Original pic: an old door found on Pixabay.com. I cropped and edited it in Photoshop.
Esther crept along the dank, unlit corridor, while the moonlight from the window slowly faded behind her. Penetrating deeper into the eerie depths of Garlmarth Castle, complete silence surrounded her; the only sound was that of her heart beating faster and faster as it slowly climbed up her throat.
The darkness seemed thicker in this place. Fear began to seize control of her rationality, and her mind raced with all the possible outcomes of her journey into this forsaken place. Though the castle had supposedly been vacant for some years, she couldn’t help but feel that she was being observed by some ominous force.
Claustrophobia was setting in. She felt as if the air was closing in on her from all sides; that at any moment it might grab her and whisk her away into nothingness. Suddenly, she stopped. Remembering that she wasn’t alone, she pulled out her cell phone and clicked it on. Desperately, she dialed Thurman’s number. Esther could always count on him, her best friend. He would know what to do. No answer. At least the light from the phone would offer some help, she thought.
Looking up, she noticed a splintered, decaying door in front of her. On it, barely visible, were three grimy, moss covered numbers – 331. A chill ran down her spine as she remembered the stories surrounding this room.
At that moment, the light from her phone dimmed into the night. The battery had died. She stood, staring into the blackness, as her last source of comfort and security vanished before her eyes. She cursed her negligence. Of all the things to remember, making sure that her phone was charged should certainly have been at the top of the list. It was now no more than a paper weight without the vital electricity that ran through it.
She was alone again, in the dark. Should she move forward? She had come too far to turn around now. Cautiously, she reached her hand out and ran it across the width of the door until she found the door knob. It was as cold as the ice in her veins. Slowly turning the knob, she tried to steady her breath. Every moment felt like an eternity. At last, the door creaked open and………….
Finish the story!
Sunlight, despite it being night .. How could this be happening?
Esther had found the door to eternity. Would she decide to go over the threshhold of door 331 or stay in the night area where she had friends?
Exhausted from the journey, Esther longed to embrace the warmth beyond the door. She could lie down in its comforting glow and sleep forever. She nearly succumbed to this intoxicating feeling, when she suddenly remembered why she was there. She had come to solve the mystery of her missing parents, who had disappeared over ten years ago. They had gone on quest, searching for a worm hole to another realm. I guess they found it, she thought. Should she follow?
Compared to the world she lived in, the next looked so inviting. Although, she couldn’t be certain, for it was more of a sense of peace that lay beyond, not something she could see.
She stared through the doorway a little longer; then reluctantly, she glanced back into the dark hallway. It was not yet her time; she still had work to do and friends that counted on her. She gripped the knob and the door creaked shut.
At least now she knew why her parents had never returned. They must not have realized that they would never be able to see her again once they stepped into the light. But then she wondered, maybe they could see her. Maybe they had been watching over her this whole time from the other realm. That thought comforted her as she ventured back down the desolate hallway and out of the castle.
Found that she could see nothing through the darkness. The room in front of was impossible to see into, and cautiously she put one foot into the room, the creaking of the floor sending waves of dread up her spine. When her whole body had entered into the room, she could hear the faint sound of wind whispering past her ears. There were no screams, no sounds of horror or pain. Merely sadness, merely a feeling of intense loneliness.
Her heart began to beat slower, moving back to a beat per second that wouldn’t result in death if she were to survive this nightmare. The air was warming around her, and incredibly light seemed to be seeping into the room from all around her. Soon enough, she was squinting as the room was so bright that it hurt to look around. When her pupils had finally dilated, she carefully observed the room. When she moved, it felt like she was diving in the ocean, the world so surreal.
There were no lamps or windows, yet the light perforated the room. A single chair, old and wooden, sat against the center of the back wall. Lining the side walls were two pictures of an man, his hair whitening even though his face was clearly young. On the left wall, he was smiling even though his eyes were sad. On the right, he was frowning even though his eyes were full of more joy than Esther had ever felt.
She sat down in the chair, confused as to what this room meant. So many stories about riches and gold burying the corpse of the owner of the castle. But all there was in the room were two pictures of a man, a chair, and a sign hanging on the wall above said chair.
Written in bold, black ink on the sign, were the words that Esther had been fearing all her life- In Loving Memory of My Dear Esther, Dead as of 2012.
nothingness. Eternal darkness in the room. She walked forward into the blackness.”Oww!” she cried. She immediately cupped her hand over her mouth, if anyone was her they knew she was here too. Her foot hit some hard, round object. She picked it up, feeling it’s metallic surface. Then it started vibrating, she dropped it and started running for the door. But she couldn’t find it, the door nob was gone. Esther ran in the opposite direction, deeper in the room. She started to yield when she saw a glowing surface. It didn’t look like natural light, but a computer. She walked up to it and saw space for two, words. One that had five letters and one with four letters. Esther recalled one of the grueling tails about the room. The story said that the words were total opposites, yet can’t exist without each other. She recalled this one being easy. Dark and Light, of course. She punched the letters into the computer. She started to hear a ball rolling across the floor, the metallic ball! It stopped right in front of her. It started to open and she saw natural light, she jumped through the gap and was immediately engulfed in sunshine.