The Elements

Chapter 10 - Behind The Doors

Darkness met my eyes. I knew there was something here, though. I had "thought" there was nothing somewhere when there most certainly was too many times. I was not gonna risk it again. Stepping carefully on the slightly-creaking floorboard, I looked around cautiously. Still nothing. For some reason, I expected shelves and shelves of books — kinda like those "hidden doors" you see in old libraries in all those stories. But it was just totally and completely empty.

I walked on, with a strange feeling of being watched. I kept glancing round, but saw nothing.

"Who's that?" a voice echoed behind me. Whipping around, I saw a blank area of nothing.

I hastened my footsteps. What was that? I knew enough not to "mistake" it for my own imagination. But even so, that "thing" must've been really good at hiding.

But when the voice, seemingly directly talking to me, asked, "Who are you?", I turned behind — where I guessed the voice was coming from. It was actually pretty hard to guess — the sound seemed to be echoing from all around me.

"Who... are you? Wait. Where are you?" I heard my own voice say.

"Karen? You can't see me anymore? Wait... why are you so short?" I could hear a tinge of shock in the voice.

"Who's Karen?"

"Karen... was the most heroic person I've ever known. Sorry, I kinda mistook you for her. You two look very similar, you know?"

"Okay... But can you tell me. Who are you?"

"It's a long story..." The "thing" sighed. "Karen once told me to tell it to the 'one who can hear but not see me, if she comes'. Maybe it's you." I seriously doubted that. I didn't even know who this Karen was.

"Well, it all started because of Aarav. You have no idea how much damage he inflicted on us..."

"Who is Aarav?" That would be, in my opinion, what everybody would ask. I mean, who has such a weird name?

"You... don't know who he is?"

"Am I supposed to?"

"I thought everyone knew that. You know, the ruler of here? Unless... you are not from here? But that's not possible, is it? Wait. Are you... But she would have told me... Argh! It's so confusing!"

'Umm... Maybe you can just tell me what happened?"

"Well, yeah. Aarav is basically, well, what I told you just now. He's just really bad to everyone. He literally sent my wife to battle with, well, us! And that's how my wife died. Of course, everyone knows that's wrong. So, guess what, everyone started riots. But he just blew people into his castle and made them fight for him. But Karen and Tyler. They knew how to fight back — in the right way. They formed Frostburn. An indestructible organisation. Even now, they are continuing. I joined them."

"Wait. Then why are you here now?" I asked. There was no reply. "Hello? Are you there?" No sound. It was weird. Why would he just leave like that? Fear clenched my heart. There was definitely something wrong with this place. I turned around and ran back in the direction of the door. But wait. Where was the door? Was this even the right direction?

I would just keep walking forward, I decided. If I didn't get out soon, I would turn back. I walked on. One leg in front of another. I focused all my attention on the simple movement — but even like that, I couldn't feel anything. I didn't know when, or how, I suddenly changed direction and bumped into a wall. I tried to turn around, but I couldn't. It felt like I could no longer control my own body. Then suddenly, I turned exactly 180 degrees and bumped into the other wall — hard. Scared, I took a deep breath and slowly turned towards the direction I had been walking in before.