Chapter 1

Door 2

Fabian looked around. He wasn't home, and yet it all seemed incredibly familiar. Amber figured it out. "Fabian you were right! This is the door of that big abandoned warehouse barn place Rufus trapped us in last year! Remember, Alfie knocked it down and Trudy fell? We're home! Well not home but home!"

"Wait..." Patricia looked at the door standing upright. "Alfie knocked the door down?"

"Yeah..." Fabian said looking at the door. "We'll go back to the house, see how everything is, and if it's all okay, we'll come back here and grab the others."

"Good plan." Patricia said. They ran the way back home, hoping everything was the way it was supposed to be. Twenty minutes passed before they got there. The sun was just beginning to rise. They had to avoid the alarm and waking up Trudy and Victor. The house looked normal, the day seemed normal, right down to the blades of grass that were a healthy mix of green and brown. Patricia walked ahead and opened the door. Everything was exactly how they left it. Even their beds looked slept in when they looked in their rooms.

"This was definitely the right door." Patricia said. "We have to go back and get the others. What did the voice say when they showed the doors?"

"One door will give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams," Amber recited in an eerily similar voice to the original speaker. "One door will have you fighting for the simplest things, one door will lead you to a world where you live but you don't, one door will find you back in your home. Some of those things sound bad."

"So we should hurry." Fabian said. "It's already been over thirty minutes since we came through the doors."

The three sprinted all the way back to the metal doors. For a heart stopping moment, they wouldn't budge. But after a few minutes of pulling, they finally opened. "What's the plan?" Patricia asked.

"We'll split up so that it's faster." Fabian said. "We'll each go in one of the doors. How do you want to decide-"

"Alfie went in this door right?" Amber pointed to the Anubis replica. Fabian chuckled, and it was decided. Patricia would go into the first door where Eddie, Mara, and Willow went. Fabian would follow Nina, Mick, and KT into the third door. Amber was practically already inside the fourth door where Alfie, Joy, and Jerome went.

"In and out okay?" Fabian said. Patricia nodded. "Good luck." They saluted each other and went on to find their friends.

Door 1

Patricia was actually surprised when she stepped through the door and saw Anubis House. It wasn't the same, though. Instead of a boarding school house, it looked more like a family home. She thought she may have heard familiar voices, and she followed that sound. It was coming from the other side of the door to where the Anubis dining room would be.

Eddie, Willow, and Mara were all eating breakfast. They looked at her and smiled. They were seated around a smaller table wearing different clothes than she'd last seen them in. Just jeans and tee shirts.

"Hello!" Willow said. "Take a seat!"

Patricia hesitated, remembering Fabian said in and out. For all she knew, he and Amber could already be back with the others. But she wondered if the others were acting as weird as these three were. Slowly, she walked in and took a seat next to Eddie. "Um, I found the way back home. Fabian and Amber did, I mean."

"What do you mean?" Mara asked. "We are home."

Patricia looked around. Yes it was eerily similar, close enough to home that she felt like she already knew her way around, but different enough to make her uncomfortable and give her chills. "Our real home."

They all stared at her for a moment, before taking turns having scones and croissants. "So what's your name?" Eddie asked.

Patricia's head snapped to Eddie's. "Is that a joke?"

"I don't think so." Eddie said as if he were thoroughly confused.

Patricia gaped at him, switching back and forth from panicking and hitting him. If he was joking, she'd hit him and make sure it hurt. But if not...

She looked at Mara. She couldn't see Mara being in on a joke with Eddie especially not one like this. "You don't remember me?"

Eddie stopped what he was doing and eyed her curiously. "Should I?"

Patricia nodded furiously. "Yes!"

"Well I don't, sorry. Could you remind me?" Eddie asked. "My name is Eddie."

"I know your name!" Patricia yelled. "You're Eddie! And you're Mara and you're Willow!"

"Well then we're at a disadvantage, because I haven't the slightest clue who you are." Mara said.

Patricia gaped at them for a moment and took a deep breath. She tried to keep her voice steady but when she saw the blank looks they gave her she snapped. "Patricia!" she exclaimed. She couldn't understand why they couldn't remember her. "My. Name. Is. Patricia."

"Nice to meet you Patricia." Willow smiled politely. But if not remembering who she was wasn't bad enough, another heart stopping thought came to mind.

"Wait, do you remember anything?" she asked hesitantly.

"Of course we do." Mara said. Patricia thought she saw out of the corner of her eye Eddie give Mara a curious look but she ignored it, because what Mara and the rest of them remembered was more pressing.

"What's the first thing you remember?" Patricia asked hurriedly.

"Walking in here." Mara said. Patricia's jaw dropped.

"You mean an hour ago?" Patricia asked. All three looked at her with an odd expression, as if she'd grown three more heads like the hydra.

"That was six months ago." Eddie said completely sure of himself. "Are you sure you remember everything?"

For a second she wasn't. Had she somehow missed six months of her life? But she was sure she hadn't. They didn't even know who she was how should she not take everything they say with a grain of salt.

"The three of us walked into this house," Willow explained. "We went exploring a bit, and finally I believe we didn't like it here. Dunno why."

"We tried to leave but the door wouldn't open. We were stuck here." Mara continued.

"You seem like awful happy prisoners." Patricia said.

"This isn't a prison." Eddie corrected her. "It just took some getting used to, but this place is truly amazing. You can do anything."

"Except leave apparently."

"We can leave, we just couldn't that first day." Willow said. "We can go anywhere we want, just not... not..."

"Wherever we came from." Mara supplied.

"We think that's where we wanted to go the first day." Eddie said.

Patricia looked at them for several long moments, before shaking her head. "Well we'll figure out whatever the hell is wrong with you later, right now we're going back." Patricia stood up and the others watched her leave. She tried to open the door but it was stuck. "What the hell?"

"That's what happened with us the first day as well." Mara said quietly when she walked to Patricia. "We can hope that the door starts working again tomorrow. Then we can go wherever we want."

Patricia stood still with a hand on the doorknob. "I'd like to go home."

Door 3

Nina's deductive reasoning for why she chose the third door seemed smart when she said it to them. It turns out she was wrong. The irony of the broken door being the right door wasn't there. When Fabian walked out of the broken door, he stepped outside. The grass around him was overgrown, and there was no sign of civilization. He walked down the steps into the grass and weeds and turned to look at Anubis House. It was broken and falling apart as if it'd been there for decades.

He began walking, looking for his friends. He stepped into the woods and navigated around the trees. He could hear the animals rustling around for a bit. He didn't know what made him go this way instead of the other way, he was just looking for his friends. After he'd been walking for a while, it took him a moment to realize it was too quiet. The only sound was him walking through the grass. He stopped and listened. No birds, no animals, even the wind seemed to be quiet.

And then,

"GET DOWN!"

The voice startled him so much, he obeyed the command without question and was surprised to hear wind whipping over his head. He looked up, arrows.

It sounded like Nina. He didn't dare come out of his crouching position. Where it had been completely silent a moment ago, it was now full of battle cries. There was shuffling and someone grabbed him and pulled him in some direction.

"Stay down," the voice, Nina he was sure, said to him as she pulled him somewhere. After a certain point, when the battle was behind him, she took off running and pulling him forward. He watched her. Her hair was long, messy, dirty. She didn't have any shoes on. She had the same jeans that she did before, ripped and beat up, but the shirt was different. It was looser and flowed like loose fabric around her body. She looked skinnier but she also looked stronger. She finally stopped in front of the old warehouse. He followed her inside, and she turned to him.

His heart dropped into his stomach. "Nina..."

There was dirt, blood, and scars covering every part of her body. Blood dripped down the side of her head, on her forehead was a nasty looking bruise. The bridge of her nose was bruised and bloody, and there was a deep scar on her chin.

"What happened?" Fabian asked.

Nina was examining Fabian like he was examining her. She finally looked up at him. "I was caught in a fighting zone like you, but no one was there to tell me to get down."

He continued stared at her, and she seemed to get a little irritated.

"How did you get here?" Nina asked, lighting a torch and putting it safely on the side. He could see the old furs on the ground where she and some others must sleep. Mick and KT he presumed.

"I went through the third door." he told her.

She nodded. "I'm guessing your door was the correct one?"

Fabian nodded.

"And you came here?" she asked. He nodded again. "That was dumb of you."

"I wanted to get you. And Mick and KT, where are they?" Fabian asked. Nina looked down and began to wash the blood on the side of her face with a bit of fabric, similar to what she had on, that she had wet.

"Last I saw them was a week ago." Nina said.

"A week ago?" Fabian asked as the words sunk in. "It's only been like an hour."

Nina looked at him and shook her head. "I suppose time moves faster here than it does back in the other world."

"Well are they okay?" Fabian asked. "Did you separate as soon as you got here?"

"Physically I'm sure they're in a much better shape than I am. Mentally... I can't speak on." Nina said. She put the rag down. She managed to get some of the dirt off, but she didn't even bother to try to get it all off. "It's been a year since we went through the door."

"A- A year?" Fabian's voice cracked. Nina nodded.

"And when we first got here, we were very much together." Nina said. "I'm going to show you something."

She grabbed the torch and lead him to the back. She held the light of the torch near the back wall, where he saw carving. Counting. She told him to hold the torch, and added the final tally of the year. The first ones, up to about 100, were larger and sloppier. You could tell a different person. Then they were neater. The person changed again at 158, and again at 228 where the person's marks were shakier.

"Mick started it after the tenth day. But then he was really upset when we had been here for 100 days, and he quit keeping count. So KT continued. Someone kept doing it while I was away for a few weeks," Nina pointed from 158-228. "Don't know who. I do it now, since Mick and KT aren't here anymore." Nina explained finishing up her carving.

"Where'd they go?" Fabian asked.

Nina stared at wall. "It's been a long year, Fabian."

Door 4

Amber didn't have time to be surprised by how different Anubis House looked compared to how much it felt like she was walking into her home when she yanked open the familiar looking door. She was too busy being surprised by the sound of yelling and fighting. The french doors that lead to the living room were replaced by less friendly looking ones. She opened them and was met by some sort of training center.

Joy and Alfie were fighting. They didn't even notice Amber. Alfie blocked every one of Joy's kicks, while she blocked all of his punches. Then the partners switched, and Jerome took Alfie's place. The difference in height didn't seem to throw Joy off in the slightest, as she ducked under one of his throws and then swung at his head with her foot. He caught it, but she managed to do some kind of spin and hit him with her other leg to kick him in the head. They both fell but she landed on her feet, and he landed on his side.

Jerome hopped up, but the partners switched again and Alfie was in Joy's place. Their fight seemed to be the most brutal. Jerome punched Alfie, and then pinned him to the wall with his hands around Alfie's throat.

"FIGHT BACK!" Joy yelled. Alfie stared at Jerome, but he didn't move to shove him off.

"Fight back." Jerome said. Alfie gave a slight shake of his head. Joy sighed.

"Finish it." Joy said. Jerome nodded and Amber watched in horror as Jerome squeezed hard, until Alfie fell lifeless on the ground.

Amber gasped and Jerome and Joy looked over at her surprised.

"Amber?" Jerome asked.

"Is he- is he-" Amber sputtered.

Jerome shook his head as Joy said, "You don't understand,"

Amber backed away from them until she hit a wall and slid down it. "I saw it all! I saw it all you, you-"

"Amber?" came Alfie's surprised voice. Her head snapped up as the boy, crumbled on the floor, slowly stood up, cracked his neck, and began to walk over to her.

She stared at him, and then at all of them.

"What is happening?" She said in a very timid voice. They all looked at each other.

"Amber when we first came here, we realized right away we weren't in the right place. We tried to leave, go back and try one of the other doors, but it wouldn't open." Jerome explained.

"We hoped whoever found the right door would come find us." Joy said. "We lost hope after a while."

"That's why I'm here!" Amber said. "Why would you lose hope?"

Alfie shrugged. "We kind of figured after five months-"

"Five months!" Amber shot up so quickly the other three backed up a little. "It has not been five months!"

"No..." Jerome said slowly as if Amber could explode. "It's been two years."

Amber shook her head. "No. No. No way."

"Two Years today." Alfie confirmed and held up his imaginary glass as if doing a toast. Jerome copied the movement but Joy watched Amber.

"How long do you think it's been?" Joy asked.

"I don't know! Less than a day that's for sure, like a class period! A little more I guess. more like lunch time."

They stared at her. "You mean it's only been like an hour for you?"

Amber nodded. "Does that mean time moves faster here?"

"I guess so." Joy said.

"Wait! Wait a minute, I just witnessed Alfie die someone tell me what he's doing in front of me talking to me!" Amber yelled. Jerome stepped forward.

"Amber put your hand here." Jerome said moving her hand so it was on his chest in front of the heart. "What do you feel?"

Amber blinked. "Nothing."

"Exactly." Jerome said.

"You have... no heart?" Amber asked horrified.

"We have... something." Alfie said. "Because we bleed."

"We can kill ourselves any way possible, we won't die." Joy said. "I've died every single way, and yet here I am."

Joy frowned and looked at her feet, Amber shook her head again. "H-How?"

"We're not..." Alfie began. "We eat, we sleep, I can feel every prick on my skin and every emotion. But at the end of the day... we're not real. We're not, we're not..."

"We're not human anymore." Joy finished.

"The minute we stepped through the door," Alfie said. "We became something else."