THE MIDNIGHT THRESHOLD - Chapter One
The silence reigning in the manor had remained pristine for decades. The dust lay dormant, unmoved on the ground, and the shadows were continuous, never even ruptured by daylight. Tonight though, on the 23rd of November, a knock on the door could be heard...
9:27 PM. Night had long since fallen at this latitude. School was over, and, eager to release the frustration hoarded all day long, Ellie violently kicked the door. It was the entrance to an abandoned mansion, once a luxurious abode of a rich and influential family, now fallen into disgrace for nearly a century, sealed off from the world. For her boyfriend Kaiās birthday, she wanted to find something special, something rare and unheard of. What better place to uncover a quaint pair of leather shoes left in a closet, or a diary hidden under a floorboard, full of unknown - yet useless - gossip? Who knew? And to ensure Kai would like his present, Ellie brought him along. Him, and his best friend Jake.
The door cracked out of its hinges, spun on one edge, and fell loudly to the ground. A cloud of dust rose into the air, carrying the scent of history and oblivion. Jake lit a flashlight and cast a glance over the blonde girlās shoulder.
"Actually, I donāt think itās a good id..." he tried to say but couldn't finish his sentence. Ellie turned and pushed on his head, making the boy bend forward until his face almost met his stomach, and ruffled his hair.
"You had a great idea! Ask Kai, he was really eager!" she teased. The young woman smiled and stepped into the manor, followed by her astonished yet quietly proud boyfriend. Jake muttered something only he could hear and kept behind.
Flailing moths flashed in the beams of their torch lights. Ellie coughed, the smell of decay stinging her lungs. She covered her mouth with her T-shirt, and the two boys immediately imitated her.
"If even bums donāt squat here, thereās probably a reason!" Jake mumbled through the fabric.
The rest of the group ignored his sudden doubt and apprehension. The oaken parquet creaked beneath their feet as they ventured further inside, and the dust settled again.
"What if the roof collapses on us?" Jake asked nervously.
Intrigued by his friendās remark, Kai pointed his light at the ceiling, which was peeling away in large flakes.
"What if the police come and arrest us for tres..."
Before he could finish, Ellie and Kai simultaneously directed their flashlights at the redhead moaner. Ellie smirked and asked: "Remind me, who had the idea to come here in the first place? And weāre like five miles from the nearest living soul. You should only be worried if trees were cops because all thatās out there is forest!"
Kai added: "If ya donāt have the balls to keep going, 'tās fine, ya can clear off, ya know?"
Ellie set a disapproving glare at her boyfriend, then approached Jake and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I know youāre a brave guy, arenāt you? Come on, weāll be careful, I swear. Iām sure weāll leave this place with some good memories!" she reassured him.
Kai sighed, then gave Jake a friendly punch on the chest."Yeah, sorry, mateā¦ yaāll see, itās gonna be dope!"
Jake looked down, running a hand through his hair. Ellie quipped: "Besides, weāll be short on freckles if you leave!" before turning and pushing ahead. Jake chuckled.
The dust stirred up by the doorās fall had finally settled after their brief exchange, and they could breathe freely again. By the glow of their flashlights, a vast hallway was revealed. A dark, faded carpet stretched across the floor, its once vibrant crimson and gold tones still faintly visible. Supported by two parallel wooden colonnades, a grand staircase led to the upper floors, and towering over the scene was an imposing crystal chandelier, swaying and rustling like a tree of glass leaves as the new wind blew in from the open door.
Behind the wooden pillars, a series of doors opened into the lateral wings of the building. Opposite the entrance, across the long carpet, an archway loomed, like a mouth full of darkness, whispering luring hymns to the teenagers. The three directed their beams toward it, intrigued but slightly unsettled. Jake gulped, and Ellie exclaimed: "Letās start there!"
On their way toward the obscurity concealed by the ominous arch, Kai found a mirror. He wedged his torch under his armpit and stared at his reflection with attention. As he adjusted his chestnut-brown hair, Ellie yanked him by the collar of his sweatshirt.
- You'll do your hair later, pretty boy, weāve got to get you something, remember?"
As they crossed the threshold, the three of them drew closer together. Even the vocal couple felt a latent sense of intimidation. Shoulder to shoulder, the trio emerged into what appeared to be a dining room. They tried to survey the room in silence, but the shadows were so thick that their flashlights struggled to pierce through. They could just make out the silhouette of a table... Jake opened his mouth: "Do you...?"
A chorus of screams erupted deep from their throats, goosebumps spread across fair skin, and two shivering sheaves of light were frantically directed toward the source of the intrusive noise. The startled teenagers could make out the shape of a bird taking flight in the darkness. Kai had dropped his torch and was gripping both Ellieās and Jakeās hands tightly.
"Ah ha ha!..." Ellie burst into laughter. "Just a silly old crow! Ah ha!"
She quickly regained her composure.
"Uh, guys, itās okay! Honey, you can let go of my hand now.
- Oh, yeah, sorry!" Kai stammered as he realized he had been holding both their hands for far too long.
Ellie approached the object that had fallen under the birdās talons and caused the loud noise.
"It was a candelabrum, with... candles. They must have left in a hurry..."
She ran her flashlight along the length of the table. Other candelabrums stood untouched.
"Kai, do you have your lighter? A little more light would help!"
Her boyfriend nodded, kindled all the candles and one cigarette for himself. He offered the pack to his friends, but Jake declined with a wave of the hand. Ellie and Jake spoke at the same time:
The lurking menace of the darkness and silence slowly began to fade. They spoke aloud across the now illuminated dining room, sharing their discoveries and laughing. The manor was starting to feel almost familiar.
"Look, Kai! Iāve found something for you!" Ellie waved a silver hand-mirror in the air, showing it to her boyfriend. Kai chuckled and took it gratefully.
"Iāll keep it, thanks! But it wonāt be enough, ah ha!" he kissed Ellieās hair.
"Greedy!" the girl teased, and pointed toward a door that led to the west wing. "Now, letās head that way! Grab some candles!"
Jake, who had been rummaging through an old buffet, pulled his head out, covered in cobwebs, and spat out dust. The next room was actually a small, round stairwell. The steps seemed sturdy enough. Kai tested the first ones, pushing down hard on his knees. The others followed, and they emerged into what looked like a personal, cozy office. It was filled with well-stocked bookshelves, a wide desk, a comfortable chair, a cold hearth, and a chest of drawers, along with a spare bed.
"Iād love to study here!!" Ellie exclaimed, her eyes shining with excitement. Jake moved closer to the shelves, reverently browsing the book titles with infinite curiosity.
"If only my bedroom was this big..." Ellie mused as she sat at the desk like it was a throne, with her boyfriend perching on the corner of it. With the cigarette dangling from his lips, Kai said: "Why donāt we come here more often? Could be a nice hideout!"
"I wish I could take all these books with me!" Jake added, engrossed in a thick volume on industrial history.
Kai stood up, walked toward the only window, and moved the curtain aside. He inspected the shutters... which promptly fell one floor down, noisily landing in the courtyard below. The room soon smelled of wet autumn leaves. When his cigarette burned out, he tossed the butt into the fireplace.
"Oh!" Ellie suddenly yelled, pointing toward something they hadnāt noticed before. She jumped to her feet, and the three teenagers gathered around, their attention drawn to a strongbox lying on the hearthās mantel.
It was a heavy cube of rusted metal, and its lock was holding firm.
"I guess weāre not the first ones who try to open it!" the redhead commented, as his friends tried every combination they could think of.
"Itās weird no urbexers took that safe with them before...
- Do ya think itāll break if we smash it on the ground?
- They're not the kind of guys to be scared by ghost stories...
- Letās find a rock in the forest!
- Why donāt you try heating it so the lock yields? Itās oldā¦ maybe we can set a fire?"
Jakeās suggestion hit the mark. Ellie and Kai glanced at the ginger boy with approval and ran toward the bookcases, but Jake shouted and pulled them back by their shirts. "Nooo! Not the books! Find something else!"
The couple crossed their arms, and Kai asked: "What else, then?" Ellie pointed to a pile of old documents. Jake meticulously inspected each page before offering it to the nascent fire. It was, after all, only bank statements and productivity reports. "Millions of dollars... How come..."
Kai emptied all the drawers onto the floor, breaking them over his knee to feed the flames with the wood. Soot rained down from the sleeping chimney.
"Hotter!" Ellie commanded, gesturing to the boys, who were searching for what to throw into the fire next. "The painting!"
The young woman was pointing to an ugly frame.
"Wait, Kai!... Maybe itās worth s..." Jake tried to finish his sentence, but once again, Kai ignored him. He climbed onto the sill, unhooked the picture, and jumped back down on lithe feet.
The silence that followed would have been absolute, if not for the crackling of smoldering paper and burning splinters. Ellie, Kai, and Jake stood frozen, hearts beating in unison with the same thrill of adventure and trespass, for behind the painting was a hidden hole, concealing a small wooden case made of pallet wood. They approached, intrigued by the mysterious box.
"Iāll do it!" Ellie extended her hand and took the case. She managed to open it with her bare hands, pulling the nails out of the wood a knife out of soft butter. Inside, nestled in a bed of hay, was a handwritten note and something wrapped in fabric. Jake took the page and began to read aloud:
"This is the proof of my weakness..."
Ellie and Kai, working together, unwrapped the item from its cloth. It was a necklace, a gleaming golden chain ā the ultimate silversmithery of the previous century - elegantly carved. And it sheltered no precious gem. It had a coal-black pumice stone.
"...I should have had this thing destroyed years ago..."
The two of them reached out to touch the fragile stone, but pulled back, hesitant to handle the strange relic that seemed to have traversed eras.
"...I still hope the untamable can be mastered..."
The discovery had a mythical quality, as if it belonged to a tale, one of the kind they used to live as children.
"...If you find it, show more strength than I did, and please, rid the world of this thing. M.T.H."
Ellie finally seized the necklace and exclaimed with a delighted voice: "This is what Iām taking with me!"
Kai nodded and patted his girlfriendās shoulders. "Itāll look great on ya!
- I donāt think itās a good id..."
Kai snatched the note from Jakeās hand and threw it into the fire.
"Yaāre such a buzzkill tonight! What do ya think itās gonna do? Rrrrh..." He rubbed his eyes and muttered: "Aah... sorry, Jake, I shouldnāt have...
- Boys! Stop arguing and look! Isnāt it beautiful?"
Ellie had slipped on the necklace and was gently dancing around. "This is surely some rare jewel!" Jake felt a surge of apprehension and anger flooding his whole body. If he could have just one wish granted in his life, it would be to be teleported far from here. He clenched his fists, wanting to cry, overwhelmed with frustration. Kai strode toward Ellie, took her hand, and kissed her hair again. "Yaāre beautiful!" he said. As he began to sway in rhythm with her, Ellie stopped and looked down. She coughed, then coughed again, as if an eternity of smut had gathered in her lungs. Kai tightened his grip on her hands and asked, "Ell? Ell... are you okay?" trying to find a way toward her eyes. Ellie doubled over from the coughing fit, folded, pulling away from Kaiās hands and pointing a finger into the air. She croaked in a low voice: "One sec'... I need..." Kai recoiled several steps back, taken aback.
Ellie stood tall and straight, stretching her arms and letting out a growl of relief. Under the confused, disbelieving eyes of her boyfriend and her friend, her chest... flattened and hardened. Her shoulders grew rounder and more muscular, her legs lengthened. And noticeably, they became hairier. As the slow transformation continued, her skin became drenched in sweat, as though she were enduring intense physical exertion. She moaned and laughed at the same time.
[E] My chest! Feels like it's cracking open ā¦ Why am I... laughing?
Except for the upper part of her pants, her clothes no longer fit the young man ā as it must be said ā she was becoming, and they tore to rags. Her jaw became more angular, and her face transformed drastically, from soft and feminine to sharp and masculine. Her long, wheat-colored hair shortened and darkened like night. And what couldnāt be missed, even under torn pants, was unfurling and swelling between her legs.
[E] No! No, donāt look at me! Please, Kai, donāt...
The young man now standing where Ellie had been was black-haired, pale, thin, and tall. Handsome.
Dark rings encircled his eyes, as if he hadnāt slept for centuries. His body glistened with sweat. He licked his arms to taste the salty moisture and smiled before laughing loudly. "FINALLY!!!" His shout, full of energy, extinguished the candles, plunging the office into darkness. The two boys were terrified, trembling like rabbits caught for the last seconds in the headlights of an oncoming car. The stranger cracked his knuckles and asked: "So? Youāre the ones I have to thank, huh?"
Kai, now looking like a small, frightened puppy next to the dark figure, started to cry. He couldnāt recognize even one inch of the soft, familiar skin in this muscular stranger. With a boyish voice, he barked: "Whereās Ellie?!? Gimme Ellie back!!!" He glanced madly at the necklace and, in a swift motion, ripped it off the unfamiliar neck. An evil laugh echoed through the room, and the demon whispered: "Too late."
No one would ever know how Kaiās face was soaked with tears and snot. No one would ever know how red his face had become from crying so much. Kai turned and ran for his life. "HELP!!! H-..."
Four loud footsteps, then a stop. Full rest. Was that all Kai had managed in his escape? Jake felt as if he had two hearts beating in his feet, pulsing against the ground, draining him of all blood so he couldnāt move. How he managed to steadily turn his flashlight in the direction Kai had run, he couldnāt say. His body wasnāt his anymore. He had become a machine, a robot, programmed by instinct to survive by suppressing fear. His blood felt like acid... He wanted to run too, but instead, he fell to his knees and soiled his pants.
[K] Run... Run! I have to run. Just keep moving. Donāt think. Donāt stop. Why don't I move?
Kai was frozen midstride behind Jake, motionless.
[K] Slow... Stopped... I'm... losing... Jake... Ellie... Help me... I donāt want to go... please...
A human statue. But not one made of stone, marble, or iron. A statue made of thousands, millions of insects, crawling from his skin down to his very flesh. Kaiās flashlight slipped from his hand, which had turned into a writhing mass of millipedes, cockroaches, ants, and moths. The human figure held its shape for a few seconds longer. Dark eye sockets wept spiders as tears. The jaw slowly dropped, gaping open, revealing a silent throat from which a cloud of flies emerged. Then, Kai collapsed grotesquely, as if sucked in on himself, crumbling into a pile of teeming insects amidst his clothes.
Jake remained silent, unable to do anything but stare at the pile of bugs, on which a sweatshirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of sneakers lay eerily out of place, as if floating above the crawling swarm. The shoes spewed insects like disturbed anthills. "Do you like it? Heh, I thought it was a good idea too, though..." The presence yawned. "...Iām a bit rusty, couldāve been more original. Anyway, youāre the one I have to thank! Congrats!" The man squatted and gave Jakeās shoulder a few warm taps. "What do you want? Tell me, Iāll give it to you. Some money? Or maybe you want to be a lady-killer?" Jake couldnāt speak, as if he was choking on his own tongue. What could he say? He couldnāt even bring himself to look at the demon. Kai... Ellie...
The demon pouted in confusion and tilted his head. "You?" ...
"I want Ellie and Kai back!"
- Oh, how boring! You humans are still so emotional and predictable. You know, I really wanted to thank you! The only way I could give you your friends back right now would be to split you in two halves..." He made a vertical slice motion with his forefinger and whistled the sound of a blade. "ā¦ and shape two versions of your friends from it! But trust me, you wouldnāt like that. Oh boy, you really wouldnāt. So, ask for something else, now! Iām not known for my patience. Bore me again, and Iāll cook up something spicy of you!"
Jake wasn't sure he really wanted to know. The question felt dull, painfully dull. The entity - the demon - was surely going to tear him to pieces.
But the question seemed to be taken seriously.
"Iāve had many names and many forms. Hades, Mictlantecuhtli, Ereshkigal, or perhaps you know me as... Anubis!" A wave of black fur sprouted over the manās skin. His head morphed into that of a jackal, and he snapped his sharp fangs in front of Jakeās face. Jake flinched and began to wail.
"M-my f-friends are dead! If you're going to k-kill me, just do it, please!" he shouted through his river of tears. The sobs didnāt stop as Anubis moved closer, his canine muzzle breathing warm air onto Jakeās face. One second. One minute... When Jake realized he hadnāt been torn to shreds of meat or reduced to a pile of bones, his crying slowly dimmed. Anubis laughed again, and as he changed back into human form, he continued: "Dead? Kill? You humans always use such grand words!
- If theyāre not dead, then what are they?!
- Letās just say... theyāre not the same anymore, ha ha!"
The transformation into his jackal form had shredded the last remains of Ellieās clothing, leaving Anubis standing bare in the dark. If not clad by the surrounding shadows, his malehood would have appeared fully exposed. The dark-haired young man walked over to what remained of Kai. In the halo of the flashlight, Jake saw the god picking up Kaiās clothes, shaking the insects from them, and putting them on. Anubis even seemed to shrink in size, now looking exactly like a teenager, the same age as Jake, Ellie, or Kai - two years shy of twenty.
"Show me what the world has become! I want to have some fun. And if youāre a good guide for me, little carrothead, you know what? I might just mold your friends back from two random bodies out there!"
