The Last Portal Read Online Free Page A

love
storms,’ Chris said.
    Fiona shook her
head earnestly. ‘No, they really do scare me.’
    Chris could
hear the clear note of attempted sincerity in her voice and looked
across at his father. He had that ‘you poor little thing’
expression on his face and Chris knew immediately he had already
lost.
    ‘Sure, Fi. It’s
all yours.’
    Fiona accepted
the torch with a sweet smile and, when their father had turned
away, she stuck her tongue out at Chris.
    Outside, the
storm, like some enraged, groaning monster, flung objects against
the side of the house. Chris settled on the couch with his sister,
who was flashing her torch everywhere. Each time there was a
lightning strike he could see his sister with a broad grin on her
face. The lightning and thunder were now almost simultaneous, and
the house shook with every thunderclap. By the next lightning
strike, he noticed that Fiona had slid up next to him and was
staring at something in the pocket of his jeans.
    ‘You know, your
jeans are glowing.’
    He rummaged
through his pockets and pulled out the key. Its glow lit up half
the lounge room.
    ‘Wow,’ Fiona
grinned, ‘that’s cool, is it one of those glow-in-the-dark
toys?’
    Chris didn’t
answer. He had an unreasonable urge to run to the closest toilet
and flush the key away.
    Fiona lunged
forward and snatched the key from his hand. It changed immediately
back to grey, but the glow still remained. Chris knocked the key
out of her hand and it slid under the couch.
    ‘What did you
do that for?’ she asked indignantly.
    The room lit up
a split second before the crack of a huge explosion rattled the
house. Chris rushed over to the window just in time to see the
neighbour’s tree burst into flames. ‘Awesome!’ he gasped, watching
the showers of sparks and shattered branches spraying across the
front garden as the tree turned into a giant torch. Seconds later,
there was a cracking sound and the tree split down the middle, with
half toppling over the fence, headed directly for their lounge.
Chris and Fiona dived away just as the front window exploded.
Glass, broken branches, and splintered wood sprayed everywhere.
    Chris looked
around for his family and saw Fiona huddled in the corner of the
room, still clutching her torch. His mother rushed across and,
after checking Fiona hadn’t actually been hit by anything, hugged
her hard. Chris and his father ran into the kitchen, filled some
buckets with water and doused the few flickering flames that still
clung to the tree trunk. The strengthening wind blew out the
remaining glass panels of the window, spraying everyone with more
glass.
    His father
pulled Chris back and signalled the others to retreat into the
adjoining dining room to wait out the storm.
    In less than
half-an-hour the storm front had passed and the sky had cleared.
The family filed back into the lounge room to inspect the damage.
The tree trunk now rested squarely on the couch where Chris and
Fiona had been sitting. Glass was everywhere, and parts of the
curtains and the wooden window frames were burnt. Only the sheer
volume of water dumped into the lounge room during the storm had
saved the house from being guttered by fire. They had been very
lucky.

    When Chris looked out
of his bedroom window the next morning, he could see his neighbours
busily cleaning up the debris from last night’s storm. Fallen trees
and branches were liberally strewn across driveways and along the
road. Several fences lay in tatters and a newly constructed garden
shed had lost its roof. His father was already up and inspecting
the fallen tree with the neighbour. But the sky was a brilliant
blue and the sun was out. All the fears of the previous night
seemed to evaporate. Chris dressed quickly for school and ran
downstairs, only to be informed by his mother that school had been
cancelled for the rest of the week, due to severe storm damage.
    ‘Yes!’ He ran
back upstairs and changed into an old tattered pair of jeans and