Doorway

Doorway

Short Story; Part 1 of ?

I've been writing a lot of dark things lately so I decided to take a trip to a place where fear, hate, and anger cannot exist. A place that many of us, I'm sure, only visit in our dreams. So please, take a little break from the trials of reality and lose yourself in another world.

I was standing in a dark room facing an open doorway. My eyes filled with pain at the intense light. I squinted and brought up a hand to shield my eyes from the light. I felt dizzy and could have sworn the light was trying to burn me away. I fought to stay standing. It felt like I was screaming inside to hold on to my awareness. Suddenly, silence. I felt solid. My heart was beating reassuringly in my chest. I was alive and couldn't understand why the feeling was so important to me. The light beyond the doorway had become a tame scene of rolling green hills.

I could see the forest beyond the hills as clearly as if I stood at their edge. My head spun, filled with pain, and I desperately clutched at it once again fighting some unknown force to remain where I was. The pain faded and I opened my eyes once more. The forest was gone from my sight, only the rolling emerald hills could be seen but the knowledge of the forest remained in my mind-- a dark echo or a faded photograph.

As I took a step forward towards the doorway I saw that my feet were bare. Upon further inspection, I realized that I was completely unclothed. I turned my head to look around the room. In every direction, except  for the door, there was nothing but endless darkness. There were no walls, I realized, only the door suspended in darkness. Without another thought, I ran as fast as I could force my legs to move until I was through the door and on the grass beyond. I turned to watch the door, only there was no door. All I saw were endless green hills and a tall mountain beyond.

Towards the mountain I could make out a faint trail of smoke coming from what looked to be a small village. I decided not to go that way on account of my lack of clothing. I did realize that I would eventually have to come into contact with people but something didn't sit well with me about going that direction. Perhaps I was afraid of being in the mountain's shadow when the sun began to set or of being left out in the open when night fell. I'm still not certain why going towards the woods seemed like a much more appealing idea but I suspect it had something to do with wanting to affirm that the dark place I had escaped from, or been let out of, existed.

The tall grass was made of silky strands and grew so thick that I could not step on soil. I was glad for it as my mind conjured up images of rocks, cuts, and prickly grass. Pain rose again in my head and I held it as one by one these images, memories perhaps, faded back into the darkness of my mind. I wanted to reach for them. I wanted to cling to the only clues I had to who I was but they were gone.

I opened my eyes to find myself kneeling on the grass. Tears fell as I was overwhelmed by emotions I couldn't place. Emotions severed from the images that evoked them. I tried to take deep breaths. My heart raced with the strain of holding back the flood. I closed my eyes to further focus on my breathing.

A scream escaped my throat as something brushed against my face and I scrambled backward before seeing what it was. There, where my tears had fallen grew brilliant green stalks topped with gorgeous star-shaped flowers. I studied the moon-white petals of the flowers in awe. I knew this was a strange occurrence. I could not recall how I knew but I knew and that was enough. The flow of my tears stopped and I was able to get to my feet and carry onwards towards where I knew the woods to be.

When I crested a particularly tall hill, a relieved smile broke my puzzled expression. There, in the distance, I could make out the stretch of woods that I had seen from the darkness. With the relief brought by the confirmation of my sanity came a brief moment of dread at the fact that the lightless place was indeed real. The relief stayed but the other feeling slipped away quickly under the light of an unseen sun.

I was about to start down the hill and towards the distant line of trees when a breeze brushed against my back. It carried with it a scent I could almost remember. I turned towards it, pushing my hair out of my face and gasped. A small span of hills were now covered in swirling patterns of the brilliant white blossoms from before. I stood there in awe, the goal of the woods temporarily out of my mind. For a few minutes I considered going back to investigate the new-grown field of flowers. Instead I sat for a while, watching new swirls grow, where there had been none, in an elegant dance.

The longer I looked at them, the more distant my fears, pain, and sense of having lost something seemed. I was tempted to stay and watch them for much longer than I did but the seductive call of the woods behind me eventually pulled me up and got me walking again.

It was when I was a short way away from the trees that I noticed something peculiar. The light had not at all changed in the hills behind me. They were still in the bright light of noon. However, the light that filtered into the woods through the canopy  was the steady orange of the setting sun. I sat studying the light for what seemed like hours but nothing changed. I knew it was unnatural and that I should be afraid but fear could not cling to me. It simply bubbled up and fell away. Deciding to contemplate the lack of a sun and strange light as I walked, I stood and turned towards the woods.