Underworld (Dark Passage) (14 page)

I regretted coming to visit for a moment but was too
late to turn back now. The inside of the house was
massive and the floors on the first level were done in
old plank hardwood. They seemed to be hand hewn
and had the look of aged oak. When we walked
across the floor, it made eerie sounds, and I tried to
tiptoe to keep the noise to a minimum. Across the
floor was a grand staircase with lion heads sitting at
the start of the stairs. This too was made of the same
old oak wood and wound its way up to several floors.
The house was much larger inside than it had looked
when I first saw it from the driveway.

The furniture in the house was of heavy wood and
placed tastefully around the large room. Toward the
end of the room were French doors that opened into a
sunny room with a fireplace against the far wall.
Heavy fabric hung at the windows and sunlight
streamed inside. The room was cozier than the larger
room we had walked through and a fire burned in the
fireplace. It never occurred to me that it was odd to
have a fire in the summer. Despite the fire it was
chilly in the house and the warmth was welcome.

I sat on a red velvet sofa that faced the fireplace and
on either side were smaller sofas. In the corner were
two wing back chairs with a table in the middle.
There was a glass on the table and a large book lay
open. A middle aged woman in a dark dress
appeared. Her hair was piled on her head in a bun
and she wore an apron. She held a tray with a teapot,
cups and small cakes and assorted sweet breads piled
on a plate.

She sat the tray down on a coffee table in front of the
sofa where I was sitting and poured out 3 cups of tea.
She offered me a cup in one hand and held the plate
of treats in the other. I chose a frosted cake and
wasted no time biting into it.

When we had finished our tea and pastries, Thomas,
the husband of the lady, joined us. He had a shock of
gray hair, bulbous nose and ruddy complexion.
Kindness warmed his eyes and he had the most
contagious laugh.

There was a sense of foreboding in the old house as
they showed me around. I scarcely heard what
Thomas was saying about the place until we reached
the library. It was a grand thing; with tall ladders that
were mounted on wheels. They were used to retrieve
books, from any of the giant bookshelves. Thomas
was explaining the mechanics of the ladders while I
looked around the room in awe. It was not just the
size of the room that grabbed my attention but the
apparent age of everything inside.

In the middle of the room was a large, round table. In
the center of the table was an iron box. It was about
20 inches long by 8 inches wide. There were feet on
the bottom of the box in the shape of lion heads. It
was this box that Thomas was now picking up and
bringing over to the sofa that Elizabeth and I were
sitting upon.

He walked over and sat the box down on the sofa
table and took a seat next to his wife. His ancient
face was warm and his eyes twinkled as though he
had some great secret to show me. The box was
closed and it had a tiny lock on the front. Tom
produced a key and turned it clockwise in the
keyhole.

When he removed the key from the lock he opened
the small latch holding it closed and slowly began to
open the box. There was a soft light coming from the
box and the wider it was opened the stronger the light
became. Tom reached slowly into the box and
produced a very old book. The leather was worn but
the gold leaf around the outside of the cover and on
the spine was in perfect condition. Light bounced off
the gold leaf and seemed to radiate in the large
library.

Thomas put the book down carefully in front of me.
It was so beautiful that I was afraid to touch it for fear
that I would somehow ruin it. Ever so slowly I
reached out and traced the gold with my fingertips.
The leaves were slightly raised and seemed warm to
the touch. The gold shimmered with movement and
gave the impression that the book was animated.

Thomas gave Elizabeth a stern look and shook his
head no. He then took her hand in his own and
squeezed it gently.

My hands linger on the edge of the cover and I
wonder what could be inside this old book. I frown in
concentration and carefully open the gold leaf cover.
I am unprepared for the glow that emerges from the
pages and a jolt of electricity shoots through me.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes for a moment.
When I attempt to open them it feels like they are
sewn shut. My hands fly frantically to my face and I
try to force the lids open.
“Relax Ivy. You will be able to see in a moment. Let
your mind go into the void.” Said Thomas

I concentrate on his voice. The soothing tone relaxes
me and I began to let my wind go. The sensation of
floating comes over me. It feels as though I am
floating on a breeze and it occurs to me that I am no
longer in my body. My eyes open easily and I find
myself at a café. I am sitting next to some man and
he is talking to me as though we are in the middle of a
conversation. It’s apparent to me that I like this man
and we know each other from somewhere.

Then I happen to glance inside the café and see Jen.
She is standing at the cash register paying for a latte.
I have to look twice to be sure it’s her face I’m
seeing. She is not age 10 anymore but all grown up!
My heart is racing and I am about to lose
consciousness. I take a sip on a glass of water at the
table and the man next to me is oblivious that
anything is wrong. I close my eyes and force myself
to calm down.
I allow my mind to drift again and take me where it
will. In my mind’s eye I see a door. I turn the handle
and push the door open. I am walking up to the gate
to Thomas and Elizabeth’s home. I slip in the gate as
I did earlier and walk down the driveway. The
driveway is short and behind a bunch of wild
blackberry bushes and brush is their house. It is in a
state of ruin and I am afraid to go any further.
Something is not right about the place and I have the
distinct feeling that I am in serious trouble. I see
something in the top floor window and back slowly
away.

I feel a choking surge of panic rising up in me. I want
to turn around and run but I am too afraid. It’s like a
nightmare that I can’t wake up from. I am compelled
to walk toward the house. There is something that I
must find there but I don’t know what it is. I walk up
the short drive and then walk across what used to be
the front lawn. Blackberry vines are ripping my pants
as I walk but I pay no attention and keep going
forward.
The front door is all but falling off the hinges and the
paint is peeling away from the house. I open the door
and wait a moment before going inside. I take a step
inside and look around. There is a hole in the roof
and I can see birds flying in the sky. Someone had
attempted to put a piece of clear plastic over the hole
but only a small piece remained. The house is much
smaller than the real one but I have no doubt it is the
same place. The wood floors are rotten and the once
grand staircase is intact but it appears to be rotting.

There is a knowing inside me that I must go upstairs.
I slowly climb the steps and stop on each one to look
behind me. When I reach the top I take a right toward
the library. The hallway is narrow and I am hesitant
to walk through it. I have a feeling that someone is in
the house but have to find what I am here for before I
can leave.

The door to the library is stuck. I push as hard as I
can but it will not open. Time is of the essence and I
must get in there. Fear is creeping into my mind and
I think I hear someone downstairs. I listen carefully
and there is no doubt that someone else is in the
house. I push on the door harder but it holds fast. I
can hear footsteps on the stairs and soon I will be face
to face with whatever was down there. My frustration
is building and I step back a couple feet and throw my
body against the door.

It jerks open and I close it behind me and lock it for
good measure. There is a ratty sofa against a far wall
and I know my answer is connected with the sofa.
There is someone on the outside pushing on the door
trying to get inside. Cold sweat is rolling down my
face and the back of my neck is damp.

There is no way out of this and I am going to die. I
sit down and close my eyes so I don’t have to see
what’s coming through the door. I push the sounds of
the crashing door out of my mind and clear my mind.
Then I hear someone call my name. The voice gets
louder and I have the sensation of traveling through a
tunnel.
“Ivy. Wake up Ivy’.

I open my eyes and tuck a few strands of hair behind
my ear. I try to remember exactly what I had seen in
the dream but the details are hazy. Thomas and
Elizabeth are sitting in the same place as before.
Their eyes grew wide and they looked at each other
with a knowing smile.

“Tell me. Where did I go?”
I said with a trembling
voice. Thomas gave me a slow smile and his eyes
looked deep inside mine. After a few moment he
spoke. “I think that you went to the place known as
the void. It’s in between our world and the next
where the paranormal entities take on physical form”.

“Ok.” Was a
ll I could manage to say after he said
that. I wanted to be a polite guest but what they were
saying made no earthlysense at all. Besides, I didn’t
like what I saw in the void and didn’t want to find out
what was about to crash through the door. It felt like
I was at the breaking point as I sat on the ratty sofa
waiting for something to rip me apart.

Thomas and Elizabeth went on excitedly about the
paranormal and how some of us could go between
states of being. I tried to concentrate on what they
were saying but the information was just too much to
absorb at this point in my life.

The trips to their house became a weekly routine.
They gave me an old leather journal to take notes and
made me promise to never show anyone. As weeks
slipped into months my lessons took me to the other
side. Thomas referred to my trips as
traveling
.
Entering a swirling light surrounded by darkness that
gave the impression of a tunnel. The tunnels gave
way to doorways. Each doorway led the way to
faraway places that I never knew existed. The broken
moments of my real life forgotten in the new
memories created on the other side.

There was an entire world just through the void. It
was here that I found my real home. There were
people there who cared about what happened to me
and a life that I wanted to live. Each time I left the
other side it felt as though I were traveling away from
what I loved.

When summer ended my life here became mundane.
Caught up in the repetition it seemed like an eternity
between my travels. I trudged through each day
hoping to be whisked away to that other place. I felt
so restless and counted the hours until I could go to
Thomas and Elizabeth’s house again. I would spend
my class time looking out the window daydreaming
about my other home.

The isolation I felt at home made me withdraw from
the people around me. One day, looking out the
window, the teacher asked me a question. I was so
focused on watching the clouds and trying to imagine
what people were doing on the other side that I didn’t
hear him. The next thing I knew there was a sharp
pain in my arm and I became aware of Mr. Lyle
glaring at me. He was gripping my arm so tight that
it felt like it was breaking.

The class laughed and Mr
. Lyle’s face grew scarlet.
He led me away to the office and I sat there for some
time while he spoke to the principle. When he was
done he stormed past me without casting a glance at
me. The secretary came out and told me to wait for
my mother to pick me up. The hours dragged on and
I sat there in silence. When the final bell rang I left
the office and rode the bus home.

Unfortunately we live in a prejudiced world and a
young girl from a poor family is nothing more than a
problem. The solution to a problem like me is never
an easy one. Removing a student without good cause
proved impossible for the staff and the next best thing
was to turn me over to the school counselor. Laura
was a kind lady and tried to help me in her own way.
When I talked about the voices and things that I had
seen she told me to never talk about any of that again.
She said that people would not understand and I
would end up in trouble.

At first I tried to walk the fine line between the here
and now and the other side. Miss Laura was my
friend, and I wanted to make her happy, so I did as
she said. My effort to appear normal went to the
wayside one day when a girl confronted me in the
hallway. She pushed me and I pushed her back. She
fell to the floor and then started to cry. One of her
friends went to find a teacher and I snuck down into
the basement of the school to hide.

I found an old room with a low window that peeked
just above ground level. Off to the side, is an old sofa
from the teacher’s lounge that had been discarded
before the remodel. I sit on the sofa and look up at
the sky. I close my eyes and imagine I am at
Thomas’s house and that I am going to travel. The
corner of the wall began to glow and the shape of a
door emerged. I could see the curves of the door and
the doorknob and longed to go inside.

The lunch bell rings and I jumped up from the sofa to
run for class. In the corner there is a glowing door
with swirling light. It’s the same door that I had
walked through many times at the house and it shines
brightly as though beckoning me to go through it. At
first I stand there unsure what I should do but then
reach for the knob.