My Husband Dies Every Midnight

The Door That Shouldn't Exist

The knocking was quiet at first. Polite. As if the person on the other side was asking permission to borrow sugar.

Then it grew louder. Heavier. Each knock reverberated with a wet, hollow sound, as if the wood of the door was not wood at all, but something softer, something that gave a little with every impact before returning the sound in a dull, meaty knock.

Lila lowered the camera, her hands shaking so badly that the strap nearly slipped from her wrist. "That's impossible," she whispered. "That wall was solid stone in every picture I took outside. There's no door there."

Elena took a step forward. "Lila, be careful."

She couldn't take her eyes off the door. It was there, no mistake about it. Rough-hewn wood framed in stone, dark with moisture, and carved with the words BRING THE MOTHER etched along the edge in some strange script that seemed to pulse like veins.

Maris made a small, pained sound behind them.

Elena turned to face her mother. Maris's face was ashen, her eyes locked onto the door with an expression that made Elena's heart stop. "Mom?" She swallowed hard. "Do you know what that is?"

Maris's lips parted, then she gave a small, pained laugh. "I've seen it before."

"Where?" Elena pressed.

"In my dreams." Maris's fingers dug into Elena's arm. "For sixteen years, I've been dreaming of that door. Every time, it opens. Every time, something comes through."

Nathan came to stand beside her, his muscles tight with tension. "What comes through?"

Maris didn't answer.

The knocking stopped.

A hushed silence filled the crypt, so thick that Elena could almost hear the sound of her own heartbeat. She could hear Lila's panicked breathing. She could hear Ingrid slowly edging away from the door, toward the far wall.

Then the doorknob began to turn.

It didn't squeak or stick, but opened smoothly, as if it had been opened hundreds of times before.

The door swung open to reveal something that wasn't light at all, but a substance like oil, something thick and heavy that poured out into the crypt in great globs. It spread across the floor, creeping toward them in great slow waves, and where it touched the stone walls, it stained them black.

Elena grabbed Nathan's hand. "We need to leave. Now."

"Not without the pages," Ingrid said, her voice tight as she clutched the three brittle ledger pages Maris had discovered.

"Forget the pages!" Nathan snapped.

The darkness pressed forward, and stopped abruptly at the edge of the candlelight. It rippled like water, testing the invisible barrier, searching for a weakness.

"It can't cross consecrated ground," Maris said finally. "Not yet. But it will find a way."

Lila's camera shutter clicked. Then again. She was taking pictures, her hands flying over the buttons despite the look of horror on her face.

"What are you doing?" Elena demanded.

"Documenting," Lila said. "If this thing gets out, someone needs to know what it looks like."

"Lila--"

"No." Lila squared her shoulders, her stubborn little sister's look firmly in place. "You're not the only one who gets to be brave, El."

Elena wanted to argue. She wanted to shake sense into her friend and drag her out of this cursed basement. But before she could say anything, the darkness shifted.

Something was coming through the door.

It was tall, humanoid, but wrong in ways that made Elena's stomach turn. Its limbs were too long, its torso too short, its head too narrow, its neck too long. Its eyes were black and deep and unfathomable.

It took a step forward, and the candlelight failed to touch it. The darkness around it seemed to drink it in, leaving only the illusion of a body that wasn't really there.

Maris made a strange sound, something like a sob. "It's one of the Taken."

Elena turned to face her. "What?"

"The miners who went into the hollow and never came out," Maris whispered. "They didn't all die. Some of them were... kept. Used."

The thing tilted its head, as if deciding whether or not to speak. When it did, its voice was a strange amalgam of sounds, some whispering, some screaming, some barely there at all.

Bring... the mother...

Elena's grip on Nathan's hand tightened until her knuckles were white. "Why?"

The thing's head moved slowly, as if considering the question. When it answered, its voice was clearer, though it still sounded like multiple people speaking at once.

She walked through... she knows the way... she carries the key...

Maris's eyes went wide. "It means the charm."

Elena looked down at her bracelet. The clock charm was glowing faintly, casting an eerie blue light over the room.

"It's not just a lock," Maris said. "It's a compass. It leads the way to the places where the barrier is weak."

Ingrid came forward, the pages still clutched in her hands. "And where is it pointing now?"

Elena raised her arm, watching as the charm glowed. It was pointing directly at the door.

Maris's face was pale. "The door isn't leading out. It's leading deeper into the hollow."

Nathan's eyes narrowed. "Into what?"

"The place where the pact was made," Maris said quietly. "The first chamber. The original hollow. That's where your great-grandfather made his deal, Nathan."

Nathan's jaw tightened. "Then that's where we're going."

"No," Ingrid said immediately. "You don't understand what's down there."

"Then tell us," Nathan snapped. "Because right now, we have a choice. We can run and let that thing follow us into the city, or we can go down there and find out what the hell is happening."

There was a long pause. The thing in the darkness shifted, its limbs rippling like water.

Bring the mother... or all will wake...

Maris closed her eyes. When she opened them again, her expression was resolute. "I'll go."

Elena turned to her mother. "Mom, no."

"I'm the only one who's been there," Maris said, her voice steady. "I walked through the hollow in 1994. I saw what's down there. I saw what the Warden was keeping from us."

"And you left me," Elena said, her voice shaking. "You left me alone for sixteen years and made me think you were dead."

The words hung between them, cutting into the silence like a knife. Maris flinched as if Elena had struck her. "I know," she whispered. "And I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. But I didn't leave you, Elena. I was taken. Just like these miners. Just like Ingrid's daughter. I was trapped in the space between, and the only way I could communicate was through dreams and memories."

Elena's heart ached. She wanted to believe her mother. She wanted to throw her arms around her and never let go. But the old pain was still there, fresh and raw. "We'll go together," she said finally. "If you're going into that hollow, I'm going with you."

Nathan squeezed her hand. "Then I'm going too."

Lila stepped forward, her camera raised. "And I'm going to document this. Someone needs to tell the truth about what's happening."

Ingrid's mouth twisted into a grim line. "This is suicide."

"Better than letting that thing into Denver," Nathan said.

The thing in the darkness shifted again, as if it was satisfied. It raised one long, spindly arm and pointed the way deeper into the crypt, revealing a passage that Elena hadn't noticed before.

This way... the hollow waits... the first debt waits...

Maris went first, her heart pounding in her ears. Nathan followed closely behind, pulling Elena with him. Lila raised her camera one last time, snapping a picture of the door.

The flash of the camera revealed something that made Elena's breath catch in her throat. Beyond the door, beyond the rolling waves of darkness, was another chamber. And in that chamber, standing in a circle, were dozens of the Taken.

They were all looking at her. All smiling.

Lila's camera printed the picture out before she could stop it. She looked down at it, her face paling.

"Elena," she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. "There's someone in the picture. In the corner."

Elena took the camera from her hands. In the corner of the picture, just barely visible in the flash, was a woman. She was tall, her silver hair pulled back in a severe knot, and her face was familiar. Ingrid Vale. But she wasn't standing with the other women. She was standing with the Taken. Her eyes were black, and she was smiling just as widely as the rest of them.

Elena turned slowly to face Ingrid. The older woman's face was an unreadable mask, but her eyes were the same color as the void behind the door. And she was holding the pages from the ledger. Not destroying them, but reading them aloud.

The first word left her lips, and the darkness surged forward. The door slammed shut behind them, and the passage ahead began to close.

"Run," Maris said.