The Dungeon

She looked briefly at her reflection in the gently running stream. A few of her dark braids touched her shoulders and she shook her head to set them in line. She looked up at her surroundings: it was a cool, dreary day; a densely clouded sky with a soft, intermittent breeze blowing. Her horse was drinking from the stream nearby, cherishing every mouthful of cold water. Several great trees grew on the banks of the stream, their roots twisting around and touching its waters, framing the winding serpent. Their branches were filled with deep green leaves lilting in the breeze. She watched as each leaf danced and fluttered like a communion of green butterflies.

It was close. It had to be.

She called to her horse and led the animal away from the stream and back up the grassy bank. She rode several miles more across the rolling green fields, broken every now and then with small groves. She heard the disjointed songs of birds as she passed these outposts of greenery, but she could not take the time to cherish their music. Her destination was at hand. She soon came to the crest of a hill overlooking yet another of these glades, yet this one seemed special. It was solemn, like a small fortress. It was guarding something. She squinted. Sure enough, at the center of the grove, tangled amidst vines and leaves and scrub, was an unnatural hint of gray. She had found it. Finally, she had found it. Wasting no time, she spurred her horse onward down the hillside.

When she was upon the grove, she came to a stop and dropped off the side of her horse and led her faithful companion into the shelter of the glade. There, directly before her was nestled a plain-looking rectangular gray stone structure. It was not large or impressive, and could almost be mistaken as a natural part of the earth, so entangled and enwrapped in grass and vine and root. It was worn and run-down, forgotten and old beyond time. She stroked the horse’s neck and gave the noble animal a pat before moving towards the structure. At the stone edifice’s base, nearly invisible until one was right upon it, was an opening; a dark, narrow crevice that revealed a set of worn stone steps that led deep into the earth beneath the structure. Her heart pounded with excitement. She cleared the brush and vines away from the opening and stared down into the murky darkness, one hand grasping her knife to be sure it was there, ready for swift use if need be. She went back to the horse and retrieved a torch enwrapped in cloth from her baggage. After proceeding back to the structure, she lit the torch and held it aloft. With a breath, she began descending down the stairs.

The passage was long and narrow. An earthy smell that she could almost taste abided from deep within the catacomb. Vines and moss clung and enwrapped the stone walls at her sides, the lantern’s light frightening small black things that scurried away into moist, musty cracks. Soon these vines ceased their meddling and gave way to undisturbed, yet still worn, stone walls and steps. She was near the bottom. Finally, after the pale daylight from above was long behind her, she reached the bottom of the stairs, which opened on a long corridor. She moved her torch around in a circle, noting the ancient stone walls made with brick on top of massive brick. Carefully and slowly she moved forward, her torch flickering before her in her left hand, her right hand pensively on her sheathed knife at her waist.

Soon she came to a wall straight ahead and a fork in the passage. Two more identical corridors extended to her left and right into the darkness. Despite the worn stone, the complex was perfectly angular and neatly-constructed. She looked down each passage, but both were the same to her. She chose the left route and made her way deeper into the dungeon.

The passage was the same as the last and soon another fork, identical to the last. She went right this time until she came upon another corridor to her left branching off from the one she was following. She moved down it and slinked deeper into the depths until the passage made a sharp right turn. She followed it more, her heart thumping, sweat forming on the back of her neck.

She stopped suddenly. Dead end. The passage ended in a featureless wall the same as any other in the place. She examined the wall carefully but found nothing. She had to turn back. Slowly, she made her way back to the long corridor she had originally come from. When she reached it, she turned left and continued on her way. Soon enough there was another fork. Left or right. She chose left and very quickly came to yet another fork. Left or right. Left again. The clopping of her footsteps on the hard stone. Another sharp right and then…

She quickly unsheathed her knife in a flash. An unsettling shuffling creeped towards her from the darkness just beyond her torchlight. She steadied herself and held her knife before her, ready to strike. A mess of round glowing eyes and then a terrible “SCREE!” as a gigantic, pale arachnid lunged at her. She quickly jumped back and thrust her knife forward into the underside of the creature’s head. It squirmed and screeched horribly, slashing its many limbs out in every direction. One of them scratched her cheek. She quickly withdrew her knife from the beast’s head and sliced at the offending leg, slicing it clean off. The creature crumpled to the floor in agony, its fangs dripping and gnashing. She raised her knife high in the air with both hands and landed it deep in the monster’s head. The spider writhed and screeched and then slowly twitched its last as it went limp, rolled over, and curled its remaining legs inward. Panting, she wiped her knife of the beast’s white blood and sheathed it. Queerly, the creature began to quiver and bubble and then before her eyes it seemed to melt away into the floor, leaving behind an acrid-smelling stain. She carefully moved beyond this residue and soon enough discovered what the beast had been guarding.

There, at the end of the corridor before another plain wall, was a worn-looking wooden chest, half-draped in dust and dirt. Grinning, she bent before the container and placed her hands upon its lid. She hesitated for a moment and then gave it a try. To her delight, the chest opened with relative ease and she gazed at the bounty revealed within.

Sam’s Night Out

Samantha sat in the field of flowers. They surrounded her, enveloped her. Yellows and blues and greens and purples and pinks to her heart’s delight. She felt so fine in her purple dress. Her tangled blonde hair rose slightly in a light breeze and she hummed softly to herself. The flower fields extended far, far off to the horizon in every direction, touching huge, bulbous white clouds that arched and rose and breathed and sighed and laughed…and cried. The blue sky dimmed to gray and the rain began to pour. Samantha was soaked, and the flowers drooped and wept. The thunder boomed-

---

Sam jolted awake. The sun was bright and piercing. She blinked and straightened herself. She looked around and yawned. Oh no, did she seriously pass out on a park bench? She probably looked like a hobo. She looked at her phone. 2:34. Still not too late. She stuck her hands in her parka pockets. It was a comfy thing; a nice light shade of gray and perfect for the sort of early spring day that still had a bit of the lingering chill of winter. The warm sun certainly helped with that as well though. She sat there staring at a tree for about three minutes when suddenly a girl sat down on the bench next to her. Sam straightened up a bit, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

She chanced a sideways glance to her left at her new bench-mate. The girl seemed to be around her age, maybe a bit younger, maybe a bit older, but undoubtedly some kind of twenty-something. She had a slender neck and short black hair that was slightly messy and jagged. There was a cool-looking purple tattoo on the side of her neck just below her hair; some kind of squiggly mark Sam couldn’t quite make out. She had circular black earrings in her ears that glittered in the sunlight and a black leather jacket on. Sam glanced away, not wanting to risk drawing any attention to herself.

“Nice day, eh?” the girl said.

“Uhn?” was the muffled garble that escaped from Sam’s surprised mouth. “Uh, uh…ye-yeah. Yeah.”

She looked directly at the girl now and managed an awkward little smile before looking away. Oh boy, she thought. How do I get out of this one? I don’t want to just get up and walk away and be rude…not that I necessarily don’t want to talk to her or anything, it’s just that I don’t know-

“So you live around here?” the girl said.

“Bum,” Sam replied. Bum? BUM?! What the hell was that?! “Uh, n-not exactly. I’m actually visiting my aunt. I’m kind of…getting away from stuff for a bit.”

“Oh, groovy,” the girl replied. “By the way, I like your bracelet.”

Sam instinctively put her hand over her bracelet. It was golden-colored and had some kind of spherical blue gem inlaid in a diamond-shaped socket.

“Oh, uh, thanks. It’s just a cheap thing I’ve had for ages...” She grinned just a little bit.

“It matches your hair.” The girl turned and looked at Sam now. She held out her hand. “I’m Alex,” she said with a smile.

Sam glanced at her hand, then her brown eyes, then her hand, then: “Sam.” She took the hand and quickly let go in the world’s most pathetic handshake.

Silence.

Then: “So, uh, do you live around here?” Sam said.

“Uh, kinda. You might say that,” Alex said with a slight smirk.

Ooook, whatever that means.

“Hey, listen, Sam, do you like music?”

“Um, yeah, sure,” Sam said bleakly.

“Hey that’s cool. Well you’re new in town though, right? I just ask because some friends of mine and I are going to this thing tonight at the New Haven Bar. Heard of it?”

“Uh, no…”

“Of course you haven’t. Well, I’m sure your phone has a GPS or something, right? Anyway, you should stop by. Nine o’clock, K?”

Alex turned and smiled at Sam before getting up and walking away. Sam, who hadn’t managed to give a proper response to the invitation, watched as the tall, dark-haired girl joined a young man who was idling by a tree. The two began talking and walked until they disappeared around a bend.

Uh…did I just get hit on or something? Is the guy interested in me? Sam wasn’t sure what to think, but her heart was pounding.

---

Sam trotted down the street, trying not to bash into anybody as she went from glancing at her phone to looking up at street signs. She was still getting used to finding her way around the city, but she saw it as a fun challenge. Let’s see here, it should be…maybe I shouldn’t be going to this. I don’t even know this girl. What if she’s just trying to set me up with that guy? What if-ah, here’s the street. Suddenly Sam’s heart was pounding again as the nerves kicked in.

She was wearing a yellow coat with a blue blouse underneath. It had gotten quite a bit colder since night had fallen. She looked down at her jeans and black boots. She checked her blue bobble earrings. I look fine. It’s fine, she thought as she used her camera’s selfie function to check her makeup and her freckles. Whatever. Who am I tryna impress anyway? Oh shit, there it is. Dammit. What am I doing?

A small wooden sign was hanging over the sidewalk just up ahead that read “New Haven Tavern”. She slowly inched up to the building and spotted a flyer posted on the window that read something to the effect of “TONIGHT: PASCAL AND SHADOWS/THE CREAKIN’ CANOES…$5 Cover!!!” What kind of name is “The Creakin’ Canoes”? Guess that’s the “thing” Alex mentioned. She peeked through the window and tried to see if she could spot the girl she had just met around six hours ago, but no luck. She sighed and took a deep breath, putting her phone away and brushing her coat.

Dammit, I look like a sunflower. I’m probably gonna be so out of place in this…place. Ok, just walk through the door, Sam. Just do it. Dive in the pool.

As she approached the front door, it burst open and a guy and a girl came out laughing and stumbling as a warbling voice and the sound of an acoustic guitar came wafting into the street. Jeez, it’s not even nine o’clock yet. Sam grabbed the door before it closed again and entered the bar.

The place was actually pretty cozy; dimly lit, a few tables here and there and some booths further back, not too big. There was a small stage in one corner, upon which a young man with long dirty-blonde hair that covered his eyes was strumming on an acoustic guitar and singing about seagulls or something while another guy on drums backed him up. Sam stood awkwardly in the entranceway waiting for something to happen, suddenly deeply regretting her decision to come here. She looked around but didn’t spot Alex. Will I even be able to recognize her?

“Uh, excuse me,” a bald guy in a black shirt was trying to get her attention to her left. “Oh, right,” she said and handed him five dollars.

“Your ID?” he said.

“Oh, yeah, yeah…” She fumbled around for her driver’s license and suddenly got very hot in the face. I haven’t been to a bar in like three years… The guy looked inquisitively at her ID for what seemed like far too long and then handed it back to her.

“Thannk-you,” he said and stamped her hand. She slinked over to the bar, got the cheapest beer on offer, and found an empty table. Luckily the place wasn’t that crowded. She looked around and still no sign of Alex anywhere. She overheard a guy behind her ask if the two guys playing right now were the Creakin’ Canoes or the other people, and a girl answer that she didn’t know. Some more people entered as the Creakin’ Canoes or whoever kept creakin’ on and settled around her and at the bar. Soon enough the band finished playing, said thank-you, and walked off. Maybe thirty minutes had passed since she’d gotten there, and she was really milking that last fraction of beer at the bottom of the glass. A young, burly-looking guy was now setting up a new set of drums on the stage.

Soon enough the stage was empty again except for a drum set, a microphone stand, and a small stool. The same guy who had checked her ID and stamped her hand got on the stage. “All right, folks, we got one more group for you tonight. Give it up for Pascal and Shadows.”

Some half-hearted applause here and there as three people came from somewhere further back in the bar and got up on stage. Sam’s heart leaped into her throat. There she was, Alex, though Sam had to do a double-take to be sure. She had ditched the leather jacket and black pants for a gorgeous but modest purple dress that reached her knees and high black boots with like a million laces. Sam couldn’t help but notice a second tattoo, this one much larger, that snaked up the right side of her bare right leg, the same shade of purple as the one on her neck and what looked like a similar design. She was wearing little black triangle earrings and her hair was all messy and cool-looking. Her purple eye-shadow and subtle pink lipstick were the things that drew Sam’s attention the most though. Sam suddenly found herself sinking in her chair and gulping down the rest of her beer in one go as Alex stepped up to the microphone.

“Hey there. I’m Pascal, and these…” she indicated the two young guys who had gotten on the stage with her, one with an electric guitar and the other, the burly guy from before, on drums. Sam recognized the one on guitar as the young guy Alex had been talking to earlier. Maybe her boyfriend or something…? “…are my Shadows,” Alex finished, and then to Sam’s shock belted out: “ONE TWO THREE FOUR!” and dove headfirst into an eruption of impassioned singing, as the guy on guitar shredded away and the guy on drums went nuts.

Sam felt sweat gathering under her armpits. Alex’s singing was like a knife gutting her heart…but in the best way possible. She felt lightheaded. She wasn’t even listening to the words, just the tone of Alex’s voice as she swayed and moved around the stage screaming into the microphone…the best kind of screaming.

The bar felt like it had come alive. People were suddenly paying attention, and a young couple had gotten up to start dancing. The song came to an end and Alex turned around to take a breath and drink some water from a bottle she had placed on the stool behind her. “Thank-you,” she said, and then to Sam’s horror, her eyes suddenly glanced directly at herself. It was only for a moment, but she knew that she was no longer invisible. She’d been noticed. There was no escaping this now, oh God. “Thank-you. This next song is a little different. Hope you like it.” Alex looked down at the floor for a moment before looking up and beginning with a much slower, more somber tune, and her voice took on a new tone of beauty, but one no less impassioned.

Alex and her “shadows” sang maybe two more songs after that and then it was over, but by that point, the bar had gotten quite populated and people were now talking and laughing loudly. Sam felt a pit inside her and thought about escaping to the bathroom. She escaped to the bar instead. Alex and the others had disappeared back behind the stage somewhere with their instruments.

“Five dollars!” a voice behind Sam yelled. She turned, startled, and took the beer, spilling at least half of it on herself in the process, and hurriedly shuffled the cash toward the redhead tending the bar. She turned around and sipped her beer; actually it was more like “glugged” her beer. Yeah, she took a big glug.

She just stood there as people chatted loudly every which way and felt herself suddenly feeling very small. She turned back towards the bar and hoped that her armpits weren’t as sweaty as she feared they were. She fixed her hair, which she just knew was sticking up and frayed all over the place. She-

“Hey! Sam! I’m so glad you came!” Sam jolted and spun to her right. Alex was there. Purple dress. Bare arms showing. Purple eye-shadow.

“Uh…” Sam said. “Uh, yeah! Hey!” She glanced at the two young men at Alex’s side.

“Oh yeah,” Alex said. “These are the friends I was talking about. Rich,” she thumbed back at the guy on her right, the drummer. “…and Rob.” She jovially threw an arm around the guy on her left’s shoulder. It was the guy from before, the one who had been on guitar. The two young men and Sam exchanged the “Heys” and “Hey, how are yas” and “Nice to meetchas” and then Alex and the other two got some drinks and the four of them headed to a booth in the shadows of the bar.

“So you didn’t tell me that you were the thing going on here tonight,” Sam said.

Alex shrugged, “Yeah, well, ya know, surprise! Alex Pascal, at your service. So what’d you think?”

“Oh, uh,” Sam felt herself getting hot again. “You were good. Yeah. Really good.”

“Hey thanks, I’m glad you think so.” Sam took a gulp of her beer. “Hey cool, we kind of match tonight!” Alex said and pointed to Sam’s blue blouse.

“I kind of match your tattoos actually,” Sam said, and then suddenly felt extremely embarrassed at how awkward that sounded.

Rob let out a little snicker and Alex elbowed him. “So ya noticed, huh?” She turned her head so Sam got a good look at the one on her neck. It was an ornate, calligraphic design that made Sam think of wind. “There’s not really a deep meaning here, if you’re wondering. I just liked the design. Same with the one on my leg. I got them the same day.”

Sam nodded stupidly. “Cool,” she said and buried herself in her beer.

“So Alex said you’re visiting your aunt?” Rob said. “Are you on vacation or something?”

Sam looked away and smirked. “Heh, not exactly.” How do I dodge this? “Hey, I saw you earlier in the park with Alex,” She glanced between the two of them. “…so uh, are you guys, like, a couple?”

Rob laughed. Sam sipped her beer and looked at Alex nervously. Her heart was thumping. “Nope!” Alex said. “I’m totally gay!”

Sam felt her stomach leap. “Oh, uh…” she said. “So, uh, am I actually.”

“I know,” Alex said with a smile.

Am I that obvious? “So, um, how long have you guys been a band?” Sam managed.

Sam became more comfortable the more she hung out with Alex and her friends, and she eventually decided that it hadn’t been such a bad idea to come here after all. Perhaps it had something to do with Alex doing most of the talking or most likely it was just the alcohol. The four of them chatted for over an hour, though Sam was quiet much of the time and Rich barely said a word, before heading out of the bar. Alex was wearing her leather jacket over her dress and the boys had grabbed their coats as well. Rob had his guitar case slung over his shoulder and Rich was carrying his set of drums in a large bag that Sam had no idea how he managed to carry so easily.

“Hey so this was fun,” Alex said as they walked.

Sam smiled. “Yeah, uh, thanks for inviting me.”

“Hey no problem. But listen, Sam…”

“Ye-yeah?”

“Next time we hang out, you’re gonna have to tell us all about your mysterious and treacherous past, K?”

“Oh, uh, yeah…maybe…”

Alex chuckled and gave Sam a little shove. “I’m just messin’ with ya. We have another show next weekend, but in the meantime let’s exchange numbers.”

They did.

“Well, here’s us,” Alex said, pointing to the subway entrance. “You know how to get back to your aunt’s from here, Sam?”

“Yeah, I think so. It’s actually close by, so I can just walk there. I’ll be fine.”

“Great! Listen, Sam,” she looked Sam in the eye now and Sam felt a little rush to her head. “I’ll be seein’ ya.” And with that she gave a little wave and the three of them disappeared down the stairs.

Sam turned down the street and smiled. She walked a little bit forward without really thinking of anything at all, before suddenly realizing that she had no idea where she was. Oh crap. She dug around in her pocket for her phone and proceeded to fumble through a disorganized list of apps looking for the GPS.

---

Alex sat in the subway train with her legs crossed, one of them bouncing up and down slightly. Rich sat to her right, staring at the ceiling, and Rob to her left, looking at the floor, his hands grasped, seemingly deep in thought. Suddenly, he looked up. “Think she suspects anything?”

“I don’t know…probably not,” Alex said.

“Are you sure she’s the one?” Rich said to her right, still gazing at the ceiling of the rattling subway car.

“Oh yeah,” Alex said. “It’s definitely her.”

The Cave

By Nathan Smith

Sally ran through the rain. It saturated her clothes and chilled her skin. She needed to find shelter. The fields stretched out all around her for miles, broken occasionally by small thickets of trees. She had tried hiding under the trees, but the rain cut right through their thin branches. She came to a line of trees and shrubs and after carefully passing through them to the other side of the field, she saw a large rock sitting a few yards away with a dark opening at its base. It was a cave.

Sally darted towards the cave, happy to find some relief from the downpour. Upon reaching it, she quickly huddled inside, shaking and rubbing her arms, trying to warm herself. She looked ahead of her into the blackness of the cave, which seemed to extend deeper than she would have guessed. She moved to the cool, rocky wall and sat down, huddled up with her arms around her legs. Shuddering, she rested her head on her knees and closed her eyes, listening to the seemingly endless stream of droplets cascading just a few feet away outside the cave’s arched entranceway.

She wasn’t sure if she’d slept, but she must have nodded off somewhat. She found herself rousing from some kind of slumber to the familiar sound of rainfall, still resounding just as fiercely as before in the outside world. She was still damp, but not as cold as before. She stood up and watched the rain for a moment, before turning around and staring into the yawning darkness before her. Removing a small flashlight from her pocket and shining it ahead revealed that the cave seemed to extend several feet inward. As she moved a bit further into its domain, she realized that it began to dip downward. Moving even further she realized she was moving at a steady decline down beneath the earth. Not wanting to brave the baleful rain again, she decided to continue moving forward, unsure of what lay ahead.

The cave was a fairly even, narrow passageway. As Sally walked, somewhere behind and above her she could still faintly make out the echoing patter of the rainfall. It was warmer in the cave. The passage seemed to extend miles beneath the surface, but she really had no idea if that were true or not.

After some time, the sound of the rain ceased altogether and Sally was left with only the soft pattering of her footsteps. The cave dipped further and further downward and didn’t seem to have an end in sight. But then something strange happened. It was almost imperceptible in the dull sameness of the cave, and Sally wasn’t sure exactly when it had begun, but she happened to suddenly notice that she wasn’t walking downward anymore, but instead was noticeably heading upwards. The cave looked the same, but now the path was on a steady incline. What a peculiar thing, she thought, a path through the earth, dug out in such a neat and tidy way. She kept walking, upward now, for what seemed like miles more (but probably a lot less than that) until finally she began to perceive sound, quiet at first, but then unmistakable. But it wasn’t rain. It was simply fresh air, swirling about, somewhere ahead. And soon, she saw a misty light ahead. Not long after, she switched off her flashlight.

Reaching the opposite mouth of the cave, which looked identical to the one through which she had entered, Sally emerged in a grassy field, but one quite unlike the one at the opposite end. The rain seemed to have stopped, but the sky was overcast and a thin mist permeated the ground. Tall pine trees surrounded the field and a medium-sized pond with perfectly still, glassy water was nestled in the glades not far off. The most arresting feature of the landscape however was an imposing gray castle far off in the distant hills that overlooked the scene. It was built upward, almost like a tower, with turrets and battlements that appeared to be stacked on top of each other instead of aside one another. A cool breeze sailed across the tall green grass and sent the mist into swirls. Sally shivered, remembering the water still residing in her damp clothes, but she was thankful the downpour had ceased.

But had it? She had the vaguest feeling of something being off. It was this strange feeling of being displaced somehow, like she wasn’t where she ought to be. She had little time to think about this phenomenon though for she was suddenly distracted by a great flapping noise somewhere in the distance. She fixed her eyes toward the distant hills and the great castle-tower. As the flapping intensified, she soon saw a dark shape moving over the horizon.

The shape was small and indistinguishable at first but with each great booming flap, its features became clearer. It was certainly large and undeniably the source of the noise. As it approached, Sally realized that more specifically two great bat-like wings rhythmically moving up and down was the dreadful cause. A long tail swayed and danced through the sky behind the flying thing and soon sharp claws and a fat, black, scaly body began to be defined. The creature was sailing directly towards her and she cowered back into the cave in fright, huddling just at the point where the passage began to dip downward, waiting, watching. The beast was so close now that she lost sight of it entirely and the sound of its beating wings was so loud, they blotted out all sound. But then the flapping began to slow and Sally watched in horror as some immense monster landed with a thud directly outside the cave’s entrance, its dark shape blotting out all light. She crouched in deep fear, breathing as silently as she could. All was darkness.

And then an immense set of sharp teeth that glowed bright white in the darkness and seemed to fill the cave’s entire entranceway appeared. Sally couldn’t be sure, but the set of teeth seemed to be grinning malevolently at her. She had seen enough. Stumbling to her feet, she darted back into the cave passageway, downward and downward, back the way she had come.

Soon she stopped to catch her breath and upon doing so realized that nothing was chasing her and she seemed to be quite safe. She waited a moment and then switched her flashlight on. There was nothing behind her and ahead of her the underground passway extended downward. She tried to wipe the memory of those awful grinning teeth away and pressed onward. She would take the rain, she thought.

After walking for some time, she once again felt herself moving upward, and once again couldn’t tell exactly when the shift had occurred. It was uncanny, almost like the passageway was fluid somehow, that it morphed to her steps and changed in a way that was simply unperceivable to her. As she walked further and further upward, she strained her ears for the sound of rain, but she heard nothing. Instead, she soon began to hear the sound of fresh air again, and began to feel it as well. It was chilly. This time daylight didn’t loom ahead, but a much paler light instead. Sally reached the other entrance of the cave soon enough and stumbled slightly, for she had barely taken three steps out of the cave’s mouth when she literally could not walk a single step more.

She was standing not in a grassy field, but on a small, rocky outcropping at some impossible height above an ocean of thick, bubbly silver-white clouds. And instead of a gloomy, cloudy daytime sky pouring water onto the world, an unfathomably beautiful starry night sky loomed overhead and all around. The stars were so many, in the billions and billions, that she could see perfectly, even with no moon in sight. She turned around and looked up at a sheer rock wall that extended upwards into the heavens with no end in sight. To her left and right, what appeared to be some immense mountainside extended beyond eyesight. A chilling gale suddenly overtook her and she stepped backward in a hurry, clutching for the inner wall of the cave for fear she might fall. She felt herself slide the cave’s floor. She needed to rest.

She sat watching the stars there for several minutes, almost in a daze, before a single shooting star cut through the sky in a white gleam and brought her back to her senses. She stood up, took one last look at the nightscape high above the clouds, and then turned back towards the cave. She descended into its darkness, apprehensive yet also curious as to what would be waiting on the opposite end.

The cave’s dark interior had not changed and Sally’s little flashlight lit the way. Soon the descent subtly turned into an ascent, once again without her noticing how or when the turnover had occurred, and eventually an even colder air overtook her than the one atop the cliff. She reached the opposite entrance and stepped out upon a miraculous vision.

A perfectly flat and seemingly endless white tundra stretched before her in all directions, only broken here and there by slender, featureless trees, their tiny branches barren and black. But the landscape was secondary to what she noticed first: a colossal crescent moon that took up half the sky dominated the vista, a thin silver sickle that touched the horizon and arced into the heavens. The pearly ground shimmered in a trillion tiny sparkles beneath the crescent’s all-encompassing glow. The sky around the moon was deep dark azure and dotted with tiny white stars. But the sky was not entirely clear; bizarre, jagged clouds that appeared to be made of frost hung low in the sky, complementing the entire strange scene.

Hypnotized by the fantastical frozen landscape, Sally almost paid no attention to a distant thudding sound somewhere far to her right. Soft at first, it soon became a very noticeable “clomping” that echoed around the empty world. She peered into the distance, but she didn’t have to strain too hard as the flat land did not hold many secrets. A figure, tall and glowing in the moonlight, was moving towards her at a steady pace. Shrinking back towards the cave, she waited in its shadow, breathless, as the clomping got louder and louder, until it was right outside the cave, and then…

Sally was awestruck. A massive, gleaming white horse that looked as large as an elephant trotted placidly into view. It stopped just outside the cave, lowering its head and nudging the thin layer of snow on the ground. Its mane flowed and shimmered in downy waves in the night air and its tail was long and sleek. Its eyes were silver, almost the same color as the moon. It shuffled its massive hooves and huffed. Then, to Sally’s shock, its large silver eye seemed to focus on her. The horse lifted its head and for a moment the little girl and the great white beast stared at one another, both completely still. A moment later, the horse seemed to lose interest in the girl and with another idle huff it resumed its calm moonlit stroll through the tundra. As the sound of its hooves grew fainter and fainter, far, far off in the distance another white horse idled on the horizon, and from such a distance it was impossible to tell how large it really was.

As Sally watched this distant second horse, a soft, delicate snowfall began to trickle down from the frozen clouds, creating hundreds of isolated little squalls of snowflakes that twinkled in the moon-glow across the land. Although taken aback by the beauty of it all, Sally knew she wouldn’t survive long in this land. It was cold, of course, but not as cold as one might think; it was mainly that the barren landscape showed no signs of harboring any kind of respite. She could walk for miles and miles and find nothing. Keeping this majestic land in her thoughts, she turned back to the cave.

She wondered what strange sight she would see next as she walked through the lonely dark passage. Somewhere behind this thought, another thought lingered, but she couldn’t quite place it.

It was silent as she ascended the opposite end of the caveway. The cave had always been quiet, but this silence was different. It was more noticeable, more palpable. She could feel it. A murky light was ahead and Sally curiously felt herself more excited than frightened.

She slowly emerged from the cave’s entranceway and found herself standing on a rocky ledge deep beneath the ocean, except miraculously she could breath and didn’t feel as though she were in water at all. The quiet world around her was an infinite abyss of beautiful jade that stretched upwards and outwards and even far below. Entrancing, shifting luminescent shapes of white and gold drifted through the water, seeming to fade in and out of existence in the watery expanse. Then, gigantic rotating structures began to slowly rise from the depths, twisting and tying and forming together before her eyes, their rainbow colors constantly changing. They looked like some kind of gigantic coral that spun and danced with the phasing shapes. The myriad colors turned the jade sea into a world of shifting rainbow. Hypnotized by the deep-sea light show, Sally found herself moving towards the edge of the precipice she was standing on, and in so doing caught a hint of her own reflection directly before her. Puzzled, she slowly reached out her hand and her fingers grazed a soft, smooth texture. Looking all around her now, she realized the trick: she was standing in some kind of gigantic bubble that had latched itself onto the entrance of the cave. She noticed more giant bubbles now, floating timelessly out there in the water; globes of purple and red and green that were like deep-sea disco balls amongst the twisting coral and drifting shapes.

Suddenly a low beat began to resound from somewhere deep below. It thumped in rhythm and got louder and louder until a strange platform that looked like a giant white shell that was supported by the twisted coral rose from the depths in the middle of the scene. A lone human-shaped figure was standing on it, its back turned to Sally. The beat slowed and grew fainter and fainter, until it ceased altogether.

Then, all at once the beat picked up and the lights began pulsating as the figure briskly turned around. It was tall, slender, and white as a pearl, with a scaly fish for a head and bulging white eyes. It bounced its knee to the pounding rhythm, and then, raising a microphone that appeared to be made of coral and a giant pearl to its large mouth, it began to sing in a warped, warbling tone. It moved its hips and its other hand and soon began doing a strange dance where it bent its limbs in ways that reminded Sally of a rubber band. The creature moved up and down the platform, dancing and singing its gurgling song. The lights flashed, the sourceless backbeat resounded through the water and made Sally’s giant bubble enclosure vibrate, and although Sally had no idea what was going on, she found herself closing her eyes and moving to the beat.

As she opened her eyes and smiled, doing a little dance to the surprise undersea concert, she suddenly jumped back a little as two colossal scaly appendages rose into view followed by two great creatures that encircled and swam in a spiral around two of the great coral stalks on either side of the central platform. The creatures then spun around the singing, dancing fish-person before slowing, when Sally saw that they were gigantic sea serpents of some kind, with glowing white fins that fluttered in the water and silver scales. Numerous long, thin tendrils emanated from their heads, which were dotted with what seemed like dozens of tiny white pearls that must have been the creatures’ eyes. The two creatures spun around the performer again, which was now bouncing up and down on one hand and belting out loud, warbling gurgles into its “microphone”, and did a dance of their own. Sally let the lights and sound wash through her as she danced and smiled and felt her heart thump to the rhythm. All was light and gleeful energy.

Then, almost as soon as the whole incredible scene had started, it stopped. All at once, the two serpents swam off into the ether in a frightfully speedy motion and the fish-person ended their performance on a sudden loud note and turned around again, completely still. The now jarringly stoic creature and their platform sank back to the ocean depths, with the great coral stalks dimming and uncurling and following suit. The phasing, shifting shapes faded and then disappeared altogether. As the light sources faded, so did the ocean world, turning darker and dimmer, from bright jade to deep, dark blue. All that was left were the giant bubbles, bobbing listlessly in the boundless silence, devoid of color and almost invisible.

Sally blinked. Everything was still for a moment and then she noticed one of the giant bubbles suddenly evaporate before her eyes. Had something popped it? Then another one disappeared, this time closer to her. Then another one. And another one and another one. The bubbles were popping one by one in a chain reaction that was getting closer and closer to Sally.

She could see where this was going. She turned to take refuge in the cave, but it was too late.

In a flash, she saw her bubble burst out of the corner of her eye as she was turning around. She immediately began running as fast as she could into the cave’s darkness as the deafening roar of water cascaded behind her. She dashed through the pitch blackness, having no time to even turn her flashlight on. It was no use though. She had gotten a fair lead on the chasing deluge but it quickly caught up with her and she found herself plunged into the icy water in an instant.

The water carried her at terrifying speed through the passage, and it was all she could do to hold her breath as long as she could. Then everything seemed to slow and then stop. It was so cold. It was so dark.

Then Sally knew she was no longer submerged in water. She knew she could breath, but strangely did not feel the deep need to do so. It was silent. Somehow even more so than when she had first entered the ocean world. She felt weightless. She slowly opened her eyes.

She was floating softly in mid-air. Beads of water drifted quietly past her.

Light. Blackness. Stars. Planets.

She was in outer space. And somehow she could breathe. She drifted silently and slowly forward. Coming to her senses now, she clutched a large rock nearby and brought herself to the small outcropping of rocky ground beneath her. She looked behind her and saw the cave’s entrance. There were globs of water scattered around it, drifting forward into space. They looked like rain drops frozen in time. The cave appeared to be situated in the side of a small asteroid drifting through space. She turned back around.

A great planet nearby filled her vision. It was a deep blue, almost purple, with pristine white streaks swirling around it. An asteroid belt of glimmering white particles swirled across her vision, what seemed like a parade of lights marching through the cosmos, illuminated by a nearby sparkling sun. Another planet was not far off, this one small and orange. Other moons and spheres lay beyond, reds and silvers and pinks.

Most peculiar of all was a strange silver contraption that seemed to be orbiting the great blue planet. It was some kind of cylinder with gigantic dishes attached to either end. A tower rose from its center, with a faintly pulsing yellow light at its top. It drifted peacefully, almost imperceptibly.

Sally pulled herself closer to the rock as she felt herself rising. She idly wondered how she was able to breathe out here; there didn’t seem to be a giant bubble this time…

She felt a sense of peace as she hugged the rock and felt her body floating in nothingness. It was so blissfully quiet. So serenely still. She closed her eyes.

All was nothing.

Was it possible to fall asleep in space? Sally wasn’t sure, but she felt herself being roused awake by something. She squinted and blinked and hazily opened her eyes.

She stumbled backwards as she caught sight of a group of eerie beings that seemed to be staring at her.

They stood before her in a semicircle like statues, about eight of them, tall things in long black cloaks with globes of yellow light for heads. Beyond them was the familiar starry landscape of space she had fallen asleep to, but strangely she was no longer floating, but sitting normally on the rocky ground. The beings simply stood for a moment, perhaps watching her, perhaps not, for there was no way to tell for sure. They felt impossibly distant and alien. Suddenly, one by one, they began to start walking away. They walked straight off of the rocky terrace of the asteroid and into the void of space, seeming to drift across an invisible walkway through the stars. A rectangle of yellow light then appeared out of nowhere, small at first and then rising to a tall height. The beings passed through the doorway of light one by one, and as they left, Sally felt an odd longing. With the last being disappearing into the light, the rectangle shrunk and disappeared, almost as if space itself had swallowed the beings whole. As soon as they disappeared, Sally found herself rising upwards again, no longer grounded, once more at the mercy of outer space’s lack of gravity. She reached out and managed to grab the same rock again.

She turned towards the cave, and then positioning her feet on the large rock and kicking off of it, propelled herself to the entranceway of the dark passage. In a brief moment of panic, she found herself floating just within its entrance, searching for something to grasp onto. She managed to reach out and clutch the rocky wall, and used it to guide herself further inward. She took her flashlight from her pocket, one hand still clutching the wall, and switched it on. Luckily it had not been damaged in the flood. She kicked off from the wall further into the cave and found herself having to leap from wall to wall to move further down the descending passage. Amazingly, there was no water in sight and the cave seemed to be completely dry.

Had long had she slept? Had she even slept at all?

After moving through the cave in her wall-to-wall manner for some time, she suddenly and abruptly went crashing to the ground. Gravity, it seemed, had been turned back on. She looked behind her, but only saw the dark passage winding upward. She was way too far in to see the opposite entrance. She entertained the idea of going back the way she had come. Would she suddenly start floating again? Or would she find something new? She decided it was best not to dwell on these things. She was cold and weary. She just wanted to get home.

Home. The concept seemed strange. She hoped and prayed that the opposite side of the cave would somehow lead back to where she had come from, a place that seemed so distant, almost like a far-off memory. She had even almost forgotten about it. She had to hold onto that memory though. She marched onward.

And soon upward. As she climbed the opposite ascent, she felt soggy and heavy. Each footstep was like a lead weight tying her down. She felt like curling up right there and closing her eyes again.

But she kept walking forward. And soon there was light ahead. Daylight. Sunlight. Sally felt hope. She took a deep breath and moved towards whatever bizarre sight she would encounter next.

She emerged from the cave in a grove of trees, in what appeared to be quite an ordinary-looking wood. It was not the familiar field she had first entered the cave from, but it far more normal than the places she had been to previously. Sunshine lilted through the canopy overhead and birds chirped nearby. Curious, she moved further into the woods. It was nice. Calming. Eventually, she reached the end of the trees and came to a hilltop covered in bright green grass. The sky was boundless and blue, not a cloud in sight; just a bright, cheery, ordinary sun. Sally stepped forward, closing her eyes and spreading her arms, letting the sunlight warm her cold and battered body. When she opened her eyes, she saw to her surprise that the grassy hill she was on led down to a quaint dirt road. The road winded through the countryside and led to a picturesque-looking village off in the distance, with a light stream of smoke rising from one of its buildings’ bricked chimneys. Was she back? Had the cave transported her to a different location back in her world? She looked behind her. Somewhere back in those trees was the unassuming cave, waiting to be discovered, waiting to lead someone astray to strange new worlds. She turned back towards the village, slumbering peacefully off in the distant hills.

She decided to walk to it.

The Thing in the Window

It was a Friday afternoon and Julie was walking home from elementary school with her friend, Meghan. They decided to take the long way home to Meghan’s house today because the weather was a beautiful, crisp autumn day. They wanted to crunch as many leaves on the way as possible. Julie was going to sleep over Meghan’s house tonight, so she had packed a change of clothes and a toothbrush in her backpack. They passed by a house with front steps that were overflowing with pumpkins. A soft breeze rustled the leaves in the trees overhead; dancing shades of yellow, orange and red, a mesmerizing inferno in the sunny autumn afternoon.

                “Do you have any homework this weekend?” Meghan asked.

                Julie was lost in thought, looking at the foliage overhead.

                “Julie?”

                Julie started. “Oh, um, I don’t think so…”

                “Neither do I. I can’t stand homework. It’s so-“

                But Julie was already lost in thought again. She didn’t know this neighborhood as well as Meghan. She always loved being in a foreign place. They were entering a more wooded area now. There were only trees and shrubbery on either side of the road. They passed a peaceful little brook with bright green leaves hanging over it, and Julie imagined a bunch of tiny creature scampering over the leaves, delivering acorns and seeds and other treasures to some unseen nest deep in the vegetation. They passed some old train tracks and soon were in residential territory again, walking towards a side street on their left. There was a few houses lining the street, but it took a sharp turn further down, so Julie couldn’t see what was at the end of it. 

                “Hey Meghan, can we walk down here?” Julie asked, indicting the side street.

                Meghan suddenly became silent (she’d been talking busily since they’d passed the pumpkin house).

                “Meghan?”

                “Uh, sorry, it’s just that…yeah, ok, I guess…”

                Julie didn’t press any further. They turned down the street. It was an ordinary suburban street with ordinary houses on either side of it; some had Halloween decorations hung up, others were simply plain. The street veered to the right and continued on, probably ending at some other street further ahead. Shortly after passing this bend, Meghan suddenly stopped. She began to speak in a soft whisper, making a small pointing gesture towards the next house on the block. Julie hadn’t been paying attention to it until now. It was a little further away from the other houses and surrounded by dense trees and bushes on either side. It was a fairly large house, painted tan and lined with numerous large glass windows on its first floor and a few more on its second. The tan paint was severely chipped everywhere and the whole place had a faded, somber look. There was tall grass and weeds growing all around it. It was the sort of place that had probably been sitting there for years, in plain sight but completely unnoticed by all who passed by it.

                “See that house,” Meghan said quietly. “Number 18? I’ve always been afraid of that house ever since I was really little. That’s why I didn’t want to walk down here. There’s something…strange about it.”

                Julie trotted merrily a little ahead of Meghan to get a better look at the house.

                “Julie! …be careful!”

                Julie simply smiled. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was a bit of a show-off. She liked taking risks that her friends wouldn’t take. She moved a step closer to the house. Meghan walked up to her now. 

                “Is it haunted?” Julie asked.

                Meghan looked at the house for a moment, but quickly averted her gaze. “I don’t know, but when I was really little, my Mom was walking with me one summer around this neighborhood. She was holding my hand the whole way, but at one point she got distracted when someone called her on the phone. I wandered off a bit and ended up in front of this house. I think it’s been abandoned for a long time…anyway, that day it was a little later than it is now, it was still light out but the sun was setting soon. I remember all this perfectly. I’m not making this up, but I saw something, something in the window, right there!” she gestured shyly towards the rightmost of the three large windows on the second floor.

“What was it?” Julie asked.

                “I don’t know. It was just…a thing. I’m not lying, I swear. I could tell it wasn’t human or an animal…but it was definitely alive. I saw it move! And I got really, really scared and ran back to my mom. When I told her about it, she walked over to the house with me and had me show her where I saw the thing. I pointed, but of course there was nothing there anymore. I wasn’t seeing things. I remember it clear as day.”

                “Then what did it look like? Describe it.”

                “It…” Meghan looked at the window on the far right and shuddered. “It was like the darkness in the window took shape and came to life. It’s hard to describe. It’s almost like…I could feel it more than see it.”

                Julie looked into the darkness of the windows. She found herself shivering a little bit now as well. 

                “Can we please just go?” Meghan said.

                They kept walking. As they were leaving the house behind them, Julie thought it was strange that it had no driveway of any sort. Soon they had left the side street far behind and were continuing towards Meghan’s house. With the weird house near the train tracks safely and firmly in the past now, Meghan’s spirits were up again, and now she was talking about what she wanted to dress up as for Halloween.

                Julie was walking down empty streets. It was late evening and the sun had already set, leaving behind a glow of twilight that illuminated her path. She looked to her right and to her left and could see yellow lights illuminating the windows of houses, and some that were illuminated by the eerie blue glow of a television screen.

                She wandered down a side street that was both familiar and unfamiliar somehow. Every house on this street was dark, as if everyone had either abandoned their homes or gone to bed early that night. Every house except one. It was a large house to her left, surrounded by thick vegetation. It was full of tall windows that were illuminated by bright yellow light. Strange figures were silhouetted by the light, shadows of all different shapes and sizes dancing in the windows, all of them facing her with glowing yellow eyes. It was like a party for ghouls. Suddenly the big double doors of the house slowly swung open, spilling a piercing yellow light onto the street. It seemed like Julie was invited to join the festivities… She began to slowly walk towards the light and eventually was totally engulfed by it.


Julie opened her eyes. It was cold. She pulled the blanket closer to her. She was lying on a sleeping bag that Meghan had provided for her on the floor of Meghan’s bedroom. Meghan seemed to still be asleep. Julie turned on her back and stared at the ceiling. It must have been really early in the morning; it was still fairly dark, but the soft light of dawn faintly illuminated the ceiling. She thought about those black shadow creatures wriggling and dancing in the windows of that house. She decided that she had to go back there. But when?

                Over the next week, Julie found herself afflicted with a strange obsession with that old house. She decided that she would return to it that Friday. She told her mom that she was sleeping over Meghan’s house again that night, but Meghan had no idea what she was planning. She wanted to go alone. She’d go after school and walk the same way that they had the previous Friday. She wanted to explore that house. It would still be light out, so there was no reason to be scared. She packed her lucky stuffed elephant though, just in case.

                That Friday afternoon, as planned, after the school bell rang, she headed for the house. She wasn’t used to walking by herself around town, but she found the way pretty easily and soon she was walking over the train tracks and heading down the side street. She approached the abandoned house and stopped directly in front of it. It looked exactly as it had the past Friday and in her dream, minus the bright yellow light and the dancing shadows. She peered into the black windows, looking for any trace of the “thing” that Meghan had claimed to see when she was just a few years old. But there was nothing. She looked around to make sure that none of the neighbors were watching, tightened her grip on her backpack, and walked forward. A short set of stone steps lead up to a set of double doors. She peered into the glass windows on the double doors and could make out a stairway directly in front of the doors and a dusty-looking living room with a few old chairs and a sofa in it to the right. Slowly, she reached for the doorknob and turned it. The door easily gave way and swung inward on it hinges. How long has this old house been sitting here, unlocked and open to any intruders? she thought.

                She looked into the open doorway and surveyed the old living room to the right. Everything seemed incredibly still, as if time had forgotten about this place and left it behind. No, it was more like the inside of this house was a space separate from the outside world, locked and still and impervious to all outside influences. A tall lamp with no bulb stood next to an old, dirty-looking sofa. Two battered leather chairs were situated at the far end of the room. An empty table covered in dust served as a bland centerpiece. There was a stairway directly across from the front doors and through a doorway to the left, she could make out a dining room with a long round table surrounded by antique-looking chairs. Julie stepped into the house and the loudness of her footstep on the old floorboards startled her. She moved completely into the house and, making sure to maintain a level of stealth in her investigation, partially closed the right double door behind her, being careful to leave it slightly ajar in case she needed to make a speedy escape.

                She fiddled around in her backpack for a moment and removed a small flashlight she managed to find buried in a drawer the previous night. She clicked it on and began her exploration of the house, moving slowly and quietly. The house was eerily still, but the ample light coming in from the many windows and the sounds of birds outside put her at ease. The first floor was quite unremarkable, just the living room, the dining room, a tiny kitchen complete with an empty fridge and counters covered in layers of dust. There was a bathroom in one corner and in the back was a study of sorts full of empty shelves and an old desk. She did notice a closed door behind the stairwell that she guessed led to a basement, but she decided she wasn’t quite brave enough for that. She headed back to the front of the house and began walking up the stairs to the second floor, and that’s when she saw it.

                She had not been prepared because after moving around the well-lit and completely uninteresting first floor, her mind had been relatively at ease and she was even starting to get a little bored with what was clearly just an old, empty house that had been left in a state of decay for years. She was walking up the stairs and although it was only for second, there was no mistaking that she saw it. She had been looking down at the living room on her right and after looking back in front of her, up to the top of the stairwell, she briefly saw some kind of shadowy shape move just out of sight into the unknown of the second floor. She froze. She hadn’t heard anything; no footsteps, no creaking of old floorboards, nothing. Just a soundless moving form of some kind. She felt shuddering terror all of the sudden and decided that this had been a really bad idea. She turned around at once and ran for the front door, slamming it shut behind her and only stopping when she’d reached the edge of the street. After catching her breath, she reluctantly looked back at the house, and even though she really didn’t want to, her eyes moved slowly towards the cluster of large windows on the second floor.

                It was just as Meghan had described. There was something there, in the rightmost window, but it was hard to describe. She instantly knew that it wasn’t a human and that it wasn’t an animal, but it was definitely alive somehow. She could feel it watching her. Feel it inside her somehow. Just like Meghan had said, it was like the deep darkness beyond the window had taken shape. But it wasn’t like the dancing shadow beings in her dream. For one thing, it was alone, and secondly, it was far more shapeless. It didn’t seem to have any shape at all; in fact it didn’t even seem to really be anything at all, but Julie could feel it and she knew that it was there all the same. She stood there staring at it and it didn’t move an inch, just idled there, sizing her up. Suddenly her fear was overcome by intense curiosity. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t look away because she was afraid it would disappear and she would never see it again and never find out what it was. The memory of it and the mystery of it would haunt her for her whole life. It was still light out, birds were still chirping, she could hear cars passing by on the main road. She swallowed and clenched her fists and looked up at the thing directly.

                Suddenly the thing swayed, almost like it was startled, and slowly retreated back into the darkness of the house. Oh no you don’t, you’re not getting away that easily, she thought. Clutching her flashlight, she darted back into the house and in one swoop ran up the stairs. She stopped at the top and shined her flashlight down the short hallway that ended in a closed doorway that logically would lead to the room where the thing was, the room with the big windows overlooking the street. There’s no way it can escape now; I have it cornered.

                She ran for the door and swung it open fiercely, its thick wooden frame thudding against the wall. The first thing she saw was the large windows and the street beyond on the wall across from her. To her left was an old bed neatly made up with white sheets and an ancient pillow and to her right was a single chair, but other than that the small room was empty. There was nothing there, except…

                A door in the center of the left wall, slightly ajar, a line of pure darkness between it and its frame. She could feel the thing there, watching her. She took a single step toward the door, and suddenly she understood. She turned the flashlight off (she could see perfectly well enough because of the windows anyway) and put down her backpack. She took a few more steps towards the door and stopped.

                “It’s ok…I’m not going to hurt you. My friend saw you when she was really little and she told me about you. I wanted to see you too. I wanted to see what was living in this old house. It’s ok, don’t be scared. Come out, we can be friends!”

                She stood there silently for a moment. She could still feel it watching her, but there was no response.

                A bird flew by the windows outside and she jumped and glanced to her right for a moment. While she was distracted, she suddenly heard the door slam shut. She darted towards it and swung it open. To her surprise, the door bizarrely opened onto a dark, narrow stairway that went downward to some unknown place. Logically, it should have lead down into the living room below, but she didn’t remember there being an out-of-place stairway in the middle of the living room…

                But the thing was somewhere down there, and she couldn’t turn back now. She went back and shouldered her backpack and turning her flashlight back on, began to walk down the stairway, taking only one glance back up to the room from which she had come.

                The stairs went down for what seemed like forever, far too long to lead to just the basement. She must have been underground at this point. What had she gotten herself into? No one knew she was here. Her mother thought she was at a friend’s house and Meghan…she knew about this house but had no idea that Julie was there. But any fear she felt was overcome by curiosity and she moved on, further and further downward.

                Abruptly, the stairway finally came to an end before a closed door that looked identical to the one that she had come from far above at the top of the stairs. She reached for the knob and stopped when she touched it. What could possibly be beyond this door? Some deep underground cavern? An old, creepy basement miles under the ground? A sewer? Only one way to find out. She opened the door.

                To her astonishment, the door opened on what seemed to be the exact same room that she had just come from. The old bed was to her right and the lone chair was in the corner on the other side. The doorway to the second floor hallway was there as well, and it was even open just like she had left it. But there was one key difference. Instead of the bright light of early afternoon, the whole room was aglow with the brilliant yellow light of sunset spilling from the large windows to her left. The stairs had seemed to go down forever, but in reality she knew she had only been walking down them for several minutes. It couldn’t possibly be sundown already…

                She moved over to the windows to look outside and was startled to see a jarringly different sight, yet also an oddly familiar one. Everything seemed to be in its proper place, but the houses were made out of stone and wood and the street was paved with cobblestone. Instead of streetlights, the street was lined with black lampposts that didn’t seem to be lit at the moment. All the trees were in the same places, but were different types of trees. The street was empty except for a single lone figure standing on the cobblestone sidewalk directly in front of the house she was in.

                She knew at once that it was the thing she was chasing, except it wasn’t a thing anymore. Before it had been some kind of shadowy illusion, darkness made manifest. But now it was, put quite simply, a mirror image of herself. Well actually, there were two differences in their appearance: the other Julie was wearing different clothes for one thing (a plain tan dress compared to Julie’s long-sleeved yellow shirt and jeans), and much more notably the girl down on the sidewalk’s eyes were a brilliant yellow color, but not in a scary or monstrous kind of way. Julie could see that it was only the whites of the eyes that were bright yellow, the iris was the same color as hers, deep brown, and the pupil was black. Other than this one outstanding feature, the girl had Julie’s exact face and long black hair. This copy of herself did not look menacing, only a bit curious and maybe even frightened. A little scared but mostly excited, Julie wasted no time in dashing out of the small bedroom to the second floor hallway, which also looked identical to the old house she had come from, down the stairs and out the front door. She stopped at the foot of the house’s stone steps, only a few feet away from her double. But strangely, the other Julie appeared to take no notice of her. She was still looking at the second floor windows, and now had a puzzled look on her face, almost as if she was looking for something. Julie looked back up at the windows and then back to the other Julie.

                “But I’m right here!” she said. “Don’t you see me?”

                The other Julie paid no attention and continued gazing at the second floor windows. Suddenly, a tall woman came walking briskly toward the other Julie from the right and Julie recognized her at once as her own mother, except with the same yellow eyes as the other Julie.

                This copy of Julie’s mother began speaking in what sounded to Julie like some strange foreign language, except even more alien to her than any real foreign language she had ever heard. It was uncomfortably garbled and incomprehensible, unearthly somehow. The other Julie spoke in the same language and pointed towards the windows on the second floor. Both the mother and her daughter stared up at the windows. The mother said something else and the other Julie replied in a pleading tone of voice. This went back and forth for a little bit until soon the two of them were walking down the sidewalk together, away from the house and Julie. As she was walking away, the other Julie took a momentary glance back in Julie’s direction and Julie thought she locked eyes with her for a second, but she knew that her double couldn’t see her.

                Julie looked at her hands to check if she was invisible. She wasn’t, at least not to her own eyes. She looked up at the brilliantly lit sky. She realized now that it was not sundown, like she’d thought, but that the sky itself was a brilliant golden color instead of blue, populated by beautiful white, puffy clouds. She looked around and saw a golden sun shining in one corner of the sky. It wasn’t dusk but probably early afternoon. She looked back at where she’d come from. The old house looked similar in shape on the outside, and the windows were basically the same, but just like the other houses, it was also different; it was not covered in chipped tan paint, but made from splintered wood and cracked stone. Julie longed to explore this new world but knew that she didn’t belong here. She decided to go back to her own world by using the stairway in the second floor bedroom. She was just a shadow here in this golden-skied place; the other Julie could probably make out her dim form in the darkness of the old house, but not in the light. She was a shade in this world, nothing more than...

…a ghost.