I flipped through a yearbook from Carter’s shelf. “What’s Three’s Company?”
“A show I watched with my sister. It’s from the seventies or something.” He yanked the yearbook out of my hands. “It’s like us, except two girls and a guy.”
“Now that sounds like a good deal.” Brek actually took a moment to tear his eyes away from his phone.
“I don’t know…” I snuggled my head into Carter’s chest. “I kind of like it the way it is.”
“I suppose you would.” Brek finally put his phone down. “I think we should go talk to Mrs. Sonneberg tomorrow. Try the whole ultimatum thing.”
“We keep risking our lives for Rosenbaum’s objects.” Without the information, we were kind of like hit men—given just enough to perform the task. Not that they owed us anything. He paid us, after all.
“How many doors do you think we need to complete?” Carter ran his fingers up and down my arm. “The Red Door is next because of Tyran, but what’s the plan if we make it out alive?”
“You mean when.” Brek sat on the edge of the bed, the phone in his hands again. I’d never seen my best friend use his phone so much. It was as if he had to keep his eyes busy.
“Yes, when.” Carter sat up and put his own hands between his knees. “How much will be enough to cover the two of you going to college?”
“I’d say the White Door. Five hundred thousand should be plenty for both of us and to help our parents. I’d like to avoid the Black Door at all costs.” The evil that door emitted still gave me a chill down my spine. “It’s not worth a million dollars to me.”
“Then, tomorrow we negotiate with Sonneberg.” Brek got up and left the room.
I woke in the middle of the night, Carter’s arm flung across me. We’d fallen asleep watching a movie on the couch. Our first night together, and we ended up like this. How was I going to keep him out of my bed? I told him I was saving myself for someone I loved. We’d only been dating for a little over a month. It hardly qualified as love. But he grew on me more and more each day.
I slipped out from Carter’s arm, not wanting Brek to see us. Life would be so much easier if he thought I slept in my own bed. I grabbed my clothes from my bedroom and headed for the bathroom.
The ride to the Rosenbaum Mansion took us to the other side of town—the side of town where it wasn’t uncommon for two people to live in an eight-thousand-square-foot mansion. And as far as we knew, that was the case in Rosenbaum’s place, except we hadn’t met him yet.
“Good morning.” Mrs. Sonnenberg ushered us in off the front stoop. The floors of the foyer glistened as if they had been recently polished. “Mr. Rosenbaum is happy you’re back. He’s concerned about the dismal success rate of the contestants.”
“What do you mean he’s happy we’re back? How do you know this? Do you have a bug in your ear?” I strained to look for an earpiece.
She led us down the hallway with the Oriental rug to the office where we signed papers the last time we were there. “He also wants me to let you know that this is a partner game, so Mr. Matthews will have to find another partner to play.”
I snatched her hand before she had a chance to open the door. “Listen. Both of these guys put their life on the line for me behind the Green Door. If you want Carter and I to get this stupid jewel out of the Red Door, Brek comes with us. We’re a package deal. And he’s my original partner.”
“It’s breaking the rules.” Mrs. Sonnenburg stared me down through her tortoise shell reading glasses. “It’s in Article V, line twenty-eight.”
I twirled my finger above her paperwork. “Is there anything in your little paperwork about teams working together? Because Carter’s a single-player team—he’ll sign his own contract.”
Carter followed the woman into the office. “I remember from reading the paperwork last time that there’s a clause about single players. They’re allowed as long as there’s a witness to the signing. Brek will be my witness.”
“You surprise me, Mr. Reyes. Most teenagers scan over the paperwork and sign their names as quickly as possible.” Her eyes seemed to take him in for the first time, examining him from head to toe. “Impressive.”
“Yeah, there’s a reason these guys keep me around.” He plopped into one of the leather chairs and put his feet up on the desk.
I perched on the edge of the chair beside him.
Mrs. Sonnenberg shot him a death glare. “There’s been a turn of events since the last time you were here.” From behind the desk, she set the contract in front of me. “There’s more urgency in Mr. Rosenbaum’s quest for the objects. He’s only obtained three out of the seven.”
“Three?” Brek had his hands on the back of my chair. “When we were here four weeks ago, only the Blue and Green doors had winners.”
“The game continues without you, Mr. Matthews. One of the teams obtained the glowing ember from the Orange Door.” She cleared her throat and lifted another stack of papers from a file in a large, wooden cabinet. “Because of this urgency, Mr. Rosenbaum has doubled the prize money.”
“Doubled?” Brek and I said it at the same time.
“Each prize from this point on will be doubled.” She removed a sheet a paper from the top drawer of the desk and slid her glasses down the tip of her nose. “Which door do you plan to attempt next?”
Brek walked around the edge of the desk, toward Mrs. Sonneberg. “The Red Door.”
She ran her finger down the paper. “Fifty thousand dollars.”
I swallowed. That amount of money was unfathomable to me. That was a year’s salary for a lot of Americans. It was two years of in-state college. With the door amounts doubled, we could knock out the White Door and be millionaires. The thought of only having to enter one door tempted me.
Brek’s eyes met mine. His mind ran on the same track. Being kids from the Dump made us think in a way that Carter couldn’t possibly understand.
My best friend spoke the words I didn’t dare utter aloud. “What if someone else gets it before us?”
He meant the White Door. It was the one we had planned as the last one to tackle.
“Then we go for the Black Door and the two mil.” It was all I could say. With Tyran in the Red Door, we didn’t have a choice. “Your master’s in there.”
Carter pursed his lips, but the laugh slipped out. “Master? Boy, does he have you whipped.”
Mrs. Sonnenberg’s eyes narrowed. “What type of interactions did you have inside the Green Door? In Article VIII, line sixty-two, it says that you are not to have lasting interactions with the people, animals, or creatures within the doors. Did you bring a relationship back from the Green Door?”
“Define relationship.” I tapped the ballpoint pen on the desk. “Because normally, when I’m in a relationship with someone, there’s a little French kissing going on.”
“Did you form a friendship with this man?” Mrs. Sonnenberg rested her arms on the desk and leaned toward me. “Is he someone you’ll send Christmas cards to each December?”
This woman was learning.
“He helped us out a bit.” Like basically told us about the second seed so we wouldn’t have to kill off an entire village, saved me from the clutches of a sadistic king, and protected us from the new queen’s soldiers by turning himself into a wolf.
She brushed off this response as she opened two ballpoint pens and placed them on each of the contracts. “I’ll leave the room for a few minutes to give you time to discuss if you really want to risk your lives and future to the game.”
When the woman exited the room, I scooted to the door and peeked into the hallway. “There isn’t a discussion. Tyran needs us. You two fill out your part of the contracts. I’m going to use the bathroom.”
I crept down the abandoned hallway, careful not to alert Mrs. Sonneberg by placing my foot on a creaky floorboard or tripping over a hallway runner. In the front entryway, there was a carpeted staircase leading to the second floor. What I was searching for required a
dvanced snooping.
At the top of the stairs, I took a right toward the front of the mansion. I was sure Rosenbaum would want a good view of who was coming and going. I chose the door to the right. I turned the knob slowly, not making any noise.
The room was dark except for the light shining beneath the blackout shade. I chewed on my fingernail. Should I dare to turn on the light?
Reaching into my pocket, I grabbed my phone. I aimed its flashlight beam at the walls that were lined in shelves with books. Another mahogany desk sat near the window covered with papers and candles melted down to the stub. Ten file boxes lay on the floor against the bookshelves. I brought my light up to one of the labels—BROWN. The next box was labeled GREEN and in small letters beneath the color was the word completed.
I lifted the lid off the green box. Files ran along the back portion with tabs for species, environment, and hazards. The front of the container held vials and smaller white boxes. The edge of the first box stuck to the corner as I worked it open. Inside were pieces of one of the soldier uniforms that Brek and Carter wore to disguise themselves at King Azer’s castle. Another box held a dart gun with a tag that read wolves. As I lowered the lid to close the box, I noticed a black symbol imprinted on the cover. It was brush strokes forming an infinity symbol. What did it stand for?
Not having much time before Sonnenberg rejoined us in the downstairs office, I found the box labeled RED. It held similar items. I swiped a bottle of red and green capsules and shoved them into my backpack. We had no idea what to expect in the next world, but I wanted every advantage. I dug further and found two gas masks.
There was a noise from across the hall. My heart picked up its pace as I rushed to the entryway and slid behind it in case the mysterious person decided to come in the office. The sound of footsteps retreated down the hallway, so I cracked the door open in time to see an older man with a cane enter another room.
I tiptoed to the staircase, taking the steps two at a time. At the end of the hall, the office door was open, and Mrs. Sonnenberg had her eyes narrowed in on me.
“Where have you been?” She stepped into the corridor and closed the door. She planted her hands on her hips.
“I had to use the bathroom.” I shrugged and reached out to turn the knob. Playing innocent was always the way to go.
She stuck her arm out to block me. “The bathroom is that way.” She pointed to the hall that led toward the basement. “Not by the staircase.”
“I used the upstairs bathroom. Listen, no one gave me specific instructions on how to wipe when I came in, so I took it upon myself.”
It was evident now why she was so protective of the upstairs office. Although light in weight, the new items in my backpack felt like lead.
“For all future toileting needs, you will use the main floor bathroom.” She reached behind her, opened the door, and all but dragged me into the office.
By the smirk on Brek’s face, I could tell he’d heard every word of our conversation.
I signed off on my part of the contract, and then we followed Mrs. Sonnenberg to the basement. Not much had changed over the past four weeks. It still held the musty smell, cobwebs, and rickety stairs. She removed her key ring and unlatched the multiple dead locks leading into the pristine white hallway holding portals to the other realms.
“Before I close this door, I want you to know that one of Mr. Rosenbaum’s expectations is that you return the Vradian to his rightful place in the Green Door. If word about the hallway gets inside the doors, there’s no telling what type of riffraff or horrific monsters will unleash havoc on this place we call Earth.” She glanced at my backpack and I squirmed. “Do you still have the button to alert us when you return?”
“Right here.” I patted the side pocket, thankful that she didn’t ask to search my bag.
“Get the object and leave.” Her stern look made me want to eat my vegetables, brush my teeth after every meal, and wear my coat out in the cold. “Don’t worry about the people behind the door; just get yourselves and the Vradian out alive. It’s not your job to save everyone.”
“Mrs. Sonnenberg?” Brek lifted his pack onto his back.
“Yes, Brekken?” She already had one foot in the basement.
“Karma’s a bitch.”
She shook her head and slammed the door.
Carter ran his hand along the wood of the second portal. “Courtney wanted to open the Red Door first.” A slight smile crossed his lips. “She thought it’d be easier because of all the hearts and lights.”
“What do you think they mean? Is it a place where The Bachelor plays on a continuous loop on television?” I stuck my finger in my throat to fake gag. “I hope there aren’t any more of those sirens.”
“Whatever it is, we better get going.” Brek pointed to the bracelet hook beside the door. “Two bracelets are missing, so besides Tyran, there’s another competitor in there trying to beat us to the jewel.”
“Let’s go.” Carter turned the handle and opened the door to a long, red hallway.
3
Red lights illuminated the hallway giving it an eerie glow and making me feel like we were in a fallout shelter—or even the devil’s lair. My head spun, so I braced myself on the wall, feeling the need for fresh air. The hallway ascended at a slight angle, so I had a little bit of hope that we’d see the sky eventually.
The guys stayed quiet beside me. Our footsteps echoed through the cavernous tunnel, and I feared armed guards might run at us, weapons loaded, if we said a word out loud.
At the top of our ascent was another door. This one was, of course, red.
Brek cracked the door an inch and peeked out. I crouched down to get a glimpse beneath his arm. There were definitely people. People with the worst fashion sense I’d ever seen. All shades of red adorned an atrium and its occupants. Cherry, rose, garnet, brick, scarlet, crimson, and ruby—any variant of red I could think of covered the tucks and folds of the garments. The open area appeared to be a mall, or the shopping section of an airport. Within the merchandise displays of the stores were mannequins in outlandish dresses, pantsuits, lingerie, and beach attire.
Brek closed the door, placed his back up against it, and sighed. “I totally understood the world inside the Green Door, but this? It’s like someone took the Five Points Mall, swallowed it, and threw it up again. What the hell is going on out there?”
“Not a clue, but once we go out there, we’ll stick out like one of those bathing suits on a ski slope.” Carter’s eyes took in my blue shirt, jeans, and black Vans. He took his wallet from his front pocket. “I guess we’re going shopping.”
“But we don’t know what kind of money they take here. If we try to pay with your Visa, we’ll definitely stick out.” I glanced at Brek and an understanding crossed his eyes. “We’ve got to swipe some clothes.”
“Can’t Brek just make them materialize?” Carter shoved his wallet back in his pocket.
“Not in my realm of abilities.” Brek opened the door again. “There’s a store across the way with semi-normal clothes. Still red, but there’s t-shirts and jeans. Let’s go.”
We slipped out the door and tried to walk across the atrium as normally as possible, but every person we passed stopped and stared. As someone who was used to blending in like a wallflower, having all these eyes on me made me feel extremely uncomfortable. Some of the people whispered to the person next to them. I overheard the condescending remarks.
“How dare they insult her?”
“If they were my kids, I’d banish them.”
“Arrest them.”
Carter must’ve heard that last comment because he quickened his pace as we passed a fountain in the center of the room. The store Brek mentioned was called Casual Athena. Like most stores, there were mannequins decked out in the latest fashions. Unlike most stores, every female had a distinguishable face, the same face—a woman with dark hair, rosy red cheeks, and piercing brown eyes. She made me shudder. The men were different—some blo
nde, some dark haired. I stopped in front of a male mannequin with long brown hair and hazel eyes. He wore red swim trunks and was positioned on a surfboard.
“Tyran?”
“It’s him, or at least a mannequin designed to look like him.” Brek reached up and touched the mannequin’s clothes. “I’d know him anywhere. Do you think this means he’s in trouble?”
I didn’t have time to answer as a man wearing a red pantsuit rushed over, crossing the store in two seconds flat.
“What on Athenal are you wearing?” Up close, his dark hair was more of a deep burgundy color, and he wore blood red contacts. He touched the sleeve of my shirt, and his eyes narrowed to the blue in my hair. “Are you sick? Or did you hit your head?”
“Um… no.” I brushed the blue streak under my blonde strands and then rifled through a rack of red shirts. “It’s obvious we need some new clothes.”
“It’s obvious you need to spend some time with Athena but not in what you’re wearing.” He ran his finger up and down Carter’s chest. “Not in forbidden colors.”
Carter stepped back. “We don’t have any money.”
What the freak, Carter? Are you trying to announce our planned grand theft to the world?
I cleared my throat. “What my friend means to say is we’re not sure how much the clothes cost.”
Red-eyed guy raised an eyebrow as if he thought we were crazy. “Now, I’m really beginning to wonder about the three of you. The clothes don’t cost anything. Athena takes care of those who love her.”
“Love her?” What was going on here? I removed a plain red tee from the rack.
“Yes. Love her,” the shopkeeper growled, moving inches from my face. His thick cologne made my eyes water.
Carter stretched his arm between us, pulling me away from the increasingly, unpleasant man.
“We’d like to change out of these undesirable colors.” Brek held up a pair of red jeans. “You know, to please her.”
I grabbed four items and went to the dressing room. What was this? A freaking communist society? Everything was to please her. She must be an overgrown child, prone to throwing temper tantrums with an obsession for red. I pulled my blue tee off and stuck my head through the burgundy shirt. The jeans were just as burgundy. How I longed for the cotton and comfort of my black Nirvana tee. I stared at myself in the mirror. Red was not my color.
The Red Door Page 2