The last door

 

There are days when you don’t understand what is happening and then there are days when inspite of knowing and understanding those things, you don’t want to acknowledge them so the thought of reality doesn’t bother you.

It’s not really a healthy way of coping but sometimes it’s exactly what you need so that you can save yourself from the sheer terror of the reality being actually true.

Daniel was doing the same.

The idea that whatever notion he had known of Rose for so long when turned out to be just a fake identity, he tried to turn his mind into feeling that it wasn’t true at all.

It felt like he was in a thriller movie and being the main character, he had no idea what to do.

What was he supposed to do? He did not even know what a person Rose, or now that he knows Aubrey, really was.

There were moments when he thought that Rose was just a figment of his imagination; someone like her was too kind and smart and beautiful to be real, but never in his wildest dreams did he think that it would be like this.

He showed her his real version, the only version of him and on the other hand, maybe, she was showing a version of her that wasn’t even probably real; a meticulously created version of hers. Who was he going to ask answers to if she didn’t wake up?

That’s it, he thought, that is why he is willing to fight for her. He’s going to give her the right to explain her reason behind it.

Or maybe he’ll find the reason when he’s searching for the answers behind the attack. He just hoped that whatever bond they had, whatever unlabeled relation they had was real.  

So, he shut off his thoughts of what he thought would be and focused on what he could actually do.

He quickly went off to Sam’s house and noted off all the detail that he could get from the pen drive and stored it in a safe place.

His next stop was the office. He did not know what he would be doing, but he did know that he was not going to stop until he got some answers.

No one would question his presence and he would easily just find something worth using and would go back. That was his plan.

His feet did not halt until he was inside Rose’s cabin. The room always reminded him of how perfectly organized she was.

Not knowing where to start, he started searching randomly through her files. Lots and lots of files were there and yet none of them seemed out of work.

Suddenly his eyes fell over a picture kept in the drawer. It was a picture of them from their trip to the carnival. Her smile was so bright that the stars would be jealous of it and their faces were devoid of any worries.

It hurt to see that now. Maybe she was true to him.

Daniel’s smile faded as he remembered the incident afterward but with a sad smile, he kept the picture on the side of the table to take with the things he might find here.

After almost an hour of searching for something, he ended up with nothing.

Nothing.

He wasn’t very hopeful either but he had a slight hope of finding something worth searching upon.

On the other hand, Rose herself was facing hurdles. She was stuck between the riddles of her own complex mind.

There was no way out. The doors seemed to have shut and locked. It was a loop of red doors in a black hallway. None of the doors seemed to open for her.

She ran and ran and ran.

This was it. She was stuck.

Or so she thought.

She wasn’t one of those to quit that quickly. She wouldn’t quit so easily, but she had been searching through the doors for probably hours. She did not know how time was passing but when she got tired and sat for a second, she woke up with another gate in front of her.

She was stuck somewhere, like in a dream or a weird nightmare. She had no idea where she was or what was happening.

‘Where was I the last time I remember?’ she questioned herself. The only person she had trusted for so long was herself and she had to bring herself out of this.

She thought for too long but came up with no answer. Now her head was hurting too hard. Why couldn’t she remember such a simple thing?

And then she heard something that would guide her back to the light. Something worth fighting the darkness for. Someone.

She heard Daniel’s distraught voice. Panic. Confusion. Worry? All pretty clear in the few words he spoke.

Something about his voice made her want to run into every door till she collapsed through it and helped him with his issue.

But the main lingering question was why was he still here? She had clearly- not clearly but in the most obvious way- told him to run away. He couldn’t be stuck in this. He should’ve saved himself.

Was that letter not clear enough?

Yes, the letter.

The last memories started gathering themselves. She wrote that letter for him, she went to drop the letter for him. She couldn’t remember anything further.

What had happened?

The throb in her head had intensified. It felt like her brain was going to burst into something, maybe even that would feel better than what she was feeling.

She ran and ran again.

This time too, like the last few (hundred?) times, she ended up in front of another red door. But this red door didn’t feel like the other doors.

In some weird out-of-the-world way, this red seemed like a calm red.

Rose was one of those people who could easily differentiate between two different shades of the same color. There was surely something different about this door.

It gave a sense of a calm vibe. While the other colors felt like burning red, this seemed like the calm blood flowing through the veins. It was a dark metaphor, sure, but there was something really poetically beautiful about it.

The same blood red that would’ve terrified someone else, her too a few years ago, now felt like a connecting link to the real world. It felt like a gateway out of her messed-up mind.

“Shh, hey calm down,” she heard the whisperings of Daniel’s voice, the words that she couldn’t decipher for so long now being absolutely clear to her. “I’m here, you’re alright.”

This was the sign; she was towards the right door. She had done too many things in her life that required an immense amount of courage, yet this one seemed like a hard decision to make.

When you’re in a difficult situation, sometimes the only peace you have is to stay there; however difficult the situation might be. Sometimes taking one step away from the destruction is the most challenging step.

And his voice turned out to be the final push for her. With it, she opened the red door and suddenly all turned black.

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Went two weeks without posting but now I'm back. Honestly, the story has been going along for over a year now and I'd like to thank everyone who reads from the bottom of my heart, it's been a hell of a ride so far and the journey just gets crazier.

Well, there's too much left and there are probably too many chapters left yet but just thought to appreciate you all. Special thanks to Dr. Gulshan Ayachit, my epitome reader!

Okay too much emotional stuff for today, next blog coming sooner than it normally would ;)