Dark Sketches

Chapter 4

I know this chapter isn't that exciting but it's a gateway chapter :D Enjoy! 

We landed with a soft thud and I was no longer holding Nikolai's hand. The ceiling was higher than I expected. "Silver?" I heard Nikolai's soft whisper. I reached back and grabbed his shirt and led us down the dark corridor. The lights suddenly lit up in a light red, the one problem was that there were no lightbulbs present. I stopped walking and looked ahead, the hallway came an abrupt stop and there were three doors, one on the left side, one on the right side and one right ahead. The three doors were colored differently, hazel on the left, silver on the right and black right ahead. There was a note on the floor. I opened it and it was blank. 'What kind of joke is this? Which door is the right one?'

I threw the note on the floor and Nikolai picked it up. 'Silver. Hold up, there is writing on it. It's a riddle.' I looked back at the sheet but it was still blank. I turned to stare at each of the doors intently while Nikolai read the riddle.

"One door is to a Dark Death. One door is to a light heaven. One door will kill one of you. Which door is the right door?"

I stared at each door when I heard a laugh from my right. I turned and saw Nikolai laughing his ass off, then he got serious for a moment. He looked me dead in the eye, grabbed my hand, opened the black door and ran into the room like his life depended on it. We made it to the room and the door shut behind us. 'Are you crazy?! You could have at least discussed what door we were going to go through! One of us could have died! Or worse, both of us could have died!' he turned so I was looking at his back, 'face it Silver if I told you which one I was going through you'd think I was crazy!' he turned around with the goofiest smile I've ever seen and I couldn't help but giggle.

'Okay! Let's do this! Together from now on.' He smiled and nodded. This room was amazingly huge it had beautiful red carpet and black curtains and huge drawing in the center of a pregnant woman hold her stomach. Her face was covered with a black veil and get skin was flawless. There were four mini bookshelves with white cloth over them at the bottom of the drawing. Nikolai was already at the bookshelves and was trying to grab books. 'Hey Silver check this out!' I walked over and looked over his shoulder and his fingers were going throughout the books, 'It's like a hologram!' I exclaimed. I went to the lowest shelf and put my hand through the books and it felt like putting your hand through think air and all of a sudden I knocked a real book over.

There was this cranking sound and Nikolai and I moved away from the bookshelves, then the two center shelfs parted ways to reveal a hidden passageway. 'Cool.' was all I muttered. The height of the passageway was perfect for me but Nikolai had to duck. 'Hey Nikolai, how tall are you?' I heard a cough and him mutter, '6 feet.' I smiled, I was only 5 foot 7. Nice to know.

The passageway lead us into a replica of the old room but all the colors have been changed to be the exact opposite of the other room and all the furniture was arranged exactly opposite. There were no more bookshelves and no doors in sight.  'This isn't funny anymore Silver. We should try to go back home.' He turned and yelled, there was huge cobra guarding the passageway. All we did was stare it, it had yellow eyes and dark green scales. 'So what? Scared of a prissy snake?' He looked at me and pulled his right jean leg up to his knees revealing a huge bite. 'Oh... That is not good. Not good. What if it's poisonous? I'll suck the ven-'

'I'm not poisonous.' It said through a hiss.

'Well I know you aren't Nikolai but we have to... The snake just spoke.'

'Yessss I did.'

'Okay, okay this is not good for my sanity. Not good one bit.' I ripped off a piece of the curtain and wrapped Nikolai's leg up. It was odd he didn't speak.  'Nikolai..? Hehe, maybe we should rest here. I mean no point in strolling now you're injured.' since he wasn't moving I grabbed two pillows from the couch and pit on under his leg and head. He just stared at me. I told him to shut his eyes and that I would take the first watch. I just glared at the snake.

'It's rude to s-s-stare you know.' It said without looking at me.

'It's rude to bite people you know.'

It finally turned to look at me and it smiled showing many of it's sharp teeth. 'I don't need reassurance that you can bite with your knife teeth, why are you doing?'

'It was still smiling. I'm atoning for my sins from my former life. I was a poacher that would abuse the animals before I took their skins. I wouldn't kill them sometimes.'

'Atoning... Here? Where am I exactly?'

'Ingrasia, a dreamland meant to punish those who are alive but the sins are too great to punish after death so they live a crazy life in here. On Earth it's called being in a coma.'

'In.. What?! What have I done?! I haven't even died yet! This is bullshit, I'm crazy.'

'S-s-s-sometimes living can be our curse. They say people and dreams are connected. Humans no longer know of it. This is also the place dead family or friends or even strangers come to "haunt" a human who has severely wrong them during their lifespan. This is the worst world, the closest to hell, that's why I must stop anyone from going back.'

'Thanks for telling me I'm in a coma.'

'Not a s-s-single problem.