The Time War

Chapter 2

Beads of sweat dripped down her shivering neck as she tried to listen over her plangent heartbeat to the hallway outside. Images of the forest, the monster, and a thousand unanswered questions spun around ceaselessly in her head. Is that boy the one that put me here? He must be. But where is 'here'? How did he do all of that stuff last night? What is going on? She shook her head, trying to calm herself down.

Everything in the bedroom was white, brightened even further by the sunlight coming from the large window by the bed. In comparison, the door Alice had her ear pressed up against seemed shrouded in shadow.  It looked old, and scratches covered almost every inch of it's dark pine surface.

She studied the doorknob, the only thing on the door that looked new, and took a deep breath. Quickly, she flung the door open to see the boy from the night before, hand raised to knock, blinking his eyes in surprise.

"Hi?" he asked.

She just stared at him, unsure of what to say.

"I bet you have a lot of questions, huh?"

Alice gave a small nod.  Her nails pressed into the palms of her hands as she tried to think of something to say.  All I've wanted is to have my questions answered and now I can't even bring myself to ask them.

"I'll answer them.  Just gotta follow me. Deal?"

She nodded again.

"Great."

Alice went to follow him but stopped in shock. Every surface was the exact same dark pine. There were no paintings, no rugs, and no color at all save the brass glint of the lanterns that lined the walls and the doorknobs that were attached to hundreds of identical doors. The hallway went on for so long that its end faded into darkness, and the few corridors that she could see branching off to her right were shrouded in shadow.

"I know. I've been telling him to get LEDs for ages. It would really help brighten up the place." The boy came to stand beside her. "It isn't haunted like it looks, but it is hard to get lost in. Follow me closely, okay? No more stopping and staring in awe." He paused and smiled, his pale yellow eyes sparkling with mischief. "Except if you're staring at my beautiful face, of course. That's always allowed." Turning around, he began walking again.

Following his advice, Alice kept close to him as he wove through identical passages confidently. By now she had stopped shivering, but her heartbeat was still loudly beating in time with each step she took. Suddenly, she was struck by a thought. The house was like the woods.

The floor beneath her looked ancient, but none of her footsteps had resulted in a single creak. It was as though, once again, she had been trapped in an endless, silent maze where she had only one thing to follow. Except instead of having a path, she now had a very short magical boy.

Unable to bear the silence any longer, Alice finally asked "Who's him?"

"What?" the boy responded, not slowing down.

"You said you had been telling 'him' to get LEDs for ages. Who's 'him'?"

"Oh, you mean Lee. This is his place. I guess you could say he built it. Not that much of an interior designer," he said, gesturing to the blank walls.

"Do you two live here?"

"Yeah. A few other people do, too. You'll meet them at breakfast. There's six of us, total." He glanced back at her. "They're magic, too. That's what's on your mind, right?" He chuckled. "How much of last night do you remember, by the way?"

"I was in the woods and the path behind me began disappearing so I didn't know how to get home. And then something attacked me. You let loose a bunch of sand and the monster stopped attacking. Then I got really tired and I saw a house in the distance."

"Pretty good memory, although most of that's kind of hard to forget, right? I remember my first time in the woods and that was a long time ago. Leaves a pretty big impression."

A long time ago? He doesn't look that old. Alice swallowed, preparing herself to ask the question that had been weighing on her the most. "Am I going to be able to go back home?"

The boy's steps instantly became less peppy, and his shoulders slumped downwards.

"I can go back, right?  The path won't start disappearing again?"

Whirling around, the boy's eyes stared into hers with such intense sorrow and yearning that Alice took a step back, surprised.

"It's complicated. Nothing within these walls is ever simple. But even if you do leave these woods, you won't leave them the same as when you came in. You're already different. You just can't sense it yet."

As Alice looked closer she realized his pupils weren't black, but a yellow even paler than his irises.

The boy sighed tiredly and lead her through the hallways again, walking faster than before.

Different how? Who are you? How did you do all that stuff from last night?  Both of her palms stung badly from her nails being pressed into them so long, so she forced herself to put her hands in her pockets instead.  She could feel the dirt on the denim of the jeans and suddenly realized that her first impression of whoever she was supposed to meet might not be the best.

They said they would have answers. But what if I don't like what those answers are?  He already said I couldn't leave the same as I came.  What does that mean?  

Alice glanced up and realized that the boy had led her towards a monolithic set of doors at the end of the hallway.  They were easily 10 feet tall and stood, silent giants, as a gateway into the unknown.

Each of the doors were completely plain except for a golden doorknob that, even in the darkness, shone brightly.  Luring her in.

The boy looked at Alice, nodding and gesturing towards the doors. "After you."