A Mischief in the Woodwork - By Harper Alexander Page 0,66

I felt undeniably compelled. I was hesitant a moment longer, torn by indecision, and then I raised my fingers. Faltered and put them back at my side. Then I did it all at once: put my fingers to the latch, twisted it into release, and thrust the door open without another moment's debate.

A cold gust of snow hit me in the face.

T w e n t y - O n e –

Ombri

I gasped, possessed by that frosty breath of air, and it took a moment to recover from the shock. Only then could I address what I had actually bared before me, and the struggle for real comprehension began.

Snow flurries spilled into the city through the portal I had opened, and instead of staring at the other side of the rubble heap, I found myself staring into a dark, blizzard-torn land of winter. The door, pushed inward, was whipped wider open and pummeled against... It was hard to say what it was pummeled against. Air? A wall? Wraithlike winds ripped past, cold and screaming and white.

One might argue that the elements discovered past the open door would further sway my decision in an unfavorable direction, persuading me, in the end, that it wasn't worth pursuing what lay beyond that threshold. But I did not heed that obvious voice of reason. Finding further dissuasion didn't seem to change the game at all. I still wanted to know what lay through that door. 'Snow' did not answer the curiosity.

Bracing myself for the onslaught, I took a step forward, standing framed by the door for a moment, alighted on the cold, slightly-slanted threshold, before I dredged up what it took to take another step, into that other world, and penetrate the wind.

I was assaulted as keenly as if doused by a wave at sea, instantly bitten down to the bone. I resisted staggering, and squinted against the current. Snow crunched under my boots. I could see nothing, which I should have realized would be the case. A single step over the threshold would gain me nothing over what I could see from without. But only then did it occur to me that I would have to tread deeper, and I glanced over my shoulder, as if to assure myself that the door still lay open, faithfully awaiting my return. I could see the rubble on the other side, a golden city next to the bitter dark landscape of this other place.

Of course I could not say how far I would have to tread to see anything, nor how far I was willing to tread. I simply decided I could go further. A little bit, anyway, however much that was.

Steeling myself against the cold, I pressed further in, trying in vain to penetrate the blowing white walls with my vision. After a few steps I stopped, for the golden doorway was disappearing behind me, obscured by the storm. I stood a moment, though, letting it blow around me, recognizing the inconsistencies in the winds and hoping I might see something through them. The wind strengthened and lessened, sometimes a scream, sometimes a whistle. Gusts, then flurries. I let it swirl about, running its course, until the moment finally came when there was a break. A flurry rushed by, thinned, and for a moment the area was purged roughly clear.

There was a form, ahead of me. Something huddled in the snow a dozen paces in. I only had time to catch one clear glimpse before the flurries were back. They were lighter now, less intense, but erased the form from view in troublesome intervals. I took one more glance over my shoulder at the door, reluctant to lose sight of it, but what I had seen nagged at me too much not to investigate.

I treaded forward, dredging my way through the snow and wind. Tiny ice crystals stabbed at me like swarms of wicked, frozen insects. I pressed through it, trying to discern the form for what it was as glimpses permitted. Something of dark hues – but all was dark. Pieces of it fluttered in the propelling gusts, around its edges.

Then I was distracted by the further lessening of the wind, as it died down enough for me to glean mirages of something even more arresting – the surrounding landscape. The obscurity began to mellow out and reveal more of the world that I had stepped into, beginning to provide tantalizing impressions of sweeping cliffsides and colossal mountain bluffs, and what was more breath-taking: