Ilana glanced behind her, pausing. She was visiting her great aunt, Laura, who had invited her to visit for the summer. The first thing her aunt had done was give her the rules, ‘Feel free to explore. You can do just about anything you want, but don’t you dare open the door in the third-floor hallway with the green carpet!’ Ilana, being the curious girl she was, asked why. The response was puzzling. Aunt Laura had said ‘We’ve lost people’, then seemed to forget what they were talking about and sent her off to scout out the beach-side mansion for herself. Now standing at the end of that same hall, Ilana hesitated. 

The hallway smelled of lavender and dead moths. An intricate woodwork of ivy was sprawling through the windowless corridor. There was an emerald green carpet covered in small scenes, showing horrors: a wolf hunting an unsuspecting child in the woods; a woman crying over a dead husband; a witch stealing away a newborn. Ilana shivered, remembering that day five years ago. Something creaked behind her, drawing her away from her thoughts. Ilana spun, her heart racing. 

“Who’s there?” her voice echoed off the vaulted ceiling.

Nobody but the shadows, dancing in the dim sconce light, answered. 

Ilana turned around, refocusing on her target. The door at the end had an old-fashioned silver handle with a matching lock. It was carved with small vines choking a magnificent wolf to its death with enormous eyes made of amber, glaring down in fear. The predator turned prey. A cold shiver moved down her spine. 

Ilana crept forward, not wanting to disturb the thick layer of dust that covered every surface. The carpet was grainy beneath her feet. It made her itch. All of her instincts screamed at her, begging her to turn around. Still, she moved forward. Step after step, inching towards the forbidden door.

After what felt like hours, she arrived at the end of the hall. The wolf engraved on the door seemed to beg her to not turn the handle. Breathe, Ilana told herself, It’s just a carving, right? 

Ilana’s trembling arm reached out, the doorknob felt like ice in her grasp. Ever so slowly, she turned the handle. With a light push, the door swung open revealing a wooden staircase covered in a pale carpet that might have once been white. This sight made Ilana take a step back. A staircase? This house only has three floors. . .

The carpet on the staircase, which had 26 steps, was padded but seemed well used, unlike the carpet in the hall. The stairway led up to a trapdoor. The trapdoor had carvings of ivy leaves, but they were a pale green color, not the same beige as the wood of the door. In fact, the leaves seem almost real. 

Ilana carefully pushed open the door, expecting some sort of room, but instead of furniture she saw trees. A faint breeze flitted into the stairway, smelling of clover and something Ilana remembered, but couldn’t quite place. Stepping onto the moss covered ground, Ilana entered a different world. 

Blue flecks zipped between the trees and lit up the dark forest floor. A canopy of different shades of green closed off the forest from the sky. Birds of bright crimson filled the forest with an enchanting song, darting in and out of the clearing where Ilana now stood, the delicate grass and moss beneath her feet. Ivy traveled from the trapdoor. . .

Wait! Ilana gasped. Where is the trapdoor?

The door was gone. In its place was the ivy that Ilana had once thought to be carvings. Dashing over to where the exit had once been, Ilana started to dig through the ivy that covered what once was the trapdoor. She found nothing.

Her aunt’s words echoed through her head, “We’ve lost people.”

Ilana finally understood what that meant. Once you went through the door, you couldn’t get out. She was trapped in this unknown world.