The Red Door

A Modern Rip Van Winkle

The Red Door

Ryan Austin Fernandez

 

It was a Monday evening when I walked through the red door.

This is bad, I thought. Where the hell am I?

I paced back and forth in the ruined house I was now standing in, on the verge of hyperventilation. I tried to compose myself and remember how this happened.

 

Sunday morning, fresh from Sunday Mass, I stepped out of the church and into my car. It was a metallic red Honda City. I got in the driver’s seat and started it up.

I drove around Makati City, where I was born, on the way to my condo.  

Before that, I stopped by the flower shop to get some flowers. Tomorrow was my fifth anniversary with my beautiful girlfriend, Victoria Del Mundo. I was excited to take her out, maybe too excited. This excitement is probably the reason I was here right now, buying her a bouquet of roses.

I continued on to my condo. The city was obviously felt like a lot of business was taking place. The buildings were all corporate. Advertisements, big or small, were all over the place. Of course, throughout all of this, you might find me exaggerating a bit.

 

As I walked up to my condo, I fixed myself up in the reflective surface of the elevator. When it finally reached the seventh floor, I stepped out.

I went in my room and Victoria was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey there. I’m in here,” a voice said from the bedroom.

I went in and there she was, Victoria, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.

We met in 2005 when I graduated High School. We were batchmates but we barely spoke. She approached me when I was on my way home and spoke to me for the first time.

We became good friends instantly. It was but a mere sixteen months later when she became my girlfriend.

 

“Hey there, Vicky,” I said, lying down beside her on the bed.

“How was church?”

“Enlightening as always. How was your trip in Hawaii?”

I guess I forgot to mention that this was the first time we have seen each other in a week.

“It was great!”

“I feel kinda stupid. You’re fresh from your luxurious trip from Hawaii and for our anniversary; I’m taking you to the city.”

She planted a kiss on my lips. “Don’t worry about it, Jeff. As long as I’m with you, anyplace is more luxurious than Hawaii.”

“Speaking of luxury. I got you flowers,” I said as I handed her the flowers.

“Well, same goes for anything you give me right?”

 

We saw a movie later that day. The mall was filled with commercial stuff. My least favorite part of the pre-movie period in the theater was always the advertisements for products.

We walked around, hand in hand. I passed by a Pet Store, a Magazine stand, a McDonalds, and some other generic stores.

It was late night when we got back to our room. Right there, I received a call. It was from my best friend, Simon Paragas.

 

My story with Simon is much longer. Basically, we met in preschool and we have been close friends ever since. We had a few disagreements over the years but wise men say: Bonds become stronger when threatened to be torn apart. I’m not exactly sure which wise man said that but it sounds wise so it must be. Right?

He asked me about our plans for Tuesday. We were going for a small celebration. I told him I was psyched and explained the where and when of the situation.

 

The next day came and Vicky was up early. She got ready immediately.

I woke up a few minutes later. Victoria was already sitting in the living room, watching TV.

“Hey, you ready?” I asked.

“How about you?” she said with an adorable smile on her face.

“Alright, alright, I’ll suit up.”

I didn’t exactly put on a suit. It was just a catchy phrase I got from one of my favorite TV shows.

I wore some semi-formal clothes and we went off to our fifth anniversary.

Needless to say, it was one of my favorite experiences of the past year.

 

That night before I went to sleep, I crept out of our bed and went to my drawer where I took out a small box. I opened it and saw the ring I bought earlier when Vicky was looking at some blouses.

Please let her say yes, I said to myself.

I closed the box and prayed silently. My solemn prayer was violently interrupted by a surge of red light.

I shielded my eyes from the bright light with my right hand. When I felt it dim, I lowered my hand and I saw that there was a faint red glow outside. Victoria was still sound asleep.

I went outside to the main door of our condo. The door was glowing bright red. I touched it and it felt like it always had. The door was exactly the same except for the light.

I reached for the handle and slowly opened it. Outside was a familiar hallway.

I didn’t know if this was just some sick prank or whatnot by the management or whoever but in case it was something more sinister, I was not going to let them get to Victoria.

I stepped through the door and found myself in a wrecked hallway. It was clearly the hallway earlier but it was wrecked beyond all repair.

Standing on the floor felt like standing in a crumbling temple. Then it hit me, Victoria!

I rushed back through the door which was no longer glowing. Our room was trashed.

Was this real? It feels like a dream!

The horror, however, hit me when I entered our room. Victoria was gone.

I looked out the window, hoping to see a sign…

 

Instead, I saw the city. It was a perfect city aesthetically… or at least if you look at it from the seventh floor of a building.

The buildings were all shining. The sun was setting so the sight was beautiful. If you look down to the ground however, there are homeless people everywhere, trash littered all over the place, and posters encouraging men and women alike to join the military.

 

GENERAL LOPEZ WANTS YOU!

 

When I was already on the ground, the homeless people surged towards me. I felt like I was in a zombie movie. The smell was horrific, as if these men were partly singed in some areas after bathing in excrement, either forcibly or willingly.

As I walked further down the street, I just couldn’t help myself from admiring the architecture of the buildings.

I finally escaped from the homeless people by forcing myself through a horde of them.

I ran through the city when all of a sudden, some men came out and chased me.

“Hey! This is our territory. Get your a*s back here so we can teach you some manners!” the tallest one said in a menacing tone.

The others were now chasing me through the empty city. I nearly tripped on some scattered cans. I ran further from the thugs, adrenaline preventing weariness to even become an option for my body.

Then I tripped.

They were looming over me. The must bulky one cracked his knuckles. Here I am, about to die in the hands of some gangsters in a place I barely know anymore.

“MARCEL!” a voice behind the thug in front of me yelled. “YOUR MEN HAVE GONE TOO FAR!”

“Sylvia, this is none of your business!” The tall man earlier said, discreetly taking out his knife as he turned around. He concealed it in his sleeve.

“Let the man go,” the voice said. Then I heard a click. I tried to get a better view. I now saw a beautiful woman, in her twenties, pointing a gun at the tall man. She had a dog by her side. The rest of the thugs pulled out their guns and pointed at her.

“It was stupid of you to go here, Sylvia, especially for the sake of this man whom you do not know.”

“Only I can decide whether my actions are foolish or otherwise. Let me assure you, Marcel, you may shoot me, you may kill me, but that will be the end of your reign of tyranny in this neighborhood.”

“Is that a threat, Princess?”

“No, Marcel, it’s an offer. I am offering you your life. Walk away now.”

“You can make me walk away anymore than you can stop this bullet from blowing your brains out,” Marcel said, pulling out a gun and pointing it at Sylvia.

“As you wish.”

There was a flurry of gunfire. The dog barked. I don’t know what happened. I covered my ears and closed my eyes. When I opened them, Sylvia was still standing there while the other men were on the ground, moaning in pain. Her dog was standing proud.

She approached me and offered me her hand. I grabbed onto it and she helped me up.

All of a sudden, a blue shield went up behind us and I saw a knife flying back at Marcel, who was on the ground. He had thrown it in desperation.

“Here ends the reign of Marcel De Leon.”

Her dog led us through the city although she knew the way already. It was similar to the future I imagined, only without the flying cars, alien domes, and most importantly, normal people.

I did not speak a single word until we reached a small open lot.

“Sylvia Cruz,” she said. Activating a voice-activated security system. A small green doorframe appeared. Inside the doorframe, it looked like a small warehouse. She led me inside.

It was a refugee camp. Some of them were just innocent civilians. Some of them reminded me of the marines in Aliens.

“Name please?” one of the men asked me.

“J-J-Jeffrey Cruz.”

All of them gasped in unison. Sylvia turned her head.

“Jeffrey Cruz?” she asked.

She approached me, activating a little sci-fi contraption on her fist, making it glow green.

“Jeffrey Cruz is dead. I saved your life, stranger. Do not repay us with disrespect.”

“But that is my name.”

“Sylvia. There might be many Jeffrey Cruz’s out there.”

Then it hit me. Victoria and I had talked about children once. I always liked something about the name Sylvia.

“Excuse me, ma’am. Who was your mother?”

“That is none of your concern,” she said coldly.

“Please. I need to know.”

Her answer to this question can confirm whether I am in an alternate dimension or…

“Her mother was Victoria Cruz,” a man in glasses said, exiting from a computer filled room. “My father’s name is Anthony Cruz. Ring any bells?”

Anthony. That’s my brother’s name! I thought.

“You’re Eric?” I asked.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have found our anomaly.”

“Anomaly? What anomaly. What is happening here?!”
I turned back to Sylvia who had tears in her eyes.

“Are… you okay?” I asked.

“Is he really…” she asked Eric.

“Yes.”

She looked like she wanted to jump at me for a hug. I didn’t know how to feel. This was my daughter. How do you react in this kind of situation? Right there, the larger revelation hit me. I am in the future.

I looked into her eyes but she turned away.

“We have to get him back immediately. If Ignacio finds out, he’ll blow up the condo.”

“May I ask what is happening?!”

“It’s very simple: General Lopez wants to eliminate us rebels. To do that, what better way than to kill the second-in-command’s father? Even more brilliant, why not bring him into the future?”

“But what happened to the city? All the commercial crap. The city looks like a Lego sculpture!”

“Trust me, Lego sculptures are much more pleasing to look at. It was twenty years ago when General Rafael Lopez took advantage of the government. He engineered the death of the president’s family and broke the poor man. When he was weak enough, he threatened him at gunpoint. He relinquished all power to him. Of course, that is only an overview of what happened. The true story is much more complicated.

“Naturally, he had a son. He passed on the power to him when he was old enough, which was five years ago. Alan Lopez was his name. He made Rafael look like Ramon Magsaysay. That was when we decided to rebel.”

“But all this technology?”

“Oh yes. We made this technology ourselves. We are extremely capable of wonderful inventions.”

“Wait, wait, wait! Where is my w�" Where is Victoria?”

Eric bowed his head.

“What? Where is she?”

“I’m afraid she is gone.”

I felt a tear form in my eye.

“How?”

“The rebellion… she was shot down by Col. Ignacio’s men.”

“Simon Paragas? Does anyone know Simon Paragas?!”

“He’s in the infirmary. He’s a sickly man now. His children are out there, fighting Col. Ignacio’s men. They’re tearing down the old parts of the city.”

“Why are the streets so barren?”

“Lopez was a tyrant. He relieved everyone of their possessions.”

I felt my blood boil. This man was a b*****d serving underneath a greater b*****d. They had killed the woman I loved and threatened the lives of the rest of my family and friends.

Then, I had one really big question left.

“How did I get here?” I finally asked.

“Well. A few minutes earlier, we detected an anomaly in the space-time continuum. In lay man’s terms, he put a time rift in your front door, special thanks to his science team.”

“But you guys can do the same right? You can bring me back to my time?”

“Well, it will be hard. We managed to knock down their communications a few days back so Col. Ignacio will have to receive message that indeed worked. This can take up to thirty minutes. If that’s the case, we have�"“

“Five minutes,” Sylvia said, back to her normal self. “Eric, do your thing. If you stay here longer than a day, Lopez will have won. It’s better to risk your life now than to hand it to them later, along with the rest of us. We’ll be charging the condo together. Five of us will protect you as you take the stairs up to the seventh floor. By that time, Eric will have activated the portal, right?”

“It might take ten or twenty minutes.”

“We’ll hold off Ignacio’s men for the meantime. Hurry, we can’t waste time!”

 

We charged towards my old condo, homeless people moving out of the way. There were about twenty or thirty of us, the dog included.

The place was surrounded by Col. Ignacio’s men. Sylvia began relaying instructions.

“Diego, Jhun, you take the eastern side. You guys, go with them. Maria, Noel, west. This side goes with them. Jason, Rico, we’ll enter through the back. Jeff, err…, dad�"“

“Please call me Jeffrey. ‘Dad’ is too awkward.”

“I agree,” she said with a hint of awkwardness.

“What about the Andy?” Rico asked, referring to the dog.

“Take him with us!”

 

The others went in through the east and the west as Col. Ignacio’s men began shooting at them. Sylvia, Jason, Rico, Andy, and I went around the other buildings to reach the rear entrance of the condo building. We went in the building and up the stairs.

When we got to the seventh floor, I led them to my room.

“Should I go in?”

“Wait for it to glow red. Going in now will do nothing.”

I could hear the rumbling downstairs. We went to the windows in the hallway. A lot of Sylvia’s men were down.

“MAN DOWN! MAN DOWN!” one of them yelled from below.

“Come on, Eric. Faster…” Sylvia pleaded.

Then I heard the most horrific sound: There were men making their way up the stairs.

 

Jason, Rico, and Sylvia took out their rifles and hid in some of the spare rooms. Andy and I went in with Sylvia.

“Shh…” she said.

I heard the footsteps slowly approaching us.

Suddenly, there was a flurry of noise and a loud thud. Sylvia looked out at the hallway and fired a shot. She fired another one and there was another loud thud.

“What’s happening?” I whispered.

“Shh…” she said once more, pushing me against the wall. Sweat was running down her face.

She reached for her right wrist and activated a little contraption. A bright blue light emanated from her glove.

“D****t, sixty seconds.”

Suddenly, I heard a soft hum from the hallways as a red light trickled into the room.

I heard a click as Sylvia shouted,”NO!” and began shooting like mad.

“Stay down!” she yelled, presumably at me. Andy rushed out of the room and I heard the battle rage outside. A faint blue light flashed on and off joining the red as the battle went on.

The door is right there. So near! I can reach it! I thought.

I slowly crawled towards the hallway but as my arm reached outside, a bullet shot through my arm. I yelled in pain.

“STAY BACK!” Sylvia shouted louder. I followed her orders, attempting to dig out the bullet.

The battle raged on. The faint blue light finally died before I heard one final gunshot and another thud.

I didn’t want to risk my life yet but I had to make sure Sylvia was safe! Then I heard the same footsteps earlier approach me.

I inched further into the room as the footsteps got closer.

BANG!

The man yelled in pain as he fell down.

“Stay down, Colonel. If you stand, let me assure you, you will never stand on two legs again!”

I stepped out, avoiding the colonel. I saw Sylvia on the ground, her stomach bleeding with Andy beside her, one of his legs bloody.

“Sylvia! I’ll call for help!” I said.

“No! Go through the door. You don’t have much time. Reinforcements will be here any second!”

I glanced at the door, my heart pounding faster and faster every second as the violence down below reached my ears.

“Jeffrey!” she said as I stood to approach the red door. “You can change this future. Promise me!”

“I will.”

“And dad… take care of mama, will you?”

I knelt down, held her face, and looked her in the eye the way I always imagined myself looking at my daughter. “I won’t let this future happen. I promise.”

I heard more soldiers ascend the stairwell.

“Go!” Sylvia said as I ran for the door.

 

I entered back at my suite and staggered back to my bed. I lay down and immediately fell asleep.

The next morning, I woke up and Victoria was still asleep. I wondered if last night’s events had all been a dream. Then I felt a sharp pain in my arm. I looked and I saw the bullet wound.

“Good morning, Jeff. Sleep well?” Victoria said, just waking up.

“Not exactly.”

“What happened to your arm?” she asked.

“It’s a long story, believe me.”

 

We went to the hospital and they fixed up my arm. There wasn’t that much damage.

After I was fixed, I took out the ring and got on my knees.

“Oh my, Jeff…”

“I know, Vick, my arm is broken but that doesn’t matter. I made a promise that I would make the future as bright as possible and I would like to start here. Broken arm or not, I only have one question: Victoria Del Mundo,” I said as I opened the case. “Will you marry me?”

A smile instantly flashed across her face as she pulled me up for a hug. “Yes! Of course!”

 

I took her to my meeting spot with Simon and she was shocked to see everyone there.

“Congratulations, you guys!” Simon said, giving me a good old hug.

“Thanks, buddy.”

“Don’t mention it. How are you Victoria?”

“I’m great.”

“Alright, let’s get this party started!” Simon yelled as we went with him into the multipurpose hall.

 

On our way home, I passed by a pet store where I saw a puppy on display.

Andy… I remembered.

“Hey, do you want a pet?” I asked Vicky.

“Dog?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure. What made you decide all of a sudden?”

“I just have a feeling that this dog will be handy in the future.”

 

We bought the dog and brought him home. He was instantly a new part of the family.

When nightfall came, I stared out the window, thinking about my promise and how I was going to fulfill it.

I looked down and I saw the familiar streets of Makati City, bustling with business all around.

Commercial, crowded, or what have you, I’d rather have this reality any day. I thought as I marched back to bed with Victoria…