Behind Closed Doors

by **Little Feathered Friends** Fri Jul 13, 2012 4:52 am

This is my story. I am considering changing the ending, because this was only the first part, I wrote the second, started the third and then got bored coz it was really long and complicated.

Sorry if you feel that I am taking over this part of the forum, I will stop for a while Embarassed

Behind Closed Doors
The high, keening wail pierced my dreams, ripping me out of my fantasy world and into reality. A bizarre green light seeped through the crack between my wardrobe doors, casting flickering shadows on the walls. I sat up, swung my legs over the side of the bed and crept across the carpet. The ear splitting whine was now on a wild crescendo, joined by a manic thumping that resonated around the house and vibrated in the roots of my teeth. I clamped my hands over my ears, but the sound forced its way through, drowning my thoughts in its volume. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the noise stopped. Ears ringing, I tiptoed towards the wardrobe. The light was not so bright now, and it was more yellow than green. Reaching out a shaking hand, I pulled the door open.
The sight that lay before my eyes was beyond my wildest dreams. An eight lane highway ran right past my wardrobe, flying cars hurtling along at break-neck speed. Silhouetted against the brilliantly orange sky was a city, with towering sky-scrapers and various futuristic structures that sparkled in the light of the two dazzlingly bright suns. Surely I was dreaming. This was unbelievable. Before I realised what I was doing, I had stepped out onto the road. Cars honked their horns and growled like angry dogs, swerving madly to avoid me. Even though they were flying, they were only about a metre off the ground. Dropping onto my hands and knees, I crawled across the remaining lanes of the highway. Whenever a car rushed overhead I could feel the air pushed down by it flatten my hair against my head and neck.
Just as I was sure I must be nearing the edge, my outstretched hand fell into thin air. Gasping, I snatched it back. Breathless and shaking, I stared down, down, down. A great chasm yawned up at me, and in its depths something was moving. An involuntary shiver ran down my spine, and my instincts were screaming blue murder at me for not trying to run. There was nowhere to run to.
“I’m sorry you had to see that on your first visit,” a voice said. Startled, I turned my head towards the sound. A girl, probably a few years older than me, was crouched down to my right, holding what appeared to be a snowboard. I shot her a quizzical look, my eyes still trying to look back at the hole. “Need a ride?” she asked, smiling. I nodded. She pressed a button on the snowboard, and a handle bar, much like that of a scooter, shot up. Still crouching so as not to be hit by a car, she stepped onto the board and tightly grasped the handlebars. Giving them a sharp twist, I watched in amazement as the board started to hover above the ground. “Hop on.” I crawled over, put my hands on the girls shoulders, and carefully placed a foot on the board. It stayed level, which was encouraging, and so, throwing caution to the wind, I put my other foot on too. Before I had time to change my mind, we were soaring off the edge of the motorway and towards the city in the distance. “You can stand up now. But don’t look down!” The girl shouted over her shoulder. Squeezing my eyes shut tight, I slowly straightened my knees, terrified that the little vehicle would topple over and I would be thrown into the swirling darkness of the hole below.

When the wild ride had ended, I found myself in a park. Springy grass covered the ground, and a sparkling silver fountain splashed nearby. I stepped off the hover board, suddenly overwhelmed with excitement and happiness. Laughing, I turned several cartwheels (even though I’m rubbish at them) and landed on the soft grass. The girl folded up the hover board and sat down beside me.
“What’s your name?” I asked, panting a little from my spontaneous acrobatics routine.
“Ali. You?”
“Rachel,” I paused, and then added “Why am I here?”
Ali laughed. “I accidentally opened a portal to your planet. You were the one that found it.”
“Oh.” I was slightly disappointed. Secretly, I’d been hoping I was sent here to save the world or something.
“But you might be able to help me,” Ali said, rekindling my hope. “You see, my Dad......no, it’s easier if I show you,” she stood up and started walking. “Come on.”
I jumped up and ran over to her.
“Where are we going?” I asked. Ali smiled.
“To my house.”

Ali’s house was incredible. It was as if someone had taken several very different houses, chosen their favourite parts and thrown them all together. There was no handle on the front door, but it opened when Ali shoved it hard enough.
“It’s getting old,” she explained. “You used to be able to just touch it and it would spring open.”
“Couldn’t anyone just come in?” I asked.
“No, it’s DNA coded. Only me, Dad and Serena can open it.”
“Who’s Serena?”
Ali frowned. “I’ll explain inside,” she said, giving the door a kick. Whoever Serena was, it was clear she did not want to talk about her.

The inside of the house was just as weird and wonderful as the outside. The kitchen was pristine white with stainless steel surfaces and black floor tiles, while the living room was more like the one at home, apart from the very modern TV. Ali’s room was on the top floor. It was more like an office than a bedroom. The walls were a bleak white, with only a map of the world and a few framed photos hung on them. There was a large desk that ran across the far wall, covered in a manner of strange contraptions. There was everything from a simple rope and pulley system to extremely complicated mechanisms that I couldn’t begin to comprehend, and some I even recognised, sort of.
“Ali, do all these come from your world?”
“No. Most of them are imported from the moons, and some of them are from a completely different time zone, like you.”
I gasped. “Are we in the future?” I asked. I knew that when I stepped through the wardrobe I had come out on a different planet, but I had no idea it was another time (though I suppose the flying cars should have been a giveaway). But Ali didn’t answer, which annoyed me greatly. This was the most exciting thing that ever happened to me! Ali was now busily tapping keys on the laptop that sat on a stand in the middle of the room. There were a few electronic whirrs and clicks, and a hidden projector cast a square of light on the wall in front of us. Several black and white videos began to play at once, but the only sound was the hum of the projector. Nothing happened for a few minutes.
“Serena is my Dad’s girlfriend. He met her about a year ago, and they hit off right away. But then Dad started acting really weird. He sort of ignored me, or just smiled and nodded when I talked to him. I put up some cameras around the house, did a little spying behind closed doors. You’ll never guess what I found,” she bought up two video files, and pressed play on the first one. It showed a woman with short hair and large glasses sitting on a bed.”That’s Serena,” Ali said, almost spitting the name. The woman in the video stood up, took the glasses off and shook her hair. As we watched, it started writhing and twisting, moving on its own. Serena turned around to face the camera, fixing it in her cold stare.
“Can she see it?” I asked.
“No.” I had expected Ali to add a long explanation to her answer, but she was fully engrossed in the video. In silence I watched, horrified as tiny faces began to appear in Serena’s hair. They flicked their forked tongues in and out, slanting eyes glancing in all directions. She didn’t have hair anymore, but hundreds of live snakes.
“She’s a Gorgon!” I whispered.
“Don’t be stupid. There are no such things as Gorgons. She’s a......a......well, I haven’t figured that out yet,” she flicked to the next video. This time there was a man sitting on the bed, I guessed that he was Ali’s father. Serena was standing in front of him, swinging something before his eyes.
“Is she hypnotising him?”
“Yes. Otherwise I’m sure he would have kicked her out ages ago. Probably wouldn’t have even been interested in her,” Ali said, still staring at the video. Sighing, she closed it down. Four live camera feeds were now playing. I recognised one as the bedroom from the videos. One showed the stairs that led to Ali’s room, one the front porch, and one that was just black, with a thin line of grey (actually, it could have been any colour, but the video was only black and white) across the bottom corner.
“Is that camera working properly?” I asked.
“Yes. It’s the Split. Remember that hole by the motorway?” Ali said impatiently, not ceasing her furious typing. “Right. Let’s get you some clothes. We’re going out.”
I was about to ask what was wrong with my clothes, when I realised I was still wearing my yellow cow pyjamas. Ali closed the lid of the laptop and walked over to the bare wall at the other end of the room. She traced a square shape on the wall with her finger and a drawer popped out. She threw me some clothes, shut the drawer and drew a rectangle that reached the floor, large enough to be a door. Sure enough, it swung forward on invisible hinges.

The door led to a bathroom, where I was sent to get changed. As I was trying to figure out where the head hole was on the strange garment Ali had given me, she started banging on the door.
“Rachel! Hurry up, we have to go! Serena’s going to push Dad in the Split!” Ali was yelling at me through the wall. Giving up on the t-shirt thing, I pulled my pyjama top back on.

I could see Ali’s dad and Serena standing at the edge of the Split on the computer, not that Ali gave me much time to look. Almost as soon as I was out of the bathroom, Ali grabbed my arm and started pulling me down the stairs. I thought we were going to the front door, but instead she led me through another door and into a garage.
“Aren’t we taking the hover board?” I was almost scared to ask, I was worried that Ali had come up with something much scarier than a flying scooter.
“No,” she replied, with a determined look in her eye. She walked over to the corner of the garage, where a lumpy sheet stood, presumably covering something. Ali ripped it off to reveal a motorcycle. At least it looked like a motorcycle, but it had no wheels.

The wind howled in my ears and whipped my hair out behind me. The speed of the flying motorcycle was astonishing.
“Now remember, when we get there, don’t look in Serena’s eyes. She’s a hypnotist!” Ali yelled over the roar of the wind. As we cleared the last of the buildings at the edge of the city, the Split came into view. It was just as I remembered it, utterly terrifying. The sight of it made me want to jump off the bike and run. No! I told myself. No. There are more important things to worry about. I began to scan the edge of the Split, desperately searching for two figures. Then I saw them. Two tiny people, one standing right at the edge, the other a safe distance back.
“Over there!” I shouted. If we had been on the road and the motorbike had wheels, they would have squealed in protest as Ali turned the bike sharply to the right, and accelerated towards Serena and her father.

Ali stopped the bike a few metres away from Serena, so we were behind her. We could hear her talking, holding on to every ‘S’, much as a snake would if it could talk.
“John,” she called in a singsong voice. Ali’s father turned to face her, grinning dopily. “Why don’t you come here?”
John shuffled over to her, an obedient dog coming to its master. Serena patted his head. “That’sss a good boy. Now letsss have sssome fun. Sssing.”
John then proceeded to sing a slurred and very out of tune version of ‘If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands’, with actions. Even Ali had to try hard not to laugh. Serena just looked bored. “All right, enough of that. Walk back to the edge of the Sssplit.” At mention of the Split, John looked as if he was straining against Serena’s instructions for a moment, but then turned and stumbled back to the edge. Ali jumped up.
“Stop!” she yelled. John did nothing, but Serena turned towards us, frowning.
‘Ssso, Ali. Come to sssave Daddy’sss life, have we?” she turned to face me. Remembering what Ali had said to me on the way over, I shut my eyes and turned my face away, not wishing to join John at the edge of the Split. “Who’sss your friend?”
“Rachel,” Ali said drowsily, as if she was half asleep.
“Thank you Ali. Go and ssstand next to your father.”
I heard footsteps walking away from me on the hard ground. Ali must have forgotten to close her eyes. I was on my own now. Daring to peek out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Serena had her back to me again. Now was my chance. I threw myself at her, tackling her to the ground. Eyes half closed, I reached for her glasses, pulling them off her face and throwing them as hard as I could into the Split. I jumped up and stepped away from her, darting to the left and behind a rock. “My glassssesss! Ali! John! Ssstep forward!” Serena’s voice was layered with heavy notes of rage and urgency, but nothing happened. “ I sssaid, ssstep into the Sssplit!” Ali took a step backwards, shaking her head. Then she smiled, turned to face Serena and laughed. “Don’t laugh at me you ssstupid girl!” Serena shrieked, and lunged towards Ali with her hands outstretched. Ali jumped out of reach, and Serena stumbled forward, hands snatching and grabbing at thin air, reaching out for something. She managed to take hold of John’s sleeve, but he too had woken from his trance, and stared at her blankly.
“Who are you?” he asked, clearly bewildered.
“It’sss me, Ssserena!”
“I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“Yesss we have! Ssstop thisss nonsssenssse!” she clawed at his arm, and he stepped back, breaking her grip. There was a loud crack, and the dry ground beneath Serena’s feet crumbled, and the fate she had intended for John and Ali swiftly became her own.

For a long time no one spoke. I stepped out from behind the rock, feeling awkward.
“Why didn’t you two jump in?” I asked quietly. Ali laughed.
“You can’t hypnotise someone to kill them self.” She replied. John turned around. When he saw me he gasped and took a step forward, reaching out a hand.
“Rachel......” he whispered. I looked around to see if anyone else was there.
“Umm, yeah, that’s me.” I said, confused. John frowned, and then turned to Ali. She bit her lip and looked away.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No, no. Everything’s fine.” John said, glancing at Ali again. “Apart from the fact that I have no idea why we’re here, especially since here is the Split,” he said. “And also, why my flying motorcycle is over there.”
Ali grinned sheepishly. “Let’s go home. I’ll explain there.”

“And that’s pretty much it.” Ali concluded as we sat in the kitchen at their house. We had just finished explaining the events of the day, and the past year, to John. He nodded slowly and took a sip of coffee, but grimaced as it was now stone cold.
“Well,” he said, setting down his mug. “That’s one year of my life I’ll never get back.” I was slightly surprised. If I had just told my dad he had been hypnotised into loving a crazy lady with snakes for hair for the past year, he would have sat gaping like a goldfish for at least an hour, maybe two. “Now then, Rachel, we need to get you home.” He said. There was something strange about the way he looked at me, sort of like he knew I was there but didn’t really want to. Like he’d seen a ghost. Maybe it was something to do with the different time zones. Whatever it was, it was weird.

Out of all the modes of flying transportation, the car was definitely my favourite. The wind was outside and it felt much safer. We were driving (well, not really) down the motorway. On the left was a rocky cliff face, to the right seven lanes of traffic and then the Split.
“Will I ever be able to come back?” I asked.
John looked at me in the rear view mirror.
“Yes, I think you will, especially if Ali has anything to do with it.” He smiled. “And if not, you’ll be back sooner than you think.” He added very quietly, but I don’t think I was supposed to hear that.

John pulled the car over and we all got out. He placed his finger on the rock, and traced a door in it, just as Ali had done in her bedroom. It opened, and through it I could see my bedroom. I hugged Ali goodbye, and John shook my hand very formally. As I turned to walk back into my world, I thought I could see tears in his eyes.

My bed had never felt so comfortable. I was asleep almost instantly, with the thought that behind the closed doors of my wardrobe, a whole world was awaiting my return.

----------
“How could you?” John, usually a quiet man, shouted at the top of his lungs.
“I’m sorry!” His daughter Ali yelled back. “I had to see her again!”
“Do you have any idea what could happen now? If she figures out - it could change history!”
“I know!” Ali said, tears pouring down her cheeks. “I know. I couldn’t stop myself. All that stuff with you and Serena - I needed her!”
“It’s her future!” John said, quietly. “If she ever finds out her part in it, if she tries too hard to make it happen, or worse, tries to stop it, you might never be born. And where would that leave me?” He was crying too now. “Where would that leave old John Bryson, eh? How could you do this? How could you bring your mother, your dead mother, back from the past?”