Doorways 

Part 1: 花

For the longest time, I would always think about the door.  It always seemed so strange, it was a big wooden door with a rose flower pattern carved along the sides and a single symbol carved in the middle that read “花.” Nobody ever seemed to notice the door apart from me, and it really made me question what exactly was inside of it.  So, one day, I decided to find out.  It was midnight, and I had brought nothing with me but a pepper spray can, lockpick, and scarf.  

“Better make this quick, don’t want anyone seeing me and thinking I’m trying to do anything insane,”  I said to myself as I covered my face with my scarf, hopped the school fence, and made my way inside past the gym.  I could feel a shiver running down my neck as I got closer to the door.  I remembered once when walking by the door in school that I had heard what sounded like whispers and meat dropping to the ground.  Hoping it would just be some sort of basement or meat locker, I would reach the door, noticing how weird it was that the symbol on the door was now glowing.  With a heavy sigh and a look around to make sure nobody was looking or coming over, I began to unlock the door with the lockpick I’d use on the door’s golden knob.  

It was then, as I fully unlocked the door, that it swung open with a loud whoosh upon opening.  At first, all I could see was just a big, almost angelic, light with small golden particles coming from it.  As I stared in awe at what I found, I heard a booming “HEY!” as the school’s alarms rang, and it was at that moment that I realized I was being watched from a camera.  In a panic, I quickly ran into the door without a second thought or look, slamming the door behind me and locking it before looking behind me.

Part 2: Forestry 

I found myself looking at a big, gym-sized forest area with seemingly no roof or walls except for seemingly 8-foot-tall brick walls with spiky vines along them.  Massive, beautiful trees shedding leaves covered the area; it seemed the golden particles and angelic light came from the area as a whole.  Weirdly enough, as I would wander in awe and try to jump and look over the walls, it looked almost entirely made up of a massive angelic void beyond the confines of the room. No matter how much I tried, I would find it was physically impossible for me to actually make it over the walls.  It was like there was some kind of invisible border that kept me from just jumping over or climbing over the walls.  I eventually just gave up trying to go over the walls and started going towards what looked to be a rather unkempt, old VHS player connected to a monitor with a small VHS tape covered in vines to the side.

I then picked up the VHS tape out of curiosity, wiping the small vines that had covered the exterior of the tape, and looked at its label.  The title of the VHS tape read “悪魔” on the front and was dark red with a small pink and green rose painted on both of its sides.  I sighed and then looked back at the door, wondering if the people on the outside had forgotten about me since there hadn’t even been any attempt to open the door whatsoever.  I decided to simply shrug and look back at the VHS player, then go to play the VHS tape.  However, once I did go to play the tape, I felt a strange sting in my head.

I dropped the tape as it went into the VHS player and started to play, falling to my knees unwillingly and starting to see flashes of strange, glowing red eyes staring at me. Along with visions of my skin slowly turning pink and white.  I felt the vines from the ground begin to slowly wrap around my wrists and ankles as I heard Japanese speech begin to be said from the monitor.  As I tried to resist the pull of the vines, I would then see something with a glitchy and staticky texture slowly rise out from behind the monitor with shining, red eyes.  The thing’s massive, white, and pink-striped arms would rest and grab the top of the monitor, lifting itself slowly.  I stared up in horror as the speech from the monitor got louder and more ominous, finally getting a good look at the beast.  It had smooth pink and white skin and small rose-pink horns on its head and long hot-pink horns on the sides of its head, with seemingly no mouth or nose, like that of a demon.  It was long and lanky with red and green vines and roses covering its torso and waist, almost like a long, weirdly beautiful dress.  The surrounding air smelled sickly sweet as it stared back down at me.  I wanted to ask it to let me go, but it felt like thorns had started to grow and stab within my throat.

Eventually, the Japanese speech slowly came to an end, and the speaker spoke.  Its voice was more feminine and ghoulish, talking in the same Japanese speech as before, only this time sounding more so as a question.  Unfortunately, both because of the feeling in my throat and the fact that I didn’t understand Japanese, I was unable to answer and instead tried to gasp for air as my throat felt like it was tightening up.  It was then that the beast would go to reach for me and, as its hand and claws got closer, I started to feel like I was going to pass out completely.  It then spoke one more word, right as it would lift my head with one of its claws and make me look directly into the thing’s eyes.  “沈黙.”  I then passed out and, for what looked to be hours later, woke up on my bed back at my house.  Feeling different, I then rose and looked down at myself.  Everything looked normal with me; my hands were normal, and my legs, stomach, and face were still there.  But as I went to feel my head, I felt my head, I could feel something on it. 

It was then that I would go to the bathroom and look at my mirror, then see what was on my head.  I had the same pair of small horns on my head as the demon had, apart from the massive ones on the sides of its head.  I stepped back in bewilderment, realizing that it really wasn’t just some dream.  I looked at my teeth, and it seemed that those had changed too, being sharper like fangs and having a much stronger feel.  I needed answers.  I need to go back.

The end…?