“Come on, let’s get to the vortex! We don’t have time to waste. Let’s check if it’s in the garden!”

The servants, concubines, and Aric the Valiant; they were all in their places as usual. The same old same old. Of course, that was of no consequence to Jordan and Jamal as they sprinted to the window behind Aric’s couch, wasting very little time in yanking it open with practiced efficiency.

They were in luck this time. The shimmering blue vortex hovered in the garden, right where it had been during their last attempt.

“There it is!” Jamal shouted, leaping out of the window without hesitation.

“Perfect! Looks like third time is the charm!” Jordan commented before following his friend, hitting the ground and taking off at full speed.

The two barreled through the manicured hedges, ignoring the throbbing pain in their legs. They could deal with that once they returned to their true dimension.

The vortex grew larger and brighter as they neared, pulsing like it was alive.

As they drew closer, they looked behind them.

There was no sign of the attackers with bows and arrows.

“Bruh! It’s a bloody home run!” Jordan squealed excitedly. “We’re clear!”

“Yes! Yes! This is not a drill! We’re getting out of here!” Jamal agreed.

They stepped up their acceleration. It was doing quite a number on their sides, but that hardly mattered at the moment. All that mattered was crossing through this cursed loop in history to the time they belonged.

“Bruh! I’m gonna need Daisy to give me one hell of a massage when we get back!” Jamal gasped as they moved on.

Jordan snickered. “Yeah, and I bet you’ll want a happy ending attached to that.”

“Of course! I’m gonna need her naked while she massages me. She can rub those glorious tits over me while she does the work.”

“Chrissakes, man! You are such a slut!” Jordan laughed as they got ever closer.

“Whatever, man! You’re gonna need some good-good yourself, you know!”

Jordan laughed. “Like hell I do, bro! Some deep erotic action would do me a world of good!”

“Hahahaha! And you say I’m the slut!”

Now that freedom stared them in the face, they could afford to joke around. Of course, they’d probably get a super roasting from Abryann and the security, but that would be handled later. What mattered more than anything else was getting through that vortex.

“We’re there! We’re there!” Jamal yelled.

“Oh, home sweet home!” Jordan gasped happily.

A fresh burst of adrenaline rushing through their veins, they both took a single, resolute step toward the swirling vortex. They braced themselves, hearts pounding with the thrill of escape.

“This is it!”

They pushed themselves into the threshold between this piece of hell and the familiar embrace of home…

… and ended up going right through to the other side of the vortex.

“What the hell…”

“Are you kidding me?”

Stopping, Jamal and Jordan turned and stood there, wide-eyed and mouths agape, as the vortex, their beacon of hope and only way home, revealed itself to be nothing more than a deceptive reflection.

A mere mirage of light and shadow.

The previous two attempts were cruel enough, but this one… there was no appropriate word to describe it.

The most unfair of anticlimactic twists.

The duo placed their hands on their heads.

“I-I-I can’t believe…” Jordan whispered.

Then suddenly, the vibrant blue colours faded, the swirling motion ceased, and with a final, mocking flicker, the vortex vanished into thin air.

And that was it.

Their final attempt, dashed to pieces.

***

The silence that followed was deafening. Their expressions morphed from shock to disbelief, and then to despair. Both men were frozen in place, their breaths ragged.

“What… what just happened?” Jordan stammered.

“It was a fake,” Jamal muttered, his voice trembling with restrained rage. “It freaking disappeared!”

Jordan shook his head, his face a mix of disbelief and despair. “What the hell? We did everything right this time. How could this happ–”

Jamal’s anger erupted. “This is all your fault!” he bellowed, rounding on Jordan.

Jordan recoiled, stunned and looking at Jordan with confusion. “My fault? My fault? How is this my–”

“It’s your freaking fault we’re in this bloody loop in the first place!” Jamal continued furiously. “You dragged us here because you just couldn’t accept Abryann got one over you! You couldn’t accept she’s got her own man and didn’t want you! You just had to prove something. And now look where we are!”

Jordan’s mouth was open in outrage, his brows angrily furrowed. “Are you serious right now? Are you freaking serious, Jamal? This was your idea! You mentioned this long before she rubbed her dude in my face! Weren’t you the one talking how life ain’t for the faint-hearted? Huh? Didn’t that include coming here? Are you mad?”

“I didn’t want it anymore!” Jamal roared. “All I wanted was to chill out on the beach and have fun with Daisy! Do you really think my idea was to get cursed for eternity instead of having a few more wild nights with her? Huh? I told you to get yourself a new babe and forget Abryann, didn’t I? But nope, poor little Jordan had to seek revenge coz his sorry little ego couldn’t handle a little rejection from a woman he can’t even handle!”

“Don’t you dare talk to me about ego!” Jordan snapped, fully peeved at this point. “Who’s more concerned about his ego than you? Always telling me how you clapped this girl’s cheeks, how you let that girl ride you like a cowgirl, how this girl moaned as you pounded her! That’s the epitome of a low self-esteem dude with the need for an ego boost! Don’t you dare tell me my ego’s sorry when you’ve got a more pathetic one!”

“Bruh, stop trying to deflect! We’re talking about this ego trip! When have any of my fun sessions put us in such a situation? Come on, tell me! Huh?”

“That’s not the freaking point, and you freaking know it! You don’t get to talk trash about my so-called ego when yours is worse. In any event, if you wanna start pinning the blame, be my freaking guest! You’ve got a helluva nerve to try and make me the bad guy. You’re the one who thought it’d be funny to read that inscription like a robot! You’re the one who—”

A soft sound behind them interrupted the fierce argument. Both of them flinched, then quickly turned to see what it was.

It was the boy in the white tunic. He stood there, his cherubic face calm and quite unreadable.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Jamal demanded, ready to channel his rage onto the little man. “Are you here to laugh at us or something? Huh?”

Jordan, looking ready to do the same, stepped forward, his hands clenched into fists. “You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you? Why did you lie to us? Why didn’t you tell us the truth? What the hell are we gonna do about this?”

As he trembled, thoughts of grabbing the boy by the scruff of his tunic and punching him taking form in his head, he felt a pat on his arm.

“Yo, Jords, look.”

He looked up in response to Jamal.

The palace attackers, usually storming toward the entrance by now, were frozen in place. Arrows in mid-flight, men and swords suspended in the air… it was as if time had stopped.

“What’s going on?” Jordan whispered, his eyes darting around.

Jamal then turned to the boy. “Wait, you did this? You can freeze the loop.”

The boy simply smiled.

“Wait a second,” Jordan started, “so you can actually help us?”

“But-but… but you said you had no power to do anything about the sorcerer guy’s curse,” Jamal demanded, irritation written all over his face. “What the heck?”

The boy stayed silent, his smile growing wider and slightly unsettling.

Then he laughed. A chilling, guttural sound that sent shivers down their spines.

“Uh, what’s funny?” Jordan asked nervously.

The boy’s laughter grew louder, echoing unnaturally in the still air. The duo looked at each other worriedly.

And then… his form began to shift.

The friends shrieked and fell to the ground in fright as the white tunic dissolved into black smoke, and his cherubic features twisted and stretched, darkening and darkening…

… until he stood before them as a tall, hooded figure cloaked in shadow.

He stepped closer, and the temperature around them plummeted. He then spoke in a deep, frightful voice.

“So I can actually help you, you ask? Of course I can. But I did not. Because you were never meant to escape from my curse. Nobody escapes the curse of Okron. Nobody!”

Oh, crap! They were deceived all along! This is definitely not gonna end well for them. This might just be a downer of an ending…