The September Steps

The clock ticked mindlessly on the wall, the persistent sound getting on Reyna's nerves by now. The page was blank in front of her, like a golden platter served with no fruit on it. The cursor blinked ceaselessly. Her fingers hovered over the board, antsy, with an itch in the veins as if it was begging to be moved.

Reyna's eyelids fluttered and drooped, tingling with tiredness. The cup of warm coffee served by her gentleman of a husband sat on her desk, the colour now pale, the temperature cold. Wait, she thought.

"A hot coffee," she began typing, the keyboard clicking. She was irritated with that incessant blink, "With a spoon of sugar." 

Silence. 

Reyna's mind ran around in circles, desperately searching and groping around for a spare idea, a concept she'd write but she found nothing. 

Her calloused fingers wrapped around the cup, expecting to feel the cold ceramic which had cooled the coffee. Yet, Reyna's fingers met warmth, and steam drifted from the top. A small pile of crystal-like sugar melted into the siroopy liquid.

Reyna's eyes widened in shock, as she set down the cup back on her desk. "What?" she whispered, glancing from her screen and back to her cup of coffee. 

Then, she felt a weight press down on the back of her chair. She turned, and as her eyes met her husband's, she smiled. "Hey," he greeted, "Are you done yet, love?" he asked, gently, resting his hand on her shoulder.

Reyna shook her head, "No.." she trailed off hesitantly, averting her eyes before directing them back to his gaze, "Jamie- I think there's something wrong.. I- Did you use the electric heating cup or...?" 

James eyes went wide, his grip tightening on her shoulder. "What- No.." James gave the screen a hard stare that was almost a glare. 

Reyna rested her hand on his one that was on her shoulder, "Hey, hey," she warned, her voice still warm, "It's fine. Maybe the weather's just warm."

Her husband shook his head decidedly, "It's twenty-three celsius, it couldn't be.." His voice faded, a hint of doubt in it.

"Well, have the kids gone to bed?" Reyna pressed, trying to change the topic as quick as she could. James looked up at her, a curious look still lingering in his gape, but he answered nonetheless.

He nodded, slowly, "Y-Yeah, the kids are sleeping." He gave her shoulder another worried squeeze. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked, uneasiness seeping into his words.

Reyna forced out a smile. "Yes." she decided firmly, "I'm peachy." James let out a bark of laughter, but Reyna quickly shushed him. Her mind was filled with paternal inquiries.

"Okay, okay," A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips, his expression tender, "I'm going to bed, alright?" James said, a silent undertone said that he was willing to stay to accompany Reyna.

Reyna agreed. "Yes, you're tired." Her face emanated grattitude, "Thank you, for today. For everything." A tinge of pride filled his voice, "Yes. Yes, Reyna. You're welcome."

James pecked her forehead and his hand lingered on hers for a moment longer before he went back to bed.

Reyna's mind was immediately packed with over-thought doubts and... curiosity?

Her fingers clicked vigorously on the mouse, the screen flashing white, blue and black in turn.

                                        ~~~ 

It was two in the morning.

Reyna's eyes were glazed over with tears she dropped; not of anger, but of exhaustion. Her fingers moved rather slowly against the keyboard, her eyelids straining to stay open and stare at the screen. 

Her ears perked up at the sound of a door creaking and turned, but saw nothing of consequence. She lifted an eyebrow at the intriguing happening. Her thoughts floated over the words "A hot coffee, with a spoon of sugar," as her fingertips did over her keyboard.

"The cold air..." she typed, the keyboard clacking with each of her movements, "Subsides into a gentle breeze in the night. Sometimes, it rages and awakes in a sudden burst of wind." 

A window rattled, the panes shaking slightly from the force.

Reyna's amber eyes gaped at the scene; it seemed as if it came out straight from a movie. Her gaze drifted back to her computer screen and she stared at her own words, realisation hitting her as hard as puberty did.

"Oh..." Her lips moved so slightly, the sound was almost incomprehensible. But, her opinion of huge surprise was evident in the way awe filled the undertones.

Her mind spun furiously as her hands set to work at a tempestuous pace.

"A blanket draped over my shoulders," she typed frantically, her fingers setting a pace like no other. Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, her brain groping violently for words, trying to pull them out out of nowhere like a magician would to his rabbit.

And true to her Roman-font words, a thick, fuzzy blanket materialiazed out of thin air and floated towards her, before casually draping itself over her shoulders.

Reyna could feel electricity shoot and travel down her spine, and the baby hairs on the back of her neck rised, indignant but afraid of the idea that magic was real. 

It was as if she had vanished from the real word, the logical one, and reappeared in another universe, somewhere absolutely parallel. Reyna let out a shaky breath, trying to calm down her frayed nerves.

Her gaze fixed steadily back onto the screen and its infuriating blinking cursor.

Images of witches and dark houses said to be haunted filled her mind. She brushed them off, but because of them, another thought was pulled out from the whirlpool there was. 

Fantasy. Thrillers. Magic and elves. Witches and wizards and whatnot. Lord of the Rings?

"The ground crumbled beneath the legs of my chair, the wooden frame shuddering as if it wanted to break away from a nightmare."

Earth shook. The legs broke under pressure and Reyna toppled out of her chair. She let out a surprised gasp and her fingers numbly held on to the edge of her desk, using it as leverage to stand up once more. 

Where Reyna's chair had stood were long cracks, going in no particular direction.

As quick as a tiger, Reyna's fingers moved once more.

"I could hear the sirens in the distance, wailing and breaking up the silence of the chilly night in this dismal month of September."

At the words "September," the work calendar stuck on the wall where her desk was cornered suddenly shook. Then, the pages were turned, though there was no visible somebody doing it.

Red and blue painted the quiet neighbourhood and Reyna's eyes widened in sheer shock as she peered at the scene from her window.

Her heartbeat was going about one thousand miles an hour, but that wasn't the biggest matter right now.

"The ground shook once more, and my walls quivered dangerously. A crack of thunder and lightning was merged into two, causing the air to be tight, like a bow drawn taut, with electricity and invisible sparks."

An earthquake of possibly 9.3 magnitude rolled through the streets, and Reyna would've lost her balance if it wasn't for her vise-like grip on her table's edge.

Yet, her grasp slipped considerably when the floor ruptured beneath her feet, leaving a gaping hole more than five metres wide. Her heart was practically banging on her ribs at this point.

If she slipped, she would've fall. But Reyna's instincts were quick and agile, and she managed to push death away by launching her body across the gaping floor and landed, breathing hard, on the other side.

The edges crumbled like a pie's crust would and Reyna fought to keep calm as she stared into the dark void.

The computer desk, along with everything on it, was now standing precariously on a little piece of floor, right in the middle of the chasm. 

She needed to keep writing. Reyna's mind worked to count the calculations. 

If only she could reach her phone...

It rang, the smaller screen showing James' number and Reyna's eyes shot up in surprise as she watched the phone move alarmingly closer to the edge, spurred on from the vibrations.

"Hang up, hang up, hang up," she muttered under her breath. Her amber eyes swept the room, and landed on a broomstick, leaned against the wall.

She sprinted, taking it in hand before jogging back towards the edge of the deadly abyss. She breathed hard from her run, but she held on tightly to the chair as she balanced herself on one leg.

Reyna levelled her head and began to stretch her arms out as far as they could go, her eyes transfixed on her convulsing phone.

A tinier piece crumbled right underneath Reyna's one, unstable leg, and for a moment, she seemed to have got a heart attack.

Her breathing evened out. Reyna focused on her goal. She needed to write something down. Her phone was so close, not to her, but to the edge.

"Ungh." Reyna grunted impatiently as she swept her phone into her purse, which had handles. Thank God for that. 

Deft but careful, Reyna looped the edge of the broomstick through the handbag's straps, making sure it was thoroughly through.

Then, as slow as a sloth, she pulled the broomstick back, bringing it closer to where she stood. Reyna set a foot back down and collapsed when the phone came within holding reach.

Her palm and finger was clammy with sweat, but she gripped her phone as if it was a lifeline. Reyna's head rested on what remained of her home office floor.

Then, she laid there for a moment's rest, trying to calm her racingheart and thoughts. Her concerns went to her children and then to James. James had called... what for?

A brief moment of panic settled over Reyna's chest before she gulped it down and convinced herself it was okay.

Once she thought she was ready, which took about fifteen minutes, she unlocked her phone and pressed on the Notes app.

"I..." she started, uncertain of how to continue, "I want the floor to close. No, I need the floor to close. This annoyingly deadly gap should close soon."

As soon as her words were typed out, the earth rumbled deeply, as if its voice was coming out from the core of this world.

The fissure slowly lessened into a 2 metre pit, then finally subsided into a barely visible crack. Floating out of its own accord, her chair righted itself, sliding into the space below her desk.

Reyna stood up, now less shaken but now she realised how much power she held, and all of it was at the tip of her fingers.

Just as she stepped on the tiny crack, however, it growled once more but this time, instead of an abyss, there appeared a neat square, cleanly cut off at the edges as if it had been cut with a surgeon's scalpel.

Reyna stared long into it, for a set of stairs led off into the darkness.

Eventually, curiosity overwhelmed all her other emotions and she took a tentative step, before going all the way in. 

"And that," said Grandmother Ellie, "Was how your aunt disappeared. She went down the September Steps. She found the cure to death, but also the path to endless pain."

Charlotte's and Isabelle's mouths hung open, their jaws dropped low. "Really?" Charlotte asked, in a tone of awe, "Did that really happen?"

Their mother, Rachel, tsked from the doorway, her arms folded across her chest, a wry smile gracing her lips. 

With soft amber eyes and darker still hair pulled back, Rachel looked almost like Reyna's twin, and that was fair enough, since Reyna was her younger sister.

"No, of course not," she said, striding into the kids' playroom. The children loved hearing Grandmother Ellie's stories, but sometimes Rachel thought that these "fairytales" hit a little too close to home.

Grandmother Ellie looked up at Rachel, a benign smile on her lips. "Yes."

Yet, Grandmother Ellie leaned in closer to the children from her rocking chair, and whispered, "But adults don't have imagination. All they do is work, work and work. They work so much, they don't know what is true and what is not."

The young girls snickered silently, looking innocently up at their mother.

Rachel locked eyes with her Grandmother Ellie, and Rachel couldn't help but feel that the twinkle wasn't only merry, and when she winked, Rachel felt a weird sensation drop in her guts.

"Come, let's have dinner." Rachel invited, breaking the eye contact hastily as if it made her uncomfortable.

"The September Steps are real, you know.." Grandmother Ellie muttered under her breath.