The Portal - Pain Is The Password

Chapter four - Nursery Rhyme

A long dry road and two bickering people. Bo is striding along in huge steps whilst Fate flutters along in smaller ones, Audrey limps along with Fate who is shouting loudly.

"Bo stop!"She screams at the small figure ahead of them, Bo breaks into a run. Fate looks defeated for a moment before her frown turns into a grin. "I'm going to get you!" She yells and races off, bounding like a bulldog after him. Audrey stops short of the first row of houses she'd seen in a while and brings her mirror closer to her body.

Audrey stares at the houses for a while, all of them matching with brown thatched roofs and white walls. The windows showing little children playing, young couples cuddling and older people sitting, reading a newspaper to pass the time.

Audrey continues to walk after the pair, they are now a pinprick in the distance, Audrey can still see Fate's hair flowing out behind her. After ten minutes of walking and looking off into the distance, Audrey is now completely alone, the sound of their voices are leading her along. She hopes they come back. As off a few minutes ago, the houses grew larger and some have painted their doors.

The sound of the sea hitting the sand is pushing her to continue walking, Audrey wants to dive into the water and stay for as long as it takes to make her feel alive again. She shakes the thought and continues, Fate's voice getting closer. Audrey sees a little purple dot in the distance nearing and twenty seconds later, Fate is jumping on Audrey.

"Hi!" She squeals and Audrey puts her down gently.

"Hey." The extra weight she just had to carry is hurting her feet more.

"The house is only another five minutes, oh you can see the sea!" Fate squeals and points into the distance and Audrey smiles, the sea is a thin line.

"It's so pretty!" Audrey attempts to match Fate's enthusiasm. Fate just laughs at the fake smile on her face. 

They both turn a corner and the houses seemingly expand, with the doors now twice the size as the ones back on earth and Audrey can no longer see the end of the gigantic buildings. There are three in total, all looking drastically different.

The closest house to the girls is black, dark black. The curtains are ghostly and closed tight, the foundation of the house is black and so are the walls. The house wavers a sense of gloom and the feeling of being all alone but it doesn't feel dangerous. The house makes Audrey want to wander in and find a black blanket, read a book with the occupant and fall asleep.

The second house is the complete opposite, the walls are sunshine yellow and the thatched roof is blue the two colours clash; the house looks like it is meant to give you the feeling of sunshine and warmth but Audrey feels cold just looking at it. The roof seems like it's going to fall through any second, Audrey walks past this house shivering.

The last house is the best out of all, a light blue for the walls and a dark blue for the roof. The house looks like it's wearing a hat. Audrey smiles a wide smile when she notices that Bo is pressed against the window eating something similar to popcorn. His hands shovelling the crunchy snack it his mouth and chewing with his mouth open.

Fate and Audrey walk up the front steps and the window Bo's sitting near vanishes from sight. Fate pushes a large, brown oak door and it spins around multiple before stopping, the door settling in a line, leaving two entrances. Audrey and Fate stare for a moment, Audrey, because she has never seen a door like this in her life and Fate is in love with it.

"It... it spins." Audrey breaths and nudges the wood sticking out towards her and it takes another few turns.

"Isn't it the coolest thing ever!" Fate shrieks and gives it another shove. The door creaks this time around and Fate shakes her head at the door as if it were a naughty three-year-old who isn't eating his vegetables. "Sometimes it acts up." She shrugs and walks through the left opening as Audrey takes the right.