Beyond the Doors Read online

  “What are you doing?” screamed the more solid of the two Memory Dimitris. “You’ll ruin everything!”

  The second Dimitri, himself looking less substantial, reached the door and paused momentarily, surprised to find Janice in his way. “Little girl?” he said. “I no underst—”

  Janice pushed him through the door.

  “Noooooo!” howled Memory Dimitri as the door closed, casting the room once more into near-total darkness.

  A hush fell, broken only by the purring of the kitten in Alexa’s arms.

  Janice, utterly spent, slid down the door to the floor. “Tell me that did it,” she said. In the back of her mind, she took note of the fact that she only said this once. Reality had been repaired.

  “I think…,” began Zack. “I think we—”

  “Curse you!” came the answer from Memory Dimitri, who had fallen into a heap on the floor. “Curse you horrible little children! You pushed the second me out of the memory! Now I won’t be created! Now I don’t exist! Why? Why would you do such a thing? What a world! What a world! To be vanquished by children!”

  The Rothbaums looked at one another, uncertain. Something didn’t seem quite right. For one thing, Memory Dimitri was being a bit overdramatic.

  “Um…Zack?” said Janice, getting to her feet, worry gnawing at her gut.

  “Only…,” continued Memory Dimitri. “If that’s true…” He stood up, a look of false amazement plastered on his face. “Why am I still here?”

  Zack grabbed Sydney and Alexa and backed away from the memory man, who grinned maliciously at them. “Could it be…? Could it be your brilliant plan wasn’t so brilliant after all?”

  Janice hurried to her siblings’ side. Memory Dimitri leaned in, causing the children to lean away.

  “Gotcha,” he said.

  The children screamed.

  Memory Dimitri doubled over, laughing. “That was better than I even dreamed!” he said. “You should see the looks on your faces!”

  “Wait,” said Alexa. “It didn’t work?”

  “No, it didn’t work, my sweet little lamb! I’m still here!” He spread his hands as if introducing himself to an audience. “And you know who else wants to say hi? Heeeeeeeere’s Grandma!”

  With a flamboyant wave of his hand, he gestured to the bed, where the horrifically enlarged, grinning head of their grandmother hovered, her eyes focused on the children—one on each with the fifth rolling absently to the sky.

  “I smell faaaaamilyyyyyy,” she groaned. All ten of her fingers inched out from the dark to approach, none attached to a hand. A flock of Nasty, Slithery Somethings emerged from under the bed as well.

  “Now it is your turn to spend eternity in this nightmare, getting to know your wonderful grandmother,” said Memory Dimitri. “I’m sure she has lots of neat stories!”

  The room came alive. The bed dragged itself forward, bringing the full, reality-defying body of Grandma with it. Janice was horrified to discover the thing’s legs had melted into or merged with the frame of the bed. It was part of her. Meanwhile, her torso—tiny compared to her head and hands—was covered in red welts.

  “Please!” cried Janice. “We never did anything to you!”

  “You exist!” screamed Memory Dimitri, his voice climbing in pitch and fervor. “You are Tulvings! Marcus can hide in the MemorySphere if he wants. I’ll take my revenge on everyone he loves! Eventually, he’ll have to step outside to try to save his family. And then I’ll control his memories! I will make him forget everything he ever knew—everyone he has ever known!”

  Zack stepped up into Memory Dimitri’s face. “You won’t get away with this,” he said.

  “I already have,” snapped Memory Dimitri. “Unless you’re referring to the doorknob the little oaf has in her jacket pocket.”

  All eyes turned to Alexa, who backed up, clutching the purring kitty in her arms. “Go away,” she said. “You’re mean.”

  “From the mouths of babes…,” murmured Memory Dimitri before launching into motion. Before anyone could stop him, he grabbed Alexa and jerked her forward, as if to toss her to the encroaching fingers.

  She was saved by a flurry of fur.

  The cat, suddenly disturbed from its resting place, gave one defiant growl and flew at Memory Dimitri, teeth and claws bared. It hissed up a storm and landed on the cruel memory man’s face, sending them both to the ground.

  “Alexa! The knob!” yelled Zack.

  Alexa took out the knob and threw it to Zack, who caught it and attached it to the door with a resounding click.

  “Get this…stupid…furry…beast…off me!” demanded Memory Dimitri, throwing his arms in front of his face in an effort to ward off the memory of the kitty.

  Zack pulled the door open, bringing the promise of freedom streaming into the room.

  “Go!” he yelled.

  Janice grabbed a slightly stunned Alexa and ran for the door, Sydney a step ahead. Behind her, she heard a high-pitched howl from the cat, a less-than-manly grunt from Memory Dimitri, and, from Grandma, a guttural cry of pure rage that felt like a thousand paper cuts on her eardrums.

  Then she was through the door.

  It was a seriously somber mood in the portal room.

  The four Rothbaum children stood or sat silently at random spots, each needing a few feet of personal space but not willing to let any of their siblings out of sight. Dimitri stood awkwardly by the curtain in front of the vaultlike steel door, trying to be considerate yet also nervously keeping an eye out in case Gonzo or Pixie returned.

  “It should have worked,” said Zack for the fifteenth or sixteenth time.

  “It didn’t,” replied Janice for the fifteenth or sixteenth time.

  “I miss the kitty,” whimpered Alexa. “It was fluffy.”

  “You’ve still got Ratty,” said Sydney, pointing her thumb at the pet’s cage resting against the wall.

  “He’s a rat,” said Alexa, pouting.

  Sydney sighed and looked down at their grandmother’s door, which lay broken on the floor at the foot of the platform. Nobody had said anything, but once everyone had gotten out of that horrible memory, they had quickly asked Dimitri to snap it in half. All had breathed a sigh of relief when it was destroyed.

  “I still remember being double,” murmured Janice.

  “That was weird,” said Alexa. “I was petting two kitties.”

  “Something about when Grandma—” began Zack.

  “That wasn’t Grandma,” insisted Sydney, feeling like she needed to stick up for the relative they’d never known.

  “Agreed,” said Zack. “When…that thing…screamed, it…it was too much for the memory to handle. Too much rage. Does that make sense?”

  Sydney actually thought it did make a little sense. She remembered the force of that fury striking her body as if it were a physical thing. “So the memory, what? Split itself in half?”

  “But only for a moment,” clarified Janice. “Then everything kind of snapped back into place.”

  Sydney nodded to herself. It made sense, if any of this made any sense. By the time they got out of the memory, they were whole again. But Dimitri’s two halves had been caught on either side of the doorway. Cut off from each other. One in the real world and one in the MemorySphere.

  But if that was true, then why hadn’t everything been fixed when Janice shoved the second Dimitri through the door? They’d saved him, hadn’t they?

  Or had they?

  “Is someone!” cried the real Dimitri, waving his gangly arms about in warning. “Is coming!”

  Sydney quickly looked for someplace to hide, but there weren’t many options. She saw Zack and Janice tense up but remain where they were. If Miss Guacaladilla walked in, there wasn’t much any of them could do about it.

  The heavy curtain was clumsily whacked aside, then whacked aside again after the initial whack failed to get it out of the way. “Oh, for…! A curtain by the door! Of all the silly…!”

  “Aunt
Gladys!” cheered Alexa, running forward as the less-than-graceful woman finally managed to get past the curtain with Dimitri’s help.

  “Oh! You’re back! You were gone, right? Now you’re back. Am I fixed?”

  All four children rolled their eyes.

  “Do you remember us?” asked Zack rather hopelessly.

  “Of course! You’re those four children. Oh wait. That’s not what you meant. Do I remember you? No. No, I don’t. I’m not fixed, am I?”

  “You’re not fixed,” confirmed Zack.

  “Am I going to be?”

  Alexa dropped her arms and walked away. Sydney watched defeat creep its way into the hearts and minds of her siblings and found herself equally pessimistic. What could they do? What could anyone do? Memory Dimitri had a hold on their mother and aunt. No matter what move the kids made, he would counter.

  It was infuriating, but for once Sydney managed to hold back the impending RAGE. She simply didn’t have the energy.

  “I fix you,” said Dimitri softly, gently bringing the terminally confused woman over to the swivelly chair by the computers. “You rest now. I fix you.”

  Sydney’s heart broke to watch the two of them. There had obviously been some sort of connection between them, and now that connection had been forgotten along with the rest of Aunt Gladys’s memories.

  “So…,” began Janice, wary of breaking the fragile peace. “This is it? He wins? We’re going to Uruguay?”

  “Only one of us,” said Zack.

  No, thought Sydney. No, no, no. This is wrong. This is all wrong.

  “There has to be something we can do!” she exclaimed.

  “Should we eat cereal?” asked Aunt Gladys. “I like cereal.”

  “I get cereal,” said Dimitri. He quickly scuttled out of the room.

  “He’s so much nicer than that other Dimitri,” noted Alexa.

  “Maybe his personality split,” suggested Janice. “You know, like in that story? Jekyll and Hyde?”

  A light went on inside Sydney’s head. It was faint and flickering, but it was a light.

  “We should probably figure out what we’re going to say to Miss Guacaladilla when she returns,” said Zack.

  “The crying woman?” asked Aunt Gladys. “She’s in the kitchen. With Princess.”

  The flickering light in Sydney’s mind got brighter. There was something she was missing. Something obvious.

  “Princess?” asked Alexa.

  “That’s not right. Penny? Pickles?”

  “Pixie?” suggested Zack.

  Aunt Gladys frowned in concentration for a moment. “That can’t be right. That’s a ridiculous name.”

  It was on the tip of Sydney’s tongue. Something about Dimitri. And Memory Dimitri. And…

  “So she’s back,” said Janice.

  “And in the kitchen,” agreed Zack.

  “Dimitri’s going to the kitchen,” said Alexa.

  “Stop him!” blurted Sydney suddenly. The light burst out in full force, illuminating her face with excitement. “Quick! Bring him back! Alexa, run!”

  The littlest Rothbaum bolted out the door.

  “What is it, Sydney?” asked a cautiously excited Zack.

  She beamed with pride. “I know what we have to do.”

  Their grandmother’s bedroom was as dark as before.

  The floorboards were just as mushy and pulpy, nasty-smelling gunk still shot up into the air, the windows were still bleeding, the furniture was still alive. The hairy chair remained incredibly disturbing.

  But rather than enter the nightmarish world of the memory before the drama between the monster Grandma and her family unfolded, the children stepped right smack dab into the middle of it.

  The hellish abomination that was the well-spoiled memory of their grandmother writhed and groaned and oozed pus and mucus from every pore.

  “Get back, Charlotte,” called Marcus to his elder daughter. “Come away from her.”

  Charlotte whirled around, furious. “Leave us alone!” she screamed.

  “That’s not your mother!” he insisted.

  “You know nothing!” she replied.

  “Back again?” crooned Memory Dimitri as the children quickly scrambled from the door to avoid being seen by the original participants of the memory. “You Tulvings are certainly gluttons for punishment.”

  He didn’t notice, thought Sydney in triumph. Per the plan, the other children ignored him, but Sydney—relishing the challenge—took him head on. “We’re going to save you, you know,” she said.

  He scoffed. “You’re fools to return to the MemorySphere. You will not slip through my grasp a second time.”

  “Wanna bet?”

  He started to give her a snarky response, but she put on her best “I’m so much better than you” face, causing him to hesitate. “What are you up to?” he asked suspiciously.

  “I want my life back,” she answered.

  “Get used to disappointments.”

  She smirked even more knowingly and returned her attention to the action.

  “Let go!” demanded Charlotte as she was dragged unceremoniously by her father away from the monster. “No, Dad! We can save Mom!”

  “Someday, I hope you will understand,” said Marcus sadly. “Gladys! The door!”

  Aunt Gladys obediently pulled a doorknob out of her pocket and attached it to the bedroom door.

  “Nooooooo!” wailed Grandma. “Doooooon’t gooooooo!”

  “Mom! Help!” Charlotte continued to struggle, threatening to break out of her father’s grasp, until Dimitri stepped in to help.

  “Must go now!” he chirped. “Is bad memory!”

  “He’s so much nicer than you,” commented Sydney to Memory Dimitri.

  Aunt Gladys yanked the door open and, at her father’s commanding nod, stepped through to the other side.

  “Mom!” yelled Charlotte in a last-ditch effort to break away from her father. “Mom, he’s abandoning you!”

  Sydney closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see this again.

  Just as before, she heard the howl of primordial fury erupt and felt the shock wave of energy. This time, knowing it was coming allowed everyone to remain on their feet. The eerie sensation of being psychically ripped in half, however, remained disturbing.

  “Shouldn’t you be pointlessly trying to interfere right about now?” hissed the two Memory Dimitris.

  The Sydneys calmly watched her grandfather fight her mother in duplicate in the doorway. The timing of this had to be just right.

  “Well?” continued the Memory Dimitris, a touch of panic in their voices. “Aren’t you kids going to do something? What are you waiting for?”

  Both Sydneys remained silent, letting the memory men stew in their juices as Marcus pushed his daughter through first once, then a second time.

  “Dimitri!” yelled Marcus. “Run!”

  “You’re all just going to stand there?” asked the Memory Dimitris incredulously.

  Satisfied, the Sydneys turned around, smiling. “Nope,” they said. “Go, guys!”

  Two Janices dashed for the door. At the same time, the Zacks and Alexas turned around to face the Memory Dimitris, the Alexas holding furry kittens in their arms. The cats hissed.

  The Memory Dimitris laughed. “Honestly? You don’t need to block me from the door. I’m not going to try to stop you. We all know this doesn’t work.”

  Janice reached the doorway just as the first Dimitri left the room. With a grunt of determination, she shoved her arm against the door as it was trying to close, forcing it to stay open. Her echo did the same.

  “You should not have returned,” remarked Memory Dimitri, though only once as the memory was returning to a state of equilibrium. “Now you will never escape your grandmother’s memory.”

  “We’re not in Grandma’s memory of this moment,” stated Sydney as calmly as possible.

  Back at the door, the second Dimitri paused as he encountered Janice standing in his way. “Little
girl?” he said. “I no underst—”

  Sydney smiled and went for the jugular. “We’re in yours.”

  Memory Dimitri’s eyes widened as the implications struck him like a hammer to the forebrain. “What?”

  Janice grabbed the other Dimitri and pushed him through the door.

  Memory Dimitri’s face turned the palest shade of yellow possible. “No!”

  He launched himself forward, now only a single person, but Zack and Alexa held their ground, holding him at bay until Janice cleared the doorway and it was slammed shut from the other side.

  “What have you done?” screamed Memory Dimitri. “You foul, miserable children! What have you done?”

  Janice rejoined her siblings, and the four stood in a mixture of mute fascination and horror as Memory Dimitri began to peel away. Little holes in his skin appeared as if he were a sheet of paper held over a flame. But instead of bones and veins and whatever else ought to have been inside a human body, there was nothing.

  “You made it out,” said Zack.

  “Which means you never existed,” added Janice.

  “It’s called a paradox,” explained Sydney.

  “I never liked you,” said Alexa, calmly stroking the now-purring kitten in her arms.

  Memory Dimitri dropped to what was left of his knees and writhed about, not so much in pain as in misery and horror. As the holes of emptiness devoured his face, he turned his remaining eye toward the children and glared at them with utter malice.

  And then he was gone.

  “Then Alexa pulled out the doorknob, and we got out of there,” finished Zack. “Grandma, or whatever that thing is, was losing it big-time.”

  “Her fingers were crawling toward us!” added Alexa, shuddering. “On their own!”

  Their grandfather shook his head, smiling very sadly. “Yes, the memory of Agatha devolved into a nightmare. My one regret. She deserves better.” Alexa nearly burst from the excitement of her secret. But not yet. She’d wait until Zack gave the signal.