- 4 -

Penny stood rigidly still, her pulse thrumming as it quickened in her chest.  She saw it, glowing vividly, warmly, enticing her.  That was the only way to think about it.  Like it was calling to her, tempting her.  A perfect, glowing door.  It looked brand new, right out of wherever doors came from. Even the door knob was shiny and new. She felt as though she was being drawn nearer and nearer, and soon it was only inches that separated her from the door.  She glanced up, the light blinding her momentarily, transporting her to a life that was so familiar and yet so foreign, a life where she lived with her mom and dad, where they had loved her. The yearning in her chest was so strong that she quietly gasped with the pain.  She bit down on her lip hard, drawing tears to her eyes, and she brushed them away quickly, shifting her focus to the doorknob, that just like the others she had seen, had something etched into the metal.  She could still feel the pull of a door like a magnet, but she didn’t let it draw her focus away. Narrowing her eyes, she stared hard at the words engraved on the metal.

“These three that lead thee from death to life through time and back again,” she read, feeling the words turn to ice as she tried to speak them aloud, and try as she might, the words wouldn’t come.  The glow around the door pulsed, and Eric, who she had forgotten was there, leaned in for a look.  She blinked and felt the spell-like trance that had stolen over her fade.  Silently, she backed away, unwilling to look at the mysterious glow anymore.

“Three door handles,” she said quietly, imagining the two she had already seen.  This handle had a symbol etched over the word time.  She inspected the handle several more times, memorizing every detail, and scolding herself inwardly for not being more observant earlier.  Eric was still reading the words, his lips moving slightly.  Then, glancing at her, he spoke them aloud.  She heard them, felt them tearing at her, and couldn’t help wincing. Why had he been able to speak them?  As soon as he had finished, the light in the room became unbearably bright.  They both stumbled back and covered their eyes as the light pulsed blindingly white and then disappeared, leaving a plain, wooden door behind.  Penny looked around desperately, but sighed heavily when she realized that all the magic or whatever it was that had been coming from that door had disappeared with the light.  She shook her head. Her brain really couldn’t take any more of this.

“What is it with this place and doors?” Eric muttered irritably.  She could hear the frustration in his voice, like the frustration she was feeling in that moment. She couldn’t be sure what was more insane: the creepy zombie-ghost experiences, the fact that the whole place seemed to have swallowed them and taken them through a mind-boggling maze, or the three mysterious doors that had continually warped reality.

“Should we open it?” he asked, quietly, and she let out a short grunt and gave him a look that she hoped communicated that she thought he was nuts.  But before she could stop him, he reached out and touched the shining metal. She braced herself for chaos, but when he pulled the door open, nothing happened.  There was nothing but a brick wall behind the door.  She had to admit that once that bright glow had disappeared, she had stopped worrying about the mystical powers of it.

“I think its time to regroup,” she said straightening and looking around.  The “tunnel” they had come through was still where it had been before.  She stepped up to the enormous opening and squinted as she peered through.

“I’m going back,” she said, confident for some reason that the place at the other end would still be creepy but minus a few ghosts.  Besides, what choice did she have? She wasn’t going through that door if it was what she thought it was.  But that was what she really needed to do.  Think.

“Are you sure?” Eric asked, his voice quivering slightly as he spoke.

“Don’t be such a wimp,” Penny said, emitting confidence she didn’t really feel.  If she hadn’t detested him, she might have offered to hold his hand, or even just held it anyway, but she remembered the taunts at school, the look of amusement on his face, and it was easy to leave him behind and climb through the hole.

She wanted to gloat a little, rub it in his face, when she emerged into a creaking house filled with shadowy afternoon sunlight.  She suppressed a shiver as she glimpsed the moldy nursery furniture, but as her intuition had told her, there were no ghosts, zombies, or other undead creatures creeping through the house now.  Instead, it was just what it had appeared to be: an old, broken, empty mansion.

He had followed her through, his face betraying his confusion, but he didn’t speak or react to her gloating expression.  He just let her lead him through the dank hallway, down rickety stairs, and into the foyer.  They had used a side entrance, but Penny wasn’t sure where that was in relation to where she stood now and wasn’t really interested in trying to find it.

“Here, help me open this door,” she said, and together they began heaving themselves against the door.  If the planks nailed against it hadn’t been rotting away, she was sure they wouldn’t have been able to manage it, but after several hard shoves, the wood splintered and fell away.

When they emerged into the afternoon light, she felt such intense relief to be back in the world that her knees seemed to grow weak.

“What are you guys doing?” Tina squeaked, appearing from the side of the house, her face flushed and her eyes red.

“Whoa, what’s up with you?” Eric said, his face white in the afternoon light.

“I heard someone scream, and I totally thought you guys were dead. When I looked in through the windows I couldn’t see you anymore, and it got really cold out here.  It was the weirdest thing…” Her voice faded, and she shivered and wiped tears from her cheeks.

“I totally thought you guys were toast, and I was about to go get a grown-up or something when you came out the front door.”

“How long were we in there?” Penny asked.  It had seemed like hours, but she hadn’t been able to keep a grip on time with all the blacking out and running away from…whatever that guy was.

“Only a few minutes, but…”

“You didn’t call anyone did you?” Eric asked, sharply. Tina’s lip quivered but she shook her head. Penny, feeling bad, put her arm around the other girl.

“Hey, it’s okay.  We’re okay,” she said.  She glanced at Eric, giving him a cold stare, and tried to tell him mentally to keep the truth to himself.  Whether he understood her or not, he didn’t speak.  He just ran a hand through his hair and glanced around.

“I’ve got to get home,” he said awkwardly.

“Sounds good. See you later,” Penny said pointedly, hoping once again that he had picked up her meaning.  But he glanced at her, his face seeming to shift into his usual indifferent expression. Without another word, he turned and headed back around the side of the house, where she assumed he had stowed his backpack.

“What happened to you guys?  I really did hear someone scream.  And you both look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Tina asked, letting Penny lead her to the front gate.

“Let’s just get out of here,” Penny said, glancing back at the house, a cold sensation creeping over her skin as she glanced back at the house.

---

Tina’s mom insisted she stay for dinner, and Penny couldn’t refuse, tired of the TV dinners and frozen burritos her aunt had supplied for her evening meals.  Tina chatted nonstop through dinner, along with her four siblings, including a set of seven-year-old twin boys that were currently obsessed with Minecraft and determined to explain every detail of the castles they had been building. Admittedly, the noise and number of people was overwhelming, but she liked them.  Tina’s house was clean and bright, filled with electronic gadgets Penny hadn’t even heard of.  Her mother was a lawyer – “Not the kind on television. I’ve gone corporate,” she had explained with a breezy laugh, though Penny had to admit that she didn’t really know the difference.  But it must have meant they made a lot of money, judging from the nice cars and enormous house.  Tina’s dad was a surgeon. “Dad cuts open people’s brains,” one of the twins had told her, his eyes going as wide as his grin.  Penny was instantly glad she didn’t have a squeamish stomach.  And, despite the annoying little brothers, Tina’s family was super friendly, even her older sister, who was in high school.  As Tina’s mom drove her home, with Tina still chatting away in the front seat, and intermittently singing along with the radio, Penny felt something inside of her ache.  Like a hole that she hadn’t noticed until now.  But she knew it was there. Until she was alone, she ignored it.

“This is my phone number,” Tina said, handing her a piece of paper.

“Mom makes me shut my phone off at 8 every night, but you can message me when you’re bored.  Do you use Snapchat? Mom won’t let me have a Facebook.”

“Yeah, I have Snapchat,” Penny said, with a small grin.  She hadn’t used it in months, had intentionally ignored the notifications on her screen from her old friends.  If they could see her now, they wouldn’t even recognize her, she thought.

She waved to Tina as her mom backed out of the driveway, fumbling in her pocket for her keys at the same time.  The apartment was dark – she could tell from the parking lot – and her aunt’s car wasn’t in it’s space.  She wasn’t off work for three more hours.  Penny sighed heavily as she was finally left completely alone and hurried out of the darkness and into the building.

She triple-checked the locks, hung up her jacket on a hook near the door, and surveyed the empty apartment.  It was quiet and cold.  The minimal furniture and empty fridge made it feel as though no one lived here.  She tried to push the feelings down, tried to think of homework and school, tried to think of Tina, but she felt something inside of her break in half.  And right there, her back to the door, she slid to the floor, great, aching tears rolling down her cheeks as she realized this was what it was to be alone, to be left behind.

She would have stayed there all night if she hadn’t felt her phone begin vibrating in her pocket.  Confused, she pulled it out and stared at the screen.  Someone from a number she didn’t recognize was calling her. Her hands shook as she slid her finger across the screen.  And it took her a moment to steady her voice before she answered.

“Hello?”

“Penny?” It was a boy’s voice.  And she knew which boy.  She almost hung up, but memories of her psychotic afternoon stopped her.

“What do you want, Eric,” she muttered, knowing she sounded as miserable as she felt.

“We need to talk about what happened,” he said, his voice quiet but much steadier than hers.  She sighed and didn’t speak.

“How did you get my number?” she asked, her voice growing steely.

“Called Tina,” he said shortly.  She sighed.

“Okay, yeah, let’s talk.”

“Let’s meet in the library after school tomorrow,” he said, his voice low like he was telling her a secret.

“Regroup and research?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll see you there.”  He hung up before she could say anything.  She looked at her phone and shook her head.  Silently, she got to her feet and dragged herself and her backpack into her room, where she could bury herself in homework until she fell asleep.