Door To Another Realm

Candice looked at herself in the mirror to inspect the black eye she just received. It's not as bad as ones prior. It will definitely be hard to hide. It's her 18th birthday and of course her family forgot once again. It didn't matter, as they only look at her as if she was nothing but a slave. Tonight is the night, though. Candice finally has the chance to get away. Her family won't be able to do anything about it, even if they wanted to. After years of scraping and saving the little change she could, she has enough for a bus ticket thousands of miles away. After years of research, her "pen pal" helped her to find a place that is furnished and works with you on weekly payments. Candice has a place payed for for a months time. After everyone went to bed, Candice gathered her filled bag she had prepared. She snuck out the back door and climbed over the back fence. She ran down the street where her best friend, Krystal, was waiting to take her to the bus station. Krystal has been Candice's friend since grade school. She was upset to find out of Candice's abusive situation, but she is happy to see her friend escape. Though she is sad to see her go, she is happy her friend can finally find happiness. After a long heartfelt goodbye, Candice is on her way to her new home. Along the trip, Candice rested her eyes most of the time. There were several stops and bus switches in between. During the stops, Candice would eat the little food she had prepared or watch the people around interact. She dreamed of someone to have that loving look in their eyes when looking at her one day. As she boarded one of her buses, Candice pulled the phone out that Krystal had given her. When she opened it she saw the picture of her and Krystal from last summer. There was this huge party one of their classmates threw for graduation. Candice had to sneak out to go. Of course the next day that earned her a black eye from a beating she received. Man did they have fun that night, though. Candice had never had so much fun. While reminiscing, someone was tapping on Candice's seat. Candice looked up to see a sweet looking old lady. "You look a little young to be traveling alone sweetheart." Candice was surprised someone was speaking to her at all. "I'm sorry, ma'am! I.. I.." Candice was struggling to just speak with this sweet lady. "Oh, darling. I meant no ill manner in saying that. You just seem a bit young, love! My name is Olivia." "I'm Candice, ma'am... I just turned 18." Candice replied extending her hand to shake Olivia's. As time passed and the bus neared the next stop, Olivia and Candice had been talking the whole time. As Olivia had learned a bit about Candice, she started to understand the stuttering at the start of their exchange. She started to understand that Candice was escaping some troubling things from her past. Olivia gave Candice her number and insisted on getting Candice's in return. Olivia's stop is the next one, so she wanted to make sure that Candice was good and set before she was on her own again. As the bus stopped at the scheduled layover stop, Olivia and Candice left the bus together. Olivia pulled Candice into a big hug before shoving a couple of hundred dollars into Candice's purse, without her noticing. Olivia said her goodbye to Candice and left with her ride. As Candice watched Olivia leave, she shoved her hands in her pockets and gave a sad smile. While she waited for her last bus, she decided to grab some food from the concessions. As she dug through her purse for her wallet, she noticed the couple hundred dollars extra in her purse. She burst into tears of happiness and wondered where it came from. Just then a text came in on her phone. She looked and seen a text from Olivia. "Please get some good food and enjoy life a little! ;)" With tears still streaming down her face, she texted Olivia back. "You have no idea how much I appreciate what you've done for me! :'( Thank you soooo much!" The last bus arrived 2 hours later. There's about 4 more hours to go until Candice will be at her new home. Candice decided to sleep while she could so she could enjoy her new home. Candice woke with a start. The bus was slowing to a stop as she opened her eyes. The last stop was finally here. She looked at her watch to see it was 9 pm. After 3 days on the road or at bus stations finally Candice was free and at her new town. She gathered her bag from claims and headed to the front of the station to find a town bus stop that would go to her new neighborhood, to her new home. After finding the stop, she waited for the bus. After waiting for 20 minutes, the bus pulled up and she was greeted by the bus driver. She asked him what stop she would need to be close enough to get safely to her new home. He told her he would inform her as they got closer. Another 15 mins on the bus and the driver gave her a holler to say her stop was coming up. As she left the bus, the driver informed which way to go to get to her house and bid her farewell after welcoming her to their town. As Candice walked the 2 blocks to her new home, she began to gain a bit of hope that life would start to look up. Soon enough there it was. Just like the pictures. There was the quaint little yellow house with red shutters, brown roof, red door, and the cute little chain link fence around the front yard. There were these cute little rose bushes off each side of the steps to the wrap around porch, two wooden rocking chairs on the front porch, a little wicker side table in between the two chairs, and a beautiful stained glass window inlayed in the front door. She walked up the stairs to the front door and grabbed the key out of the mailbox to the left of the door. As she opened the door, there was an air of welcoming. The smell of chocolate chip cookies and cocoa wafted through the air. She followed the entranceway to the kitchen and found some warm cookies on a plate on the counter and a cup of warm cocoa with a note next to them. "Dear Candice- I am sorry I couldn't meet you. I will come by in the afternoon tomorrow to meet you properly. It is now 9 pm and I assume you should be getting in soon. I just hope the cookies and cocoa will still be at least warm. Anyhow, I am sure you are exhausted. So please eat some cookies and get settled for a good rest. Till tomorrow! Your realtor, Kim Bowmen" "That was sweet," Candice thought. She sat and ate some cookies and drank her cocoa. After enjoying some of the sweets, she put the rest away. She gathered her things once again and started up the stairs to the bedroom she had her eyes on. Once she found it, she put her bags down and decided she would look around the house a bit more. She started from the floor level and worked her way to the attic. When she began she pulled out her phone and took a selfie in each room and sent them to Krystal. "I made it K... I'm free!" She then sent the best picture to Olivia, along with a text. "I am safe! I am happy! Thank you for your kindness Olivia :)" Candice decided to text Kim in hopes she had her phone on vibrate or something so as to not wake her. She took a picture of the cookies and sent it with a text saying, " I made it. Thank you so much you are too sweet. See you tomorrow!" " Man, I can't wait to explore this town and see if everyone is this sweet and nice," she thought. The house has two bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. Both bedrooms are upstairs. The half bath is on the main floor, for guests. There's a living room and a sun room. The sun room is all glass windows floor to ceiling and there are three sky light windows in the ceiling. There are two raised garden beds lining the main wall of the sunroom, with all basic herbs and some medicinal plants, that Candice had read about in her 'spare time.' There was the kitchen straight ahead from the front door. It had all the latest gadgets and appliances. She could definitely see herself cooking some great food in this kitchen. Kim had fully stocked it with any necessities Candice could have a use for. The kitchen had a door to the back porch and yard. The back yard was big enough for a small gathering. There was a fire pit about 15 feet from the porch. There were some benches placed strategically around it. On the back porch was a small table with an umbrella in the middle and four chairs around it. There were also a couple of chairs placed on the opposite side of the porch, with a little wicker table in the middle of them, just like the front porch. Candice headed back inside and locked the back door. She went to the front door realizing it was late enough she should lock the front door. Afterwards she headed upstairs. Realizing she only saw one picture of the attic, she figured it was a good enough time to go have a look. she pulled open the door to the attic, which looked more like a little closet door, and walked up the stairs. When she got to the top, it was a wide open space. There was an old couch, that looked to be quite a few years old. There were two arm chairs on either side of the couch. All were covered in a thick layer of dust. There was also a little old wooden coffee table in the middle of them all. There wasn't much to see, but something in the back of Candice's mind was telling her to take a closer look around her. Candice moved a couple of boxes she could see in the corner. She opened a couple and found old photo albums, which were missing quite a few pictures. You could see it seemed there were pictures in those spots, they were worn and yellow with age. Certain spots were more white like someone had just recently pulled the pictures from their spots. 'That's weird...' she thought. There were some old clothes in one of the boxes and even some stuffed animals in a couple. The original owners of the house must have forgotten about all this stuff, it seems. She began putting the boxes away, when a little sliver of light caught her attention. She looked in the direction from which the light shown. There was a small c***k in the wall. Wait there's something there, it seems. She looked at the creases of a blocked door in wonder and confusion. 'Kim didn't mention anything about a hidden room!' There seemed to be a sheet of wood over the door and from age the board over the door was starting to give way. She tried pulling with her hands, but the board is hammered in quite tight. She went downstairs to see if she could find a hammer in the house, but no such luck. Then she remembers seeing the shed in the back yard. She went out the back door, after unlocking it. She ran to the shed to rummage through to see if she could find something. 'Finally, there it is.' She found a small crowbar, meant for changing tires. She grabbed it, shut the shed, and ran inside. After locking the backdoor back up, she ran to attic and began trying to pry the board off the door. Slowly each part of the board that was nailed in began to budge. After a good 30 minutes of prying, she finally shimmied the last nail our of the door frame and got to see the original door. She put the board to the side, vowing to take care of it later, and slowly began to open the door. Inside there was a small twin bed, and old little dresser, and a small window with the moonlight seeping through. On the dresser there is a small picture frame. Everything has a thick layer of dust on it, even the bed. She slowly walked inside the room and peered at the picture. It was an eery feeling as she looked at what seemed to be her face looking back. This is odd as her family has lived in the same area for hundreds of years. Yet somehow there's this person in this picture who looks nearly identical to her. 'Where was this person now? Who is she? Why does she look like me?' She wondered. She blinked slowly and noticed there was more light in the room than before. She looked up to notice the sun light was slowly peeking through the window now. She hadn't realized she was awake all night exploring. She set the picture frame down and exited the little room. She swore she'd go back to look around it a bit more. She went back downstairs, to the second floor. Since the sun was just starting to peek through indicating morning is beginning, she decided to lay down for a few hours of sleep, at least. As she slept, she dreamed of a great, new home. A home where there was lots of love, a warm atmosphere, and wonder. She saw a man, she assumed was her husband. He had long, beautiful, wavy, brown hair. His eyes were like caramel. He was tall, but not too tall. His smile lit up the room. And the way his touch felt like home, she was certain that this was her husband or at least her love. The scene that played out seemed to be that of a Christmas celebration. Christmas is still 6 months away. But, here we are in a Christmas celebration. The man comes up behind her and hugs her. She looks down at his hands to see a baby bump. What the... BABY? Weird! Anyhow, there's also a little boy with blonde hair and green eyes. Must be the man's child. Suddenly it's really bright. Wait? Candice begins blinking her eyes vigorously. Trying to adjust to the sun rays sweeping through the room. 'What was that dream about?' -BUZZ- Candice sees her phone light up as it begins vibrating. She picks up, "Hey Kim... Yea I'm up... Okay see you in a few." Kim had something come up for this afternoon so Candice has 15 mins to at least look decent. She jumped up and ran to the bathroom. All her stuff is still in bags, but luckily Kim had stocked up everything I the bathrooms for her as well. She grabbed a washrag and cleaned her face up quickly, brushed her hair and threw into a messy bun. Forgetting her black eye she ran downstairs to at least make some coffee. While waiting for the coffee to finish brewing, she poured a quick bowl of cereal and was about to pour a cup of coffee when there was a knock on the door. She set her coffee cup down next to her cereal bowl and wen to answer the door. There was a tall red head woman, with blue eyes, and curves to make any woman jealous. She wore a blue pencil skirt and a nice white button up, short sleeve blouse. She had a red scarf wrapped around her neatly tied bun. She also wore bright red lipstick, with mellow toned make up. Candice extended her hand to greet the woman. The woman had other ideas. She grabbed Candice up for a big hug and excitedly remarked, " Oh dear there's no need for formalities. You can just call me aunt Kim. I am always a phone call away if you ever need anything. Please don't ever hesitate to call!" Stunned, Candice leaned back and Kim apologized and let her go. Kim smoothed out her skirt and asked, "so did you sleep well and get settled yet?" Candice could only reply, "I was too excited and spent most of the night exploring the house." "Well darling there's plenty of time for all of that, you should get some rest and..." Kim paused as she finally got a look at the girls she has been working tirelessly for for the past few months. "Things were worse than I thought!" Teary eyed, Kim grabbed Candice in for a hug again. But this time, it was softer and she soothed Candice's hair, like a mother would her child... If she actually cared. Candice, oddly, felt at home in Kim's embrace. She allowed herself to feel someone's comfort for once. Instead of being the one to comfort, Candice rarely ever felt comfort like this. Well I guess that's all about to change. Kim and Candice talked for about an hour and Kim had to leave. Before she left she made sure to tell Candice, "now you get some rest today dear. I'm just a phone call or text away and I mean that!" She gave Candice one more hug and left. Since Candice had some coffee, she was kind of awake. She decided to take a nice long bath and after she decided to take a little nap. She feel into that dream again. The same man, the same situation. What could this mean?