The wide-open space of Evan’s apartment now became a suffocating confinement of uncertainty. The abrupt emotional high Evan miraculously experienced became an ominous bewilderment, his ocular vision unmoving from its place at the very ends of his eye sockets.
A faint glow of warm colors poured from the mysterious door’s frame, blending into a shimmering mirage of an eerie, long forgotten Memoria. A quaint, uncanny feeling enveloped over Evan’s entire body as goosebumps traveled across his arms and legs.
“What in the world…?” Was all Evan could utter in a short, breathy whisper as he turned his body to face this unaccounted room in his apartment.
Evan unconsciously began to drag his footsteps forward, the unknown door’s appearance drawing closer with an increasing image of its radiant splendor, the reflecting light becoming more intense upon approach. Before he could comprehend his immediate actions, the door’s glinted silver knob etched in unidentifiable runic lettering had been grasped by Evan’s right hand.
Click!
It was a sharp, harmonious sound; the inner mechanisms of the door’s knob unlatching from stillness into engaging motion. Evan’s trance-like state persisted, his brown eyes quivering as the glowing door began to pry open according to his own possessed movements. From being slightly ajar to now being fully pushed open, there was a concocted mixture of emotion welling up within Evan:
Fear, excitement, anxiety, and…hope.
A distant hope that, beyond the other side of this strange door, was something he desired more than anything else. An instinctually deep part of Evan that was whisked away alongside the disappearance of his older sister, Laura.
Leaning into the door’s open entrance, Evan found himself being consumed by a great flash of light. The strain of the sudden bombardment of brightness forced Evan’s eyes shut, transporting him abruptly into a realm of pure darkness.
There was no sign of life, even within Evan himself. Not even the faintest breath could be felt as Evan’s surroundings were completely cascaded in total blackness. Before he could even find the will to panic, Evan’s senses returned to him immediately.
The hot and dry Texas sun began to beat down on Evan’s sprawled out figure. A collapsed red bike lay next to him, a single wheel spinning as he turned to look around in utter amazement. The fresh sting of a scraped knee served to remind Evan that he was, in fact, not dreaming.
Evan had somehow returned to his childhood.
