'The Chronicles of Evania'
Chapter 2: The Wrong Door and What Lay Behind It

(o)

So it was that by the time the two had reached the other side of the roof – or where they presumed to be the other side, for it was very dark by now – both were beginning to wonder if perhaps some type of nourishment would have been such a terrible idea. Asuka had taken to voicing this miscue increasingly verbally. Shinji was quietly glad to have made it this far alive.

"Are we there yet?"

How Shinji would had any idea of where they were, the point of origin being Asuka's house and the destination being somewhat unknown (Asuka supposed that Oxford couldn't be too far away, but that they might pass it in the dark), didn't stop Asuka for asking the question incessantly. Shinji remained reverently hushed.

"Are we there yet?"

This was becoming a tad unnerving. Why was he being so quiet? Any other time, Asuka would have dismissed it as shyness, but the two of them were alone in a cramped passageway lit only by the daylight intruding through cracks in the tiled roof. This was no game. Something had happened, something horrific. Only Shinji had seen it, and it had crushed his spirit into servitude. What would happen when it came to her own turn with the fiend? Shinji remained traumatically silenced.

"Are-are we there yet?"

It was no longer a game. Things had become deadly serious and Shinji, like the idiot he was, had nothing to say to her. What could his motive be? Had taking him with her been the right decision to take? It could all be a ploy; the garden scene, the jump-ahead to an established friendship, the inevitable romance to come – he was a spy! How it all fitted into place. He was conspiring against her to do away with her in this dark and desolate place, even as she thought to herself. Could he hear her thoughts?

"Shinji, talk to me now or I'll push you through the floor!"

"What? What is it?"

"Don't play games with me, third child of a family of four! Are you planning or conniving or conspiring against me?"

"No! No, of course not!"

There was silence for a few moments. Was he duping her? She was as tired of this constant questioning and felt it time to move on. She would have to watch him very closely from now on. He had deep blue eyes.

"Well, don't think about doing so."

"O-okay."

"Is that a door?"

(o)

The most peculiar sight stood before the two children, for they had reached a portion of the corridor that appeared not to be part of Asuka's house at all, for before the children lay the remnants of a brick partition, which would of course connect to a partition beneath the attic level to form the west wall of the house. In all apparentness, the border had been removed hastily, for bricks lay scattered about the breach, some still fixed together by crumbling concrete. Beyond this former barrier lay a door.

"Have you ever come this far before?" Shinji asked, feeling more alienated than ever in this strange environment.

"No," replied Asuka shortly, stepping gracefully over the residual border to examine this new and intriguing object her house has bequeathed to her. In spite of its unusual placement, the door appeared fairly unremarkable. It was not old, nor was it new. It simply was.

"Careful of the frame," Shinji warned hesitantly as he followed her to the apex of the gateway, "the wood might have-"

It was of course too late; for Asuka's ever-present curiosity had overcome her. She had barely touched the doorframe when she withdrew her hand with a short gasp and cradled it to her chest, her face betraying discernable pain.

Shinji was at her side in seconds, but stood in front of her dumbly, unsure of whether his assistance would be appreciated. After a few moments he felt an unexpected warmth upon his palm. Asuka's right hand lay there upturned, a solitary shard of wood protruding jaggedly from the already swollen tip of her index finger.

"Get this out for me, Shinji. Please?"

Asuka was beyond the usual asperity with which she would normally have addressed him. It really hurt.

"Sure, I-" Shinji hesitated. While the splinter had initially appeared to be buried just under the surface, it now seemed to be embedded halfway into Asuka's fingertip. The pain was becoming more pronounced, for Shinji saw the tears an instant before they were hurried brushed away. Asuka's voice sounded strained and husky.

"Please, it really hurts."

Shinji was already pinching the body of the fragment between his finger and thumb, but if anything his efforts seemed to bury it deeper into the skin. By the time he removed his fingers barely a minim of the intrusive sliver remained above the skin. Asuka's breathing had become heavy and she could no longer keep up with the tears falling from her reddened eyes.

"I don't care w-what you do, just get it out."

The distressed young boy scoured his mind for a more effective means of removal. In the end, it was one of his oldest memories that assisted him. Taking a firm hold of Asuka's hand – the splinter now buried below the surface of the skin – he lifted it to his mouth and bit down with his teeth upon the inflamed area, snagging the head of the miniature spear between his teeth.

Even through the pain, Asuka felt it. A sharp discomfort, but warmth too. A tingle of what seemed to her like electricity – and then it was over. Shinji kept a tight hold of her hand, but inclined his head away from her and spat the offending tormentor from his mouth.

Her finger still felt as if it were on fire, the neurons still sending back waves of malady from the tip of her finger to her palm. There was no blood, and while this seemed unnatural to her for a time, it was not unwelcome. Shinji was standing statically in front of her, a look of intense concern written across his face. She wasn't quite sure what to say – it was the first time she'd ever needed assistance with anything. It was also the first time she'd received it.

"Thanks," The word tasted bitter, but it was all she could think of. She focused on the residual pain, trying to block it out, as she had done many times before.

"Does it still hurt?"

"Yes. A lot. It'll be fine though. Come on, help me open this door."

Shinji was stunned. Less than a minute ago she had been cradling herself in pain, and now she wanted to return to the action that had brought her the pain? It was something he never would have done himself; he would have considered it a lesson learned and returned home. He would probably never attempt the action again. Asuka was incessant when she wanted something done. It brought to Shinji's mind the image of a child repeatedly pushing its fingers into an electrical outlet, receiving a shock each time but continually probing. Shinji wasn't sure if he would ever be so reckless.

"That was a really bad splinter, huh? It was as if it was fighting against me when I tried to pull it out. So then I-"

"Yeah, I was there," Asuka sounded tired, her fingers absently hovering inches above the surface of the door. She had learned something then.

"I remembered it was what my mother used to do when I was little. I.."

It was cruel to let him trail off into silence, but Asuka had to rebuke him. She had to – he was too close – she had to regain some sense of normality. So she reached forward and turned the brass handle of the door. Had there always been a handle? She supposed that there must have been.

(o)

The handle shifted silently beneath Asuka's administrations and light flooded out at once into the corridor, bathing the two children in a light that was extraordinary in its purity and was yet distinctly artificial, something created by man in the image of perfection. It was a trend they would increasingly come to recognise.

'No,' Shinji mouthed, recognising the interior at once.

The room was perhaps twice the size of a sitting room, the walls constructed of an engraved stone that Shinji knew all too well. Carvings snaked across the ceiling, the walls and even the floor. At the very end, opposite to the single window in the room, lay a desk. Behind it was a chair.

"We need to go.. now." Asuka was so shocked at the urgency in his voice that she would have followed him out in that moment without further debate. Had the voice from the other side not answered.

"That will be quite unnecessary. We have wasted quite enough time already."

Asuka felt her legs grow numb as the voice undulated around the cold walls of the room. It was almost familiar – recent, and yet there was a coldness to it she had never heard the like of before. It did not help matters that she was feeling increasingly nauseous, a feeling she attributed to the sudden rush of adrenaline from the splinter incident. At what point the reaction had taken place, she could not, would not accede.

"Time is precious to us all, Shinji, particularly to your friend there," the voice continued melodiously, treading like a tightrope the line between poetry and cruelty, "you had both better sit down with me for a few moments."

Shinji's head lowered as he surrendered to the absolute despondency he had known for so long. Asuka was by now leaning heavily against Shinji's side, and it took the majority of his strength to keep them both from falling. Entirely captivated by the sound, she slipped from the conscious frame to another place. Shinji gently shouldered her weight against his chest, directing her listlessly to the far end of the room.

"Coming, father."

(o)

To Be Continued.