The White Door

by Christy Sloat

  “How do I stop her?” I asked her. She bit her lip in hesitation. “Agnes you owe me! You tried to kill me.”

  “For that I am sorry. I wasn’t in control, but you know that already,” she said as she patted my arm. “She is like glass and you were made to shatter her. Now go.”

  I was still confused, but I did as I was told and stood up. The man and the woman who were setting my house on fire spotted me. But before they could do anything to hurt me, the couch swung out in front of them both and knocked them down. I laughed and walked over to them.

  “Oops, watch out for the couch guys,” I said with sarcasm. “I’ll be taking this,” I told the confused man as I took his torch.

  “Lyn, take care of them.”

  “With pleasure,” she said as she hoisted the man up and threw him against the wall. The woman ran screaming out the door like a banshee with Agnes on her tail.

  I found the back stairs and heard the fighting still at the top. Ephraim was telling Evangeline off as she laughed. I had to find something to tie her up with so I went into his room. I searched for something like a rope but came up short. Finally, I found his hunting stuff in the closet. His crossbow lay in its case with an arrow in it. I picked it up and slung it on my shoulder. If she was like glass then this would shatter her for sure. I gave up on the rope and a better idea forming instead.

  The stairs creaked as I walked up them, but it didn’t matter, the light from the torch would give me away first. I reached the landing and didn’t see them as I had expected to.

  “Oh no!”

  I ran to the white door and it was open slightly. For fear of giving myself away, I sunk back into the shadows and waited. I heard them talking and strained to listen.

  “You will never amount to anything! Just like your father. You’re an insufferable boy with a crush on a girl who talks to the dead!”

  She was talking down to Ephraim and it hurt to hear it. I wanted to shoot an arrow through her head.

  “Don’t try to analyze me, witch. You don’t even know me and you never tried to. You killed your own daughter!” he yelled. “If I’m insufferable, what does that make you?”

  I could hear her laughter vibrate the walls. She didn’t care what he said, she was getting her power back and that was all that mattered.

  “Stand back before I kill you, too.”

  She started mumbling words and I knew, in that moment, she was doing another spell, one that would help her soak up all the power that she once had. The very power that I worked hard to keep from her. I had to act now.

  I sucked in a deep breath and barreled into the room. The white door flew open so hard it bounced off the wall, leaving a hole in the plaster.

  Evangeline stopped chanting and gave me an evil, menacing look. I threw the torch to the floor, I had to. I only had so many arms and I needed both of them to shoot her with the crossbow. The floor erupted in flames around my feet. Ephraim ran to me, trying to help. I didn’t need his help now. I raised the bow and aimed for her face. I pulled the trigger and at the last minute aimed for her waist. She wasn’t expecting me to change positions and the arrow flew straight through her abdomen. It sank deep into her stomach with a sickening crunch. Her image flickered and then fell away like glass to the floor. I knew now what Agnes was talking about.

  Now, in front of me, stuck to the wall was the crippled woman she really was. The arrow had lodged itself into the north wall with her on the end. I laughed. It was actually amazing.

  “Brylee, we have to get out of here!”

  Ephraim pulled at me and I noticed the floor was breaking away. The fire was eating away at it and it would pull us down with it. I couldn’t leave until I saw her burn.

  “No. I’m staying. I’m going to make sure she is gone forever.”

  I pushed him away and right before I did the floor gave way. If I hadn’t push him when I did, he would have dropped through. I coughed and pulled my shirt up around my mouth. Ephraim was on the other side of the door, reaching for me.

  “Grab my hand. She will burn, just grab me now!”

  I smiled at him. Dizzy with grief, I knew that I had to stay to make sure she burned like the witch she was. “Go Ephraim. Get out now before it gets worse,” I pleaded.

  Evangeline laughed behind me. “I told you she didn’t love you. She would rather die in this fire with me than be with you.”

  I turned to face her making sure she saw me through the smoke.

  “No. It’s love that is keeping me here to ensure your death for what you did to him and Lynley. I’ll watch you burn and then we will continue our lives together.”

  Her eyes twitched as my words set in. I picked up the torch and threw it right at her face. The last thing I saw before I fell through the floor was Evangeline Barclay, eaten up by flames.

  Chapter 28

  I closed my eyes, afraid of what was holding onto me. I could feel the pull and the tug, but I didn’t dare open my eyes. I let whatever it was holding me do its work.

  “Open your eyes, Brylee.” I struggled but finally did. I found that I wasn’t being held up, I was being held onto. Every ghost in the Brown house was holding me. Their arms were supporting me and they were keeping me from plummeting to my death. I looked down and saw nothing but flames. My house was gone.

  “Oh god, don’t let go. I don’t want to die,” I begged. “Please.”

  “We won’t let go.”

  “We have you.”

  “Don’t cry,” they murmured. I looked up and saw Lyn standing on the edge of the flooring in what used to be the corner room. She looked fierce and bold as she stood and watched her mother burn, the power draining from the room. She looked at me and smiled.

  “Bring her up,” she told them. They did as she asked and kept me safe from the fire. They set me down in the hallway, away from the gaping hole in the center of the room.

  “She’s gone now, Brylee. You did it!” Lyn told me. “You freed us. Now that she’s gone we can all go free.”

  Tears welled in my eyes at the realization that she could move on now. I would be watching her pass again. The ghosts smiled at the news. They would finally be free. As happy as I was for them, I was sad at the same time.

  “Do you see it?” Violet asked Agnes.

  “I do. Why do I see it?”

  “What do you see?” I asked them both.

  “A light, more beautiful than anything I have ever seen. I can feel its warmth from here. But I don’t understand why I can see it. I have been so awful,” Agnes admitted.

  “I don’t know why, Agnes. Maybe because when it mattered, you did the right thing.” I was referring to her helping me tonight. She smiled and then walked away from me, straight into the room.

  “Goodbye Brylee,” she said as a bright white light shown on her skin and took her away. The light burned heavily turning the fire blackened things new again. What was destroyed moments ago was now beautiful and pristine, but only in the corner room. It was like looking at a picture but it wasn’t real. The house burned and smoked while the room gleamed with light.

  “Come on!” The ghosts left my side one by one, patting me on the back, thanking me. Some cried fearfully, but they walked toward the light anyway. Anything was better than being trapped in the house. As they walked into the room they vanished, crossing over. This went on until only Violet and Lynley were left. Violet looked to me with tears in her eyes.

  “You did it, Brylee. You set us free, just as you promised you would. I knew you could do it all along.” She kissed my cheek and walked into the room.

  Lynley left the room and sat with me, clinging. I could feel her trembling.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked her.

  She shook her head. “I’m so scared. I don’t know what will happen when I go in that room.” She looked at me, begging for an answer. I didn’t know what would happen either.

  “What if it’s not a good place and it’s bad?”

  “Lynley I don’t know what’s
on the other side of that room. I honestly don’t, but I do know that anything that could turn that room from a flaming mess into what it is now is pure goodness.” I grabbed her and held her in my arms. I didn’t want to say goodbye, but the last time I never got the chance to and this was my second chance. I wasn’t going to waste it.

  “I love you Lyn. You’re my best friend and I will miss you every day. But I will live my life in your memory.” My throat burned and my eyes dripped with tears. “I promise you I will take care of Ephraim. I promise you that I will live everyday as if you were here with me.”

  She hugged me harder.

  “I know you will. I will see you again. I will be watching over you.”

  We stood up and the floor beneath me quaked. We had to hurry. Time was running out. The house wasn’t going to be standing for too much longer. I could hear the sirens outside and the shouts from the firemen below. She had to go, now.

  “Lynley, get your skinny ass in here now!” I looked into the room and saw Kayla. She looked different. She looked peaceful.

  “Kayla!”

  “Brylee, I’m here to help her cross. You have to trust me and let her go. And then hightail it out of this house before you get stuck in here, too,” she said, reaching for Lyn. Lyn let me go and took Kayla’s hand. They stared at me from the beautiful white room. Both my friends were going to leave me, but they would be together in the end.

  “I love you. Both of you,” I cried.

  “Love you to, Brylee,” Kayla said.

  “Forever,” Lyn whispered.

  The white door slammed shut and the light winked out. They were gone and the room was too. And I stood out in the burning hallway, alone.

  Chapter 29

  “My girlfriend is still in there!” Ephraim shouted at the fireman. He shrugged him off, probably because everyone outside the house thought there were no survivors. Except Ephraim knew there was. Brylee was still alive. He could feel it in his heart. She was alive and she needed him to save her. This one time, she actually needed him. Not the other way around, like it had been from the start. He had always needed her. Her support when his cousins turned on him. Her shoulder to lean on when his mom was going crazy. Someone to wipe his tears when he cried after losing Lynley.

  Now, he would be there for her. He loved her and he wouldn’t let her burn alive in the house. He found a mask on the fire truck and fit it to his head. It would help him breathe long enough to find her. Then he pulled on a coat one of the firemen had left on the ground.

  He took off and ran past the firemen to the front of the house.

  “What are ya doing kid? Get back here!”

  They yelled for him to stop. He ignored them and ran to the stairs. They were gone.

  “Shit!” he cursed. Plan B. What was plan B? “The back stairs.” He pushed through the living room, knocking debris out of his way. The back stairs were still intact, but they were crumbling with each step he took. He would need a different exit route. He stepped on the top step and his foot went through it. It burned and he looked down to see his foot on fire. He pulled it up and it was smoking. With the jacket sleeve, he hit it and took off his burning shoe.

  “Brylee!” He saw her lying on the landing in a heap. She wasn’t on fire, but she was completely black. Her once blonde hair was covered in soot and it made her features look so different. At least she was alive.

  He pulled her into his arms and fit the mask over her face, giving her fresh air. She didn’t stir. He had to get her out of the house and fast.

  “Think,” he told himself. Each exit was on fire. The hallway burned and the stairs he came up were now collapsed. He was staring into the basement below. It wasn’t burning.

  “Brylee, we have to jump. Hold onto me,” he told her. She moaned. She heard him!

  He wrapped her up in the coat and jumped down into the hole. They both fell but she landed on top of him. He was happy to take the brunt of the fall.

  He didn’t feel the pain. Not at first. He pulled himself up and heaved her over his shoulder.

  The doors going out of the basement were unlocked and he pushed hard to release them. With a cloud of smoke behind him, he walked out of the house with Brylee in his arms.

  Chapter 30

  Six Months Later…

  Graduation had ended and I found myself sitting at the old lot, where the Brown house had once stood, instead of at the restaurant where my parents wanted me to meet them. I couldn’t bring myself to sit at another dinner, eating to celebrate. We ate to celebrate everything in this family. We ate once my little sister, Bailey, was born. We ate when my parent’s new home loan went through in Laguna Beach. We ate when they found out I was alive after the fire.

  Always eating. It wasn’t what I wanted to do to celebrate today. For this accomplishment, I wanted to be where I last saw Lynley.

  I sat on the grass, looking at the skeleton of my old house. The only thing left standing after that day was what used to be the corner room. It stood with the door and window still intact, like some old castle tower that refused to go down.

  The door doesn’t open and the windows were clear. It looked like the fire hadn’t touched it, but I knew the reason why. The light that came to take the ghosts did it. It purified everything and made it new again.

  I could sit there and stare at it all night long. I felt her here sometimes. I would come here to draw comfort, looking for solace when things got rough. And I came here to tell Lynley about my new baby sister.

  I knew that she heard me every time I came, even though she never showed herself. I hadn’t seen a ghost here since the fire.

  After that night, my whole life changed. Ephraim had pulled me out of the house, saving me. He told me when he found me I was barely breathing. They rushed me to the hospital and I was out for a few days. When I woke up, my parents were standing over me, talking to Ephraim about where I would go to recover.

  The first thing I said to my mom was, “I’m not leaving.”

  They all laughed. It was a typical me response, I suppose.

  I recovered just fine. I had a broken arm and a concussion on top of the already injured hip bone and bruised ribs. I was a complete mess, but I was lucky to be alive. I know that the ghosts saved me and without them, I would have died. Without Ephraim I would have burned like Evangeline did.

  Ephraim moved me into his new place once the hospital discharged me. My parents stayed with us for the first two weeks. My dad’s job understood and gave him family leave. They hovered over me day and night, making me crazy. But I was happy to have them back. I wished they had been back for different circumstances though.

  Finally, after two weeks, they had to get back home. Life had to move on and I had to go back to school. Instead of attending classes at Wilson High, I took them at the vocational school. I couldn’t be around the students anymore. I especially couldn’t be around any of the Mayhew’s. The Brown family curse was over, but they still probably hoped their precious Evangeline would come back. I knew the truth. She was gone forever.

  We settled into the new house nicely. Ephraim’s house, or as he calls it, “our” house, was beautiful. It sat back in the woods and it was peaceful. I woke up every day and had coffee outside on the back porch that he had built. The backyard bordered a lake that looked gorgeous in the daytime. In the twilight, the lake was even more stunning.

  I made dinner after school and he always helped set the table. It’s no different than living with him in the Brown house, except this house was ghost free.

  “Ditching your own party, huh?” Ephraim’s voice pulled me out of my daze. I looked up, surprised to see my parents with him. My mom had refused to come back here after the fire and my dad supported her. I smiled at them.

  “You know what’s funny?” I said.

  “What?” my dad asked me.

  “You both loved this place in the beginning and I hated it. Now I can’t stay away from it and I actually miss it. And the two of you loathe it.” I lau
ghed hard and my mom cried.

  “Mom, why are you crying?” I asked as I got up and held her. She shook her head.

  “It’s just that we made you sacrifice everything for this move and in the end, we left you here, alone,” she sobbed. “We are so sorry, Brylee.”

  I knew she felt bad about it, but I wasn’t holding a grudge. I’m immensely thankful they weren’t here that night. I know why they had to be away and I was so happy that they didn’t get hurt.

  “Mom, things happen for a reason,” I reminded her.

  I heard a cry come from the car. Bailey. Her tiny newborn cry filled the air. New life was present where old lives were taken. It was sort of beautiful. My dad got her out of her car seat and brought her to me. I had only held her a few times in her month of life.

  While I held her in my arms now, she opened her eyes and stared right at me. They were blue, like Lyn’s. I smiled at her and she stopped crying instantly.

  “Brylee,” my mom said. “We need to know something. We need to know about the house.”

  I looked up from Bailey’s adorable face and saw that my mom was very serious.

  “Oh-kay.”

  “We need to know what really went on in the house. No more lies. Honesty only,” she warned.

  I sighed and gave her Bailey. This was my one chance to come clean about it all or I could lie again. I had gotten so good at lying to my parents to hide what I really was. It had become second nature. If I told them the truth I would risk them thinking I was crazy. My parents already thought that when I told them I was staying here in New Jersey.

  “You want the truth, huh?” I bit my lip. They bobbed their heads in unison and Ephraim stood off to the side.

  “The truth is that the house had a history,” I began. “A history that dated back to the early 1800’s when the first Brown family built it. It all began with Violet Brown, really.” I sat there and explained the rich history of the house we had lived in for the last two years. I told them all about Violet’s affair with Oscar Mayhew. Also about how she went to the Barclay sisters for help when her daughter, Pearl, died. I dove into all the dirty secrets and didn’t hold back. Finally, when I was ready, I told them my secret.