Young Writers Society

The Black Door

“And you claim this story is true, Ms. Landers?” a tall man lounging in his leather armchair questioned.

“I swear sir, that’s what the girl told me. I just hear the tales and write them down,” the woman Ms. Landers responded.

A sigh came from the man, “Now Ms. Landers…I’ve heard many random, if not crazy, stories from free-lance writers and-”

Ms. Landers cut him off, “Sir, I assure you I didn’t make this up! If I were doing this for the money, then I would’ve created a more believable story, but I’m not a fantasy novelist; I’m an interviewer.”

“Ms. Landers, do you honestly think people will believe this if it is published in my newspaper?”

“Believable or not sir, it is an interesting story and should attract attention.”

There was a pause and sigh, then, “Alright. Send it to my editor. We’ll just have to see how well this story will go over with the public…”.

~Two days ago~

“Why do we always get the clean-up job?” Devon grumbled.

“Stop complaining, it’s for a good cause, Devon,” Alice retorted.

“Yeah, well you might not mind, but I’m sure sick of this community service…it’s worse than when I was in juvie!”

“Devon, sheesh, can’t you have some pride that you’re helping out?” Alice said as her voice rose a little.

“You’re such a goody-good Alice,” he laughed. Alice just rolled her eyes. Sometimes Devon could be hard to get along with, but she tolerated him because he was her best friend.

“Anyways, can you help me move this table?” Alice asked.

“Sure, I might as well,” Devon complained. The wooden table was heavier than it looked, and it took a couple of minutes to lug it over to the other side of the wall. In all the busy work, the two didn’t notice the time.

“I’m glad you’re finally cooperating,” Alice teased. “you want to be her Alice, I don’t. My parents force me to come to church; you know that,” Devon stated strongly. Alice looked down, not wanting to respond; this subject often crept up, and it made her very uncomfortable.

After a few more moments of not speaking, Devon looked up at the ceiling clock. “Hey, you know,” he said breaking the silence, “it’s getting late and we’ve got school tomorrow.”

“Oh, you’re right…I didn’t notice…” Alice trailed off. She still felt awkward.

“I think that broom is the only thing left to put away,” Devon pointed out, starting at the broom in Alice’s hand.

“Right, uh I dunno where it goes though,” she confessed.

“Great, we’ll be here about an hour more,” Devon said agitated.

“Let’s just look for the broom closet, okay?” Alice suggested trying to be nicer than usual in order to not make the situation stranger for them. They began wandering around the colossal church, which with no people, seemed more like the cathedral of Notre Dame. Devon walked further and further down the hallways, almost loosing Alice. “Devon, wait!” Alice called from behind.

“You gotta keep up Alice!” he yelled back going from a walk to a run just to joke with her. Devon zipped around a corner and disappeared.

“Ahh, Devon!” Alice shouted as she too began to skid through the church halls. Sprinting at full speed, Alice ended up crashing right into Devon.

“Ack!” he shouted as she rammed him in the side. “I’m-so-sorry!” Alice said in between bursts of laughter. Devon grimaced but couldn’t hold in his smile.

After a few minutes, they composed themselves and continued to search for the broom closet. It seemed as if it took them, like Devon said, an hour to finally find a single, jet black door in the back of the building.

“Is this it?” Devon asked.

“I guess,” Alice simply mouthed. The door was isolated from everything else in the church and for a moment it held their attention. Alice shook her head.

“What was that?” she wondered to herself.

“Okay, let’s just put the darn thing in there so we can go home,” Devon demanded irritated. Alice didn’t know why, but she had this feeling that she didn’t want to open the door. Devon glanced at her.

“Oh for God’s sake Alice!” he jerked the broom form there and swung the black door open.

Several things occurred at that moment. For one, the room itself turned dark black completely opposite of the stark white it had been a second ago. Then there was a scream as Devon seemingly fell through the door that was now glowing a brilliant white. Alice tried to grab Devon’s hand, but it was too late. The door was sucking her in too, like a vortex-a black hole.

“No!!!” Alice yelled, barely able to hear herself over the roar of the vacuum-like suction. Grasping the frame of the door, Alice held on for life. It was futile. Her fingers couldn’t hold on any longer; nearly at a breaking point, she let go.

It was extremely cold, and Alice had no feeling. She wasn’t even sure if she was asleep, in a coma, or dead. Slowly, she opened her eyes, discovering that she wasn’t dead-not in the least. However, she was a little sore, as if she had fallen from a great distance, and now she was lying on the ground. But where was she? Everything coming back to her now, she began to panic.

“D-Devon??” she stammered. “Devon!” she said getting louder. Devon didn’t reply. As her eyes came more and more into focus, Alice’s mouth dropped open in horror at her surroundings. There was nothing, absolutely nothing around her but miles of cracked dirt…like a barren, cold desert at night. The sky was dark and swirled with gray clouds, but there wasn’t a moon. Instead, there was a small glimmer of a sun a great distance away, shining its weak light onto the abandoned earth. The fog that smothered the ground didn’t help her eyesight either.

Alice began to feel the tears stream down her cheeks as she held her knees closely to her. What was going on? What was this? A nightmare? She hoped so.

Suddenly, Alice spotted something that resembled the fog that settled around her, but it seemed as though it was moving towards her. Squinting, she was that it wasn’t only coming towards her, but it looked like a person! Could it be Devon? Alice jumped up in excitement to see someone else, and thinking the thing was Devon, she nearly leapt over to it. The closer she got to it though, the more she noticed that maybe this wasn’t Devon…no this, this thing…it wasn’t even human! Whatever it was loomed nearer to her, reaching its hand out as if to grab her. Alice didn’t stay to see who or what it was. She quickly made a sharp turn the other way and began to run at full pace, screaming all the way, but the creature was too fast! It glided in front of her, blocking her path. Although it was opaque, and had properties just as the fog itself, it was somehow solid as brick; knocking the breath out of Alice. Falling down, Alice shielded herself with her arms, expecting the worst.

“Alice! Alice!” a voice called. She knew that voice.

“Devon!?” she called back. Putting her arms down, she saw the fog-like creature vanishing.

“Devon!” she shouted happily, even though she had no clue what was going on. All she knew was that Devon was with her, and she wasn’t alone anymore. She jumped up to hug him and for once he didn’t try to push her away.

“Devon, what happened?” Alice sobbed through tears of joy.

“I…I don’t know” he stammered, “there was some kind of …monster.” Devon paused on the word and then continued, “but once I saw you, it left…”.

“How did we get here, where are we, and what is going on?” Alice said letting go of Devon finally and trying to figure out their situation.

“I just don’t know, okay, Alice!” Devon replied getting frustrated by her asking questions he didn’t know the answers to. “All I know is that we have to get out of here somehow,” he retorted, his eyebrows furrowing together as he thought. Alice waited patiently this time until he spoke again. “Look…okay you know that door we came through?” Devon began. “Well, if we find the door, then maybe…maybe we can get out of here,” he finished. There was silence at this thought. After all, both of them could clearly see there was nothing in this strange world but them.

“There’s not much of a chance, but we can try,” Alice replied. Devon nodded solemnly.

They began their journey, not knowing where they were going or coming to…Hours seemed to pass as they walked. How far had they gone? Devon was in front of Alice; he claimed that he was just leading, but she had a feeling that he was protecting her. Well, at least she hoped he cared about her enough to do that. Lost in thought, Alice almost ran into Devon for the second time that day as he stopped dead in his tracks. An elderly man, in robed attire and a hood to cover his eyes, strode through the fog talking in nearly a whisper.

“You children have crossed the path between the living and the dead; existing in a dimension now where restless spirits cannot leave.”

“What?! Who are you? Tell us what’s going on!” Devon commanded.

“I am merely the spirit keeper here, in charge of all those who wander. When I realized that you children stumbled upon my realm, I decided I owed you an explanation,” he droned.

“Hell yeah, you owe us an explanation!” Devon barked.

“Listen, and be reasonable young one. You and your friend came here by chance. It could’ve been anyone, but you two were at the wrong place at the wrong time. The spirits are becoming more impatient to ascend to the next world, so they created a pathway to your world through the black door. Since you both were directly near the door, you were thrown into this world instead of the spirits getting into yours,” he quieted as Alice and Devon took this all in. “In order for you to go home and not let my spirits out, you must go to the door and lock it. Of course you must lock it from the outside; don’t worry though, no one else in your world can see it because you saw the door when it first appeared,” he finished. “Oh, and I’ll promise to take better care of my spirits,” he grinned. Alice and Devon exchanged glances, but when they looked back, he was gone. Turning around, Alice realized that the old man must have either brought the door to them, or he had transported them to a different location.

“Devon look!” Alice pointed. The two ran over to the door, barely breathing for fear that if might disappear again. Devon threw another glace at Alice as his hand reached for the black door. Twisting the knob, he pushed it open and just as it began to suck them in, he grabbed Alice and the two went through hand-in-hand. Locking the door when they arrived on the other side.

~Two days after~

Ms. Landers walked out of the stuffy newspaper office with a sense of pride. She knew in her heart, whether the public believed the story or not, that it was true. After all, she had met Alice and Devon in person. She grinned at the cute, new couple. They had been through a lot, and it had brought them closer together. Alice had even gotten Devon to actually start liking church. Though they went to a different one now.

Walking past the exact church of Alice and Devon’s story, she couldn’t help but wonder if the black door would still be there-it wouldn’t matter though-she couldn’t see it anyways. Paying her respects, she stared at the seemingly normal holy place and went on her way. There were always new stories to tell, new people to meet, new places to see, but she would never forget this tale. No, she never could.