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Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Portal to Kyoto 
by Jaime Johnesee 

“Jesus! Up ahead! Run, Daryl! Oh, God, it’s coming!” James screamed to his friend as they ran for the Torii, which just happened to be a magical portal to Kyoto that they’d had built, regardless of the warnings the monks gave them.

Pounding footfalls chased the pair to the arch, urging them faster and faster. Daryl’s anguished cry forced James to look back in time to catch the image of his friend being eaten by the beast.

“That can’t be me, please, God!” James said softly, to himself, as he ran for his life.

The creature finished snacking on Daryl and began bounding for James.

Luck was on the young man’s side as he reached the portal and emerged in modern day Japan. A whimper from the beast’s head caused him to stop celebrating his good fortune–at entering and closing the portal in time–and look down.

A piece of the creature had come through the Torii with James. Its head stilled, its eyes closed. The body had, thankfully, remained on the other side of the portal.

James stepped to the side, down an alley, where he vacated his stomach contents before returning the omamori to the old Onmyōji.

The amulet was burning through his flesh, charring and bubbling through all the layers of skin and burrowing into the muscle of his hands.

Yet, he dare not let go, the mage needed it to reverse everything. This omamori, as much as it looked like a simple pendant, would help change fate and free his people.

James knew he had no choice but to suffer through the pain as he worked to find the magic man.

He needed to reverse what the evil sorcerer had done, and only the Onmyōji could do it. As he ran, he prayed. All his praying was for naught, as a truck would immediately slam into him, killing him on impact.

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Fiction © Copyright Jaime Johnesee
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Jaime Johnesee:

Shifters: A Samantha Reece Mystery

When a serial killer begins leaving remains of victims in hotel bathtubs all over town FBI Agent Samantha Reece makes it her business to stop him.

This detective’s got an ace up her sleeve in the form of her ability to shift into the guise of a were panther. As she tracks down the cold-hearted murderer she also has to contend with an anti-shifter group determined to destroy her.

Not to mention the black jaguar who turned her decides to come sauntering back into her life.

Available on Amazon!