The Door

 "Are you sure it's up here?" Arnie asked as he climbed the last rung on the latter to the attic. 

 "It's up there. Mom made me put it up there before you were even born," Eli said as he watched his younger brother climb up the latter.

 Eli remembered the last time Arnie had been up there. Arnie had started to cry in fear. Of course, Arnie had been five at that time. Now he was a good three years older and much braver.   

 But, despite being ten years old, Eli found the darkness scary. Arnie looked back down at his older brother. Eli had stopped on the third step of the ladder. His dark head looked forward, fearful of looking anywhere else because he might look down.

 The two brothers couldn't look any different. Arnie was slim and already almost as tall as Eli. Arnie's blond hair was much thicker and longer than Eli's. Eli would have thought that Arnie was adopted, but he hadn't seen Arnie grow in his mom's belly. 

 Arnie disappeared from the doorway to the attic. Eli's body tensed.

 "Do you see the box?" Eli asked the empty hole. 

 Eli jumped as Arnie's head suddenly came out of the hole and looked at him. "It's so cool up here. But it's dark." 

 He knew how scary that dark attic felt. That's why he made Arnie go up. When his mother had asked him to get the box, he froze. He hadn't wanted to go back in the attic. It was high and scary. He played it cool so that his mom and little brother wouldn't know he was scared. 

 "I think there's a light switch up there," he told Arnie. Arnie disappeared again. 

 "I don't see it," Arnie said. "But it's cool here. Way cooler than down there." 

 Eli and Arnie had been stuck inside for weeks. Mom had said something that they were going to be homeschooled for a while, and they couldn't go outside anymore. Arnie and Eli had been excited, but after the first day, they realized that it wasn't going to be easy. Mom woke them up with lessons before they even had breakfast. Eli couldn't remember the last time he got to see his friend Stella.

 Something rattled up in the attic, followed almost immediately by a long, drawn-out "Cool."

 "What?" Eli asked from the ground. "Did you find the box? Does it say, 'Books' on it."

 "No, but you need to get up here," Arnie said. 

 Eli put his foot on the next rung and felt his leg go wobbly. He couldn't push himself up; he looked down at his foot to make sure that it was on the rung safely. Even though he was only a couple of steps off the ground, he felt like he would fall. 

 "Can you just grab the box?" Eli called up more forcefully. "Don't make me come up after you." 

 Silence hung for a moment before Eli heard a sniffle from up in the attic. He knew that sniffle. His brother had started to cry. 

 "I'm not coming down," Arnie screamed. 

 Eli sighed. "Fine, stay up there." 

 "Fine!" Arnie shouted back. 

 Eli grabbed the side of the ladder. He tried to move his foot to the next step down to get closer to the ground. At that moment, Eli panicked. He lost his balance. His breath caught as he started to fall. He reached out for the ladder and managed to hold on for dear life.

 He pulled his chest against the ladder steps, thankful for the comfort it provided. He closed his eyes tight, willing himself to stay. 

 He listened to his brother up in the attic. He didn't want Arnie to come to his rescue, he was the older brother after all. It sounded like Arnie was moving a box. Then he heard what sounded like a door opening and wind coming through. Then a door slammed shut.

 Then he couldn't hear anything.

 "Hello?" He called out tentatively.

 He waited a moment before asking for his brother again. "Arnie?"

 Eli looked up at the gaping hole above him. There was no movement, no sound. "Arnie, I'm sorry. Please answer me."

 Still nothing. The fear of his brother in trouble overrode his fear of heights. He hadn't even realized that he had already climbed two sets of planks; by that point, his resolve had grown. 

 His grip on the railing became tighter than ever. He scaled the ladder to the attic faster than he thought possible.

 The storage space looked very different from what he remembered. He remembered darkness and cobwebs. Luckily, Arnie had turned the light on. The single bulb dangling from the rafters illuminated all the boxes and knickknacks in the storage space above their quaint home. There were still cobwebs, but they weren't as large or scary as he remembered.

 "Arnie?" He asked. Arnie could be hiding behind any of the boxes just waiting on Eli to find him.

 Eli stood by the entrance, turning in a circle. As he neared where he started, he saw the door.

 It didn't look like any of the doors in their house. This door was about half the height and made of shining gold, and had been divided into four sections. Each one contained a carved ornate design; the top right held a lion, the top left showed a deer, the bottom right a scorpion, and the bottom left a dragon. In the middle, where the corners of all the sections met, a giant golden loop hung.

 It looked like something out of the storybooks that dad used to read them. Eli had never really like those books because they had dragons or knights. He wanted stories about superheroes. 

 But this door, it felt like something out of a fantasy story. 

 Eli inched closer to the door, his hand stretched out towards it. This door shouldn't be here. He didn't remember it from last time. Yet, it called out to him.

 It felt warm to the touch. He ran his hands over the carvings, feeling the rough edges of the lion's mane and the simplicity of the deer's antlers. Then his hand found the loop. He could pull it open and see what was on the other side. 

 "Arnie? If you're here, say something," he said over his shoulder. He already knew that Arnie wasn't here. Arnie wouldn't have waited for anyone to open and go through the door. 

 As scared as he was, Eli pulled at the door.

 He had expected it to take all his might to open, but it swung as easily as his bedroom door. 

 On the other side of the door, rolling hills of purple grass. Just ten feet away, a purple forest sprouted up. The tips of what looked like a white castle tower jutted just beyond the end forest. The orange sky turned red as it climbed higher towards the sun.

 As he took in the wonder of this new land, the door slammed shut behind him. Eli spun around in place. The door hung there in midair, attached to nothing. Where the attic should have been, there was nothing. There was no attic. 

 Two ideas fought for his attention. First, he was outside. His parents hadn't let him or Arnie go out in weeks. 

 The second and more important thing that struck him was more important. Arnie wasn't there. 

 He spun in circles looking for his brother. It was then that he noticed the footprints in the purple grass. He knew they were Arnie's, and they were heading towards the castle. Eli couldn't believe that Arnie would run off without him, then he remembered that Arnie had been upset with him for not going up in the attic. He probably ran off, not worried about what kind of world he was in.

 Eli had to save his brother

 The tracks led towards the castle, so that's where Eli went. With a big gulp, Eli gathered up the courage to enter the forest. The trees had brown trunks with purple leaves that started to shade him from the red sun. He could make out leaves of purple, aqua, and lime green mixed in. 

 A small beetle climbed one of the tree trunks near him. He stopped for a second to inspect it because he had never seen a tie-dyed beetle before. It made Eli worry about what else could be in this forest. Were there things that could attack Arnie? 

 That's when Eli noticed the footprints changed. Arnie's prints were joined by another's. These footprints didn't appear human. Eli would have guessed horse, but they seemed much larger. Two steps later and Arnie's footprints vanished, replaced by solely by the horse-like creatures. 

 Eli's heart stopped. His mind raced with the thousands of things that could have happened to his little brother. Had he lost his little brother? Arnie could be such a pain in the butt, but he never thought that he would lose him. A tear started to form as he thought about having to go back home alone. 

 This was all his fault too. If he had just gone up in the attic like his mother had asked him, they'd be at home right now.

 Then, Eli's heartbeat again. It thundered in his chest, echoing throughout the entire forest.

 He could still find his little brother and get back home. With his heart beating twice as fast, Eli ran faster than ever before. He needed to get to his brother, and the prints moved toward the castle.

 The forest flashed past him as the castle loomed before him. The castle seemed ginormous. It was made of pure white stone and climbed as high as the buildings downtown. As Eli neared this castle, he noticed a gorge ran entirely around it. 

 Eli inched his way to the edge of the gorge. His stomach almost jumped out of his body once he realized just how far down the pit appeared. It looked like two of their houses could fit in it. One wrong step, and he would fall to his death. 

 "Eli!" His name echoed across the ravine. He knew the sound of his brother's voice anywhere.

 Across the gap, his brother sat up from the dry, sandy ground. 

 "Are you okay?" Eli shouted. 

 "My leg. It hurts," Arnie huffed as he tried to stand up. But his legs wouldn't hold him. He fell immediately. 

 The crack in his brother's voice hit him worse than anything yet. He hated seeing him in pain. "I'm coming."

 Eli started to move to his left along the circular edge of the gorge. He knew there had to be a way across. How else did Arnie get over there? 

 Then he saw the bridge. It looked like the rope bridge at the playground they used to play on, but the ropes were the same color as the forest, and they looked like they were much older. As he got closer, he could see the faded color of the wooden planks. Each plank was separated by a foot-long gap. 

 He looked down. Once again, his heart stopped. He imagined himself taking one step, and the plank he landed on would crack, sending him to his death.

 Eli grasped the ropes that held the bridge. The frayed cords felt like the bristles of the kitchen broom, but stiffer and coarser. He willed his foot to move, but it would only go so far. It wouldn't move to the plank. 

 He couldn't move. 

 "Eli, hurry. He might come back," Arnie pleaded. His younger brother tried to scoot his way towards the bridge. 

 Eli had to move. He willed his foot to move to the next plank. It groaned under his weight, but Eli kept his grip tight on the rope. He leaped to the next plank, and then the next, picking up speed as he did. Before he knew it, he was halfway across the bridge. 

 Finally, his feet hit solid ground again. Eli sprinted towards his brother just mere feet away now. He couldn't control himself as he wrapped his arms around his brother, his eyes dripping with tears of happiness. Arnie squeezed him so tight that he couldn't breathe, but he didn't mind. 

 "I want to go home," Arnie cried into his shoulder. It brought Eli to his senses. 

 "Can you walk?" He asked while he inspected his brother. Nothing seemed to be bleeding. 

 Arnie shook his head. Eli put his arm around him, helping to support his weight and lifted. As one unit, they nodded their heads and started to move. 

 They neared the bridge and paused. He didn't have time to be scared this time.

 Both brothers used their outside hand to hold on to the purple rope, while their inside hand wrapped around each other's backs. They took the first step, both of their feet landing on the plank made it cry out in pain. Eli knew it would snap at any moment.

 But the plank held. 

 They would have to take this slowly, but quick. The bridge wouldn't support them both for long. Together, they slowly traversed the bridge until the plank behind them cracked and fell to the ground feet below them. It splintered into a million pieces. 

 Eli froze in panic. They were so close to getting off the bridge, but he wasn't sure that he could finish. He kept worrying about the next step and if it could be the last one. 

 He felt his brother's hand on his shoulder. It gently pushed him forward, giving him the courage to make the last two steps. 

 At last, they were off the bridge. Eli felt exhausted, and they still had a trek in front of them. His body relaxed, but he didn't take his hand off of his brother. 

 Eli surveyed the edge of the purple forest. "That way," he pointed. "That's where we came from." 

 "How do you know?" Arnie asked. 

 "It's the only one with trampled grass," he said as he started to guide his brother towards the forest. 

 The further they got from the castle, the more relaxed and tired Eli felt. As they moved through the forest, the more relaxed Arnie became. His leg still hurt, but he was getting more movement out of it. 

 "How did you get over there?" Eli asked, fearful of the answer.

 Arnie tightened up. "Someone took me there," he stated.

 "Someone? It looked like a horse." Eli said.

 Arnie nodded his head. "He was riding something that looked like a horse, but it could fly." 

 "Fly?" Arnie couldn't believe it. 

 "I just want to get home, Eli." 

 "Me too," Eli smiled. Arnie put more weight on Eli. A warmth came up from his stomach. He knew that Arnie was going to be okay now. 

 The rest of the journey was simple. The purple and blue trees gave away to the purple grass field and the door. The flying horse nor the tie-dyed beetle didn't make another appearance. 

 The boys rushed to the door. Eli grabbed the handle and pulled. The door opened to reveal their attic just beyond the threshold. The boys stepped through and found themselves back in the attic. Eli placed for Arnie on a stack of boxes and turned back to the doorway.

 He looked back through at the fantasy land he and his brother had just traversed. This wouldn't be the last time he would see this mysterious world, he knew, but it was all for now. 

 He shut the door and turned to his brother. It was then that he noticed that the box that he placed Arnie had big letters that spelled out Books. 

 "Come on, let's get down from here," Eli said, offering his brother his hand and smiling. They were home safe.