Dungeon in My Closet Chapter 3

“Woah!”

I scrambled against the scratchy gray fabric of my dorm room carpet, and the woman on the floor beside me grimaced at my reaction, though not out of fear. The expression on her face seemed more exasperated than anything else, but she still wore a slight smile on her beautiful face.

“Hi, master.” Her voice was soft, and I just stared at her in disbelief as she tucked a stray tendril of hair behind her ear.

“Your voice…” I muttered in shock when I suddenly realized.

“Yeah…” The woman just nodded slightly and shifted her weight until she sat across from me with her legs crossed.

“You’re the… The voice in my head, from the bow and arrows, and… Oh shit! There was a fucking troll, even, what the hell is happening right now…?” I rubbed at my temples and suddenly felt exhausted as a long shuddering groan escaped my lips, and the residual panic threatened to take over again.

“In through the nose,” the woman said in the same calm voice I’d first heard in my mind. “Out through the mouth.”

I dutifully followed her instruction again and immediately found it helped. I focused on my breathing, and then I locked eyes with the gorgeous woman that had tumbled through the portal with me and back into my world.

Her hair was long, with ends that skimmed the small of her back, and natural waves and curls tumbled about her heart shaped face. It was a beautiful shade of burnt auburn, like every color of the fall, and I suddenly realized it was almost the exact color of the wood that the bow had been made from. Every strand caught the light spilling in through the still open window of my room, like thick weaves of spun gold, and I suddenly understood Rumpelstiltskin’s obsession.

The woman also had pale blue eyes, so light they almost didn’t hold any color at all, and they were big and round as she continued to study me.

Her skin was covered in light freckles, and she had high cheekbones and plump, rosy pink lips that looked unfairly inviting in the way they were turned up in an absentminded smile.

“You okay?” she asked after a moment.

“I think so,” I muttered as I ran my fingers through my hair. “You… I thought I was going crazy, hearing voices in my head…”

“You’re not crazy, master,” the redhead chuckled. “Although, I can see why you’d think that.”

“Why do you keep calling me master?” I suddenly asked.

“Because that’s what you are.” She grinned knowingly. “I haven’t been wielded in so long, I’d almost forgotten how much fun it can be.”

“What’s your name?” I wondered.

“You can call me Amber.” The redhead’s smile widened at my question.

“So, when you’re not… Y’know…” I helplessly gestured to her with both hands. “When you’re not a wooden bow, you’re… This?”

“A woman?” she suggested in the same casually flirtatious tone I’d heard her use before. “That’s right. Although, it’s been even longer since I’ve been one of those, I guess.”

She quickly scrambled to her feet and stretched her limbs out. I slumped on the floor as I watched her inspect her outstretched fingertips with the exact same level of excitement as Ariel the mermaid had when she first felt her legs, and I just stared incredulously up at her.

She was dressed in a raw leather dress that clung to her frame like a second skin. Her ample breasts bulged against the material, and it was cut so short I could appreciate her long, lean legs and pert ass. She had leather boots on her feet that laced all the way up to her knees, and a simple gold chain around her slender neck, and when she caught me looking, she immediately did a twirl.

“What do you think?” Amber asked with a giggle. “Pretty good for a wooden bow, huh?”

“I’d say so…” I muttered and then shook my head in disbelief. “But hang on, how is any of this even possible? There’s a-- a portal in the back of my closet, and you’re from a different world, one with trolls apparently, and you can shapeshift into a weapon?”

“Unfortunately, master, most of those questions I can’t answer,” she admitted with a slight hint of frustration, and the way she scrunched her nose up was adorable. “Like I said, I haven’t been wielded for gods only know how long. The portal, I have absolutely no idea.”

“So, you’ve had other masters?” I asked. “How come you were just left under that tree by the river, what happened to your last one?”

“Of that, I’m not entirely sure,” she sighed heavily. “My memory fades, when it’s been so long. Time ends up molding together a little, and I’m not even sure actually how long it’s been since I’ve even… Spoken to anyone, let alone been wielded…”

“I’m sorry,” I muttered. “That can’t be much fun. But you say wielded… That still means stuck in the form of a bow, right? So how come you’re human right now?”

“I have no idea. The magic I’m cursed with… I don’t feel it here.” Amber scrunched up her face as she tried to explain something that really neither one of us truly understood.

“Magic?” I raised an eyebrow. “We don’t have magic here.”

“Well, then, that explains it,” Amber suddenly said, and her face lit up with excitement. “Though I have no idea where you’ve brought me. Your world is… very white.”

“That’s just college accommodation for you,” I snickered with a hint of hysteria, because what the fuck was happening right now? “You wait ‘til I show you the concrete jungle out there.”

“I don’t know if that sounds appealing or not.” Amber matched my grin and put her hands on her shapely hips. “Anything with you sounds like an adventure, master. I know what a jungle is, but what in all the god’s names is concrete?

“Uhh…” I huffed out another laugh and then shrugged. “It’s kinda hard to describe. It’s a liquid rock that hardens. It’s what most buildings and roads and infrastructure is built with.”

“And college?” Amber asked eagerly, as if she were starved and every new bit of information about my world was like a bite of food. “What’s a college?”

“This.” I gestured helplessly with my hand and grinned. “It’s where we study. So we can get decent jobs.”

“Study?” Amber eyed me almost suspiciously. “Like at a guild?”

“I mean… Kinda, I guess,” I replied with a huff of laughter. “Everyone studies as kids, and then we choose to study more.”

“That sounds… Boring,” Amber said, and then she gasped and slapped her hand across her mouth as her eyes widened. “Not that you sound boring, master. I didn’t mean to offend.”

“None taken,” I chuckled as I watched her whisper through her fingers. “I mean, you’re sorta right in all fairness. But the city… You’ll fall in love with it. Everybody does.”

“Fall in love?” Amber asked, and the way her big round eyes blinked earnestly up at me made my stomach twist into a knot.

“Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that.” I couldn’t help the playful flirtation in my voice, and the way I’d interacted with Amber in my head filtered through into real life almost seamlessly. “But New York is one of the best cities in the world.”

“New York?” Amber’s nose scrunched up again as she spoke the unfamiliar words. “That’s the name of your settlement?”

“I mean, kinda.” I shrugged. “Although, if we’re getting technical, we’re in Brooklyn. Plus settlement is a bit of an understatement. You’ll see.”

There was a sudden knock at the door, and both Amber and I froze.

“Dude?” I heard my metalhead neighbor’s voice on the other side of the door. “Me and Honey are gonna grab some food before we go to this party, if you’re game?”

I hadn’t even thought about how long I’d been in whatever alternate reality the portal in my closet led me to, but time apparently didn’t pass in the same way it did in the real world. It had felt like I’d been in Amber’s reality for almost an entire day, especially after that troll battle, but in my world my new buddy was still asking me to head to a frat party with him as if it’d only been an hour or two since I’d agreed to go.

Part of me wanted to talk to Amber more and figure out what the hell was going on with this portal in my closet, but another part of me had never been on a date with a woman as stunningly beautiful as her.

“Uhhh, just give me a minute!” I called out to my friend, and I cringed at the tone of my voice.

Aron must’ve sensed it too, because he barreled in through my bedroom door regardless with a wide grin on his face, but then he stopped in his tracks when he spotted Amber.

She just waved at him and then nudged me with her elbow.

“Who’s that?” Amber whispered up at me.

“My friend, Aron,” I quickly explained with a tight smile. “Aron, this is Amber.”

“Hi, Amber.” The curly haired metalhead greeted her with a genial smile before he fixed me with a raised eyebrow and a frown. “How the hell did you get a girl back here so fast?”

“Uhhh…” Shit, now I needed to really think on my feet. Although, I appreciated Aron’s assumption that I had the ability to score a college girl so quickly.

“Hey, Honey!” Aron suddenly called out over his shoulder. “Come check this out!”

I held in a groan as my other friend poked her head round the door frame.

“No way,” the petite blonde girl snickered. “James the nerd has scored a girl before me?”

“Ha, ha, pipe down both of you.” I chuckled and shook my head. “Amber is… Uhh, Amber is my girlfriend, she got accepted here, too. She’s why I decided to come here in the first place.”

I faltered with the lie until it started to taste true, and I just nodded with silent encouragement as Amber looked up at me curiously.

She seemed to get the message, though, and she looped her arm through mine with a wide grin and nodded silently along.

“Nice to meet you, Amber.” Honey winked at the redhead who immediately blushed. “Are you coming with us to the party?”

“I’d be honored.” Amber’s freckled cheeks blushed a beautiful shade of pink, but then she frowned. “But I don’t have a gown.”

“Oh, I think you’re dressed just fine,” Honey assured her, and she smirked as she glanced at her knee high boots and tan colored tight fitting leather dress. “It’s very avant garde typical New York attire, you’ll fit in just fine.”

“Trust me,” I said softly to the redhead. “You look amazing.”

“Of course I trust you, master.” Amber’s pale eyes glittered as she returned my grin.

“My name is James,” I reminded her in a low voice with a smirk pulling at my lips. “People might raise eyebrows at you calling me ‘master.’”

“Really?” Amber giggled. “Why? I belong to you.”

“Maybe I’ll explain one day.” I chuckled, and then I gestured for her to follow me toward the door. “C’mon, we’d better go.”

My two friends had already sauntered out of my room, so I quickly grabbed the pouch I’d stolen from the river troll and shook three of the thick gold nuggets out into the palm of my hand.

I knew there was a pawn shop pretty close nearby, and I wondered how much the going rate for gold was as I pocketed the nuggets with an excited grin on my face. Then I hid the pouch under my mattress. I double checked the lock on my dorm an extra time to make sure no one cold get in, and then we all walked out of the building.

It was late in the afternoon as we walked across the quad, but the sun was still warm in the sky. Spring in New York was always great, but the day was particularly warm, with a couple of wispy white clouds in an otherwise totally blue sky and a soft breeze that carried the sounds of students still moving into their dormitories across the campus.

The air around the college was full of different types of music being blasted from different dorm room windows, as well as shouts and laughter from old and new friends.

“You guys know where you wanna eat?” I asked our group as we headed past the wrought iron gates of the campus and out onto the constantly bustling streets of downtown Brooklyn.

Amber’s pale eyes became as wide as saucers as she took in her new surroundings, and I realized my concrete jungle quote was probably incredibly accurate for her.

I hadn’t explored a great deal of her world, but just judging from the rudimentary wood cabin I’d emerged from, as well as the fact ancient looking trolls roamed the lands freely, I figured the concept of skyscrapers and cars and everything else that seemed totally normal to me would be close to freaking her out.

I instinctively grabbed Amber’s hand, and her eyes immediately found mine as I touched her. She shot me a small smile, and I could tell that her tension relaxed the moment I squeezed her fingers.

“Hey, I need to buy some smokes, and there’s a really hot girl that works in the bodega on fifth,” Aron suddenly piped up as he lit his last cigarette and exhaled a light plume of smoke.

“Hot girl?” Honey grinned. “Say less, I’ll come with.”

“We’ll meet you guys there,” I told my two friends as I kept my fingers entwined with Amber’s. “I just gotta change something up at the pawn shop a few blocks up.”

“Pawn shop?” Honey raised her eyebrow at me. “What fine goods are you trading in exactly?”

I had to stop the smirk from pulling at the corners of my mouth at the thought of the three thick gold nuggets that were currently burning a hole in my pocket.

“Nothing interesting,” I lied, but my smile definitely started to give me away. “My mom had found some old jewelry before I left and gave it to me as a pocket money fund.”

“So pizza’s on you, then?” Aron chuckled as he took another long drag on his smoke. “Sounds good to me.”

“We’ll catch up with you,” I promised the two of them. “Besides, I desperately wanna see Aron’s flirting skills.”

“Trust me, buddy,” Aron snorted suddenly. “No one wants to see that.”

Amber and I left my two friends and started to walk in the opposite direction away from campus.

“What is a… pawn shop?” Amber asked as soon as we were out of earshot.

“It’s a place where you can sell things for money,” I explained as we walked through the streets of Brooklyn hand in hand. “I only grabbed a few of the gold nuggets before we left, but I wanted to see how much money I could get for them. I didn’t wanna risk getting mugged for the whole lot, but I don’t know how much gold is worth right now, and I figured it’s definitely worth checking out.”

“You already have the gold, and yet it isn’t worth anything until it’s traded for different money?” Amber said as her nose wrinkled in confusion. “Why does your world have so many rules around things?”

“I’ve asked myself that more times than I can remember,” I admitted with a laugh, and I looped an arm around her shoulders as the sudden excitement started to sink in. “I hope we get a good deal.”

I’d never had more than a couple hundred dollars in my account, and I definitely wasn’t privy to how gold and jewelry trades worked, but I figured, if the troll’s little pouch of gold nuggets was legit, then I could make myself a decent amount.

Which meant I could dive back into Amber’s world and make myself stinking rich.

The shop front was dusty and pretty nondescript, but the thing that really caught my eye was the blinking neon sign that proclaimed ‘WE BUY GOLD!’ and I grinned widely as Amber stared at the shining light.

“It’s so bright!” she whispered in awe. “And you say you don’t have magic in your world.”

“I guess this is our version of it.” I nodded with another laugh. “Technology is our magic. Huh. I never thought of it that way.”

“The lights are brighter than any flame I’ve ever seen, and the metal carriages that power themselves are so loud, and it’s so busy…” Amber sighed. “There’s definitely magic here, just not a kind I’ve ever been familiar with.”

“Wait ‘til you see the numbers in my bank account change,” I laughed as I guided Amber through the door of the pawn shop.

It smelled like stale sweat with a metallic twang that could’ve been old blood or old jewelry, it was hard to tell. The cases haphazardly littered across the shop floor were sort of musty, and the glass looked like it hadn’t been completely clear in a good couple years.

As I approached the counter, a withered old man who couldn’t have been any younger than seventy-five fixed me with a steady stare. His skin looked like a lizard’s, and it was artificially tanned to within an inch of its life, which made the off white of his shirt even more glaringly obvious.

He had a thin silver chain around his neck as well as a massive signet ring on his left hand, and he studied me through thick framed spectacles whose glass was at least a half inch thick.

“Hi.” I smiled at him with anticipation suddenly racing around my veins.

“What can I do you for, son?” the old man asked in a flat voice.

Without a word, I pulled the three gold nuggets out of my jeans pocket and gently placed them on the glass counter between us. Amber’s eyes flitted between the scene like she was watching a game of tennis, and I just cleared my throat and smiled again.

“I’d like to sell these,” I told him with a fake air of confidence.

I had no idea how much I’d get for the satisfyingly thick otherworldly nuggets, but I wanted to seem like I had some sort of clue as to how this all worked.

The old man with the chain just raised an eyebrow in silence and scooped the nuggets off the weathered glass countertop to inspect them.

After a moment, he hummed in interest.

“I’ve not seen nuggets like this in a long time,” the teller said with his voice still void of emotion. “Let me test ‘em real quick.”

The old man bent down beneath the counter and pulled out a black slab of stone as well as a little glass bottle with a squeeze stopper in the lid, and I felt myself subconsciously shifting my weight from foot to foot as the teller worked at a damn snail’s pace.

I watched eagerly as he rubbed one of the gold nuggets vigorously against the black stone, until a slight golden mark remained on the slab. The teller hummed to himself and gently set the gold piece back down with the others, and I had to stop the groan from escaping my mouth.

“Does that mean it’s satisfactory?” I asked quickly and nodded to the golden mark left on the black stone.

“Not quite yet,” the old man muttered. “Next, we apply the nitric acid.”

“What does that do?” Amber asked curiously, and I noticed she’d been watching the old man work with as much excitement as me.

“If there’s a strong reaction, it’s not gonna be worth much,” the teller murmured as he used the squeeze top to sucker up some acid into the stem. “If there’s no reaction at all, this suggests purity.”

“Okay, do the test,” I replied, and I bit my lip.

That sounded far too much like a demand, and the old guy just slowly raised his eyes to stare at me above the thick black frame of his eye glasses.

Without a word, he turned his attention back to the black stone slab, and then he let a few drops of acid fall onto the golden mark that was still there.

It felt as though the three of us held our breath as we watched the liquid splatter against the stone, and after a few seconds of absolutely nothing, a wide grin split my face.

“No reaction.” I huffed out a laugh. “So it’s pure?”

The old man just raised an eyebrow, nodded, and then pulled a completely old school set of scales and weights out from under the counter.

He placed all three of my gold nuggets on one side, the counter weight on the other, and huffed again.

“Three ounces,” he said with a nod, and he looked up at me as he adjusted his spectacles. “I’ll give you eight thousand for the lot.”

“E-Eight?” I stuttered as my breath hitched in my throat.

Eight thousand dollars? I’d never seen more than eight hundred in my account, and this guy was just gonna casually offer me eight grand?

I cleared my throat and folded my arms across my chest, and Amber continued to watch the exchange between the two of us with intense curiosity.

“Is that the, ahh, the best you can do?” I asked him in a nonchalant tone.

I had no fucking idea whether you bartered at pawn shops, and I had no idea whether I was dreaming or not at this entire exchange, but the old man fixed me with another steady look before he sniffed hugely.

“Fine, I’ll do ten considering its purity.” The pawn shop teller shrugged. “Cash or bank transfer?”

“Bank transfer would be fine,” I said in a strained voice as I fought to keep my words casual.

But inside I was fucking break dancing.

I’d fallen into some mad otherworld, where I’d fought and killed a troll with the help of a beautiful woman trapped inside of a mystical bow and arrow, and now I was back in Brooklyn with ten thousand dollars about to be wire transferred to my bank account.

I had to physically stop myself from punching my fists into the air as if I were in a John Hughes movie.

Life was awesome.