by Ben van Eijk
“NOOOO! You’re not here!”
Seth wasn’t sure how to react, he didn’t quite understand the principle of the doors so it was possible that he was, in fact, not there.
“Ummm,” Seth started to speak and the man began struggling in his chair. He kicked at the ground, knocking himself and the chair over onto the floor.
From a side of the room Seth couldn’t see came three larger men in dark blue clothing. One of them grabbed the man and sat him straight up again. The man struggled, screaming “nooo!” the whole time. A voice from an unknown source could be heard:
“He’s having another episode, sedate him.”
One of the men in the blue uniforms glanced towards Seth. He looked just as surprised as the screaming man in the chair.
“Huh?” Said the larger man as he noticed Seth standing there staring at him. Seth quickly hit the door’s button and it flew shut. Seth wasn’t sure why he did that; there didn’t seem to be any real danger, but he just had the idea that he was not supposed to be there. None of the doors had yielded any rewards. Seth was ready to give up. He looked towards Jacquelyn who stood with arms akimbo and an arrogant smirk.
Chapter 13
The interior of The Wandering Cross was quite simple: a long, straight corridor with an arched roof led to the centre of the ‘temple’. Seth had flown above all of the doors to the middle of the space and judged the length of the hallway to be about three hundred metres. The centre was a dome with five huge passageways running in perpendicular directions; one lead upwards and the sky could be seen at the end of the circular tunnel with hundreds of doors floating skywards in horizontal rows. The other four hallways were the same as the one that had brought Seth here, to where he thought the bridge should be. Seth flew through all four other corridors and found no notable differences. All of them had walls made of gigantic mud bricks, some of which had fallen away or crumbled, all of them filled with rows and rows of doors. All the doors apparently led somewhere dangerous, or just nonsensical; Seth had encountered universes so small only one finger could fit through its door. One door contained pure nothingness — when it opened the darkness inside seemed so powerful and deep that it sucked the light out of the surrounding air. Inside almost every single door, Seth found another field of eclectically decorated doors.
Once he was was satisfied that he had looked thoroughly through the five corridors (he didn't open every door of course, after some of them revealed worlds that Seth was sure would bring nothing but a quick and painful death), he returned to the entrance where Jacquelyn was waiting. She still had that annoying grin on her face, but Seth had to concede: he had explored enough of The Wandering Cross to see that there was no way of getting anywhere without the very real risk of being eternally lost in a maze of doors.
“So, have you found the bridge yet?” asked Jacquelyn.
Seth took a long pause after he floated to the ground near her. This woman was making it impossible to accept any help from her. Jacquelyn took Seth’s silence as an admission of the negative and she spoke once again.
“Ok, so I am here to help you –”
Seth interrupted her.
“But why?”
She looked at Seth.
“How am I supposed to know? So, I know the route. It’s not short, or safe, so I hope you have your… “matter manipulation” up to scratch, because I guarantee you will need it,” and she started walking.
Seth followed her as she moved between the doors. She advanced three rows and stopped. Seth turned sideways to fit between two ornate doors in the third row and was now standing next to Jacquelyn.
She looked at Seth with the most serious expression than she had worn since she had met him.
“By the way, you can call me Jacqui if you prefer. Your journey starts here,” Jacqui gestured towards a red wooden door behind Seth. Seth turned around, slowly grabbed the handle, looked at Jacqui and then back to the door. He was about to turn the handle but then a door to his left opened and Jacqui’s head poked out. Confused, Seth turned back to the Jacqui that had just told him which door to open and she now had a very angry look on her face. The head poking out of the door must have been Heidi. It spoke first:
“Do not, open that! You will die, Heidi! Why do you want to destroy this place?”
And the first Jacqui started laughing maniacally. She raised her hand with a palm towards Seth and a small green glow appeared. Seth had no idea what was happening, but he sensed danger. He stood ready to fly out of harm’s way if necessary. The second Jacqui, head was still poking out of a simple black door, grabbed Seth and pulled him through the open frame.
Seth did not feel any transition as the world around him flickered from one to another. He landed on hard black ground, and saw the place he had just been standing on the other side of the open door was replaced by a huge green beam of light, the same colour as Seth just saw appearing in the first Jacqui’s hand. Surrounding Seth was a strange black world. Trees with no leaves were scattered across the landscape, all coloured pure black. There seemed to be a strong sun in this world and the ground was hot to the touch. Seth lifted himself a few centimetres from the ground, already feeling its heat through his sandals. The landscape was full with hills and forests of black leafless trees and hundreds of doors. The sun was the only thing that wasn’t black besides the doorway behind Seth, which still stood open.
While Seth was scanning the landscape around him he noticed Jacqui standing next to him looking slightly panicked.
“What just happened?” Seth asked Jacqui — or Heidi, he wasn’t sure.
“My sister Heidi just tried to kill you, and I saved you. Believe me, opening that other door would have meant instant death,” answered... Jacqui. Seth decided more questions were in order.
“Why would she kill me?”
The panicked look on Jacqui’s face had not yet faded, and she responded hastily.
“Look, I can tell you soon, but we need to get you away from this door and towards that one,” and she pointed towards a door in the distance. Seth wasn’t entirely sure which since they were all the same black colour, but he knew which direction to go.
A great glowing green hand with foot long sharp claws shot through the open doorway and grabbed Jacqui.
“GO! I can’t help you if she gets through!” she yelled at Seth. The green hand looked like it was squeezing something. Dark green smoke rose from the hand and emerald coloured fire could be seen flickering between huge the fingers. Jacqui was screaming, not in pain but more like a battle cry. A pink light appeared inside the hand, making it slightly translucent. The light grew stronger and stronger and darkened to a blood-red. Suddenly the build-up of energy caused the hand to fly open, and the ensuing force knocked Seth backwards for several metres.
“GO NOW!” screamed Jacqui as the green hand retracted back through the open door.
Seth felt sure that getting away from these two bewildering women was the right option and started flying towards the door Jacqui had indicated. Another glowing green hand shot past Seth towards the same door for which he was heading. Less than a second passed when a pure white blade of light appeared and sliced the hand loose at the wrist. The green hand was significantly smaller than the first Seth had seen, and it dissipated before it hit the ground. He continued to fly towards the black door, looking backwards occasionally in case more green hands came to pluck him from the air. It was now obvious which door Jacqui had meant: the other structures around it were actually tree stumps. From a distance, it was hard to determine in this strange, silhouetted landscape. When Seth landed he paused to turn around and observe the battle between these two sisters. One was glowing red all over and bolts of red lightning could be seen discharging from her glowing body. The other was waving her giant green plasma hand around. A second green hand extended from her other palm — towards Seth. He saw the hand grow in size as it approached him, and it was clear that whoever controlled these green hands wanted him dead.
; The idea that the door he was about to enter may also contain instant death was in the back of Seth’s mind; he couldn’t help hesitating about whether or not to open it. None of the doors in this landscape looked like they contained anything good. Seth created a wall of magnesium that dug deep into the ground between him and the glowing green hand flying towards him. He then clicked his fingers and fired a cone of sparks towards his magnesium wall, using the ensuing fire to create a bright white blaze in his palm. The green hand elevated its trajectory so it could fly over the wall Seth had created. As it got nearer, it angled downwards, towards Seth. The flame in Seth’s hand grew expansively and engulfed the green hand. Seth projected a huge arc of fire, widening to fifty metres at the far end. The glowing appendage slowed down as it struggled to maintain cohesion in the torrent of hot white fire. It broke apart and dispersed into hundreds of bits of green plasma before disappearing. Seth maintained his blazing torrent for several more seconds, lighting the surrounding landscape.
Laughing could be heard coming from the direction of the two lunatics. The glowing red woman suddenly stopped, and a red hand emerged from her. It pushed her opponent back through the door. The glowing red woman flew towards Seth at an alarming speed with a visible red strand leading from her arm to the opposite side of the door through which she had just pushed her opponent. Seth barely saw her move and she was already standing next to him.
“Why haven’t you gone through the door? I already told you which one you needed!” she demanded.
“What? I thought you were trying to kill me!”
Jacqui seemed to be struggling. The red string of plasma trailing through the open door moved in unison with her grunts as she explained to Seth:
“I did not, although I would have if Heidi were not stopping me. She was just trying to help you by pointing you to the right door.”
“Wait, you are Jacquelyn?” This was extremely confusing for Seth.
The red plasma strand trailing from her heaved violently, then thickened slightly. Jacqui looked at Seth seriously and continued her explanation.
“Look, when you arrived here you met Heidi. She was pretending to be me because she wants to keep you confused — that way you don’t know which one of us you can trust. If you want to get to the bridge you will need help from both of us, but you will need to pass through many of these doors. Every time either of us goes through one, our polarity reverses. So if I let Heidi back through this door, I will become a sadistic bitch and Heidi will have to try to stop me from killing you.”
Seth looked at the glowing red lady.
“So you’re Jacqui?”
Jacquelyn rolled her eyes.
“Yes, but call me Jacquelyn. Heidi just said that so you would annoy me, which you are doing by not going through that door. It gets harder and harder to trick me into punching Heidi back out the door.”
Seth had his hand on the door handle, but he turned to Jacquelyn.
“So, who’s going to help me through the next door?”
“The one who isn’t trying to kill you,” Jacquelyn answered curtly. Seth gave her a suspicious look and walked through the door, hoping he was putting his trust in the right maniac.
The round black handle turned in Seth’s hand as he had opened the portal to the next world. Seth saw a much more cheerful looking world; this landscape had emerald green grass stretching for kilometres. Seth could hear birds squawking as they flew through a cloudless blue sky. On the grass stood a plethora of doors, stretching out across the green landscape. In the distance were black-green mountains, reaching up to touch the sky. Seth heard movement nearby. He stood ready to blast the crazy woman — Jacquelyn or Heidi — with a jet of white-hot fire. A door just behind Seth opened and one of the two sisters poked her head through to look at him.
“Seth, you need to come through this door,” said the sister. Then it looked like she was pulled away by a force on the other side of the door — most likely her twin sister.
Seth faced the door through which he had just been beckoned, then walked towards it and looked through. He saw what looked like another section of The Wandering Cross. A long corridor extended in front of Seth, with walls made of huge mud bricks like the structure he had seen initially. Of course, there were once again all different sorts of doors filling up the space inside the massive corridor. It was possible that Heidi was the one who had called him through the door, in which case he shouldn’t listen to her... or maybe he should? Seth thought he understood what was going on with these two spasmodic ladies, but he had not seen either one for about thirty seconds. They both could have flown through several doors in that time, changing which one was helpful and which one was out for his blood. He realised keeping track of the two sisters was going to be paramount to his survival.
Once again Jacquelyn or Heidi shoved their head through the same doorway and yelled for Seth to come through. He took one step forward, when Jacquelyn came fast as lighting through the door he had used to enter this grassy land. She started laughing maniacally and raised both her hands above her head. A blue ball of energy began to gather between them. If this was the sister who was just with Seth in the black landscape, then she must have turned evil after crossing through the door, so it was the good one who had been calling Seth. He jumped through the door from which Heidi had been calling him. He was indeed back in The Wandering Cross, but the woman waiting there did not seem happy to see him.
She looked at Seth, then at the ground and shook her head while she was talking.
“Seth, the one who just came through the door is now trying to kill you, correct?”
From the tone of her voice Seth was sure he was about to hear how he had done something wrong.
“Yes, that’s how I knew you were Jacquelyn — no, Heidi, but the good Heidi,” he answered. Heidi had stopped shaking her head and looking at the ground, but her flat, condescending tone hadn’t changed when she spoke.
“Now I am, but not when I was calling you through this door. This is not where you need to be. You have to go back.”
Both of Seth’s eyebrows raised as he realised his mistake.
“But evil Jacqui is there! And why did she come through the door if she knew she was going to start attacking me anyway?” he replied. Heidi sighed in exasperation.
“She did it so you would know which one of us to trust, but we need to go back. You just need a head start so I don’t kill you, Seth. Now go!”
This is too confusing, Seth thought. It didn’t seem like that big a ruse, but Heidi’s method of introducing herself as Jacquelyn was very cunning and had thrown him completely. Seth jumped through the door, ready for an onslaught of energy beams. Jacquelyn was still holding a ball of blue plasma above her head. Seth decided avoiding Jacqui’s ball of destruction entirely was the best approach. He kicked his foot against the ground as he flung himself quickly upwards. He heard an explosion close behind him and saw that he had taken flight just in time.
From where Seth floated in the air, her could see Jacquelyn flying towards him, blue lightning trailing behind her. Instead of fire, this time Seth sent a rapidly growing root of blue stone towards Jacquelyn. Jacquelyn dodged the stone beam easily and swung her arm around, bringing her trail of blue lightning forward like a whip. A wall of stone materialised around Seth as he protected himself from the oncoming whip of plasma. All that Jacquelyn could see was a marbled orb falling through the sky as the lightning bounced harmlessly off the non-conductive material. Inside the falling orb, Seth was panicking. He was only about five hundred metres from the ground, so he needed to act quickly or he would be smashed against the walls of his stone barrier as it collided with the ground.
The feeling of weightlessness as he fell was reminiscent of the small room that had transported Seth around the Reference Centre in Chos Garren. He was instantly reminded of his ability to shrink, and he began reducing his size rapidly, effectively increasing the distance between him and the walls of his falling stone prison. Seth’s down
ward momentum kept him floating inside the two metre wide ball as it fell. The thunk as it hit the ground shook Seth around violently and he needed to manipulate the air flow around him to stabilise. Slowly, he increased his size again. Seth could hear laughing coming from outside the stone wall. No doubt Jacquelyn was under the impression he had become a red paste inside the orb.
A loud crack boomed across the grass as Seth fired a beam of metal upwards, smashing open the ball of blue stone. It grew twenty metres tall before it stopped. The metallic pole tipped over and crushed several doors into the ground, sending bits of wooden debris flying through the air. When enough dust had cleared, Seth saw Jacquelyn, floating in the air still laughing. Then she stopped suddenly, blinked a few times and burst into an even more intense fit of laughter.
“Is being one foot tall supposed to intimidate me?” Jacquelyn yelled through uncontrollable howls.
Seth looked down at himself and saw nothing strange, then to his surroundings. The doors that had once been normal size towered about ten metres above him; he was not even close to his original size. Seth focused on growing, but instead of returning to normal size he shot up rapidly to stand two hundred metres tall.
“No, but this is!” and he was surprised by how loud his voice had become.
Seth’s massive fist reached out to grab Jacquelyn but she quickly flew out of the way. Overconfidence came with such height and Seth tried to reach for her once again, even faster. He closed his gargantuan hand around Jacquelyn, leaving a tiny empty space in his hand so she wouldn’t be crushed like a mosquito, just a small red stain in his hand. He could feel her pushing against his fingers It stung a bit now and then. Seth laughed: Jacquelyn’s screaming reached his massive ears as a small peep, while his laughter boomed across the landscape of doors.