The Door

{1}

That night Aiyden fell asleep to the sounds of his wife's medicated slumber. The doctors had decided Dela needed the extra help to sleep, keep the sickness away, and experience some peace. These last few weeks had been hard on her, and Aiyden watched helplessly as his wife's body seemed to turn against her slowly. Before closing his eyes, he said a quick prayer for her health and safety and made sure to pull her shivering body close.

Moments later, Aiyden was jerked from his sleep by the sounds of pounding on their front door. "Fuck," he mumbled, jumping up quickly to stop the noise. He glanced at Dela, surprised she was still softly snoring away, not disturbed by the sound. His heart raced as he walked towards the door and came to a stop in front of it.

The sound of the knock seemed to grow louder and deeper as if someone was knocking on Aiyden's bones and trying to awaken him from the inside. He slowly reached for the doorknob, but could not seem to open it. His body prevented his fingers from gripping the knob, as he had done countless times before.

"Open the door Aiyden," Dela's voice carried to him softly. He glanced over his shoulder, but she was nowhere to be seen. He looked back to the door. The knocking continued, growing louder and leaving him feeling heavy. "Aiyden, open the door," Dela's voice carried in a firmer tone.

Aiyden looked back again, his wife still nowhere to be seen. He took a deep breath, shook out his arms, and chuckled at himself. 'It's just a door,' he thought to himself, 'I can open it.'

Aiyden reached for the knob again, fingers grasping it as the cacophony of the knocking continued to grow. Right as his hand gripped the knob, his wrist primed to turn, and Aiyden was ripped from his sleep by the sound of thunder rolling in, and lightning striking.

He sat up and tried to calm his racing heart. Taking deep breaths and looking over to Dela. She was still sleeping, balled up under the blanket, and undisturbed. He brushed away a few of the white hairs that covered her face while she slept and closed his eyes to meditate.

As Aiyden got his breathing under control, he remembered something. A poem he had written years ago and sat off to the side, finding no use for it in his other writings. It wasn't his usual style, but for some reason, over the years it always stuck with him.

The tall man stood, goose bumps covering his brown skin, and quickly walked from their bedroom, across the hall, and to his office. He walked straight to the closet and dug into a container full of journals until he found what he thought was the correct one. Aiyden flipped it open, and was immediately greeted with the poem in question:

A once wood floor

Stained with the blood of others

Who have taken this path before

Running through

The deceitful white door

That would grant you

Your greatest release

Away from the world where you

Feel as though

Your heart is an endless dark void

Into the false reality

Of being like others

And feeling as though you're constantly

Afloat on a fluffy white cloud

Until you realize

That the cloud is plummeting

Towards the ground

Faster than anything you've ever seen

Just to turn around and see

That the other side of the door

That was to grant you a peaceful eternity

Is the color of your heart

Black, and scared with marks

That matches those on your body

And hear a little smug voice

Whispering, seductively:

"You will never escape me."

Aiyden shivered reading it, the unease he felt writing it creeping back into him. He moved to throw the journal on his cluttered desk when he heard the sharp rap of a knock on their front door. He froze, and the journal slipped from his hand. His eyes made contact to discover where it fell, only to realize it landed with the poem viewable again. "False Reality" glares at him in his neat cursive, as the knocking grows louder and more frequent.

The nervousness from Aiyden's dream sinks deep into him, and he makes his way into the hallway, his eyes connecting with the white door. The wooden hallway seems to grow as he quietly approaches the object looming at the other end.

The knocking grows louder, seeming to shake the hallway as he reaches to grab the knob. "Open the door Aiyden," Dela whispers. He quickly turns to find no one there. Aiyden swallows, turning to grasp the doorknob and as the knocking starts to rattle his bones again he stops. In a moment of clarity, the words of his adoptive grandmother enter his head and bring a calm he was lacking. He's reminded of a forgotten memory, "Look here boy, don't ever open the door if you look and ain't no one there." He was told this, standing at this same door as his grandmother looked through the peephole.

Aiyden places both his hands on the door and leans in to look out the peephole. He is greeted with the sight of nothing, and then the loudest knock he has heard so far. He jumps back and shouts. There is another knock, shaking the door, but Aiyden makes no move to open it.

After a few moments, there were no other knocks and the pressure Aiyden felt building up inside of his body released. He falls into the wall next to him to catch his breath, feeling as though he had been running for his life. He's not sure how long he's been there before he calms and makes his way back to their room.

Dela is still lying there, undisturbed by the knocking that had been going on before. "Those must be some strong meds," he mumbles as he sits on the bed. Aiyden tries rationalizing what he just experienced, 'Maybe I was sleepwalking, and I was a little awake'. Once he's convinced himself that the knocking was not real, he lays back down.

Dela turns onto her side and faces him, as she opens her eyes he notices they have an almost unnatural glow from moonlight streaming into the window and lighting her face. She smiles at him, "come with me," she whispers, closing her eyes again.

"Come with you?" he questions. But Dela is already asleep again. Aiyden brushes it off, lays down next to her, and is asleep before his head touches the pillow.