Chapter 15

Amber was entirely confused. She remembered Joy's mercy killing, and suddenly she was being carried out of the house and now... Now she was staring at the four doors. She looked back at her friends, well she tried to look back. But it was so dim she could only really see their outlines. She saw one that really caught her focus.

"Nina?" she said shakily. The girl turned towards her and let out a shaky, watery laugh.

"Ambs!"

Both girls were sore, but managed to go over and hug each other. This made everyone start to latch onto the people they'd missed. Soon the erie voice returned.

"One door will give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams,

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,

Young twelve, be smart with the door that you choose,

You could find, in the end, that their looks betray you."

"Too true." Joy said staring at the fourth door.

"Or they're exactly what they look like." Mick said.

KT sobbed. "My leg."

Everyone looked at KT and silently agreed that they didn't have much more time. Mick picked her up and carried her, and Fabian lead the way. Opening the door, each stepped out and were hit by an early sun. When all of them were out, there was a squeak and a bang. They all jumped and saw that the door behind them fell down, a cloud of dust surrounded it. Alfie coughed.

"I remember it now." he said kind of sadly.

It was too dark to see how they looked in the room, but now everyone was staring at each other. In terms of looks, Jerome, Joy, Alfie, and Amber looked the best. They were covered in soot and had a few burns on them, but they looked healthy, well groomed, and like they hadn't aged a day.

Mara, Eddie, Willow, and Patricia looked a little more frazzled. They had all been in the middle of a fight. Willow was holding onto a bag so tightly that her knuckles were turning white, while Eddie, Patricia and Mara looked beat and cut. Mara's hand was still dripping from when she cut her hand and all three had been hit with enough flying shards from Mara hitting the mirror that they were all bleeding in multiple areas.

But everyone was staring at Mick, KT, Nina and Fabian. Unlike the others, they were in the same clothes (apart from Nina's shirt) they had left in, which were dirty, smelly and ripped up. Their shirts stuck to their bodies with sweat, and there were age old scars and bruises along with fresh ones as well. KT and Mick were aware that their friends couldn't seem to stop staring at the warrior paint on their faces.

"Where did you end up?" Mara asked.

Fabian shrugged. "It seemed like it was supposed to be some time in the future, but we lived like we were in the past."

"Like Medieval times?" Amber asked. Mick shook his head.

"Like tribal nations." he said.

Patricia raised her eyebrows. "And you were there for six months?"

Four scoffs came her way. "Try a year." KT said.

Willow gasped. "A year!"

Eddie looked at the four quiet ones in the back, Not that he had all of his marbles, they'd have to do that soon, but he hardly remembered those four being the type to not say anything. "How long were you in your door? An hour?"

Nina chuckled to herself. "I could totally see you guys setting fire to a place after an hour."

Fabian joined in, "The fourth door is no match for Amber, Joy, and Lewis and Clarke."

When the ones who were in the first door joined in laughing, it was strained. They were sure they would have appreciated the joke much more if they had all of their memories back. KT noticed, however, that no one who came out of the fourth door was laughing, and she thought about saying something, but was distracted when Willow moved over to the side and opened up her duffel bag.

"Now?" Mara asked. Willow nodded.

"I'm not waiting another second."

They all stopped, Mick put KT down and looked at her leg while they did this. She had two deep gashes and two small one. Fabian had been able to kill it before it sunk it's fangs into her. She was dealing with it well, but they needed to get back before it got infected or something.

Everyone watched Willow take out four hourglasses, each different colors. The hourglasses were already quite a site when in the dim lighting of the attic, but they were absolutely mesmerizing with the sun reflecting off of them. Mara, Patricia, Eddie and Willow each grabbed their own hourglass.

"What are those for?" Joy couldn't help asking.

"Do we need to do this now?" Mick said looking at KT. She smiled at him weakly.

"It shouldn't take..." Mara trailed off as she tried to grab the purple colored marbles. Only nothing happened when she took them. "Why... why isn't it working?"

Everyone watched as they tried desperately to do... whatever they were trying to do. "I don't get it." Mick said impatiently. "What are those? What are you doing?"

"Our memories!" Willow exclaimed. Several hearts stopped and breathing became strangled. Or stopped altogether.

"What do you mean your memories?" Amber asked.

Willow let out a quiet sob while Mara explained. "In door one, the longer you stay in there the more memories they take. Each memory is... well sort of represented by a colored marble."

"Not just represented." Patricia said forcefully. "They were our memories. When we'd touch the marbles we'd get them back, but I guess that's only inside door number one. Which would mean nearly half of our memories are just gone for good."

She knocked the hourglass over, red marbles spilled out like blood. Without turning back, she began to walk forward. Mara frowned at her own, and placed it on the ground in front of her calmly, and followed Patricia.

Everyone watched them in horror. Willow sniffed, and took her hourglass, gently putting it back in the bag. Patricia and Mara were now well ahead of the group. Eddie straightened up with his hourglass in his hand.

"We have to get back so Trudy can wrap her leg." He said pointing at KT. He didn't actually know her name, so he didn't address her by it.

"Eddie..." Jerome said scratching his head unsure of what to say.

"We can use a shirt or something in the meantime." Eddie said. "It may have been exposed too long."

He took his own outer shirt off and put it out in front of him for someone to take. Fabian took it and slowly wrapped her leg. She winced at the rips in her skin, but other than that it was quiet when he did it.

Joy swallowed a lump in her throat. "Eddie I-"

"Let's go!" he yelled. Willow whimpered and they walked behind him. About five steps closer home, he threw his hourglass somewhere behind the trees. They couldn't see it, but they heard the impact.

It wasn't until they were at a crossroads that they finally caught up to Mara and Patricia. Mara had never been this way, and Patricia didn't remember which way to go. It was another twelve minutes before they arrived back at Anubis House. It was still early so Victor and Trudy were still asleep.

"If you take her upstairs to the bathroom, we can clean her off." Joy said to Mick. He did just that, and they helped her. They washed off the blood and dirt, most of the dirt anyway. Nina helped with the war paint. KT kept bleeding, the most they could do was re wrap the shirt. Amber helped hide the visible scars so Trudy wouldn't get suspicious, and then had her change.

While all of this happened, the boys took turns showering and changing. When KT was clean enough and everyone's scars were hidden by clothes or Amber's expert skills of hiding flaws, Mara made sure to get Trudy. The story was that KT went out for a morning run by the woods and a wolf attacked her. It was the closest story to the truth. Trudy decided that some of the claw marks were too deep and she would need stitches.

"I shouldn't be gone long." She announced to the house in a hurry, frazzled and dismayed by KT's condition. "It's about time to get ready for school, make yourself something to eat."

"School." Nina repeated. "Fabian..."

"We'll readjust."

He looked at everyone. They all looked somewhat scared. Alfie stepped forward. "Two years."

Everyone looked at him. Fabian raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

"We were in door two for over two years." Alfie said. "Doing... pretty terrible things."

Mick gulped.

"We will readjust. This is just something we're going to have to live with." Fabian said. "The important part is that we're all here. We're safe, we're together."

Everyone stood together in a circle. KT was with Trudy, but she was in their thoughts.

"My first year, we managed to get away from Rufus and no one was hurt in the end." Nina said. "We got our happy ending."

"Next year we got rid of Rufus and Senkhara." Patricia said. Some were lost with what they were talking about, but followed along anyway. "We got... our happy ending."

"We got rid of Ammut, we cured the sinners." Eddie said. "We got-"

"Our happy ending." several people said.

"We escaped the four door room." Mara said. "Why don't I feel like we're going to get a happy ending?"

"Because the story's not over. And when it is, we're not going to be finished with the story." Joy said. "Even Cinderella keeps living after she gets her prince. It's not the end until we're dead. Fully dead."

Some didn't understand when she said 'fully dead'.

"We managed to get away from Rufus and no one was hurt... until the next year where we got rid of Rufus and Senkhara." Joy said.

"Until the next year where we got rid of Ammut and cured the sinners." Fabian understood.

"Until now, where we escaped the four door room." Nina finished.

"Happy endings aren't real because the story never ends." Joy said.

Jerome sighed. "Come on... let's get ready for school."