The Key
"Splatt!!"
Another piece of chocolate cake crashed into the wall as I dodged out of
the way. The five year olds my mom invited were throwing cake everywhere
and playing nerdy Barney songs. It was my birthday, boring as ever.
My family was there, all of them. Everyone except my uncle Nick,
the coolest, richest, neatest relative I had. He traveled all over the
world, and always brought me something back. I wondered why he wasn't
there.
"Mom, I'm ten years old
now! Can't I have some real friends over?" I pleaded with her.
"Honey, I just want you
to stay young; you won't be that way forever."
"Ding dong!" The
doorbell rang.
"I got it!" One
of the kids yelled running to the door.
"Honey, go help him,"
Mom said.
"Fine. At least
it'll be better than scraping cake off the walls."
I walked to the door
and pulled the knob. As the door opened, I was a large wooden crate.
Behind it appeared to be a skinny little mail man.
"Can somebody take this?
Ahhh!!" And with that, he threw the box up in the air and collapsed
on the floor. The box dropped to the floor with a huge crack!
"Whoa, sorry about that
kid," he said.
"Yea, who's it for?"
I asked, trying to find a crack I could look through.
"Uh, says here a 'Matt
Acelus.'"
"That's me," I said,
half-excited and half-trying to stay cool. I signed for the package
and asked the mailman who it was from. He said all that was down
on his form was "surprise."
After he left, I sat
on the porch and stared at it. Then I got up and stood on it.
I jumped and pulled, but it didn't budge. After an hour or two, I
decided to ask my neighbor for a crowbar. I stuck the crowbar into
one of the cracks, got up on the crate and jumped on the crowbar.
It worked!
I did it again, and again,
and finally one more time. Whoah!! The whole box collapsed
right under me! I jumped off and slid onto the wet grass. As
I was getting up, almost soaking wet, I noticed that the crate had been
filled with styrofoam. I stook over the large pile of white and thought
about why anyone would send me a box of foam. I tossed through it
and hit my hand on something. I picked it up. It was a small
statue; a gargoyle that fit in the palm of my hand. It looked as
if it were carved out of stone, with two eyes that seemed to glow; its
mouth was wide with four showing fangs, and thick pointed ears.
"Weird," I said, as I
tolsed around through the mess, looking for a birthday card or anything.
Instead I found a note; on the front it said:
MATT,
HAVE FUN, AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY. UNCLE MIKE
I opened the note expecting a little saying from him, but instead it read:
THE
MOUTH THAT OPENS TO HE WHO HAS SPOKEN TIMES THREE TIMES THREE, WILL SET
THE DEMON FREE, TO TRAP HIM AGAIN SO HE SHALL NOT GO FREE, OPEN THE DOOR
AND CATCH HIM IN. THEN SAY IT AGAIN BACKWARDS TIMES THREE TIMES THREE
"What? That's
weird; it's even weirder than this," I said, turning the statue in my hand.
I folded up the note, put the gargoyle in my pocket, and started walking
up the steps to my bedroom, trying to avoid the fact that I made a total
mess on the front porch.
I stepped
inside my room and put the statue on my shelf with all the other cool stuff
my uncle had given me. I looked at all the other things, the tiger
tooth necklace, the tribal mask, the war paint...MAN! I must have
had about a hundred things there, and one more to add to my collection.
I picked up the small statue and rolled it back and forth in my hand.
I held it up and studied it closely, its wide glowy eyes, its giant ears.
I turned it over, and on the bottom of its feet was a muttled form of writing.
I got out my book of all kinds of writings in it, that my uncle had sent
me last. The writing said:
FROM THEIR WORLD TO MY WORLD,
FROM THEIR WORLD TO MY WORLD,
FROM THEIR WORLD TO MY WO...
The rest was
covered with tar, so I couldn't finish reading it, but I knew what it said.
I repeated,
FROM THEIR WORLD TO MY WORLD,
FROM THEIR WORLD TO MY WORLD,
FROM THEIR WORLD TO MY WORLD.
What did it mean? I thought for awhile, and decided that a bowl of
ice cream would help me figure it out. I put down the figure and
stepped out of my room, and into the chaos of my birthday. I walked
down the stairs, and just about everybody was leaving.
My mother
was telling the little monsters' parents how good they were, and what a
pleasure it was having them over. I tried no to be seen, but she
spotted me:
"Oh, oh
honey, come over here and meet Mrs. Godenez, she's Tommy's mother."
"Hello,
it's been fun having Tommy over," I said. "Mom, I think I'll just
go clean up in the kitchen," and I left, straight for the kitchen.
After my
ice cream I decided to turn in early, but not too early...it was barely
7:30 p.m., so I got into my p.j.'s and watched t.v. until 8:00. I
clicked off my t.v. and tried to sleep, but I couldn't. Something
inside me just couldn't, so I just lay there, waiting.
Soon enough,
I was asleep, but not for long. I woke up in a cold sweat, from a
horrible nightmare. I sat up straight in the pitch black darkness.
I waited for my eyes to adjust to the light. I looked around and
saw a dim light. I lifted the covers and stepped out onto the cold
floor. I felt around, trying to find the light source. I came
to my collection, the figure I had just gotten from my uncle. It
was glowing and its mouth was wide open with a swirling vortex and a key.
"Wow!!"
I whispered. "That's funny. I didn't see that before; in fact,
I could have sworn it wasn't there before."
I took the
figure and studied it hard. I then reached over and took out the
key. The light burst out of its empty mouth and seemed to ricochet
off the walls as if it were trying to escape, from my room, from the figure
that entrapped it, but it couldn't. My door was shut and my windows
were closed. It went back and forth, faster and faster, until it
hit the middle of my room, and with a bright flash of light, seemed to
disappear into thin air.
I clenched the
key tight in my trembling hands. I stood there not moving, not thinking
anything but about what just happened.
"Wow," I
said once again as I help the key right in front of my face and just watched
it, as if I expected something else to happen. I walked around pinching
myself, hoping it was a dream. The floor turned freezing cold under
my feet; in fact, the whole house was cold. I decided to stay in
the state of not being sick and get back in bed. I help the key in
my hand and walked over to my bed. I stopped when I noticed the key
had started glowing!
"Huh?"
I didn't understand. "What was going on?"
I stood
there staring at it. I waved it through the air slowly in front of
me. Then it stopped; I couldn't move it. I pulled my hand away
from the key; it stayed there, still, in the air. Soon, a door appeared!!
A big--no, huge! wooden door, that looked like a million years old.
It was worn and cracked, and its hinges were rusted. The key hole
was chipped and dented and the handle was covered in cobwebs.
Shaken, I slipped on some jeans,
a shirt, and my shoes, and began to walk slowly toward the door.
What lay behind the door? It is good? Bad? Questions
raced through my mind. I stopped for a second and circled it, examining
it, pondering at it in awe. Both sides were the same. I tried
to look through one of the cracks, but could only see bright light.
I looked straight as my hand slowly placed itself on the handle.
It was cold and chilled my bones. Its rusty hinges squeaked as I
struggled to pull it open...
I fell backwards
as a giant dragon with scaly skin and spikes down its back stuck its head
out into my room. I tried not to scream, but the sight of that ugly
beast was something that was going to haunt me for the rest of my life.
It walked through the door and flew out of my room, breaking a huge hole
in my roof. I dove under my bed so I wouldn't get hit by the falling
rocks.
When the rocks
stopped, I crawled out from under my bed, and the huge dragon hovered over
my room! My hair flayling wildly, my clothes wisping from the wind
which its huge wings caused from their wide flapping. It snorted
one flame of fire, and flew off into the moonlight.
"Honey?
Are you o.k.?" My mother yelled. She sounded frantic and scared.
I closed
the door and pulled out the key, hoping it would disapear. It quickly
did. I put the key in my pocket just before my mom burst into my
room and began covering me with kisses.
"Oh honey,
are you o.k.? Did you feel that earthquake? That was something.
Oh, I'm so glad you weren't hurt...our roof!
"Earthquake?
You mean you didn't see...I, I mean, that was a big one, huh, Mom?"
I stammered.
My mother
left to call the police. I paced the room, back and forth, back and
forth, thinking of how I let that thing loose, back and forth, of how I
could trap it again, back and forth, back and forth...I stopped.
Wait!! I got it!
I reached
into my pocket and pulled out the note. I unfolded it and read it
over and over again. I got it! I open the door and get the
dragon into it, then close the door and trap the dragon so he can't get
out. I say "FROM THEIR WORLD" three times. But how do I get
that thing back over here?
I ran down
the stairs and started for the kitchen. My mom was talking to the
police.
"When did
they get here?" I mumbled to myself. I went through the kitchen,
into the backyard and lugged in the trash can, trying not to make much
noise. I pulled it beside the fridge and flipped off the lid.
I opened the fridge and started throwing everything in, all the meat, all
the veggies, the fruit, even the mustard. I closed the fridge and
peeked into the living room. My mom was still there. How was
I going to get the trash can up to my room?
I walked
out into the living room and stood beside my mom.
"Mom, can
you go outside and show him what happened to the roof?"
"Oh yes,
right here, look..." They walked outside, and I hurried to the kitchen.
I pulled the trash can into the livingroom, and started lugging it up the
stairs one step at a time, finally up the last step. My mom came
in with the police officer.
"Dear, what
are you doing with that trash can?!" I jumped. She sounded
a little outraged, but she kept her cool. I could tell it was because
of the police officer.
"I, I, um,
uh, uhh, just wanted to clean up a little, mom," I stammered, but saved
it at last.
"Well, don't
make any more of a mess," she said. I just stood there, but finally
splurted out,
"Oh, o.k.
mom," then yanked the trash can into my room. I reached into my picket
and pulled out the key. It started to glow, and I knew what was going
to happen next. The door appeared and I pulled it open with sore,
aching arms. I pulled the trash can into the doorway, not daring
to go any further. Soon enough, I heard its wings flapping, its loud
voice booming, screeching in my ears, then a streak of fire announced its
arrival. It winged into my room and landed on the carpet. It
waddled around, sniffing everything. I just hoped it wouldn't find
me. I stilled and froze, not making a sound.
It waddled
to the door and I could hear it pillaging through the trash can.
I pushed the door closed with all my might, and as I heard the monster's
cry, I recited:
"From my
world to their world, from my world to their world." Winds were wild
and rapid, but I yelled out,
"From my
world to their world." With that, rays of fantastic light splurted
and splurged out of the cracks in the door. It quickly folded into
a small, glowing ball, and zig-zagged back and forth in my room, bouncing
off the walls like a giant superball. It stopped in the middle of
my room and disappeared, dropping the key on the floor.
I sighed
in relief, when all of a sudden the house started to shake.
"EARTHQUAKE!"
I yelled. "When is this nightmare going to end?"
I dodged under my bed once again,
held my hands to my ears, closed my eyes, and huddled in as far back as
I could. I blinked my eyes open, just for a second, and saw that
the rocks that had fallen from my roof were gone. Not one pece
of drywall, one splint of wood, not even a chip of paint. I couldn't
believe it!
Uncovering
my ears, I jumped out from under my bed, and stared blankly in awe...my
whole room was as before, clean, and my roof was fixed. I turned
around and saw the trash can disappear...where did it go? Then the
old door came back, without a key! It blinked in and out, like bad
reception on a t.v. Finally, it just zipped out and disappeared.
I slipped
the key into my back picket and ran out the door. I hurried down
the stairs. No mess. It was the same as before. The poice
were gone too, but my mom was standing in the doorway, in her pajamas.
"Officer?
Officer, where did he go?"
"Uh, mom?
Wh, what are you doing?"
"You mean,
you don't remember...but..."
"There was
un, a gas leak. The gas company was here. They said we might
see some things, but they said to rest."
"Well, I
guess I could use some rest."
"Yea, come
on, Mom, let's go back to bed. I'm beat."
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