The Red Door

The air was still and quiet. The trees were bare, their dark arms reaching out to the sky surrendering. She hurried quietly through a field that was somehow familiar and unfamiliar. The dry grass crunched loudly beneath her feet. She tried to tread more softly keeping a steady watch on the horizon. 

"Concentrate!" her inner monologue told her. "Concentrate or you will miss it again!" If she just kept watching she would finally see what she was looking for. She made it to the other side of the field and gingerly crouched down at the tree line. She stared across the field until her eyes were heavy. She reached up to make sure her auburn hair was still tucked under her hood so she wouldn't be spotted and readjusted her gaze. She quietly retrieved her binoculars out of her backpack and gave the tree line a hard stare.Up and down, back and forth…nothing. Over and over. Just like her dad taught her. You stay still enough for long enough and you will see something. She looked again only to see the horizon remain empty. Trees. Grass. The sky slowly began to fade. There wasn't much time! But she was determined. She continued her scan and began to wonder how long she had been there. The sun still had not set. As she pulled up her sleeve to look at her watch she noticed one by one the hairs on her arms started to raise. The air that had been dead and silent a moment ago now became electric. There was a tiny movement in her peripheral vision. Anxiously she zeroed the binoculars in. The movement seemed as though nothing was causing it, the tall grass rustling only slightly. There was no wind. She kept staring at the spot and the rustling increased until a human figure rose up from the brush. Trembling she adjusted her binoculars to try and get more focus. Her heart pounded blood through her ears. 

“This is it!”

She felt as though she was standing on the edge of a big wave of enlightenment.  Her limbs felt hollow.  But the more she stared the less she could make out the details of the person rising from the ground. A form with no features. A silhouette turned and  walking into the woods. 

“NO, no. This isn’t happening.” she thought frantically. She felt the moment slipping through her grasp. The field was dimming as though she was watching it play out on a movie theatre screen and the lights had been turned on. She felt as though she was lying down even though she was now standing. Frantically she grabbed for her backpack but it wasn’t there.

She blinked and she was horizontal in a bed and it was completely dark. 

She blinked again and she was back in the field.

Hazily she watched the form slowly creeping across the field. She thought about running but her body wouldn’t move. She tried yelling but she couldn’t hear any sounds coming from her mouth.

Moments before she was awake for good she watched as a red door appeared out of nowhere the ambiguous form opened it and slipped behind it.

She woke up to the sound of screaming.