The Scarlet Door
'MM to Mannon'
It was over. He was gone. He was no more than fading footsteps in the distance.
She was alone now, in the empty barroom, on the cold, hard floor amid broken chards of glass. The darkness closing in around her. The gash on her head throbbing. Her body aching. Her emotions rising quickly to the surface. Her tears dangerously close to falling. She had too hurry, to get there before it was too late.
Every woman had one. Every woman like her. Every Scarlet woman.
She was a young girl, barely eighteen when she learned the secret.
She had been selling her body since she was sixteen and the burden was becoming unbearable. She had decided to end it. She had nothing to live for. Her days, her nights were all the same. Man after man came and went. Buying her, selling her, using her to satisfy their own lustful desires. It had been fate, her destiny she concluded after finding the straight edged razor late that night.
She didn't know how long she had been unconscious when she finally woke. Her slender wrists wrapped tightly in white bandages tinged with crimson. Her sapphire eyes heavy as they tried to open. Her body weak. Drained of its life sustaining fluid.
Then she was there beside her. Her mentor. Her peer. The one who found her. Saved her.
'Close your eyes.' She commanded. 'Reach. Reach as far as you can. Go deep. Deep into the darkest recesses of your mind. Look for it. Do you see it?' She asked. 'Look hard.' She ordered. 'It's there. It's been there for a long, long time. You must use it now.'
"What am I looking for? Tell me!" The young girl begged, as she saw nothing but blackness.
"You'll know it when you see it." Was her vague answer.
The fog was so thick. She couldn't see. She didn't know what she was looking for. She began to feel frightened. She was going deeper and deeper. Deep into parts of her mind than she'd ever been before. Frightening parts.
Then suddenly through the dense fog and blackness it appeared.
She had seen it. Her mentor smiled. "Keep going. You're almost there." She urged.
As she moved closer it became clearer, brighter. Finally she was standing right in front of it. It was a door. A Scarlet door.
"Open it."
She looked for the knob. Some kind of handle. Something to turn, to lift, to move. She was confused. There was no way in.
"Touch it."
Timidly she reached out and lightly placed her hand on the cool scarlet. Like magic it opened before her.
The long room was bright scarlet. The brightest she'd ever seen. Doors, many doors lined the long walls. Each door a different color. Each door a closet to hide her painful emotions. There was a door to hide the tears she'd never shed. A door to hide her shame, humiliation, guilt. A door for anger, one for hate, another for envy, and yet another to lock those away who had hurt her, betrayed her, used her.
"Put them all in there. All your demons." She ordered. "The pain, the tears, the anger, the hatred, the shame, the ones who have hurt you. And when you've locked them all safely away, turn and leave. Everything you place inside will remain. Only you can take them out."
She looked to each door. One by one she opened them, filling them full of all her pent up emotions. She tucked away the painful memories that followed her daily, nightly in her dreams. The ghosts that haunted her every move were now locked up tight.
After each door had been opened and filled she looked to the end of the long corridor. A black door faced her. She could feel heat radiating from it.
"That door," She explained. "Is for your worst nightmares. Your most evil demons. You won't use it often, but when the time comes you'll know."
It had taken the young Kitty Russell a long time to learn how to use the Scarlet door. To utilize it to its fullest potential, and understand how valuable a tool it would become in her life. It was the only real coping mechanisms she had. No one, not even her beloved Matt knew of her Scarlet door. She often wondered if Matt had his own secret door that he was able to lay his demons behind. Everyone needed their own secret door.
She had made the mental trek to the Scarlet door and into the scarlet room many, many times over the years. Hardly a day went by that she didn't run to it. To hide the tears from a hurtful comment. To bury the envy she felt when a young couple in love announced their engagement. To cover the broken heart when shunned by the decent folks in town. To hide the shame she felt as a man looked at her with lust in his eyes. And tonight again she'd make the painful trip once more. But tonight would be different. Tonight she wouldn't just go to the scarlet room. Tonight she would go to the end of the hall. To the black door.
Kitty closed her eyes and started her mental journey. The fog was dense as she moved deeper and deeper within herself, to her darkest, innermost being. Her trek was slow. Her burden heavy. But soon it appeared, like a beacon in the night calling to her.
Slowly she drew nearer. As much as she loathed what was behind it she knew for her peace of mind and her sanity she must go in. She hesitated only a moment before touching the cool scarlet.
Inside the scarlet room behind each door her turmoil raged. The sound of muffled sobbing, screaming penetrated their locked barriers. Voices like the buzzing of bees filled her ears. Hurtful words, ugly comments, hateful names all pounded her, searing her heart with pain. Faces of men and women who had hurt her, betrayed her, used her, floated as spirits taunting her. The guilt, the shame, humiliation, hate, they all came back as powerful as if they had happened only moments ago.
She took a deep breath to calm the rising panic. She had to maintain control. She had to stay focused on the task that lay ahead.
She had only been to the black door twice in her life. What lay behind it terrified her to her very core. There had only been two demons in her life evil enough to be put there. Tonight they would be joined by a third.
Slowly she walked down the scarlet hall. She didn't stop and open any of the colorful doors there. The demons she carried tonight were much too powerful, too strong to be held back by the thin barriers. As she drew nearer she felt the heat radiating from the other side. Her demons held tight.
Standing now in front of it, she reached out and touched the warm black. It didn't open. Her heart stopped. The demons gripped tighter. She touched it again. It remained closed. Fear washed over her. Her body began to tremble. The demons tried pulling her back. With clinched fists, with all her might, she pounded the door. At last, it opened.
Blackness greeted her as she stepped through the threshold. And so did they. They knew she was there. They knew every time she entered the black hall.
There was no light. Only darkness. The darkest kind of dark. The dark where evil lives. Evil thrives. There was no light bright enough, pure enough to penetrate the wicked blackness that surrounded her. She couldn't see. She might as well be blind as she took one step at a time deeper into the darkness.
She was growing weary. Her demons were making her journey difficult. Weighing her down. They pulled at her. Taunted her. They were fighting her every step of the way. They didn't want to be released. They wanted her. Her body. Her soul.
The heat was becoming more intense as she went deeper, drew nearer. She felt as though she were suffocating. Her breathing became labored. Beads of sweat poured like rain into her eyes. Burning them, stinging them. Perspiration coated her body. Her gown clung to her legs restricting her movement. The wetness was causing her to loose her grip on them. Oh god, she couldn't loose them now, in the dark. She'd never find them again. Never be able to lock them away. They would torment her forever. She tightened her grip and walked on.
Finally. She was there. She had reached her destination. It was there right in front of her. She couldn't see it, but it was there. The gate. The gate to her own private hell.
She trembled. Her hand shook as she reached out to it. The hot metal seared her hand as she touched it. Slowly it opened. It made an eerie squeal as it opened wide welcoming her into its dark pit.
There they were. The other two. The monsters that coveted her soul. 'We knew you'd be back.' They taunted. Over and over they called her name. She could feel them. Their hands, their mouths, their bodies as they pressed against hers. Victor Lawrence. Grey Talbert and now, Will Mannon.
She felt so dirty. Like a whore as the shame, fear, guilt, hatred enveloped her, suffocated her. She couldn't breath. The heat, the dark the fear engulfed her. She was drowning. Panicking. But she couldn't panic. She had to release them. To get out before the gate closed.
Her tears poured. Her screams echoed through the darkness. She dropped the shame, the guilt. Her burden was getting lighter. The taste of his mouth, the smell of his breath, the feel of his hands she pushed away. The pain, his cruel words, his force, she let fall to the floor.
Only one more demon to drop. Fear. She looked toward the gate. It was closing. It couldn't close. Not yet. She would be trapped in this hell forever if it shut. No one would ever find her. The gate was the only way out.
Once again panic set in. She tried. She tried hard to release it, to let it go. Her heart raced. It had a hold of her. It was pulling at her. Pulling her deeper into the pit. Its grip was like a vice around her slender wrist. She glanced back. The gate's opening growing smaller. She jerked one last time using the last of her remaining strength. Free.
She ran. She stumbled toward the gate. Barely. Just barely she fell through. She didn't look behind her as she ran back the long dark corridor.
The scarlet. The bright scarlet was a welcomed sight as she exited the pitch black. With everything she had she slammed the black door closed. Still running she passed the colorful doors. This time the voices, the screams, the sobbing went unheard as she ran passed their barriers.
Out. Out of the scarlet and into the dense fog. She closed the door and heavily laid her body against it. It had been a long, hard, painful journey. It was complete. Successful.
She felt nothing. There were no tears threatening to escape. No screams suppressed deep down inside. No emotions rushing to the surface. Only emptiness. Only numbness as she wearily slid down the door's scarlet face.
Her eyes grew heavy. She was tired. Weak. She wanted to sleep. To rest. To lie in her own bed instead of on the hard, cold floor. But it was along way up the steep stairs to her room. She would need help.
In the distance she heard them. They were familiar, friendly shuffling along the boardwalk.
Slowly she stood to her feet and moved out of the fog. He called her name as he neared. "Doc." She felt his gentle touch as he examined the cut on her head.
"I'm alright." She insisted as the tried to rise.
One last time. Before she left. Before the fog lifted completely. She turned and looked at it. It's brightness like a beacon through the fog. She hated it. She needed it. She'd be back. She would always come back to the Scarlet Door.
The End.