Short Stories for a writing project

Doorway to Moonlight

A Doorway from the Moon

Another long day at the market place dealing with rude customers and smiling through all of it. The first thing on mind when I get home is to crawl into bed and escape from the mundane.

It's been happening once a month now for the last few years. I'm floating through space and cosmic colors are ebbing and flowing around me. It's warm and comforting like a blanket fresh from the dryer. I keep floating until a white doorway is in the distance and as it gets bigger the colors begin to fade away. I've tried a few times to avoid it, but I never seem to be able to move far enough before I'm sucked through.

It's now white everywhere and a long marble hallway stretches before me into eventual darkness. My icy feet tighten as I look at my naked body. I find my skin has no color and everything is silent like a black and white film, behind me where I assume I entered is a blank wall staring into me. As I step forward the only thing I hear is the slap of one foot after the other, with not even an echo or the sounds of my own breath. I begin sprinting for what feels like hours, my body not tiring but my mind faltering as I feared there would be no end, and this state would last forever.

I closed my eyes for awhile hoping I would wake up. Whatever message the universe had for me, I was not receiving it. This fear, this cold made no sense. Why keep going on, just fall asleep here and wake up in my bedroom. Nothing worked and after closing my eyes for hours I decided to keep going. I took a step but noticed something different in the distance, a silhouette now made the slightest difference in the tiny black rectangle in the distance. I stared longer and more intently to make sure I wasn't imagining it. Now I know he's here. I sprint as fast as I can and every second I feel the white shadow is getting bigger and bigger.

As I get closer, it's like he's fighting wind to get to me, being pushed farther back and fighting closer like waves upon the shore. As I get closer and closer I feel the warmth returning and my breath becomes the wind and roar of the waves. His arms open up as my body flies into his and the two of us are soaring towards the black doorway. As the abyss approaches the only thing I'm grateful for is that I'm not alone. We plunge through the black doorway into cool water and I think he's smiling.

The first time it happened I was terrified, but now I look forward to it. The dream is almost comforting; knowing that I could be so scared of something in my own mind compared to things that should be scary every day. Like my neighbors' tree, it's so old I'm pretty sure it's going to crush me in my sleep someday, but it doesn't bother me enough to really bring it up. Then to be comforted by the same thing that made me afraid. How silly the whole mind is really.

However, tonight is very different, after I finished my shift at the marketplace I went to bed earlier than normal, depression and exhaustion are powerful drains on reality... Tonight though I woke up just as I approached the white door. I hard a large crack, and a thud outside. I turned and looked out the window and a giant branch lay between my neighbors' fence and me. I am definitely going to say something tomorrow. I looked up at the night sky, it was quite clear tonight. I could see some pretty strong constellations and it was a full moon, a bright one too. Did I leave the kitchen light on?

I went to turn around and to my bewilderment there was a pulsing door of light on my wall across from the window. A shimmering handle with am iridescent shine began to fade away. If it was the moonlight that was causing this, then it was almost gone, which meant this handle would probably be gone. Was I dreaming again? I pinched myself, "Ouch!" maybe a bit too hard. I touched the handle to make sure, and as I did I could feel something in it. Just from touching I could tell this handle wouldn't be here for much longer. Does one think about things like these? I carefully began to turn it, the handle was fading, and it's surface akin to a bubble about to burst. I heard a "sffft", and light began to pour out, the doorway sucking me into the frozen void.