I Dare You To Read This Book.

Playing The Game Of Seven Doors: Part 5

AUTHORS NOTE: This is stupidly long, and it gets really weird from here on out. Thank you for sticking with me thus far and listening to my story. This was the hardest part to write, so I appreciate everyone's patience. I'm trying to avoid overlong posts as this experience and my recounting of it starts coming to it's end. I've heard a lot of amazing insight from the community and even more unanswered questions as well. Some people have mentioned seeing the same symbol, both in comments and in private PM's. I'm not sure what this means. But if what they're saying is true, and more people have seen it, I'm afraid that what I did at the end of my story may not have worked the way I though it did.

More on that in the next post. Stay safe, everyone.

"Are you ready?"

My head rested against Jay's crossed ankles, eyes staring up at the sky beyond her head. It was a gorgeous day; crystal blue skies and wisps of white cotton clouds danced past the tops of the trees straight above me. It was actually warm for the first time in a long time; everyone around me in the circle seemed lit in soft fire as the afternoon sunlight broke through the pine trees and scattered like liquid gold to the forest floor beneath.

I took it all in for a second, and then sucked in a breath, shutting my eyes. "Ready."

Seven doors, seven doors, seven doors...

I was nervous. I had no idea how I was ever going to relax enough to slip into the altered state I had become so familiar with at this point, but suddenly it was happening; I sank, my vision receding into darkness, and the voices of the girls seemed to come from far away, as if I had dropped underwater. I shivered, and when I faintly heard Jay ask, "What do you see," I opened my eyes.

I was in a huge, expansive field. The sky, the tall grass that brushed against my jeans, the few small birds in the sky, all were gray, like I had stepped into an old black and white movie. All color leached from everything, including, as I looked down at myself, me. And when I raised my eyes, I nearly jumped; a sharp gasp escaped my lips, and from very, very far away, I could hear Jay's voice; "What is it?"

"I'm...surrounded," I whispered. "They're all around me."

They stood on four legs, soft, sable fur glimmering in the dull grey light. Bristling antlers towered towards the sky, ending in wickedly sharp points tipped dark with some unknown glimmering liquid. They looked like elk, but larger; and in the center of each velvety forehead, opened a third eye, unblinking and staring.

They surrounded me in a circle, and they were staring at me.

"Jay," I whispered. "Jay, what do I do?"

"Just...move very slowly. And don't piss them off, please! We've got enough shit to worry about right now without adding to it."

I took a few hesitant steps towards one edge of the circle. The elk seemed dis-inclined to move, but as I approached, almost touching one of them, it shifted to the side slowly to allow me to pass. The circle closed behind me, and I could feel the weight of their enormous bodies, antlers clicking as they tapped against one another, moving in unison. Ahead, in the distance, I could see the tree-line of a forest, and before that tree line, a huge building towered, rows of smaller trees laid out across it's front lawn like a small orchard. It reminded me of those plantation houses in the south, elaborate and impressive in it's physicality, but also...wilting, with crumbling shingles and dark moss claiming the corners of ceilings and the base of columns.

In the background, I started hearing a low, almost imperceptible noise; the low rumbling of a far off earthquake, and a softer chopping noise layered over the top.

I described it all to Jay as I began walking forward through the tall grass, the mansion looming up ahead of me. The low, rumbling sound encroached on the edge of my hearing; it was always there, subversive and barely loud enough to pick up, but for some reason the hairs had been standing up on my arms the moment I opened my eyes in the field. As I finished describing the scene for the others, I heard a faint sound coming from the building ahead of me. It sounded like a phrase...like someone was repeating something over and over, but at the end of the jumble of words I could distinctly make out one syllable.