Two Worlds (Two Worlds #1)

Dark

It was dark when Juliet finally stopped in front of the immense door. It wasn't very cold yet, but after spending so many hours in the dark, Juliet was trembling a bit. She then pulled herself together, straightened her back and measured the tower with her eyes. To her knowledge, it was the only tower belonging to the grand wall. The sole portal leading to the unknown world beyond her imagination. Right in front of her.

That was when reality hit the young woman. Shouldn't it be supervised? Shouldn't the door be locked? Yes, it should be nearly impossible to break in.

"Oh Marion, what have I gotten myself into?"

Juliet's voice was weak. She just wanted to cry, to fall through the ground until she was lost for eternity. That way she wouldn't cause anymore trouble.

However, minutes passed Juliet by, and not a single voice was heard. No one grabbed her arms and led her to a prison cell. When her eyes searched through the darkness, she realized that it really was empty. She was almost able to see their homely little cottage beyond the hills, or so she wanted to believe. With shivering hands, Juliet reached out for the door. It was incredibly hard and stiff, like stroking a rock. After thinking back and forth, Juliet finally came to a conclusion and placed both of her hands on the door.

"It's now or never", she whispered to herself, and began pushing. At first, she only pressed lightly to feel how the blood in her veins started pumping, and then she used all of her power while pushing her whole body against it.

Nothing. Of course.

Juliet sighed loudly to the point where it nearly sounded like a pained shriek. Truth was, she wanted to scream her heart out, but the fear was too strong. She had gone all the way there, risked her life, and yet she wouldn't reach her goal. The girl tried again, pushing her light body against the door until she was covered in bruises, but without results.

Dried of power, Juliet knelt to the ground with a devestated expression. Her whole body ached. Maybe she wouldn't be able to walk home. It was all pointless.

Juliet lowered her gaze and looked at her trembling hand. It hurt. Just as the young girl was about to stand up on her bruised feet, her hand felt something cold lying in the grass. At first, she thought it was merely her imagination, but when Juliet picked it up she realized what it was. The girl broke into a large smile.

"A key..."

Why hadn't she thought about that before? Of course, the door was locked. And of course there was a key.

It felt a bit cheap to find it lying outside, carelessly, in the grass, but at the time it didn't bother her at all. No matter how odd it was, Juliet's thoughts were already occupied.

For a moment she forgot everything. She forgot about the Decisions, her aching feet, the strangely unsupervised door and even about Marion. They were all tightly pressed together in the bottom of her heart, but for now, none of it mattered.

With ostensibly smaller hands than usual, Juliet slowly put the cold iron key into the keyhole she first hadn't noticed, and twisted it until the door clicked. Her heart rejoiced, but Juliet kept her head cool since it wasn't safe yet.

"Hello?"

She opened the giant door and peeked inside the surprisingly large hallway. It was very cold, cold and dark. The floor and the walls were all made with the same, dull-looking stones like the wall appeared to be on the outside. Instead of leading directly to the land of men, the wall appeared to be substantially spacious inside. Like an enormous, rectangular house.

The young girl slipped inside while carefully shutting the door behind her. As she was cautiously sneaking about on the stone floor, her shoes pattered to the point where she nearly removed them from her still aching feet. However, it was all too cold for her to walk barefoot on the chilly floor, and so she reluctantly left them on.

Juliet's otherwise cupreous hair looked almost completely black in the tiny, blueish light that managed to slip through the many crevices in the building. It hit her how timeworn the wall had gotten through the past fifty years, and for a moment, the monstrous wall wasn't as scary as she had always thought it was.

Juliet reached out her right hand and stroked the cold, uneven walls. The rocky surface scratched against her delicate palm and made small, white lines that would disappear with time.

The girl lit up a bit. She was seemingly alone in the building and although it was dark, quiet and chilly, she felt a bit better. However, those feelings instantly ran away when she walked past yet another dark corner, and suddenly found herself facing a being she had never imagined to encounter in such a place.

Juliet didn't know much about the world, as she had spent most of her life on the countryside. Things were easy, simplistic, and as long as she enjoyed herself it was fine. She had never felt any particularly strong desires to leave her home, things were great just like they were. So just why would everything change so rapidly over one single night?

In front of her stood a being similar to women, yet somehow different. "His" eyes had a beautiful, cerulean color just like the summer sky, and "his" hair was colored like the vast night firmament, a shimmering black that immediately entranced the stunned young woman. He was wearing shoes like Juliet, clothes like all women, although they differed a lot in terms of design and even colors of preference. He wasn't wearing a skirt or a dress, but a dark, leather-like clothing covering both of his legs similar to a pair of tights. On his upper body he wore a white, tucked-in shirt together with a slightly thicker robe in a dark reddish color, which neatly covered his broad shoulders. The man's back was naturally straight, and he had a very admirable posture with a moderately proud look unlike any woman Juliet had ever encountered. He even looked more elegant than Marion in her best days, and Juliet found herself thinking that the best word to describe his presence with was "noble". He was surrounded by a calm yet somehow aristocratic atmosphere, making Juliet wonder if he could actually be a man of true importance.

She was barely breathing when meeting his eyes who slowly widened in surprise. To her relief, he didn't seem like a guard, although she couldn't be too sure. He actually seemed sincerely surprised, just like herself.

Juliet's lips shuddered. The time had come. Now what?!