To Begin, First We Must...

A Chapter by R.L.Keeper

It was probably that horrifying sound of screeching tires and crunching metal that snapped her out of the deep sleep she’d been in, but that was the only thing she was sure of as blue eyes peered into the darkness around her. Her heart was pounding from the initial shock given by the sounds that still echoed around her like they had been put on repeat, and taking a long deep breath meant to calm herself down, the young woman placed a shaking hand over her chest, feeling the drumbeat under her finger tips. When just looking around didn’t seem to work, because there didn’t seem to be anything around for her to see, just darkness, the tired young woman moved to settle back down in what she assumed was her bed. However when groping for her bedding didn’t work, and she began to comprehend that she was not, in fact, safe and home in her bed, the deluded bubble of safety she’d maintained since waking popped quiet suddenly. Dropping her into a dark world full of sounds that left her jumpy and on edge and most certainly not in bed.
Looking around now, Evie could see she was definitely not in her bedroom, but rather somewhere with no light to speak of anywhere in sight. Or, perhaps, it wasn’t that it was dark, because now she thought about it, Evie could in fact see herself, but there was simply nothing there for her to see. Emptiness, rather than darkness. The confused young woman wasn’t sure which she preferred. Things could hide in darkness, sure, but if what she was seeing, or not seeing as the case may be, was an empty void, then how could she be there at all?
With a puzzled look on her face, Evie carefully pulled herself upright, noting how heavy her body felt and the lethargy of someone who’d either had too little, or too much sleep. Once she was on her feet, Evie glanced down at the darkness that made up the seemingly sturdy substance beneath her and bounced on the balls of her feet lightly to check to see if it would actually hold her weight. You could never be too careful with a place that was just black everywhere you looked. Because that’s all there was as far as she could see, despite the fact that she could see herself perfectly. From the tips of her black ballet flats, to her layered grey and blue top and the leggings and skirt in between; she could see it all perfectly, like she were standing under a spotlight. The sounds that had woken her, ones synonymous with a car crash, tore through the air around Evie again, making her jump and cover her ears. It just wouldn’t stop, no matter how she wished it would. This was a nightmare, it had to be.
“Stop it!” she cried out eventually after the fourth time the tires screeched around her. Only her throat hurt when she spoke and her voice sounded wrong, like she’d been asleep for a long time. The sounds didn’t do as she asked, though, continuing to screech around her over and over until the young woman was sobbing as she hunched over, coving her ears with her shaking hands. If only she knew why this was happening, where she was, or anything really. With little else she could do, Evie started walking forward, putting one foot in front of the other in an attempt to get away from the awful sounds that put her teeth on edge and her stomach flip every time they started again.
Unfortunately every step Evie took made the noises even louder, it got so bad that her eyes were squeezed closed, not really concerned with running into anything in such a barren, empty place. Which was exactly what she did. Evie’s head connected with something rather solid as she stumbled her way onward blindly, sending her backward a few paces and making her head throb where she’d hit it. Between the ceaseless nerve jarring sounds playing around her and the now thumping of her head, Evie wasn’t really ready to see a street sign standing resolute in front of her as though it belonged there. Especially a ‘wrong way go back’ street sign. Of all things. On the other hand, Evie was of a similar mind, the more she walked the louder the sounds of the crash were getting, so perhaps she really was going to the wrong way. It made a weird kind of sense. If you looked at it sideways.
Now she was paying attention to more than just the noise pounding away at her eardrums, Evie noticed the heaviness of the air around her, how the darkness seemed deeper here somehow, like there was something lurking in it’s depths. The whole area was far less inviting than the spot she had woken up in and in a place like the one she had found herself, Evie knew that was not a good sign. Even the hair on the back of her neck was standing on end, and now, the young woman wasn’t sure if it was the sounds playing around her at a deafening level that was the cause. Glancing back at the sign Evie grimaced as the crash track started over again for the umpteenth time, she nodded to herself and turned around, intent on making sure the sign was directly behind her. Someone else had different ideas, however, and the surprise almost made her hands leave her ears. Evie stared at the group of blinking arrow signs pointing her in the ‘right’ direction. The arrows all pointed in the direction Evie was sure she’d come and though the dubious young woman wasn’t comfortable with her entire situation she had a small smattering of hope that following the arrows would lead her away from her awful, and entirely too loud, soundtrack.

---

Evie wasn’t sure how long she’d been walking, but to her great relief, this time the spine chilling sounds that had been following her since waking in the oddly empty place had started to fade into the background. Like the last time she had set out into the darkness the confused young woman had no discernible way to tell one way from the other, in truth she could have been walking in circles and she would have had no way to tell other than the odd brightly coloured, often neon, arrows that pointed her in the correct direction. Where they were leading her and where they were coming from she had no clue, Evie just hoped it was towards somewhere nicer than the spot she’d woken in.
As she passed yet another blinking arrow sign, Evie eyed it curiously; they really did only appear when she wasn’t looking in the direction in which they appeared. She’d looked behind her once and strangely the ‘wrong way go back’ sign was still directly behind her, even though she’d passed a great many arrows pointing her along her invisible path. Looking forward again made Evie come to an abrupt stop for a second time, this time, instead of arrows, Evie was looking at a plain wooden table with a single matching chair placed beside it. Uncertain Evie moved closer, glancing around her warily as she did, though being very careful not to turn her head until she was right in front of the table and could place her hand on it. It was only then, with a hand gripping the edge of the wooden table top tightly, that the young woman surveyed the surrounding area, noting it’s lighter atmosphere, if not literally brighter. Indeed, she was still surrounded by the vast shadowy emptiness, but the feeling of oppression was vacant from the air here.
As there was nothing else to see for who knew how far, Evie focused back on the wooden table her hand was still gripping tightly. Only to find something that hadn’t been there before, it seemed, like everything else so far, a sleek black smart phone had appeared on the table while she wasn’t looking. Evie’s head tilted to the side as she eyed the device and the small square sticky note attached to the screen. ‘PLEASE SWITCH ON’, was all that was printed on the yellow square in blocky, and very neat letters.
Considering the phone for a brief moment as she removed the note, Evie had to wonder why there was a phone, let alone a table and chair, in a place that appeared to be empty of everything else. Well, other than gravity and air, both of which the young woman was grateful for. Turning the phone over in her hands, taking note of every detail she could, Evie hummed to herself as she eyed the brand symbol on the back. Some sort of stylised fiery ring, probably, that she didn’t recognise at all. Other than that, it was just a standard black smart phone that fit snugly into her hand. Knowing stalling any longer was just pointless, Evie pressed the side button she knew from experience was likely the one that would start the thing up. She was proven correct when the screen lit up with the same symbol on the back in a pale yellow that niggled at something in the back of her mind, but the logo was gone before the thought could fully form and it was lost again. The phone was proven to be fresh out of the box when Evie had to put in her user details to finish the boot-up, she had to wonder what the purpose of giving her a phone was. Her answer arrived in the form of a text message the moment she had finished the start up procedures. It seemed that someone wanted to communicate with her, just not in person. Because that was totally normal.
Evie’s brow rose when she opened the text up, the almost perpetual frown only grew deeper in her confusion;

‘WELCOME EVELINE ATLAS.
I APOLOGISE FOR NOT GREETING AND EXPLAINING YOUR SITUATION IN PERSON, BUT FOR NOW, THIS WILL HAVE TO DO.
FIRST AND FOREMOST, YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THAT THE PLACE YOU ARE IN IS NEITHER THE REALITY YOU KNOW, NOR IS IT THE PLACE BEYOND.
YOU ARE CURRENTLY…ON THE FENCE, AS IT WERE.’

Evie stared at the text for a good few minutes, trying to wrap her brain around the fact that she was in a place between…well…she wasn’t entirely clear on that. Life and death? At that thought the bottom dropped out of her stomach, was she dead? She didn’t think she felt dead, she didn’t remember dying, but did that prove anything really? She didn’t remember being born either, so who could say that you would remember dying after the fact. As no further text appeared to be impending Evie typed the words; ‘what does that mean? Am I dead?’ and then pressed send. Hopefully whoever was on the other end, because they were simply ‘unknown’ on the message screen, would see fit to answer her questions.
She wasn’t waiting long, the helpful ping alerting her to the reply and she scooped the phone off the table where she’d deposited it after taking a seat on the provided chair as she waited. Eyebrows shifted downward as she read the message, and the words ‘what the actual f**k’ may have been muttered quietly.

‘YOU ARE IN THIS PLACE BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT, THIS OPENED AN OPPORTUNITY TO BRING YOU HERE.’

Was the response sent to her. Ignoring the questions she had sent entirely which was rather irritating and left her with even more questions tumbling around her head. With a huff the young woman typed; ‘That wasn’t an answer. Why did you even need to bring me here?!!!’ making sure that her use of exclamation marks would get her displeasure across Evie pressed send. She wanted a proper answer and she was going to get one. As an after thought, she added in another text; ‘And what accident? Why can’t I remember it??’ for good measure. She then sat back and tried not to think about what being in such a place could mean in the long run for her. Rubbing the back of her neck and rolling her shoulders helped ease some of the tension keeping her on pins and needles as she waited for her next response. Though she was dubious about getting any answers.
By the time the next response came by way of the phone beeping at her again Evie’s knee had been jiggling unconsciously for some time and only stopped once the shrill tone was heard. A glance at the received text made Evie stare and then barely repress a groan in frustration. Still no answers.

‘YOU HAVE BEEN BROUGHT TO THE WALL BETWEEN WORLDS BECAUSE YOU HAVE…A CERTAIN QUALITY WITHIN YOU THAT I WOULD LIKE TO PRESERVE IF I CAN.
THERE HAVE BEEN OTHERS THAT I HAVE BROUGHT FORTH BEFORE YOU, EACH HAS BEEN GIVEN A CHOICE, AS YOU WILL BE SHORTLY.’

At this text Evie tapped the three horizontal lines in the upper right corner and added the number to contacts, naming them ‘N.A.E’ with a snort after only a moment of hesitation. If things changed and she started getting answers then maybe the name would change, but for now, it suited the situation. With this done Evie pulled up a memo pad, writing down the things she did know about her situation. It was a short list, but she could add to it as more information came to light. Once that was done Evie considered not responding, because what was the point? Of course, she was curious about this ‘choice’ she was going to be given, but was it even going to be worth it? Probably not, but it wasn’t like she had any real options other than to keep dealing with the irritating person on the other end. She had to wonder if the supposed ‘others’ who had also gone through this had also had problems getting answers from her apparent host. With a long suffering sigh, Evie relented, she just wanted to go home and huddle under the blankets piled on her bed for a few days. ‘Ugh. Fine. I’ll bite, what quality and what choice? There. Continue on like I didn’t reply at all…’ was her irritated response. To her surprise, the reply was almost instant, the shrill beep going off before she could even put the phone down.

‘WHAT MAKES YOU SPECIAL IS, AT THIS POINT IN THE CONVERSATION, IRRELEVANT.
THE CHOICE IS ALL THAT MATTERS AND IT IS SIMPLE, YET AN IMPORTANT ONE.
CONTINUE ON, TO THE DOOR AT THE END OF YOUR PATH, OR TURN BACK.
TO CONTINUE HAS CONSEQUENCES, AS DOES TURNING BACK, BUT THE CHOICE IS ULTIMATELY YOURS.’

Evie’s mouth had opened slightly at the almost answer at the beginning of the beginning of the text, but promptly snapped shut again at the vagueness of the rest. Apparently she, as a person, didn’t matter, just whatever ‘quality’ she had that needed ‘preserving’. Wonderful. She was going to end up a museum piece or something. This was just getting better and better. Why was this happening to her? Nothing that had happened since she had woken up in the darkness had made sense, but at least that awful noise had finally stopped following her.
Pondering what consequences they were even talking about, Evie looked around absently and was surprised when a light shining in the distance caught her eye. Before now there had been nothing to look at and now, a light. Evie had a hunch the light was in the direction of ‘onward’ and the darker, louder place was ‘turn back’. Yes, this entire thing was batty and stupidly vague, but what the young woman did know, was that she didn’t want to hear those noises again. So, logically, she would keep going, and deal with whatever happened as best as a relatively normal person randomly picked to deal with a vague texting weirdo could. She probably would have said ‘I hope I don’t regret this’, but that was likely the only thing she was certain of at that point.
Seeing as she wasn’t sure her host was actively watching her or not Evie sent; ‘Fine. Door it is. It’s too noisy back there anyway. TTL’ she snorted in amusement at the last part and pressed send. She could be annoying too, if she so chose. Evie was just too nice usually, this guy…or girl as the case may be…didn’t deserve ‘Nice Evie’, the vague dismissiveness had made sure of that.
Stepping forward, toward the light shining softly in the distance, Evie had a dubious and vaguely pessimistic hope that everything would be okay, even when she knew in her gut that nothing after this would ever be the same again.

---

It took a much shorter amount of time than Evie had expected it would to reach the source of light lighting her way forward. Turns out, it was an old iron street lamp one sees in older movies. Evie smiled up at it, reminded of nights curled up on the couch with her mother, a bowl of popcorn between them as they watched old movies. A single reminder of what was waiting for her back home. She needed to get out of there, her mother must have been beside herself if she’d had an accident and then just disappeared after all. Evie’s mother hadn’t been the same since the death of her own elderly mother, Rose, had passed early the year before. Now days, there was rarely a day that passed that Evie and her mother didn’t communicate at least once, if only to say goodnight at the end of a long day.
Looking away from the street lamp, Evie focused on the ‘supposed’ reason she was there. Her eyebrow twitched at the anomaly of seeing a door without a wall. It just...bugged her. There should have been a wall there, but there wasn’t and it was wrong. It wasn’t even all that special looking, just a normal red door that appeared a bit Asian in design. With an irritated huff, Evie walked closer to the offending object, edging around the door, without getting too close, to see what was behind it and...Oh...A chill slithered up Evie’s spine as she swallowed whatever embarrassing scared noise was trying to claw it’s way out of her throat.
On the other side of the door, was, well, nothing. There didn’t appear to be an other side of the door, which was ever wronger, and that wasn’t even a word. It didn’t make sense and made her stomach knot up just thinking about it, but all Evie could see as she gazed at the space where the other side of the red door should have been was simply empty space. Literally. It was almost like there was a black hole there in it’s place as the light from the street lamp seemed to bend around it, like light tended to in movies and on the telly whenever one was involved. Shifting further behind it, Evie blanched, the lamp post was bending around it too. She was standing in front of a black hole. Or at least something like one. She wasn’t getting sucked in, so the officially freaked out young woman could only guess at what she was seeing. The sudden and unexpected shrill beeping of her new phone was enough to send a scream hurtling out of Evie’s throat before she clawed the phone from the pocket of her dark grey cardigan with shaking hands.

‘PLEASE RETURN TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR, MISS ATLAS.’

Was all that was said in the text. That was all the invitation that Evie needed to move as quickly as she dared while skirting around a phenomenon she didn’t understand in the slightest. Of course, she also could have said that about the entire experience thus far. In the end it didn’t matter, as long as the door didn’t open up into the black hole-thing behind it, Evie would deal. Or not. Preferably not.
Now standing back on the right side of the door without a wall and no back, Evie went to send a confirmation to N.A.E, but stopped as a new text came through before she could.

‘I THANK YOU FOR YOUR BRAVERY.
EVEN KNOWING THAT THERE WILL BE EVENTUAL CONSEQUENCES YOU STILL PUSHED ONWARD.
YOU WILL NEED THAT FOR WHAT LIES AHEAD.
IT NEEDS TO BE SAID, THAT CONTINUING ON THIS PATH MAY NOT LEAD YOU WHERE YOU THINK IT WILL.
NEEDLESS TO SAY, IT WILL PROBABLY BE DANGEROUS AT TIMES, BUT I HAVE FULL CONFIDENCE THAT YOU WILL OVERCOME ALL OBSTACLES SET BEFORE YOU.
IF AND WHEN YOU FEEL READY, PLEASE STEP FORWARD THROUGH THE DOOR.’

Evie was frowning down at the phone in her hand by the time she was finished reading the text. What on earth did that all mean? And why would going home be dangerous. That twigged at something and Evie quickly scrolled up to look back at the texts from earlier. Never had her going home been mentioned. She’d just assumed that was where she was headed to, which was absurd, now she thought about it. The young woman had been given no indication that this would be the case ofter all, and with a frustrated growl Evie almost threw the phone away. She didn’t though, it was the only way to communicate with her captor and who knew what would happen if she lost the stupid thing in the place she’d been trapped. Forward or back. Those were her choices, as they’d been back at the table, only now, Evie was a hell of a lot more scared. It did, however, remind her of a quote she’d once read and while she couldn’t remember the exact words the meaning was fairly straight forward; ‘being brave is being scared and doing a thing anyway’.
With this in mind, Evie took a deep breath and stepped up to the bright red door, fear and curiosity mingling together to almost make her feel sick. Though not as sick as she’d felt upon looking at the non-existent other side of said door. Hesitating before turning the large brass handle, Evie typed out a small question that she needed to. Even though she knew there would be no proper reply; ‘What’s on the other side?’ Her answer was almost instantaneous, as though they’d been waiting for her to ask. She wouldn’t have been surprised at all if they had.

‘A DESTINY WAITING TO BE CLAIMED.’

Evie very nearly rolled her eyes at the corniness of it all. Of course that was what they would say, how better to remain vague and make her want to find out for herself. Add the word ‘destiny’ to something and people start to feel special. Evie hated to admit it, but it was working. With one last glance at the street lamp of her favourite childhood movies, Evie turned the nob and opened the red door. Only to be blinded by a light brighter than any she’d ever encountered before. It made sense, in a way, that the inside was blinding and the other side of it seemed to swallow light.
Evie was just stepping into the light when the phone still in her hand beeped, there was a new message? Squinting in the light Evie struggled to read the short message, she was distracted, however, when her foot didn’t connect with the ground where it should have. In that split second before she realised she was falling, Evie read her last message from N.A.E;

‘DO WATCH THE STEP, MISS ATLAS’