Day 27: Closed Doors
What’s behind the door? Why is it closed?
She stared hard at the door in front of her. She hesitated once already. The longer she stood out here, the more stares she was going to get.
The street behind her was packed with people out and about on lunch breaks or running errands. It was a beautiful, sunny day so apparently everyone and their mothers were strolling along, probably judging the weird girl who was standing at a closed door.
Two weeks ago, she received an unmarked letter in the mail. She should've just thrown it away. Why did she open it?
It was a blank sheet of white notebook paper with an address and the words, "I know what you're looking for," typed on it. Times New Roman font, it looked like. She wrinkled her nose a bit at the time. At least it wasn't Comic Sans or Papyrus.
At first, she ignored the letter. She had 3 deadlines she was under at work and had no time to deal with this prank or whatever. But as the days went by, she couldn't stop thinking about it.
"I know what you're looking for."
That could mean anything. Anything at all. But she had a sinking feeling it could only mean one thing.
A few months ago, she submitted an inquiry to the adoption agency her adoptive parents got her from. She finally wanted to know who her birth parents were. She was curious to see if she had any siblings, what the family history was like, as well as all the medical history stuff she needed for doctor's visits. She'd been avoiding going down this road for so long. She was usually satisfied with who she was and the family she grew up with.
But lately...she felt unmoored, a little bit lost. She thought finding her birth parents would help her find her way.
After the letter showed up, she began to dwell more and more on it with each passing day. Until today. She found herself outside the doors of a nondescript two-story townhouse 30 minutes from her loft. She couldn't see in the windows, they were covered with dark curtains and couldn't detect movement.
Knock, she thought to herself. All you gotta do is knock.
She didn't know how long she stood there but she ultimately decided to try again another day. If she wasn't 100 percent sure then she wouldn't force herself.
Taking a deep breath, she turned around on the stoop but before she could begin her descent down the stairs, two large, strong hands grabbed her from behind and pulled her into the townhouse.
She never got the chance to make a sound.
Across the street, a little boy tugged on his mom's arm. "Mom, mommy, that girl got sucked into the house!"
"Andy, I have told you a million times I AM ON THE PHONE," his mother hissed.
"But the girl!" His mother shushed him.
He squinted his eyes, looked at his mother, who was now facing away from him and quickly ran across the street.
This was just like the book he read in school where the knight saved the princess. He was going to save the princess!
Andy's mother looked for him for several hours before finally calling the police, in hysterics.
Neither he nor the princess was ever seen again.
“Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.”