The Ninth Door

Chapter 3 - Knight in Shining Armor

Annette

It took Dr. Rhodes some convincing that I was alright. She made me promise to call her in an hour’s time or she would be on her way to my apartment. I agreed. I didn’t want her to bother when something told me that I was safe.

I felt safe.

The man who was walking down the steps at that very moment had kind eyes. Then again, I couldn’t be a good judge of character when most of my human connections were with close family members, my therapist, and library employees and regulars.

“I’m sure, Dr. Rhodes. I’m fine,” I insisted, even as the man stopped a few inches in front of me. He had a quizzical look on his face. He surveyed my living room slowly without moving anything else but his eyes.

The call ended there. I had to remember to call my therapist in an hour’s time or she would drive all the way here just to see me. My family wanted to continue sending her money so that I could call her anytime, but she refused. She said I could call anytime but she wouldn’t want to get paid for it anymore.

“You are well, Annie. Remember that. You are a strong, young woman on the verge of becoming who you are meant to be.”

Straightening myself, I noticed the man’s attention was back to me. His dark blonde hair was rumpled and he had a stubble covering an otherwise strong jaw that needed not be hidden by a beard. His nose might have been straight long ago, but it seemed to have been broken in at least one place. He was a handsome man with kind eyes, but the rest of his features suggested a rough life, or one that involved fighting. Maybe I should be scared, but I wasn’t.

“Who are you?” I asked. “Where was the -?”

The pause hovered between us, a hesitation borne from the fear of being wrong. Of being insane.

“The leopard?”

“Y-yes. You saw it, too? Where is it now? Can we call Wildlife something or the other services?”

“Sienna, I’m the leopard.”

It was then that I concluded that I had truly gone insane, and that there was no turning back from where I had fallen.

“P-please don’t joke with me. I – I wouldn’t be able to handle it,” I pleaded. I hated the whine in my voice. Weak. So weak. Maybe I needed Dr. Rhodes here with me after all, or my uncle would come here and take me away from the new life that I thought I had begun and maintained successfully.

“No, my lady. I am not jesting with you. You called me long time ago when you held your favorite book in your hands.”

Nobody else in this place knew about those details. I was barely on social media, and if I were to post anything, it would certainly not about how I held on to that book for dear life while the terrible men did unspeakable things to my mother.

“If that were true, why are you here just now?” I asked, letting anger take over the feeling of helplessness. Even as the emotions changed, I knew that the balance I carefully maintained the past few years had tipped. It was like the metronome’s hand had stopped ticking at an angle.

“It wasn’t an easy journey, Sienna,” he said, and the crack in his voice spoke of regret. But it could have been mine mirrored in this illusion. Didn’t Dr. Rhodes say she heard someone? Did she hear this man’s voice? “I came from far away. But don’t fret. The more time I spend with you in your world and time, I will be more like your people.”

“More like my people? Oh, because you’re supposed to come from another time?” I asked, feeling drawn into my own sick hallucination.

“Yes. But before I can explore this world to see what dangers it poses on you, I must tell you of the nine doors.”

“The nine doors,” I echoed. “L-let’s sit over there on the couch, um, what’s your name?”

Emmerich. The name floated in my head before he could say anything. It was the name of the leopard prince in my book.

“Emmerich,” he answered with his deep voice.

We sat on the couch at about the same time. I sat on one end, and I half-expected him to sit on the other end but he didn’t. He sat near the middle, the closest a stranger had ever been to me.

“What are the nine doors, Emmerich?”

“You called out to me because you wanted to save your mother,” he began.

“But she’s now – gone.”

“Yes. Gone. But there’s a way to bring her back to you.”

I sat straighter. My heart was already galloping in my chest by the time he said the last word. It was strange how I was so calm before that, with Emmerich’s voice regulating my breathing better than my metronome could.

“You can do that?”

“Not me. You. You’re aware of your legacy, are you not, Sienna Kelley?”

“I’m Annette Fairly,” I declared, holding on to the name that made me independent the past few years. It was the name that freed me from my past, but this man wanted to dig it and bring me back the person I tried not to think about for a long time. He made her real again.

“Sienna Kelley, you won’t get your mother back that way. You must first acknowledge who you are. You are one of us.”

Cat shifter.

Book lover – emphasis on lover.

“W-what are the nine doors?” I asked, barely realizing that I had tucked my legs under me. Even in my skirt, I was sitting with my legs up next to a stranger. I looked like a little girl about to listen to a bedtime story.

“There are nine doors in a quest. The first one is Origin. It means you have to go back to where you are from.”

“The Junction,” I said shakily. After what happened to my mother, we didn’t get to sell the place. Nobody wanted it even after the men ended up behind bars, except for that one man. Pete. Anger burst inside me.

“The second is duality. You must accept both of your identities – Annette and Sienna.”

“Okay.”

It was easier said than done.

“The third is your cat.”

His voice continued to sound like someone giving a lecture. A flash of him about to ride into battle came to mind. He was talking to his men, rallying them – giving them hope, like he was giving me now.

“My cat?”

“You must shift, and you can only do that if you open the first two doors. The fourth is witchcraft. You must call upon the Westerley side of your family, and be able to do at least one powerful spell.”

“I think I’m insane,” I muttered. Why was I listening to all of this as if it was all ordinary?”

“No, you’re not. That’s something you must confirm to open the second door. The fifth is direction. You must find the boundaries between this world and the other side, in the Junction and in Lynx Hall.”

“It looks like we’re going to do a lot of traveling, Emmerich,” I said. As soon as I said that, I realized something. “You have to stay with me, then?”

He looked at me. It was a serious look from someone who wasn’t used to nonsense. Of course, he had to stay with me. He was my knight in shining armor. I wanted to laugh right then and there, but it could have been a lot worse. He seemed like an honorable man. He was one, if he was anything like the character in my book. He even had a vow of celibacy or something. How did I know that? It wasn’t in my children’s book that was for sure.

“I will help you open the sixth door, Sienna. We will open it after we avenge your mother.”

Revenge. I was a meek and weak child, but hearing the word from Emmerich made my skin alive. I could almost feel it. Dish served cold. It felt so good, just thinking about it.

“Revenge. I’d like that.” The voice that came out of me sounded like that of a stranger. The flicker in Emmerich’s eyes told me that he was just as startled. He blinked, and he was again, impassive.

“The seventh door will open when you find a mirror. It can be a piece of glass or a person that is helping keep some of the boundaries between this world and the beyond open.”

“What will I do when I find the mirror?”

“You will know what to do when the time comes.”

“I like this quest,” I murmured. I didn’t say the rest of the things that came to mind. I liked it because it made me feel like a child again. Pete and his men had stolen the rest of my childhood. Emmerich simply nodded with understanding. He clenched his jaw and hardened his eyes. I was also breaking into his solid self.

“The eighth door is paradise. You must find something that makes you truly happy, something that will make you happier than you were before you called for my help.”

“That’s going to be difficult,” I said, without thinking much.

“It would be, I can imagine,” he agreed. “But you need to open the ninth door with a joyous heart.”

“Oh, what is the ninth door, then?”

“The ninth door will be revealed once you have opened the other eight. You will need to open it to get to your mother.”

For some reason, I felt like he was still holding something back. I looked into his eyes and, for a moment, there was a hint of sadness there.

“Did you leave a family behind, Emmerich? It was hard to tell in your book. You were always fighting battles.”

“No. My family is long gone. All dead.”

“Don’t you have doors to open? To get them back?”

“No, Sienna. Not everyone has doors to open. You are special, descended from two cat-shifting families.”

“I don’t even know who my father is or was,” I grumbled, sounding more like a child by the moment.

“You will find the truth about him one day, Sienna.”

I felt like he liked saying my name. Maybe I was wrong, but it was another thought that quickly floated over and into me. It was so easy to talk to Emmerich. So strange.

“Emmerich, I must call Dr. Rhodes. May I ask for favor?”

“Anything.”

“Can you please talk to her? Tell her that you are a neighbor who checked on me?”

“I’ll do that.”

I noticed his pattern of speech became more modern, adjusting for this world.

So, I called Dr. Rhodes. She seemed happy after talking to Emmerich.

“Emmerich sounds like a nice young man. For some reason, his name sounds familiar. Have we talked of an Emmerich before, Annie?”

“I can’t remember, Dr. Rhodes,” I lied. It was difficult to say the words while Emmerich stared at me. He had his head tilted to one side and his eyes had turned almost golden from the warm brown they were.

“Wait? What happened to the naked man you were talking about?” she screeched, remembering the detail.

“Oh, it was Emmerich. He had his shorts on but he was shirtless. He said he was jogging in the neighborhood.”

“In the cold?”

“Yeah. He’s, um, strange like that.”

Emmerich was no longer looking stern. Instead, he seemed like he was trying not to laugh. Could he hear the other side of the conversation? His ears looked like they had perked up and his eyes had turned green now. He was listening intently.

“Oh, I see. You were panicking after the leopard vision. I’m glad you’re okay, Annie. Emmerich seems like a nice, young man. Get his number if you haven’t yet. That way, you can call on someone nearer to you.”

Dr. Rhodes had no idea how much nearer Emmerich would be. Quest partners would have to be very close.