The Other Side (Thomas Skinner Book 1) Read online

  THOMAS SKINNER

  AND

  THE OTHER SIDE

  S. I. ANDERSON

  www.sianderson.com

  Copyright © 2016 Stewart Anderson

  All rights reserved

  ISBN-10: 1530767121

  ISBN-13: 978-1530767120

  To my little boy, who sits on my lap, listens to my stories and asks for more…

  Chapter 1

  It was the first day of his summer break. Tom stepped out through the front door of his house, intending to head for his local park. As he closed the door and turned, he spotted the small red car parked on his driveway. He took another three steps towards it before he noticed her.

  Her head was slumped on the steering wheel, her eyes were closed and her arms dangled by her side. She looked to be asleep, or dead. He briefly wondered why he thought the latter before he felt a sudden surge of familiarity.

  He knew her.

  Tom walked down the concrete slabs that cut across his front lawn and peered inside the car. There was very little of her face to be seen. Half of it was pressed against the steering wheel and the other was partially covered in her long red hair.

  Who was she? How did he know her?

  He felt an impulsive urge to knock on her car window, to wake her up, to ask her. He even raised his hand to do so when she stirred. And then he realised that he was standing over a car, staring in at a sleeping person. It didn’t matter that he thought he knew her. It was still weird. And she was about to wake up and catch him in his moment of oddness.

  Tom took a step back and briskly walked past the car and down the road, purposefully avoiding looking back. He was going to the park, that was what he was going to do. Not stare at a sleeping woman. That was weird and creepy.

  And he might be a little weird by some definition, but he certainly wasn’t creepy.

  Once at the park, Tom plonked himself down on a bench. Before him, a group of children ran around kicking a ball. He had shared classes with a few and knew most of their names, but he doubted they knew his.

  Tom was a bit of a loner.

  He wasn’t really sure why. Aside from the hunchback, the puffy cheeks, the loud huffing and puffing after a sprint or a short walk, he was a fairly normal thirteen-year-old boy.

  Oh, and he could move things without touching them. He imagined that to be sort of unique. It wasn’t something he bragged about. He had seen one too many movies to know it was best not to.

  He had told his sister though. He had to tell someone. He needed to make sure his eyes weren’t deceiving him. And the best way to do that was by showing someone, and having them say it was so.

  As Tom watched the children play their game of football, his thoughts drifted towards the red car parked in his driveway and the woman sleeping in it. He wondered why he thought he knew her. He barely saw any of her face. If someone asked him to describe her now, the only thing he could say was that she had long red hair.

  There was another person sitting on the bench, and a while passed before he noticed. She was in her early twenties, had long red hair, red lips and red eyes. She sat next to him and stared at him brashly.

  It was her, the sleeping woman from the car.

  Why she was here? Had she caught him peeping in her car and followed him to the park? What did she want? Why did he still think he knew her?

  “Hello,” Tom said cautiously.

  She didn’t reply immediately. Instead, she stared him up and down before her lips pursed. “What are you doing here?”

  He was sitting on the bench, but that much was obvious, so Tom said, “Watching them play football.” He supposed he had been doing that, before his mind had wandered off.

  The woman’s eyes narrowed. “What?” she asked confusedly. “How did you get here?”

  Here? Did she mean the park? “...I walked?”

  “You walked-” she stopped disbelievingly. “What do you mean you walked?” she demanded. “Is that supposed to be funny?”

  Tom shook his head quickly a few times. He wasn’t trying to be funny. He really had walked to the park. He could remember it quite clearly. It hadn’t happened very long ago.

  “Is this some sort of test?”

  A while passed before he realised she was waiting for an answer. Tom shrugged. He didn’t know if it was a test. He didn’t know what she was talking about either, but he stared at her, much like she stared at him – brashly.

  She was quite striking to look at. He had never seen red eyes before, not red like this – fiery and powerful. And oddly, it wasn’t a scary look.

  He still felt like he knew her. Her face, her body, her everything was so familiar. There was almost a glow about her. He felt this sudden urge to touch, to feel. He shuddered at the thought and looked away. Touching a stranger was worse than watching them whilst they slept.

  And then the oddest thing happened.

  The woman reached forward and touched him. It was more of a poke really, first on the stomach, then his chest, and then his cheeks, left and right. She then held his right hand, lifted it up and let it go.

  Tom let his hand drop before he tucked it away by his side. He slowly shuffled away from her until he came to the end of the bench. He held onto the armrest and worriedly stared back at her as she muttered to herself. He was beginning to think she might be crazy. Sure, he had thought of touching her too, but he hadn’t, and that was the big difference.

  It was a shame, he thought as he watched her lips move as she continued to mutter to herself. That feeling of familiarity hadn’t left him. He still felt like he knew her.

  “Oh grow up,” the woman said as she noticed he had moved away from her. “This is stupid,” she added sullenly before sighing. “Fine, if this is what they want...”

  The woman smiled and moved towards him. Tom’s first thought was to shift away further, but he was already at the end of the bench. Before the thought of standing up and running away entered his mind, she held her hand out for him to shake.

  “Hello,” she smiled, “I’m Cindy.”

  It was a friendly gesture, and a sudden departure from her previous demeanour. He wondered if she was bipolar. Should he shake her hand? What if he did it wrong? Would she become angry again? But if he didn’t shake it, she would most certainly be offended...

  Tom reached out and tentatively took her hand, deciding it best to try not to offend her. “Thomas Skinner,” he said, and then wondered why he had used his full name.

  They sat quietly after that. Cindy was still smiling, though she no longer looked his way. They both stared ahead at the children running around kicking the ball.

  “It’s a nice day, isn’t it?” she said after a while.

  Tom turned to look at her. She had just made a comment about the weather. He wondered if she shouldn’t have started with that – before she poked him and all. He still felt like he knew her, and she had been outside his house.

  And now she was here. He had to know. She was still smiling. This was a good time as any to ask. He took a deep breath. “Are you following me?”

  It wasn’t the question that was supposed to come out of his mouth. He wondered what was wrong with his tongue.

  Cindy chuckled. “Am I following you...” she repeated, mulling the sentence over. She turned to look at him, the smile still on her face but a curious look in her eyes. “Now why would I do that?”

  “I saw you outside my house.”

  “Yes, you did,” Cindy nodded. “And then you ran off,” she grinned.

  Tom didn’t remember running. He had walked quickly. And she hadn’t answered the question. “You are following me,” he said. “Why?”

  “I was
looking for something.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know.” Cindy looked away, towards the running children. “Something different...” she said absently.

  Tom was different. But only one other person knew that, and that person was Emily, his sister. Even his parents didn’t know. He hadn’t felt ready to tell them yet. And here was Cindy, a complete stranger, and part of him wanted to tell her.

  He still thought she might be crazy, but he felt like he could trust her. He wondered why. He was sure he didn’t know her now, even though she still seemed so familiar...

  “I might be different.”

  “You might be a little too different,” Cindy muttered.

  “Huh?”

  Cindy smiled at him innocently. “Nothing.”

  Tom stared into her large red eyes, a little unnerved. He had heard her. He was a little too different, she had said. He was about to ask her what she meant, but Cindy broke eye contact as she turned suddenly to face the running children.

  They sat silently and he was glad for it. If they had spoken for much longer, Tom knew he would have told her. A stranger he had just met, and he was ready to tell her his biggest secret. Surely something was quite wrong with him.

  A while passed before Cindy stood up. “Well, it was... interesting, odd, weird meeting you.”

  It was all of that because you were all of those, Tom thought. He watched her as she walked away, and for the first time he noticed the long black piece of cloth that draped down her shoulder. Was she wearing a cloak?

  Chapter 2

  Cindy strode nervously up and down the corridor. A man in a velvet cloak with golden strips along the borders stood by the door that led into the Law Lords' private chambers. His eyes followed her as she walked, and his face grew increasingly agitated, but he said nothing.

  So she continued to pace.

  It had been two weeks since she had met Thomas Skinner, ten days since she had returned home, a week since she had submitted her report on the magical signature found on the Other Side and now she was here, in the House of Lords, summoned by the Law Lords.

  It wasn’t unheard of, Guardians being called before the Law Lords. It was usually for one of two reasons. Either to congratulate a Guardian returning victorious from an incredibly difficult quest, or to admonish one who had not only failed, but managed to do so spectacularly.

  As hard as she tried, Cindy couldn’t think of anything she had done that deserved their adulation. It had to be for the latter reason. She had failed and she thought she knew how.

  It was supposed to be simple. Something on the Other Side was using magic. It happened occasionally and it was always pixies. The Great Barrier kept their two worlds and everything within them separate – apart from pixies.

  Somehow, the little fairy-look-alike creatures would find a way past it. And once through, they would head straight for the Wanderers' towns and cities to create mischief and wreak havoc.

  It was the Other Sider’s job to bring them back, to keep their worlds separate: the magical from the non-magical, the wizards from the Wanderers. And that was why she was there, to bring the pixie back.

  But it wasn’t a pixie that was using magic.

  It was a boy.

  She didn’t know what to make of him at first. He was too young to be an Other Sider. And the Great Barrier only allowed Other Siders to pass. So what was he doing there? When she had walked up to him and demanded to know, he'd played innocent, even acted as if she were the crazy one.

  Cindy had left him there on the park bench. The improbability of the scenario had her convinced it was a test of some sort. She already knew he lived in a house. Her first stop was the local secondary school to see if he had been enrolled there as part of an elaborate ruse.

  That was where it all fell apart.

  She found him. And he wasn’t a recent recruit. She managed to trace him back all the way down to nursery and even a hospital he was supposedly born in. That could only mean one thing. A family of wizards were living on the Other Side.

  How long had they been there? How had they avoided using magic for so long? How had they passed through the Great Barrier?

  She'd gone to find Tom again. He was in the park, sitting on the bench, alone. She followed him around for a day. She saw his family: his mother, his father, his sister. They weren’t wizards.

  They were Wanderers.

  As if it weren’t confusing enough, she had to remind herself Wanderers didn’t give birth to wizards. That was just stupid. It was like a cow giving birth to a goat. It didn’t happen.

  In her defence, she had written in her report that the magical signature came from a boy wizard who appeared to have been born on the Other Side to Wanderer parents. It was a stupid thing to write, but what other option did she have? And now she was here, in the House of Lords.

  She had heard stories about them. Sometimes, when they were in a bad mood or just bored, they looked for people to punish. Maybe this was one of those instances.

  “They will see you now,” the man by the door said.

  Cindy stopped and turned to look at him. He had a smile on his face. It wasn’t kind. She took a deep breath and walked through the door. It led into a dimly lit tunnel. The Law Lords came into view as she stepped into their private chamber. They were sitting on chairs on an elevated platform. Pipes were in their hands and smoke billowed out from their mouths.

  They appeared to be relaxed and in relatively good moods.

  With her eyes fixed onto her feet, she gave a low bow. She had never been to the House of Lords before, or met anyone of any nobility. She had practised her bow at home. She hoped it looked right.

  Her throat suddenly felt dry, her tongue heavy and her mouth clumsy. “My lords,” she croaked.

  “Cindy Melikov,” Lord Lipton said. “When your report of the boy from the Other Side came before us, I must confess to having unpleasant thoughts of what to do to you.” He spoke gravely.

  There was no doubt left as to why she had been summoned. Her legs began to shake. She pushed down hard onto her feet, trying to keep them still. But it didn’t work. She did notice her feet though. Had they always been that big?

  “There is no need to frighten the poor girl any further,” Lord Colborne said. “Congratulations are in order, Cindy Melikov.”

  Cindy was still busy trying to stop her legs from shaking. It was a moment before his words registered. Congratulations? She looked up. “My lords..?”

  Lord Colborne smiled. “It was a bit of luck on your part to stumble upon him, but nonetheless, your report was very thorough and you conducted yourself well under the circumstances.”

  “A wizard born to Wanderers,” Lord Lipton said, “this changes everything.”

  The words repeated in her mind. A wizard born to Wanderers... It hadn’t been a test? They really were his parents? But that was impossible. Wanderers don’t give birth to wizards. Whoever heard of such nonsense? She almost said as much out loud.

  “This changes nothing.”

  It was Lord Dragunov who had spoken and he sat a distance apart from Lords Colborne and Lipton. She met his eyes for a second before she looked down again. It was ample time to know he wasn’t happy.

  “You – Melikov, is it?”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  “Tell me, what does your father do?”

  “He is a farmer, my lord.”

  “A farmer,” Lord Dragunov scoffed. “A lowly Guardian of common blood, you are required to ask permission before you do anything deemed above your level of competence.” He slammed his fist onto the armrest angrily.

  “My lord, I-”

  “Silence!” Lord Dragunov roared and Cindy shuddered, taking a step back. “How dare you interrupt me?”

  She didn’t realise she had interrupted. There was a good passage of time before she spoke. How was she to know he hadn’t finished? As the silence stretched, she wondered if she should apologise, or would that count against her for inter
rupting again?

  “A Breeder posing as a wizard, and you did not think to refer to your superior before you merrily wandered up to him and dethroned what little dignity you had?” Lord Dragunov said contemptuously.

  Cindy’s eyes widened as she stared at her feet. Dethroned what little dignity she had...? She was confused. One moment she was being praised, now she was being insulted and denigrated.

  “You dare not answer me?” Lord Dragunov said ominously.

  In trouble for talking, in trouble for not talking – you couldn’t win with a lord. “I wish to beg your forgiveness, my lord, and promise in future to remember my place.”

  It wasn’t what she wanted to say, but she knew better than to speak her mind. Her contact with Tom had been brief, her report very detailed and, as it now seemed, correct. What had she done wrong?

  “I’ll see what your future holds,” Lord Dragunov said. He stood up and turned towards the other lords. “It isn’t too late to change your minds yet.”

  “The House of Lords has decided,” Lord Colborne said firmly. “The boy will come.”

  “The House will not always be yours,” Lord Dragunov said as he stormed off the platform. “The Breeder will wish he was never born,” Cindy heard him mutter as he left through another tunnel at the back.

  Cindy looked up at the two remaining lords. They were still in relatively good moods, still smoking their pipes. Lord Colborne even had a smile on his face as he looked back at her. “You must be wondering why you were summoned.”

  He was right. They couldn’t have sent for her to first praise and then shout at her, could they? Surely lords had better things to do? Although, according to her father, they didn’t.

  “You are to bring Thomas Skinner to our world. We have reserved him a seat at the School of Merlin,” Lord Colborne said.

  It made sense to her now, what Lord Dragunov had said about changing their minds. He didn’t want Thomas to come to their side. She could see how a wizard born to Wanderers could be a problem for him.