Chapter Text
CHAPTER ONE: The Door
Raindrops pattered against the windows of Greene’s Diner, flowing down the glass past a shut off neon ‘OPEN’ sign. Maya Mallick stopped clearing the booths to look outside, the wet street briefly glistening from the lights of a passing car. She then returned to her cleaning duties, carrying another load of dirtied dishes and glasses through to the kitchen. Dishwashers were loaded, tables were scrubbed, floors were mopped, all under the flickering glow of the fluorescent lights. Maya wiped her brow as she finished cleaning the dining area, taking a seat in one of the faded red booths.
“Here are today’s tips, Maya.” She looked up as her boss Mr. Greene approached from behind the cash register. He held an open envelope in his hand, the edges of crumpled dollar bills poking out from within.
“Thank you.” Maya took the envelope with a smile. With her shift finally over, she collected her items from her locker and headed for the door, only to hear Charlie call after her.
“Say hi to your father for me!” Maya stopped at the door, swallowing before responding to her employer.
“Will do.” She headed out into the rain and hurried across the street to a blue sedan. Once inside, she took a moment to enjoy being out of the cold, reaching up to her rear-view mirror and briefly looking back into her own brown eyes. Maya’s commute took about fifteen minutes by car, sometimes longer if the Portland traffic was backed up. Either way, it came as a relief whenever she drove out of the city without getting caught in a jam.
The blue sedan turned to drive down a cozy suburban street, passing by several identical houses of varying faded colors. Maya pulled over into a driveway of one of these houses and put on the handbrake, seeing the glow of warm light peeking out through the closed curtains. Once out of the car, she made a dash for the front door, getting inside before the rain could soak her again.
“I’m back!” she called out, putting her keys in a small bowl by the front door. As she slipped off her black heels, an older woman came to greet her. Miss Abernathy’s graying red hair was styled into a bob cut, and a pair of glasses rested on the bridge of her thin nose.
“How was work?” she asked.
“Another day of slinging hash and making cash,” Maya joked, getting a small chuckle out of Abernathy. Maya turned away from her neighbor, looking toward the living room. The faint light of the TV could be seen flickering in the doorway. “How was he?”
“He was…okay.” Abernathy hesitated to deliver the last word, which did not go unnoticed by Maya.
“Okay?” Maya frowned slightly, and Abernathy moved closer as if to whisper.
“He got a little bit upset today. He saw that the car was gone and thought someone had stolen it. He tried to call 911.”
“Oh no.” Maya sighed and ran a hand down her face. “The police didn’t–”
“I got to the phone before he could get through to them. He shouted a little, but I listened and eventually got him to sit down,” Abernathy assured. “This level of agitation was new, Maya.”
“The doctor said it was to be expected during the middle stages. It just means we can be better prepared.” Even though Maya forced a smile, Abernathy looked apprehensive.
“Maya, what about when I’m not able to come over? It’s not safe for him to be left alone now.” She picked up her handbag from the table beside the front door, reaching inside and taking out a lavender-colored brochure. “Angelo has a nephew who works here. From what I’ve heard, it’s very nice.” Maya took hold of the brochure and read the large white font at the top.
“Appleton Acres?”
“It’s only an hour away. And they provide a specialised living environment for people with demen–” Abernathy stopped as Maya’s tight grip crinkled the paper.
“This…it looks nice. Can you give me some time to think about it?” she asked. Abernathy frowned. This was not the first time Maya had asked for time to “think about it”.
“Of course,” she answered, slipping her handbag onto her shoulder. “I’ll see you later, Maya.” And with that, Abernathy was out the door, allowing Maya to loosen her grip on the brochure. She took a deep breath before heading into the living room, her gaze resting upon her father. The light of the television shone on his balding head, and a content smile rested on his lips. Maya smiled also, coming over and sitting in the armchair beside him.
“Well, look who’s finally awake,” Ramesh chuckled, looking over at his daughter. Maya looked back at him with confusion.
“Pardon?”
“Sleep any longer and you’ll be late for work.” Maya let out a small sigh.
“It’s six o’clock, Dad. My shift finished about an hour ago,” she pointed out calmly. “Remember? Mrs. Abernathy was with you today .” Ramesh’s brow furrowed, and he looked away as if he had surprised himself.
“Yes. Yes, of course she was.” He nodded, clearing his throat before looking back to the TV. “How was…how was work?” He spoke as if he did not truly mean it, but Maya knew he simply wanted to avoid the embarrassment he felt.
“Oh, fine. It was…fine,” she sighed. She took a moment to join Ramesh in looking at the screen, appreciating the temporary distraction (even if it was just Harry the Bike Guy announcing a fourth location). “I’ll get changed and then make a start on dinner, okay?”
“Of course, betu.” Ramesh smiled, not taking his eyes off of the screen. He did not do so out of malice or selfishness. But Maya almost wished that were the case. Without another word, she left the living room and headed upstairs.
Entering her bedroom, Maya switched on the light and sat down on the edge of her bed. She looked up into the mirror on her dresser, rubbing at the bags under her eyes as if that would be enough to make them go away. She leaned back and flopped onto the bed, letting out a deep breath and staring at the ceiling.
“Just a few minutes,” she told herself, her eyelids fluttering weakly. “All I need is a few…”
Maya yelped and fell off the bed, awoken by a loud noise blaring through the house. She sat up with a groan, her head having taken the brunt of the fall.
“Ugh…Dad?” Maya heaved herself up from the floor, lumbering over to the bedroom door and opening it. “Dad! You can’t have the TV that…loud.” She trailed off, finding herself bathed in a green glow coming from downstairs. Stumbling over to the staircase, Maya saw a series of flashing lights flying past the open front door. Her father stood right in the doorway, shielding his eyes from the flashing lights. The flashing lights came to a stop, the noise ringing through the house once more. This time, Maya recognised its origin.
A train horn.
A layer of smoke hissed in through the front door, the rainy outdoors somehow replaced by a swirling vortex of yellow and black. Maya was at a loss for words, only snapping back to reality when her father approached the doorway. Her breath caught in her throat as Ramesh crossed the threshold, his body seeming to disintegrate and get sucked into oblivion with each step he took.
“Dad, wait!” Maya practically threw herself down the stairs as her father vanished from sight. And as she dove towards the vortex, her vision was overcome by blinding light.
“--you’ll probably have a lot of questions such as: Where am I? Why am I here? Are snacks provided?”
Maya awoke to find herself once again being blinded by light. She raised her arm to block it out, her vision adjusting to reveal a clear blue sky. Pushing herself upright, Maya realised she was sitting in a strange padded white pod, akin to a sensory deprivation tank. To her shock, the pod itself was resting on a plain of vibrant yellow sand, the only thing for miles appearing to be towering orange rocks.
“How…h-how am I–"
“For those of you talking to me like I’m there in real life, I’m not! I’m a cold, steely pre-recorded video. ”
Maya recalled being stirred awake by a voice, her attention being brought to a small screen within the “lid” of the pod. On the screen was some sort of robot, spherical in design with four tiny legs. It was white with a single black line down the middle, a pair of white vertical eyes looking blankly back at Maya.
“And this is a train where you sort out your problems! How about that number on your hand, huh? Pretty cool and green. Every passenger has one. ”
Temporarily distracted by the robot’s bizarre shifts in tone of voice, Maya looked to her hands, gasping as she saw a series of glowing numbers on her right palm.
~
180
~
“The numbers are made by the train, based on your life, in order to help you have the most personalised experience we can offer. If you want to go home–”
“Home? Home! Dad!” Maya was suddenly overcome by panic, having remembered what had led her to being in this pod in the first place. She rolled out onto the hot sand, looking in every direction for a sign of her father. “Dad! DAD! Where did you go?!”
“Oh, the old guy?” Maya froze up, looking around to find the source of the voice. “ He went that way.”
“Um…who said that?” she called out.
“Down here.” Maya followed the voice downwards, finding what appeared to be a sun-bleached cow skull resting on a rock. The difference being that while a cow skull only had two eyes socketed, this one had six.
“What…wh-what–” Maya stammered. Before she could force out anymore words, the skull flapped up and down as it spoke, as if the rock base where its missing lower jaw.
“He woke up about a minute ago. He went through the door just over the dune. You can’t miss it,” the skull explained with a southern drawl. In response to the skull’s direction, Maya screamed and ran off in the direction of the dune. “Ugh. You’re welcome,” the skull bid sarcastically.
Sweat ran down Maya’s forehead as she fled the disturbing sight, only stopping as she came across what must have been the door the skull was talking about. It was tall and rounded at the top, a pair of red doors turned inward and revealing a long metal walkway on the other side. Maya’s eyes widened as she saw her father standing on the walkway, looking off to the left at something out of her view.
“Dad! Stay there!” she called out, dashing through the doors and being met with a sudden tepid breeze, as opposed to the scorching desert she had just been running through. She put her arms around her father and breathed a long sigh of relief, finally raising her head to address him properly. “Dad, you can’t go wandering off like that. It’s dangerous to–”
“Betu,” Ramesh interrupted, his gaze still fixated away from the walkway. Maya followed his gaze, her jaw hanging open in shock. A landscape of dry muddy ground stretched as far as the eye could see, a dim yellow light resting on the horizon beneath a dirty brown sky. Maya turned back to look at the door she had come through, seeing that it had already shut, and locked itself with a strangely shaped golden handle.
She tilted her head upwards, almost falling backwards at the sight of the immense moving structure before her. Looking downward, she saw that the structure was moving along on giant metal tracks like–
“A train. Just like the video said,” Maya uttered, steadying herself on the walkway’s handrail.
“Maya, why…why are we on a train?” Ramesh stumbled backwards, looking back and forth between the two cars on either side of them. “Oh no. Did I…did I do something? I’m sorry, betu. I–” Maya quickly ran to her father, placing her hands on his shoulders comfortingly.
“Dad, it’s okay. Just breathe,” she said assuringly. “Now, I don’t really know how we ended up on a train, but…if we got on, then we can certainly get off. We just need to find some help. “
“Right. Right, o-of course.” Ramesh nodded, locking eyes with his daughter.
“I just need you to stay with me, okay? We can’t risk you wandering off.” She kept a tight hold of her father’s hand before making her way towards the opposite car, finding another gold handle similar to the previous door. With her free hand, Maya reached out and turned it, finding it made a clicking noise as it turned a complete 180 degrees. A pair of red doors opened inward, and Maya led her father into the car…