The Secret Door (#Wattys2016)

Chapter VI Bottomless Ravine

After seeing talking gates, floating flames and doors that lead to nowhere unless you bow, Van and his friends take turns to examine the staircase before them. The staircase looks innocent enough, except that there is no masonry or structure that supports it. The stairway simply floats in the air. To check for hidden jinx, Van will be putting his neck on the line. He tested the staircase by climbing a few steps. Nothing happens.

"It's safe to use," Van concluded.

Emboldened and convinced by Van's act, his friends quickly follow him in the stairway.

"How sure are you that the stairs are not cursed," Kirsten, who refused to go with them sneered.

"Please Kirsten," Alice cried. She grabs Kirsten by the waist and drags her with them in the staircase.

So far, they meet nothing unusual along the way. The only difficulty they have is holding the struggling Kirsten and making her behave. Van look down just to check how high they have gone. Down there is a dark and endless drop, like looking down in an abyss. How terrifying it will be to fall into that bottomless pit and keep falling until your dying days.

"Van, notice something odd," asked Cara.

"Yeah, Kirsten suddenly behaving," he replied.

"That's because we cannot tell which is up and down now."

Van nearly vomited. The endless abyss below is actually the darkened ceiling, and the roof is the stone floor.

"The world has turned upside down," Don said unnecessarily.

It's bad enough to see the surroundings turn on its head, but Kirsten's hysterical yells are making things worse. She shrieks, swears and throws insults at Van for bringing her along with them in this infernal staircase. Van is about to yell back at Kirsten when it happens.

Van thought he is still upright, but the part of the stairway where the others are standing had twisted into a form of rollercoaster loopy-loop with them upside down now.

"Hold on Van, you might fall," Don warned.

"Hey, it's me who should be saying that!" He screamed. Van gathers his nerves and takes a step. He blinks and the staircase does a dizzying spiral. He takes another step and blinks. There are no stairs now; they are walking unsupported in the air. Below them is a lethal three-story drop. He takes a step and blinks. The stairway has broken itself into individual floating stairs. Van caught one and takes a step. He blinks and the stairway adopts a crazier shape. It is going in multiple direction Van going down, Cara going up, Kirsten upside down and the rest spiralling.

"The stairway is confusing us, cover your eyes," Cara suggested.

They all close their eyes and grope their way. At last they reach the top of the stairway and collapse on the nearest bench. The stairway disappears and turns into solid wall. Still light headed they gather themselves and explore their new surroundings.

"There is an entrance here, now what," Alice muttered.

"Another crazy place perhaps," Van answered. They are more cautious this time. Every move now is well calculated for who know what a single misstep will do.

"Are we inside or outside a building," Cara asked. The chamber they entered this time resembles a wide open space. It's like being outside in a starless night. The floor is uneven, rocky and covered with dirt. Boulders of all sizes litter the surroundings.

"Or in a mountaintop maybe," Alice added.

"A mountaintop inside a school," Van muttered.

"I always go hiking with my dad you know and mountaintops are like this," she replied. She bends down to pick up a broken stone near her feet.

"STOP," Don cried. His warning came just in time. Another step and they will fall straight into a deep ravine. It's not readily visible due to the vegetation blocking the view. In the other side of the ravine is the only exit to this place

"A ravine inside a school," Van muttered again.

"More importantly how should we reach the exit if there is an endless pit here," Cara asked. The ravine is so deep they could not see the bottom.

"No!" Kirsten sobbed as she falls on her knees, "we would not make it."

And Kirsten's sobs break into a hysterical cry. It's too painful to watch, like watching an overgrown kindergarten.

"She's had too much Soap Opera, mom got to stop watching those," Don whispered at Van.

Cara is left to comfort the crying Kirsten. Van on the other hand busily looks for clues around the edge of the ravine. Any stones or boulders here might have hidden riddles or secret passageway. Van hopes Kirsten will stop bawling at this moment. He can't concentrate on what he's doing.

"Shut up you big baby," Alice nagged Kirsten.

"What did you called me," Kirsten retorted.

"Hate being called a baby, do you?"

"You got some guts Alice," Kirsten threatened as if she still has authority over them.

"At least I have, unlike you. And guessed what, I have a plan that will get us out."

"Really huh," Kirsten said sarcastically.

"Mind sharing that plan to us," Van said happily.

With fire in her eyes, Alice then said, "guys, we need to climb down the ravine."

Kirsten's answer is a shrill laugh.

"Is that it? A master plan indeed! What are you planning Alice, get us killed? Can't you see how deep the ravine is?" Kirsten nagged.

"If the ravine is really that deep," Alice answered.

And before continuing, she gives the surrounding a quick gaze.

"Firstly, there are no stars in the sky or high winds here. This means that we're not really in a mountaintop. Possibly we're just in some specialized chamber or something," Alice then explained.

"And how about the ravine here," Kirsten said harshly.

"It could be no more than a ditch made to look likes an endless pit. Dad often said that it doesn't mean that you can't see the bottom that it's really deep. And remember how the room of doors and the stairways trick us? What if the ravine here is a mere deception?"

"And what you are wrong and it's really an endless pit?"

"We won't know if we don't check it first. If it is, then I'll think of another plan," Alice replied. She grabs a small rock and throws it at the ravine. But the rock simply bounces and rested in the mouth of the ravine as if deflected by an invisible wall. She throws another one. This time it rolled and stopped seemingly suspended on the mouth of the ravine.

"It's a fake," Alice concluded. She flashes a thumb's up and jumps towards the ravine. She didn't fall down.

"Just a trick floor guys," Alice shouted happily. She does a dance on the fake ravine to show it's safe.

"Now this fooled us," Don said. He let go a sigh of relief, now that he won't be climbing down a deep pit. Don has a secret fear of heights.

"This is not a photograph or a painting, I wonder how they did it," Van said. Walking in the trick floor feels like walking on a glass bridge with the view of a deep and dark ravine beneath him.

"The ravine is not real, you cried over nothing," Cara said coldly to Kirsten behind her.

"Shut up," she muttered as they cross the fake ravine.