Sunday, November 22, 2015

Door Chapter 2: transititions

Chapter 2, transitions


   It really felt more to Lucy that the door pulled her in more than she pushed it open.  Before she could move the door pushed her inside and slammed shut behind her with a resounding boom.  Standing in the darkness she scrunched her eyes adjusting to the dim light.  She realized she was in a dark hallway.  There was a light glow at the end of the hallway.  She couldn’t tell how far away it was, it was hard for her to judge the distance in the darkness.  Lucy looked for the source of the dim light in the hallway and saw that a faint light that seemed to come from small strings on lights on either side of the hallway floor.  They faintly outlined the hallway, reminding her of the runners on the floor at movie theatres.  They glowed a faint brown color in the darkness.
   She turned around, looking for the door, she felt she was obviously not supposed to be here.  Groping the wall behind her she looked for a door knob.  She couldn’t find anything that resembled a handle or knob.  She fingered the edges, looking for hinges or even the outline of the door.  The wall seemed perfect.  The door that had admitted her here was no longer there.  A brief moment of panic seized her before she forced herself to turn around, breathing deep.  
   There really was no use panicking about this right now, Lucy thought.  She would just have to find another way out and apologize profusely to anyone who was offended by her trespass.
   She thought about the fact that the door was gone.  She knew she should be afraid.  That being afraid of a disappearing door in this kind of situation would be rational.  Justified, even.  But she wasn’t afraid.  For some reason, even though she was in this weird situation, even though the door was completely gone though it had nowhere to disappear to, besides the fact that she had just gone through the whole situation with Dick, she was not upset.  Except for the brief moment of panic, she felt oddly calm where normally she would be, no should be, feeling fear, anger, anything but strangely complacent.  
  Seeing no other alternative, Lucy descended down the dark hallway, her fingers out to the sides trailing along the walls as she walked.   The hallway seemed to go on and on, and then before she even realized it, she was in a small room.  
   Just like that, there was no transition; it just went from dark hallway to dimly lit room.  The room resembled a lobby and had the same feel as the darkened hallway.  It was dim, not dark, but the walls seemed to be brown in color (she couldn’t really tell what color anything was; it was all so dim that everything had that same sepia tone coloring).  She couldn’t tell where the light came from in this room, it seemed to emanate from the walls but she couldn’t pinpoint a an exact source.  Along the wall to her right there was a tall desk similar to a hotel reception desk, it came up to about her chest.  She didn’t see anyone behind it.  
    She looked around the room.  It was pretty plain.  She could faintly make out some type of music but it was too quite to really hear what it was.  There were no doors or hallways except the hallway she had walked down.  There were no decorations, not even a couch or a potted plant.  The room wasn’t that big either, maybe a little smaller than her bedroom, she figured.  
   Lucy stepped up to the counter and gasped, she had thought that she was alone in this dark place.  Behind the counter was the strangest thing she had seen yet today, though, two perfect little children sitting side by side, so close that their bodies touched.  They were remarkably adorable.  Lucy aged them at around six years old or so.  They had beautiful russet colored curly hair cut to frame their soft porcelain faces.  They wore matching clothing making them look exactly the same, like two perfect identical dolls. For a moment Lucy thought they were dolls, and she almost reached out to touch them. then they spoke.  
    The one on the right spoke first.  “I didn’t know we were expecting applicants today, brother.”  The child’s voice was a high pitched soprano voice and sounded incredibly pure and innocent.  It made Lucy think of a small bird, fragile and beautiful.  
    “No, sister, I am sure we are not hiring.  There are no vacancies currently are there?” The one on the left looked at a computer screen that Lucy had failed to notice before.  He (apparently this one was the boy, though neither of them really looked definitively boyish or girlish) typed a few quick keystrokes and made a face that marred his perfect porcelain mask with slight irritation.  It gave him a cute dimple in his cheeks that made Lucy want to hug him.  The girl (she thought it was the girl) looked over at his screen, and then down at her own, which Lucy had also failed to see before.  They gave each other a sideways glance from the corner of their eyes, both of them looking mildly annoyed.  
   “Brother, it seems we were in error of our previous statements, we are hiring.  Do you have the application ready?” She detected just a hint of annoyance in her voice.  
    “But of course, dear sister.”  They both looked up at this point and Lucy realized that neither of them had yet looked at her, though she had been staring at them the whole time.  They had not yet addressed her presence yet.  She wasn’t sure if they knew she was standing there, maybe they didn’t see her.  They couldn’t be talking about her, could they?  She already had a job.  
   As they looked up at her she realized that now would be a good time to explain why she was here and request directions to the exit.  “Umm….” She started tentatively, “Hi.  I’m sorry, I think I’m lost.  I saw the door was open and then somehow I just ended up here, I am not really sure how it all happened.  I know this must sound ridiculous to you but…”  She trailed off here realizing that she was rambling to these weird Bobbsey twins.  “I’m sorry, can you tell me how to get back outside?” She tried again.  
   The girl spoke first.  “Brother, our applicant wants to leave.  Do you see The Door in here?”
   “No, sister, I do not.  That should mean that our applicant has business yet with us.”  They looked at each other for a moment and then they both looked back to Lucy with their big dark eyes.  The manner in which they spoke some how seemed antiquated, it was mildly unsettling.
   Lucy tried again, still not sure if they were really talking to her.  “I was lost, I just need to find the door out of here and I’ll be gone before you know it.”  She paused and added, “Are there any adults here that could help me?”
    Both of the children laughed quietly, it sounded like small bells.  They both answered her in unison.  “Adults?  We are the only ones here right now.”  They way their voices sounded when they spoke at the same time had a creepy feel to it.  Their unison was unnerving.  They continued on, “and you aren’t lost anymore.  But you do have to be lost to find your way here, that is how The Door works.  It finds the lost and provides a way.”  
  The girl cocked her head to the side thinking briefly and then laughed.  “Actually, brother, she found us.  We weren’t expecting any new applicants if you recall.”
   “That would make sense sister, it says here on her file that she is our new Finder.  That would be why we weren’t expecting her.  That makes placement easier,” he looked up at Lucy again, addressing her directly this time.  “Let us get started on your file, shall we?”  He shuffled around the desk in front of him, pulling a manila file folder out from under a small stack of papers with his chubby child hands.  He opened it and read for a minute, then looked up at Lucy again.  “It seems here that all of your paperwork is in order.  Lucy Irena Lovejoy…human female…25 years old…yes, everything is all in order.”
   Lucy was a little startled to hear her name from these little dolls.  “How did you know my name?” she demanded.  “Who are you?”  
   Both of the doll children stared up at her.  “We are personnel.  Isn’t that obvious?” they commented in perfect chirping unison.  They shot each other another look that they seemed to reserve for one another, a look of superior smugness.  
   The sister continued on.  “We know your name because it’s on your file.” She said this like she was talking to a small child instead of talking as a small child.  This fact was not missed by Lucy.  It rekindled her earlier annoyance.  She leaned on the counter trying to make sense of what these beautifully creepy twins were telling her.  
   “So, you know my name because it’s on a file that you have for a job that I just got hired for but haven’t yet filled out an application?  Do I have it all right there?” Lucy said angrily.  “I don’t even know what this job is or what I’ll do or who I even work for!”
    Both twins looked at her and rolled her eyes.  “All you need to know will be told to you when you need to know it,” said the one who Lucy thought was the boy, but now it sounded more like the girl, it was getting harder to tell them apart.  If she didn’t know better, she would have thought that they had changed places.  That couldn’t have happened, though, she hadn’t looked away from them yet.
    The one she thought was the girl turned sideways a little and rummaged through a drawer in her desk.  The place where the twins touched never separated and now Lucy saw why.  There was a small fold of cloth that covered the sides of the twins, as the girl moved it pulled up just enough to reveal skin underneath, a bridge of flesh between the two children.
   Trying not to stare at the small spot of flesh she focused on what the girl was doing in her desk.  The drawer seemed to be filled with garbage, from what Lucy could see.  Some of the more recognizable thing she saw in the drawer included a yo-yo, some type of tickets, a newspaper and an alarm clock, the old fashioned type that you had to wind yourself with the bell ringers on top.  
   After about a minute of digging the girl came up and grinned at Lucy.  “I found it!” he/she said with a childlike pride.
    Lucy wondered if she had been feeling a little left out of the whole “employment” process.  The twin held out its tiny had to Lucy, inside her palm was a Altoids tin. Hesitantly Lucy took it, realizing that it was for her. She shook it next to her ear. It sounded empty.
   “Um, thanks?  What should I do with this?”
   Rolling his eyes again, the boy said, “We don’t know, we just work here.  That is your item, it will help you find your seeker.  Every finder needs a seeker.  That’s just how it works.”
   “How’d ya know it was my item?  It seems kinda random, if you ask me.”
   This time the one she thought was the girl (did they switch again?) answered her. “I just know which items go to whom.  That one is yours.  I can tell.  I’m very good at my job, everyone says so, right brother?”
    “Of course, sister, you are very good at your job.  No one could do it like you do,” said the brother.  “Now, Ms Lovejoy, we have other work to be doing, if you don’t mind.  The Door has arrived, it’s time for you to go.  It was a pleasure to meet you.”  The way the boy stressed the word pleasure implied that he was not really that that overjoyed to have met her.  The way he said it had a finality that she understood meant that these twins would be of no more use to her.  
   “But…what should I do now?  What is my job?  Is this a joke?  I don’t understand!”
   The girl looked up at her and giggled in that weird little birdlike way that made her feel wrong.  “You are a finder.  She’s slow, this one, isn’t she brother?” She giggled again and said “my advice is to go on the date with Dick.  You might find something…interesting.”
   Lucy groaned at the idea of going on a date with Dick.  She had briefly forgotten with all of this strangeness.  She didn’t really want to be reminded.  
   The girl twin looked up again briefly and waved goodbye with her tiny hands.  The boy seemed lost in whatever he was writing. Lucy took her cue and turned, and to her surprise there was a door behind her.  Was this door here the whole time?
    The door was much nicer then the one she had entered to get here, this one was whitish in color and reminded her of a door you might find in a big old farmhouse. She felt that same electric charge in her hand as she closed her hand around the knob and turned it.  
    Lucy found herself standing outside a building in front of her car.  Her shoes had been placed on her hood and she wondered how anyone would have known they were hers.  Exhausted and resigned, she unlocked her car, threw her shoes and the tin that was still in her hand in the passenger seat and drove home, trying hard to think of nothing at all.

  

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