Luna sat up, gripping her back as a sharp pain shot through her spine. "Ugh," she groaned, looking around.
Her gaze locked onto the door she had flown through. Luna rubbed her throbbing back and walked up to the door, pushing down on the handle to open it but to no avail; it wouldn't budge, as if locked permanently.
A sigh escaped her as she sat down, resting against the solid doors with her back throbbing.
She exhaled deeply. I don't like that place. I hope that the next door won't have something so scary. Well, I need to be more careful this time.
She groaned while walking up to the third door on the right side. She slowly breathed in and out, pushed onto the handle and jumping back.
But as the doors opened, the heat from inside was scorching hot. The space around the doors started shimmering with visible heat waves, creating a dizzying, liquid haze.
Staring into the musky haze, she spotted a wooden pole with a note pinned to it. Hesitating, she glanced back at the door behind her to go, but seeing that a page was close, she decided to hurriedly run to it and come back.
Leaning forward, she dashed through the doors—and into air so thick it scorched her lungs with every gasp. She squinted against the blinding glare. Eyes felt gritty and dry.
The heat prickled her skin. Instant sweat evaporated, leaving a gritty, salty crust. Her skin tightened, feeling sun-drunk and raw.
A plain of dark red rock stretched out before her, webbed with rivers of blindingly bright magma. On the horizon, volcanoes towered like smoldering pillars, their peaks staining the sky with ash.
Just a second after running, she had arrived before the page, grabbed it, and pushed it into her pocket. She sharply turned and dashed back, but her movement became heavy, sluggish lethargy. Every motion was an effort, sapping strength.
Luna stopped for a second, but as she did, she heard a dim roar from far away. She slowly turned her head towards it, murmuring, "Huh?"
As she looked, she saw red wings whipping up and down, enormous wings. Its body was as long as the whole island Luna was staying at, it seemed to to Luna, and its sharp head and teeth. It flew at tremendous speed towards her.
Luna's eyes jolted open and she rushed towards the door, but just as she moved away from where she stood, the beast crashed into the ground where the wooden pole stood with a catastrophic boom.
She rushed through the door frame, but as she turned back, the beast's massive head crashed into the doors. The impact slammed the doors shut behind her with a final, thunderous boom.
Luna stumbled backwards and stopped by the walls, breathing heavily. She wiped her face of sweat, but she felt a sting in her lips. She touched them with her palm and looked at it, her palm full of blood. Her lip had burst from the sudden change.
She breathed heavily as she gripped the fourth door handle and walked in, but as she walked in, she jolted out as she didn't mean to come in so fast. Why did I come in…? Am i that tired? No, let's go forward…
…
Slowly, with small steps, she stuck her head out of the door frame. She saw nothing—only metal, an extremely reflective floor, and darkness all around.
She stepped out into that realm, fidgeting with her fingers.
Nothing. Utterly nothing. Only darkness and her reflection under her. The only thing beside those two were the doors, so she walked around them to see if there was anything there. And there was.
On the back of the door, there were etched words that said: 'Close the doors behind, they will open by thy will'.
After reading those eerie words, Luna called out, "Is there anyone here? Hello? Anyone?"
she was met with nothing, not even an echo.
Sigh. So this place is as dead as those from the snowy plains. It's weird.
But, contradictory to her words, she chose to believe the person that etched this message. She closed the doors.
The doors were closed, but then the doors were gone.
She sharply turned around looking into the sky and back onto the door. She had kept her eyes on the door. But one blink, and they were gone.
Then, a lighted path appeared—a straight path glowing with a dark gloom.
A strange static feeling overtook Luna as she stood out of the path. It was unpleasant, growing worse each second, so she stepped onto the path. Immediately, the feeling stopped.
What? It's … hurts? I can barely understand why, but maybe let's go down this path. Oh well, let's tell myself what I'm going to do, maybe I'll feel better.
Within the first step, a dim sound—the cog sound of a machine—started going in the distance, seemingly from the sky above, every place in the sky.
Luna looked up at the darkness above. It was really unnerving.
But as the sound of one massive cog sounded, an echo of something enormous started falling down.
Down, and down—a whistling sound of falling. The darkness spread apart and a huge, endless, perfectly void metal cylinder smashed into the metal ground. The sound of metal struck another.
A deafening sound of high pitch resonated in Luna's ears. She covered her ears but to no avail. The endless pitch-black cylinder retracted slowly into the darkness above, but three more fell with the same impact and sound.
Those three retracted and ten more fell. Those ten retracted and twenty-eight fell, and so on. They kept falling and coming back, but the pain from the sound vanished. The path glowed a bit harder as transparent walls and a ceiling materialized, bouncing off the sound, stopping it all together from coming to Luna's ears.
Luna's body shivered while walking forward. She gripped her right arm and squeezed as she frantically looked around. She felt her heart in her throat.
She squatted down and took a deep breath in and out. Again and again. Her breath wasn't that steady; it shivered as her body did. One deep breath in and out, she slowly stood up and smacked her cheeks.
Luna opened her mouth to say something but couldn't say anything.
… Why do I feel… fear?