Isabelle, not familiar with this door looked at it strangely, observing its knob she pulled. Surprisingly enough it didn't open, her eyes caught hold of a key hole beneath the door knob and began to wonder.
"What's a door doing in my garden? Does anyone know about this?"
"And". She pulled "Why". She pulled again. "Wouldn't". She pulled yet again "it open". With a huff in frustration she sat back on her knee feeling tired from all the raking she had been doing and pulling.
"A door in my garden."
She still couldn't believe her latest discovery. All her years of being alive and living in the mansion, never has she ever come across this or heard any conversation surrounding this door.
She stood up with the book in her hand still staring, slowly backing away, she returned the rake and made her way back to the mansion where she was served with pancakes and syrup by Clara.
Isabelle watched as Clara poured the syrup on the ten thin layer pancakes wanting to bring up a conversation with her but decided to keep her thoughts to herself, instead she asked,
"Where is Mrs. Noel?"
This question was directed to Mr. Orlando who was staring at the edge of a table, with a dust cloth in his hand and a glove protecting his hands from the dust.
"She's gone to the supermarket to buy some things" Orlando said still staring at the dust, wanting to swipe it away without hitting the vase.
"She didn't inform me." She recalled no prior conversations.
"She saw you going towards the garden, perhaps she didn't want to interrupt your reading." He finally swiped the dust off the table after meticulous watching.
Isabelle kept wondering,
'Could the key be somewhere in the house?' She thought.
And then the east wing of the mansion came to mind, that was where her mother's home office and things were located. Somewhere she hadn't been to for a long time, even when her mother was alive for some reason she couldn't understand. She grew up getting used to the west wing of the mansion.
Lots of question began to build up and the one way these questions could be answered is to look for more clues. Asking the workers in the mansion was an option Isabelle did not want to resort to.
After eating, she went back to the wooden door hoping she could get something off of just staring and she very much did. Staring for a few minutes revealed clues she didn't quite notice before. Some writings were engraved, they were small but they seem to appear clearer as she came closer to observe them, the writings were not in English.
"Kharosthi script." She murmured and blew away the dust so she could read it.
Everyone thought Isabelle had gone nuts when she'd lock herself up in the library all day. She read different books in different languages. Kharosthi script alongside other ancient writings being hard, it took her a lot of time to understand.
"At night, when the moon is high,
under the willow it lies".
The two sentences written in two different ancient writings.
"Using Hieroglyphs and Kharosthi script to depict a message so not everyone could understand, nice." she said to herself.
The writing, reading it out loud sounded really familiar. She had heard it somewhere and it took her some time to recall. It had something to do with her mother's lullaby.
She sang the song and realized it was the exact same words used at the beginning of the lullaby her mother used to sing to her when she was a child. The lullaby was about a gateway to another world.
"Does mummy know about this?" she thought. "Impossible, she knows nothing about ancient writings." She Scoffed.
"Based on what is written, it seems as though night could be the best possibility to finding something." Isabelle concluded and placed the dried leaves over the door.
And off to the music room she went to play the violin, she had just finished writing yet another musical note which was played to no one for an audience.
The sun was setting, leaving the sky tainted with orange, signification of nightfall slowly approaching. Isabelle looked out the window and saw Mrs. Noel returning from the market. She cleared the musical notes which were in front of her and went down for dinner. As soon as she entered, the chattering died down.
"You could eat with me if you want." Isabelle suggested.
"No thank you." Said Candice dusting the last glass figurine that stood beautifully on the shelf.
"Don't want to seem rude miss but I have chores that needs to be taken care of." Clara responded, slowly walking away. Her true in tensions were to work on Candice's gift, same as Isabelle.
"I have to restock all the empty cabinets, which would definitely take a long time." Mrs. Noel said.
Isabelle ate dinner, alone like every other day. It was something she's learning to deal with. After eating, she got a torch and went back to the garden.
"Under the willow it lies." She whispered, using the torch to search the willow tree.
She got on her knees and dug her hands into the dry soil, grabbing and pulling it out. A process she repeated several times.
"Where could the key be? The song said under the willow it lies but I can't find it" After pulling out a few wiggly worms and more sand, with a heavy sigh she sat on the stem of an oak tree with her back against the tree looking at the moon.
The crystal clear moon, the moon was indeed beautiful." Isabelle thought. Her gaze landed on the floor again and then she saw something which was rather strange.
With a furrowed eyebrow. What could she describe it as?
"A ray of moon light?"
There was this invisible but yet visible thin line which the moon produced, it thin line were on the door and from the door it pointed forward. Her eyes slowly following the thin line till it disappeared in front of her. She focused on the part it touched. She crouched and with her intensifying gaze, she touched the willow tree, rubbing her palm around the area where the line had stopped. A small piece of wood fell unto her palm, she gasped.
"The key!" Those breathy words escaped her mouth.
Her blood became suddenly infused with so much curiosity that it flowed excitedly into all parts of her body.
She fixed the key into the key hole silently praying, turned the key, heard a click and pulled.
"Oh my God! It opened "
What was beneath the door was pitch black, but yet Isabelle wanted to know what was in the dark. Sitting on the edge of the door, she let go and was swallowed by darkness.
Her legs touched the cold floor, she could've felt it but for the shoes she wore. Her eyes she caught hold of a candle that stood quietly on the floor. Its flames dancing with the cool breeze.
Isabelle. Like a moth drawn to the flame, she walked towards it wanting to grab the candle so she could have a proper view of her whereabouts a voice stopped her.
"Who goes there?" A voice that startled Isabelle. Her attention shifted to the corner at which the voice came from. A figure, slowly emerged from the shadow to reveal itself as an old man dressed in a black cloak, his face revealed to be that of a human. But below his face made Isabelle think otherwise, she was taken aback by his appearance.
From his scaly hands to his claw like fingers. Isabelle, was guessing he's a half bird or something?
"Who are you?" Isabelle asked.
"I am the one who asks the questions around here" His voice was to claim that he was old voice, it echoed. "Why are you here?"
"I don't know, I was just curious to know what was behind the door and here I am".
"Curious? " He walked closer slowly looking her in the eyes as he whispered these words "Do you believe in magic?" immediately those words came out,
"I don't think I should."
"What if I told you that you were surrounded by trolls" The word trolls came out coarse.
"Grotesque humanoids? According to the books, they live under bridges and inside of a cave. It's just a legend."
"Already have my answer, you don't deserve to be here" He turned around.
"Wait!" Isabelle asked, she didn't know why she asked him to.
"Sorry to ask but uh, um what do you mean by I don't deserve to be here. Is this even a place?" Isabelle looked around it seemed like the candle was the only thing.
"You don't know what you are looking for, you don't know where you are. You just jumped into a dark place out of curiosity and may I remind you, curiosity kills the cat". He said and disappeared into the dark.
With a gasp, she woke up from her dream, she was in her room, in bed wearing pajamas.
"H…h.how did I g.get here?". She asked herself in a whisper. She got off from her bed, failing to believe what had happened.
"Was it a dream?" She walked around her room and on her bright yellow couch laid the clothes she had worn previously.
"I'll just put this in the laundry basket". She grabbed the clothes and a wooden key fell to the ground. With a quizzical face, Isabelle picked it up looking intensively at it.
"I don't think it was a dream."