Stories

Door Number Eight - Door Number Seven - The Afterlife

“Where are we?” Taylor looked around, trying to recognize her surroundings. There was something very familiar about the place, it felt as if she had spent a lot of time there, but so long ago, maybe in a dream.
“For lack of a better word, dead,” he clarified, too calm for comfort. “Not dead-dead, just on the other side of the river Styx, visiting, sort of. Don’t worry, we’re going back.”
“I didn’t know one could visit,” she thought, “without being, you know…”
“Sure you can,” he reassured her. “Well, I can, some people can, that’s beside the point. Welcome to the great beyond!” he smiled and raised his hands to present the environment, in an attempt to be a gracious host. “To give a more specific answer to your original question, we aren’t anywhere, at least not anywhere that can be pointed on a map in normal reality. We’re in the world inside your mind,” he suggested, “you can make it look any way you wish.”
“Then why does it look like this? I’m sure I’ve never been to this place, nor did I imagine it. Why does it feel so familiar?” she kept looking around.
“Of course it feels familiar, it is your mind, you just didn’t know what it looked like before. It feels a little bit like seeing your own face for the first time. Without a reflective surface you have now way of knowing what you look like, but you can sort of recognize yourself, even if you don’t understand why. Cozy,” he commented upon looking around. “What’s that smell?”
“Sugar plums. They’re over there,” she pointed to the corner of the table from which the scents of vanilla, cinnamon and orange wafted. “So, we’re in Heaven?”
“That depends. Do you like sugar plums?” he asked, very serious. 

Door Number Eight - Door Number Six - Soul Journeying

”Are you sure you are ready for this? It may be a little unsettling,” he asked.
“As sure as I’ll ever be,” Taylor answered, doubtful. She hadn’t slept well the night before, well, with the sea lion visiting and whatnot, and was a little concerned about the extra preparation required for this door. “What is it this time?” she tried to anticipate her challenge. 
“Just remember, whatever you see or feel, it’s all in your mind. You are perfectly safe and you can leave anytime if it gets to be too much. That being said, here goes,” he said, and got up to open the door. A wall of water flooded the room, so fast that Taylor didn’t even have a chance to react to the prospect of imminent drowning. They both got swept by it, despite their best efforts, and carried away in a white water stream that rushed violently between large boulders, where they struggled to keep from getting pulled under, grasping at anything they could get their hands on. 
Taylor wanted to speak, but her voice didn’t carry over the deafening roar of the stream. For a second she felt suspended into a  quasi-imponderable state, where all of her being was freed from any pulls or pressures, and then tumbled into the void at great speed, almost gliding over the surface of a tall waterfall whose bottom got lost in the mist.
She wanted to be scared, every rational thought told her she should be scared, but she couldn’t feel fear at all; as it turns out it is the emotion itself, and not the thought behind it, that really matters. She kept falling, dazzled by the surreal beauty of her surroundings, melting into a million drops of water, becoming the stream itself, its wild rush, its jump over the rocky edge, and the mist at its bottom.

Door Number Eight - Door Number Five Splintered Self

The thing about the human mind is that it trains itself to be very efficient, so it automatically eliminates the events that have an extremely low probability of happening so that the brain doesn’t get burdened with useless information to the detriment of day to day activity. When these very rare events happen, the mind gets confused and resentful, trying in vain to reconcile what it thought it knew about the world with the new image that simply doesn’t fit into that knowledge. Stepping into the hall of doppelgängers without warning definitely fit into this category for Taylor, so she wrapped her arms around the first reasonable justification that came to her mind in order to discount whatever it was that she was seeing with her own eyes.
“I must be drunk, I never should have had that beer,” she closed her eyes to make the image go away.
“Oh, don’t worry, they don’t really look like you, I just altered your perception of them to make it easier for you to notice,” her neighbor whispered behind her.

Door Number Eight - Door Number Four Shared Consciousness

Taylor woke up to a timid knock on the door, followed by a soft fumbling with the door handle. It was Christine, who was trying to balance a large box of jelly donuts and two cups of coffee. She entered, sheepishly, waiting for Taylor’s reaction.
“Peace offering?” she said, from behind the donut box.
“What gives?” Taylor asked, more curious than upset.
“I”m so sorry, Taylor! I realized yesterday afternoon it wasn’t you, it was that girl, Jessica, I told you she’s following Matt and his friend around like a shadow. Turns out I was wrong about which one of them she was after. Sowwy?” she took a comical Tweety bird pose to lighten the mood.
“Exactly how nuts are you? And how can you mistake me for Jessica?”
“What do you mean?” Christine said innocently.
“Well, for one, she’s a foot taller,” Taylor pointed out.
“I just saw them from a distance,” Christine explained.
“She’s blond! Like really Nordic!” Taylor pointed at her own skin and hair.
“People make mistakes,” Christine looked down. “Friends?” she asked.
“Sure,” her friend shrugged off the logical inconsistencies.

Door Number Eight - Door Number Three - Alternate Realities

“Have the lessons from yesterday’s field trip reached you yet?” he asked, smiling politely.
“More than I care to process,” she thought, still upset about the musts and the have to’s, but she answered in the same good mannered vein. “A few, I’m still analyzing them.”
“Just remember, before we go through door number three, that not every rule is there to be broken, but it helps, every now and then, to question your assumptions. It seems fitting, since we are on this subject, and given that all of these doors look more or less the same, to remind you of a rule that you shouldn’t be breaking. Do you remember what I warned you about during our first encounter?”
“Don’t go through door number eight,” she recited, trying very hard to suppress an eye roll.
“You say that, but you don’t believe it, not in your heart, anyway,” he probed her with a sharp gaze, and then, not finding what he was looking for, continued, slightly disappointed. “Anyway, ready when you are,” he took a bow, pointing towards the door.
“What’s through there?” 
“You.”

Door Number Eight - Door Number Two - Time

“I have to ponder this rationally,” Taylor thought and quickly put together a plan to address the current situation. Whether it was real or not, she figured all of this weird stuff kept happening to her around four o’clock, and if she managed to avoid her haunting ghost, hallucination, prankster or whatever he was around that time of day she should be fine. Since the thought of locking herself in the women’s restroom for an hour sounded a little bit like overkill, she moved to the next best option, which was spending every single second in Christine’s company. 
First, she wanted to assess whether Christine could see her “ghost”, or if he was a hallucination of her stressed out mind, and second, she was kind of hoping that a public setting would deter future kidnapping attempts.

Door Number Eight - Door Number One - Space

Taylor woke up and got ready for classes, as if nothing had happened the day before, trying to avoid looking at the door, somewhat uneasy with the thought that if she did, she might not see it there anymore. The first day was filled with the trepidation of adjusting to new settings and finding her way through the maze of buildings and hallways, and in all the excitement she almost forgot about the “class” that was supposed to start at four. She hadn’t had anything to eat the whole day and stopped almost without thinking at the cafeteria for a quick bite.

Door No. 8 - Chapter 1 The Beginning

“Taylor? Taylor Bradford?” a voice called from behind the counter, with non-dissimulated boredom. 
Taylor fumbled with the paperwork and rushed to the counter to finish registering for classes before the four o’clock deadline. The clerk handled the documents absentmindedly, while she watched the clock and switched to a more leisurely mindset in anticipation of the get together she had planned with her friends later at the bar on the campus corner. 
Taylor walked out the door thirty seconds after four, trying to avoid the clerk’s resentful glare and careful not to slam the door behind her. She was a shy person and, even if she didn’t want to admit it, she found this whole situation of being on her own a little overwhelming.

The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 10.3 Chorus

“Persephone, darling! What a joy to have you back home!”
Demeter welcomed her daughter effusively at the mouth of the cave of Cumae and presented her with the traditional sheaf of barley.
The oracle of Cumae bowed deeply to both goddesses, concealing a resentful glare, while Demeter performed a critical assessment of her daughter, staring her up and down in search of things that required attention.
“You look thinner, Persephone. Are you sure you’re eating enough in the underworld? I am concerned.”
“I’m exactly the same, mother. As you well know, we never change.”
“No worries. We’ll make sure to feed you properly as soon as we reach Olympus. I’ve made you a list of tasks, just to get you started on your duties. Dionysus wants to talk to you. Make time for a meeting with him as soon as feasible, will you?”

The Gates of Horn and Ivory - Chapter 10.2 The Silent Kingdom

Persephone was careful about lifting her torch, to avoid scorching the healthy roots which poked through the vault of the cave, drawn by the sound of the small stream running through it. Plants can hear water from great distances.
Plants can hear water from great distances and extend roots to capture it. They are a lot more sophisticated than people know.
A delicate root tracery was covering the entire vault, surrounding the larger tap roots, which found themselves mimicking stalactites, and growing in thin air, no doubt managing to absorb the water droplets generated by the feisty little brook.
She couldn’t help imagine what a thicket this place became in the summer, when the root systems expanded to fill the entire cave. She was surprised to realize she never gave any thought to what was happening in Hades while she was gone; how different it was from the lovely winter home, which always welcomed her in pristine and splendid glory.