Dark Lord Rob's DarkForce

Beyond the Door

     "When I first saw this door...," Brother Woodbine continued, "Well, you can imagine. I mean, it was dead of night, and I was wandering this corridor by flashlight. I saw the dim glow that came from the antechamber back there, from the soul-lanterns... I had been, shall we say, a mite intoxicated... okay, seriously intoxicated... but I swear before God that by the time I entered this room I was stone cold sober."
     "What about the rest of the guys that were with you?" A pertinent question, I thought.
     "They wouldn't come down. They were petrified. I was petrified, but in a different way... their terror kept them from moving, mine forced me ever on."
     "A sort of 'moving petrification'," Nathan observed, sort of snidely.
     "Believe me, if you ever experienced it you'd know what I mean. But I hope you never get the chance, and I mean that most sincerely."
     Woodbine took a step forward and stood before the door, looking up at it in awe, in what I guessed was a re-creation of the scene when he had first discovered it. "Something about this door... I mean, I looked at it, and I knew what it was immediately, I knew what was behind it. I mean the idea just planted itself inside my head. So why did I open it?"
     Woodbine turned and looked at me and Nathan with a kind of haunted look. "Why did I open it?"
     "To see what was on the other side?" I said. It sounds funnier now than it did then.
     "I knew what was on the other side. I had no doubt. Any other person would have turned and run. But I knew I had to open that door. I knew I would face the challenge of my life. I knew that what happened next would change me forever, and most likely destroy me. But I had to open it. I had to!"
     Nathan rapped on the door. "Seems pretty heavy."
     "Oh, you'd be surprised. It opened as easily as an automatic door at the supermarket, once I tugged on the handle. The door is a symbol, boys... a frame for the spellwork that keeps the forces beyond at bay. It could just as well be cardboard, or balsa wood; and without the spellwork, the door could be twelve tons of titanium and still not keep back what's behind it."
     "So what did you see when you opened it?" I don't know about Nathan, but this story had me hooked.
     "Nothing at first, a strange, black swirling mist. My heart stopped beating with terror, I'm not kidding. And then, out of the mist..."
     There was a sudden dull thud from upstairs and the room we were in shook, and bits of dust and stone fell from the ceiling. Scared the sh... well, let's just say it scared me.
     "What in God's name was that?" Brother Woodbine exclaimed.
     "It sounded like an explosion.," Nathan answered (like he'd know).
     "I'll be right back," Woodbine said, excitedly. "You two stay here!"

Next: All Hell Breaks Loose