Magic in London

Whistling: Part Four

Once Chuck and Fiona reached the old station, Chuck started to feel that there was a lightness to the air. Along the way he'd learnt that the boy's name was Toby, who was still being carried by Fiona, completely out cold.

"This way," Fiona said, while leading Chuck towards a door that was sitting against the wall on the tracks, just before the actual platform. Chuck almost didn't see the door, it was blended into the wall almost completely, but once he focused his eyes it was as clear as day.

"Where are we going?" Chuck asked.

"Don't ask questions that you already know the answer to. Through this door is a portway to Whistling. That's all you need to know."

"What was that thing?"

"Enough, can you hold him please?"

Fiona handed Toby over to Chuck. He struggled to hold the boy in his arms. Fiona moved over to the door and started to feel around the edges to get her fingers between the door and the frame. It was shimmering light as she touched it.

"Is this door a trick?" Chuck asked.

"What?"

"Is it not visible to others, I mean. It's shining every time you touch it. That's not normal."

"It's a weak spot so the door is there but only certain people can see it," she continued speaking while trying to shimmy the door open. "It's really stuck today. Arthur placed it here back when the station was still in use. Then the station was abandoned and it kind of works better now than it did before. Since it's completely isolated"

"Right. So there are other doors then?"

"Yeah, in quite a few stations. They all lead to Whistling though. It's not just this one that does. There's one at Euston, Buckhurst Hill, Croxley, and Wood Green. And obviously there's this one, but it's not used as much."

"Right, but how is it stuck if it's a magic door?"

Fiona stopped trying to pry the door open with her fingers and turned to Chuck with a serious look on her face.

"Because it's still a door, you idiot. It hasn't been used in a few months at least and it's always been a little hard to open because it's the oldest one. The door is real," she said knocking it and the echoing sound of metal rumbled throughout the tunnel. "It just sits on a piece of this world that is weaker."

"What does that mean?" Chuck said with a desperation that he would later cringe about. The whole thing made no sense to him, and he was still hoping that he could just leave and forget about it all.

"Stop it with the questions. You'll understand when you understand, I'm not your babysitter."

Fiona turned back to the door and continued to pry the door open. It screeched, scraped, and churned as she pulled it free. A cold gust of air moved through the dark doorway and brushed past Chuck and Fiona.

"Jesus, that's cold," Chuck said.

"Yeah, it's the atmosphere from the other world moving into this one. It'll settle in a moment once they level out."

"I'll just pretend that makes sense."

"I'm beginning to regret bringing you here, if I wasn't so sure that Arthur would be interested in meeting you, then I would just let you wonder the tracks by yourself until you become tomorrow morning's headline."