The Green Door Page 3

  “This is it.” Brek had a blank look on his face as if staring off into some distant dream. His eyes flashed back to mine. “This is our way out of the Dump.”

  “College is your way out of the Dump. Remember? Full ride cross-country scholarship?” My jealousy still rang through that statement even though I tried to hide it.

  “But what about you?” Brek took my hand. I tried to slide it out of his, but he only gripped it tighter. “According to you, I’ll go off, get my dream job, meet some hot woman, get married, have two point five kids, and live in a McMansion. But … what about you?”

  What about me? As long as Brek was all right, I’d survive. I’m sure I could keep some kind of food on my dad’s table for quite a while. And who knew? Maybe my dad would get that job at the mine, or some other job that would give his life purpose. “You know me. I’ll be fine.”

  “I don’t want you to be fine. Fine is for normal people. Fine is for people who settle. Fine is not okay for Megan Covington..” He let go of my hand and stood up before he ran his fingers through his hair, and I knew he was not ready to give up on me. “And that’s why were going to do this. We’re not ordinary, Covington. We’re extraordinary when we’re together.”

  I leaned back in my chair. “Are you done with the motivational speech, Mr. President?”

  “I guess so.” Brek didn’t sit back down, but instead rummaged through his pack. He removed something from the front pocket. “This is why we’re doing this.”

  It was a blue plastic ring from one of the quarter machines at the grocery store. The circumference of the precious gem probably only fit on the tip of Brek’s pinky finger. Our fifth grade promise to each other. My yellow ring was always in the front pocket of my jeans. “Never give up on each other … never leave each other.”

  “I’m not leaving you in Worthington with no direction—no hope.” He set his ring on top of the paper on the desk.

  The fear of what this game entailed ravaged me inside, but if I were with Brek, maybe everything would be fine. We could do this together before … before he was gone. My heart rate increased not knowing a thing about the game or how long we’d be gone, but I’d do this so Brek could feel assurance as he left for college that he left me in good circumstances. So that he could go and find his dream life without the hindrance of leaving me behind in squalor.

  I removed my yellow ring from my front pocket and placed it next to his on the desk. “Let’s do it.”

  3

  “Do we get to meet this Rosenbaum guy?” I had finished signing my name to the tenth piece of paperwork Betty White brought in after we agreed to play the game. It was all a bunch of legal stuff about not suing him if we died, lost a limb, or broke a fingernail. If I had not turned eighteen last month, my dad would have to be involved and that was not going to happen.

  “Mr. Rosenbaum prefers to keep his anonymity. Part of the paperwork that you just signed without reading mentions how all your dealings will be with me.” She picked up the papers and straightened them by tapping them on the desk. “You may address me as Ms. Sonnenburg, or Ma’am if you prefer.”

  Something about not meeting the person in charge didn’t sit too well with me, but I knew this was important to Brek. At least, I might be able to get him that new guitar.

  “How long is the game?” If I were gone overnight, Dad would definitely notice.

  “That is entirely up to you …” She glanced at the paperwork. “Miss Covington.”

  “You mean there’s no time limit?”

  “When you complete the task, or more likely, decide to quit, the game will be over for you. There has only been one completion in the past year.”

  “Only one?” I jumped out of my chair and shot a look at Brek.

  “Well, we’ve got two days.” Brek lifted his bag from the chair to his shoulder. “There will be all kinds of trouble if we’re not in class on Monday.”

  “The game can be played in stages, Mr. Matthews. If you need to stop to accomplish meaningless tasks, that can be arranged.” She lowered her glasses to her nose. “If you don’t have any further questions, please follow me.”

  Gripping Brek’s arm, we followed the woman through an ornately decorated hallway and turned three corners before we reached an oak door. Mrs. Sonneburg removed a key from a ring in her pocket and unlocked the door. A musty draft escaped the staircase that led to the depths below.

  “We’ve got to go down there?” I curled my fingers into the canvas material of Brek’s jacket, like if I could hold on tight enough I’d keep him from risking his life for me. My fingers ached from clenching them into a ball for the past five minutes.

  “I know it was my idea to do this, so if you’re having second thoughts we can back out.” Brek’s blue eyes searched mine perhaps looking for my true feelings about descending those stairs.

  “I signed the damn contract, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, but …”

  “There are no buts. You were right. This is my last chance. Our last chance.” I gave him a slight nudge with my elbow. “Now are you going down there, or do I have to take the lead?”

  The stone stairs led down to a cellar that was even mustier than the first whiff promised us. I wanted to plug my nose, but the fear of losing Brek that permeated my insides kept my hands glued to his arm.

  We approached a metal door locked with three deadbolts. Mrs. Sonneburg rifled through her ring for the correct keys. I shuffled side-to-side before bouncing up and down on my toes. Brek elbowed me this time. The nerves in this dark world were getting the best of me.

  The last lock clicked open and she turned to us. “What you are about to see, stays here. It says that on line thirty-six of your contract, by the way. You will lose anything you gain if you tell a single soul.”

  “Will you open the door already?” I spoke the words through gritted teeth. If she made me wait much longer, my feelings might consume me.

  She glared at me through her glasses before turning to pull open the heavy metal door.

  What lay behind the door made my heart stop.

  It was a hallway that had no business being in this dark, damp world beneath the ornate mansion. The floor, walls, and ceiling were pristine white. Florescent lights coming from nowhere in particular made it feel like it was the middle of the day.

  Brek’s jaw dropped. “What the hell?”

  Every few feet down the hallway stood a door—each a different color. From our vantage point it seemed that each door contained some kind of elaborate carving.

  “The game begins here when I lock the metal door behind you. We don’t want anything that doesn’t belong escaping.” She walked down the hallway to a blue door and removed a bracelet from a hook. “Wear these when you enter the portal, and it will allow you to pass back through the energy field. The bracelets are color coded.” After reaching into her pocket, she handed me a small black device with a red button in the middle. “When you’re ready to come out, press the button, and I will let you out.”

  “Escaping?” I stared down at the device in my hand. “What’s going to escape?”

  “It depends which portal you choose. There is a slight possibility for someone or something to escape without the bracelet.” She stared down the hallway maybe imagining what was behind the doors. “This is where I leave you. Good-bye.” And then, Mrs. Sonnenburg was gone and Brek and I were alone in the hallway.

  “Where do you think we start?” I unzipped my bag and dropped the red button into the depths. “I still think we’re making a mistake.”

  Brek walked over to the first door. It was blue with elaborate carvings of a nautical theme. A clamshell opened itself to reveal a pearl with what appeared to be sunbeams radiating out of it. He stared at it for a few moments before looking down the hallway. “Each door has a light beside it. This one is red while others are green. Maybe this one is already completed.”

  “Yeah… I definitely think we should go with green. Green is good, right?”


  “Green means go, Covington. Maybe that’s why you still don’t have your license.”

  “I don’t have my license because I’m afraid of crazy drivers like you.”

  Beside the blue door was a white placard reading five thousand dollars. “Holy crap. Someone got five thousand for finding this pearl? How much are the other doors?”

  The next one was a deep brown color worth ten thousand dollars. My heart went into overdrive imaging what we could do with that much money. Across the hall was a green door also worth ten thousand dollars.

  “Rosenbaum must really want whatever is behind here.” Brek ran his hand along the carvings of the green door. “What’s behind them? A room to search?”

  “Let’s find out.” I reached for the knob on the green door, but Brek grabbed it before I could turn the handle.

  “We passed his test for a reason. Take your time. Check each door carefully before making a decision.”

  Brekken Matthews—always the voice of reason. Beside the green was a door of a deep and bloody red. Many hearts were carved into the wood including a ruby heart in a crown. White twinkle lights lined the perimeter, giving it extra pizzazz. It was worth twenty-five thousand dollars. Across the hall was an orange door with carved flames licking the wood worth thirty thousand dollars.

  “The further you go down the hallway, the higher the dollar amounts, and I’m sure the more difficult the task.” Brek’s hand hovered over the orange door before quickly withdrawing it. “That’s hot.”

  “I don’t want to start there.” Two doors remained. How much were the final two doors worth? I all but jogged down to the white and black doors.

  The white door was the purest lack of color I’d ever seen. If I ever imagined a door to Heaven, this would be it. The only carving on this door was a dove that drew me in with a warm feeling of safety. “We should start here.” I reached for the knob as if drawn in by a magnet. It was worth five hundred thousand dollars. A definite no-brainer.

  Brek grabbed my hand again. “We’re choosing the door together. Something’s off about this door. Don’t make snap decisions.”

  The door’s allure continued to pull at me, but I clung to Brek’s jacket to pull my body away to face the scariest door in the hallway—the ebony door.

  “One million dollars.” Brek whistled at the thought of the inconceivable amount of money for anyone who called the Dump their home.

  The etched carvings in this dark, metal door were foreign and reminded me of a something in horror movie. “Highest dollar amount… must be the hardest task.” I turned my back to it, not even wanting to look at it anymore. “Maybe we should start with something easy.”

  “Yeah, I think we should see what we’re getting into before we even think about attempting that door.” Brek walked down the hallway to the green and brown doors. “These are worth the same amount. What do you think?”

  The brown door had carvings beneath the earth—like earthworm or gopher tunnels. Giant, worm-like creatures slithered through the ground, possibly patrolling the labyrinth. At the very bottom of the door someone had carved a precious gem with the same sunbeams as the pearl on the blue door. “Do you think he wants us to go underground beneath the house to get this gemstone?”

  Brek shrugged his shoulders and crouched down to run his finger along the carvings. “Looks like it to me.”

  “Earthworms are gross.” I pinched up my face and stuck out my tongue. “Moving on.”

  “You’ve never been a typical girl.” Brek laughed. “Why start now?”

  Rage overcame me like a tsunami as I shoved Brek against the brown door. “Don’t you ever call me a typical girl, Brekken Matthews.”

  He held his hands up in surrender even though we both knew he was stronger. “Sorry, Meg.” His muscles relaxed and I could feel his heart beating under his coat. “I know you’re anything but typical.”

  I let go of his coat and marched over to the green door proud of my atypical status. This door had the carving of an enormous tree that stretched from the bottom to the top. Beneath the tree, among its roots, was a large seed. The sunbeams that reached in all directions identified it as the desired object. “This is the door Brek. If I can’t have the white door, I want this one.”

  “Wise choice, Covington.” He slapped my back making me feel like one of his sports buddies. “If we start off easy, we can tackle the white and ebony doors later.” He removed two bracelets from the hook next to the door and handed one to me.

  The immediacy of the task shot through me as I tied my hair back with the scrunchie wrapped around my wrist. My heart almost pounded straight through my chest at the unknown nature of what lie ahead. I would not show Brek I was scared more than what I revealed to him already. I was Meg Covington. Nothing freaked me out—lack of money, lack of food, popular kids, rich kids, or my best friend moving away.

  The pack on my shoulder seemed too light for the task at hand, but there was no way we could turn back now.

  “You ready?” Brek touched the handle.

  “As I’ll ever be.” I gave him a weak smile ready to shove the door open if he took any longer.

  Brek’s hand rotated and it opened with a click. He peeked through the crack before he pushed the door wider.

  This time my jaw dropped.

  4

  It wasn’t a broom closet, or a staircase to another part of the mansion. In front of us was a forest grove surrounded by towering pine trees. And though it was early spring outside the mansion, warm summer air drifted through the opening. Birds pecked at the ground in search for worms or seeds, but alighted when Brek took a step into the strange world.

  I reached forward and grabbed his arm. “What are you doing?”

  “Going to find this seed.” He rolled his eyes before he shook free from grip. “What do you think I’m doing?”

  “But that was before you opened the door.” I kept my feet firmly planted in the white hallway—firmly planted in reality.

  Brek moved his other foot into the world behind the green door before he turned and held his hand out to me. “This is our chance. Now, put on your big boy pants, Covington. If I could do this alone, I’d do it for you. But the game said I need a partner and you’re the only one I want to go with.”

  I took a deep breath to settle my nerves and gripped his hand. As soon as both of my feet touched the pine needle floor, the door slammed shut. I jumped and dug my fingernails into Brek’s palm.

  Besides the twitter of the birds in the trees apparently angry with us for having interrupted their lunch, the wood was quiet—eerily quiet.

  “How in the world are we going to find this seed? We don’t have a map, or any kind of directions.” All around us, all I saw was trees.

  “The good news is the seed will be under the biggest tree. Shouldn’t be too hard to find. Maybe we can climb a hill and get a better view of the land.” Brek let go of my hand and climbed in a direction that appeared to be a gradual uphill.

  An hour into our climb up the hill my legs burned like holy fire and my stomach shouted at me. I found a log and plopped down before I rummaged through my pack. “I need a break.”

  Brek settled next to me before he opened his own pack and removed a peanut butter sandwich. He took a giant bite out of the bread. I stared down at my package of Ramen, which I planned to eat raw. The only other snacks Dad had in the house were Saltines and cans of tuna fish. I swiped two stacks of the crackers.

  “How do you think all this works?” Brek spoke with his mouth full, a habit I tried to break him of years before. “I mean, how does this whole world exist inside the Rosenbaum mansion? Is it like Dr. Who’s Tardis—smaller on the outside and bigger on the inside?”

  I gazed back through the woods in the direction of the green door. Throughout our hike, I took note of landmarks to find our way back out—an unusual shaped boulder, a crooked tree, a bush of red berries. “I think the doors are portals to other worlds. We could be on the other side of the Universe or in
another dimension, for all we know.”

  “It’s crazy to think about, and yet …” Brek lifted his water bottle and clinked it against mine. “There’s no one I’d rather be stranded with on the other side of the Universe than you.”

  “Awww … you should write greeting cards for Hallmark.” I took one more bite of my Ramen before I sealed it in a Ziploc bag.

  A rustling sound drew my attention away from my pack. The noise came from the bushes about a hundred yards away. It’s just a bird. A bird. It couldn’t be anything else. Then came the growl.

  My eyes shot to Brek’s, wide as saucers. He grabbed my hand and we ran like wildfire through the trees. I no longer felt the weariness of my legs because at the moment they were the only things that kept me alive. I looked over my shoulder. Three wolves the size of small elephants gained on us with every stride we made. Would Dr. Rosenbaum or Mrs. Sonnenburg let my dad know what happened to me after I was torn to shreds?

  Brek let go of my hand before he grabbed my legs and heaved me up the side of an enormous rock. I turned and reached my hand down to help him.

  “Grab my hand. I’ll pull you up.” I opened and closed my fingers to tell him to hurry.

  “You go. I’ll keep them occupied.”

  Oh, hell no. “Don’t you dare. Give me your damn hand. We can both make it.” I grabbed a tuft of his hair to try and force him to listen to me.

  The wolves were close enough to pounce. My heart raced because I knew it was a matter of moments. But then, one of the wolves squealed and fell to the ground. An arrow stuck out from its body. The others stopped and whined before they back stepped and ran in the opposite direction. Arrows flew after them and hit both of their targets.

  I let out the breath I held before I grabbed Brek’s jacket and forced him to climb up next to me on the rock. My arms wrapped around him and drew him close to me. Our hearts beat together at an unhealthy pace. “Don’t ever do that again. I’ll kill you.”