It was an uneventful morning. Simone had been at her desk for nearly an hour. The graphic design she was working on was open on the screen in front of her, and she had been making slow but genuine progress. The plants had been quiet. The street below had settled into...
The Wrong Door
Chapter 1 – My Plants Won’t Stop Talking
Simone woke up a little earlier than she wanted to. Not from noise. The apartment was quiet like it always was at this hour. She lay on her back and stared at the ceiling for a moment, listening. The fridge hummed its low, steady note from the kitchen. Somewhere...
Chapter 4 – Morning Orientation
Morning arrived like a soft breath. Light poured through carved beams and settled into faint patterns along the walls, glowing as if the house itself had decided to wake gently. For a long moment, I didn’t move. Warm blankets. A bed that felt like someone who...
Chapter 3 – The Night of Firt Impressions
The transition from forest to village was so gradual I didn’t notice it at first. One moment, the trees pressed close around us, holding the last echoes of the portal’s strange energy. The next, roots gave way to smooth stone etched with faint spirals that pulsed...
Chapter 2 – Crossing the Ridge
The forest had the kind of silence in which one could commit a murder and no one would ever know. It made every horror movie ever filmed tap me on the shoulder and whisper, “You should run”. Which, naturally, was the moment my survival instincts clocked out, shrugged,...
Chapter 1 – The Wrong Door
The bell above the door had stopped ringing nearly an hour ago, but the shop still held the shape of the day. The air was warm with the smell of old paper, ink, and the soft musk that only secondhand books can keep. I rested my hands on the counter, letting the...