The Door Between - Chapter 2
The world glowed red the first time I met the boy who saw too much. We woke to the peal of a bell, its neverending chimes stretching across the hills to summon us for an Arrival. Torches glittered like stars in the hands of the Mentors, lit in the anticipation of the fast approaching darkness. Streams of children fell into step with one another on the intersecting paths, all rushing toward the heart of HollowWood.
The sun slipped past the treeline as we made it to the Green, the red hue growing darker and deeper, casting deep shadows on the faces of my friends as I huddled with the other Weaver children on the fourth ring. The memory of my own Arrival was still fresh in my mind, the terror not yet faded with time.
The Elder was alone in the center of the Green, separated from the rest of us fanned out behind him on the steps, his body turned toward the Door. His gaze was off, tilted just slightly to the side, like he couldn’t make himself look at the Door. Mentors separated themselves into Guides and Apprentices in silence, their Arrivals hovering close by. In my search, I skipped right over them, straining my eyes in the failing light to catch a glimpse of my sister. I caught a brief glimpse of her face up on the highest ring where she stood with the other Doctors. She’d angled her body away from me, her head turned to block my view of her lips as she spoke, and in doing so, exposed the twisted mess of shorn hair clinging close to her scalp.
She cut off her curls. Our curls. Another way of erasing the connection between us. Every day she was becoming less like the girl I knew, more the stranger I no longer recognized. Soon, I wouldn’t have to lie about not knowing her. It would be true.
With a rumble that shook the ground beneath our feet, the bell’s chimes faded away to make room for the great shriek of stone as the Door lurched open, revealing a black cavity beyond. The stench of mildew rolled over us in hot, suffocating waves, the gaping hole of darkness swimming before my eyes as they watered. My nails dug into the arm of the girl beside me until she flinched away, leaving me to stand on my own as my hands turned clammy with dread.
Several excruciating moments of stillness passed before it was broken by an Arrival as she turned and heaved the contents of her stomach all over the stone ledge. It took everything in me not to step back as the smell grew stronger, mold mixing with bile, but I remained in place. Watching. Waiting for something to happen. Discreetly, the Arrival’s Mentor pulled the girl to her feet, positioning her away from our view. The minutes continued to tick by and whispers started up. Had there been some mistake? Was no one coming after all?
Had the new Arrival not even made it to the surface before they gave up?
It was then that I saw him emerge from the darkness, the last ray of light setting his brown hair aglow as he crossed the threshold into HollowWood. A boy, around seven, just a year older than I, with shoulders thrown back and a head held high despite the mass of eyes set upon him all at once. He turned toward us, and something about him made me think he was trying to soak in every detail he could.
When he took another step, the girl in the ring below me shifted, blocking the boy from my view. Even so, I could still hear the Elder’s words. “Why did it take you so long to come through?”
And I heard the boy’s response. “There was just so much to look at.”
It was the wrong answer, of course. An answer that instantly set him apart, in the worst possible way. There was nothing but rock, darkness, and decay in that tunnel. Nothing but pain. Yet there was wonder on his face. Curiosity.
The boy’s name was Ellis Farrow. That detail, like so many others, was supposed to have been buried the moment he Arrived.
Ellis was not a Fade. At least, not in the beginning. Not until he realized who I was and chose to keep my secret.
Not until I took it too far.
I knew it was a risk to trust him. If only I had realized when we still had time that by taking that risk, I was endangering him.
The one thing everyone knew about Ellis was that he would do anything for the people he cared about. He was willing to sacrifice too much.
I still wish I could pull those words back. She was my sister. I wasn’t even supposed to know what a sister was. But I did. And once he knew too, there was nothing I could do to stop him.
He would have done anything to help me find out what happened to her.
It is because of me that it cost him everything.
© 2026 by Kate Carl. All rights reserved.