, never relinquishing her eyes from mine. “That’s why I am here. For revenge. For him.”
That’s when the obvious smacked me over the head.
“He’s still alive, isn’t he?” I choked.
She erupted into a fit of laughter, and seethed, “Yes. You can thank the generosity of your friends and peers for that. Their combined life forces have been feeding his resurrection for days now!”
“No! I won’t allow it!” Taylor jumped forward, ready to fight. I grabbed onto him with all my strength. I needed to know more. I needed her to give us more information.
“Hang on, T. She’s not finished giving us all the answers yet,” I begged.
“Enough talking! We need to save our friends, save our school!” He pulled his muscular arm from my grasp. Ripley darted in front of him to stop his attack.
“I thought we destroyed General Love…forever…” I said, curiously.
“Almost. Thankfully, he was wise enough to leave a small piece of his essence in the timelines of the wormhole. This piece had laid dormant until your little time traveling escapade. The rift you caused in the wormhole as you wished your way home, revealed he was still here, still waiting to be brought back from death. It took me a while to locate his genetic breadcrumb but I found it.”
“Good for you,” Taylor spat. He looked around the room in suspicion.
“Our kind has the ability to regenerate ourselves, we just need that extra push,” she teased.
“You mean the human energy factory located in the bowels of the school,” I cursed.