The door

Alicia slided the platinum door with full force, using every strength she's got, utilising her body muscles just to be called awake by a lady-ish voice. "Alicia, you need to wake up now. You have a piano class at 10am today."

   "What piano class, Amy. It's Saturday", Alicia mumbled with her eyes still tightly shut. 

   "Your practical exam is less than a month, Alicia. Your mom has requested an extra private class for you this morning to work on your third piece." 

   "Hmm... Alright. I'll get up in a minute." 

   "Be quick. I'll be downstairs in the kitchen making your breakfast." 

A minute passed. Alicia opened her pair of brown eyes to the sun completely blinding her eyes. She immediately squinted her eyes to the point they looked like they were  closed and merely opened by an inch.

"Amy must have pulled them up before waking me up earlier."

Amy, her family's housekeeper, only comes to their house on Saturday to clean up the house and specifically take care of Alicia as her parents are mostly out of town on Saturdays for business meetings. They entrusted Alicia to her hands and completely trusted her just because Amy was coincidentally their neighbour's relative. 

   "Alicia, your pancakes are ready. Are you done yet? They're getting cold." 

   "Yeah I'm coming!" Alicia quickly put her hair into a high ponytail after her morning shower and grabbed her phone before running clumsily down the stairs to the kitchen for breakfast which resulted in an almost dramatic fall. 

   "Your class will be from 10am to 12pm. I'll pick you up and then we will go to the mall for some shopping. What do you think about that??" 

   "Maybe not today, Amy. I am going to practice more. I need to get that distinction this time. I was so close last year." 

   "Stationeries shopping... Books....." Amy was attempting really hard to lure her out of the house for some relaxation. After all, both of them knew she needed it as she was under so much pressure at school. 

   "Amy... Fine... Just because I happen to have run out of books", said Alicia while she continuously poked her last piece of pancake and subconsciously zoning out.

   All of a sudden, the doorbell rang which caused Alicia to jump up and turn her head too quickly; she might have sprained her neck. She placed her right palm on her neck and massaged it gently to soothe down the pain while her housekeeper went to get the door. 

   "Madam Marie, what are you doing here? I thought Alicia is supposed to.." 

   "Oh, there's a current blackout in my house and I thought I'd come here for class instead while they fix it." 

   "Alright, come in then. Alicia! Ally??" 

   "What, who is it???" 

   "Your piano teacher is here, long story short, she's here for your class today."

   Alicia immediately finished her last bite of strawberry pancakes with whip cream and put away her plates to the sink. Ten minutes to two hours in which her class would finally end, she was starting to get a little exhausted. Since she was worn out and she did perfectly fine with her piece that morning, Madam Marie decided to end the class ten minutes early. 

   "What is this place? That platinum door again??? Wasn't I at class...is this the entry to the mall?" Without second thought, she once again slided the platinum door only to be shaken awake by someone again. 

   "Alicia, wake up. You dozed off. Let's have lunch before going to the mall." 

   "Why... What... Everything is so weird. It's the same dream as last night." Alicia kept wondering how the same dream could have happened twice but shook it off thinking it was nothing but a serendipity. 

   Weekend passed just like that and before she knew it, it was Monday which also meant school. School hadn't been fun to her at all unlike her other schoolmates who found school days to be the best days ever. She has been bullied since she was a child. Just last Friday, she was laughed at and gossiped for being weird with her hands at the science laboratory. The laboratory is a dangerous and deadly place to Alicia as she is a germaphobe and was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder due to everyday bullying. Her everyday routine included excessive hand-washing in fear that she might die from germs if she doesn't. To make sure she doesn't dirty her hands, she placed both of them in fists just a little underneath the collar of her school shirt, pretending that she was fixing her buttons. Sometimes, she wonders, "If I die tonight, this won't happen anymore, they won't get to bully me anymore... But will they mourn over the death of a teenager who suffered from severe anxiety thanks to those who used to bully her everyday before she finally raised a white flag and took her own life?" 

  "Hey! Shorty, watch where you're going!" 

   "Sorry" Alicia mumbled while avoiding touching anyone by accident anymore because if she does, she's sure she won't survive until the end of the day. These girls have been aiming darts and swords at her heart ever since the first day of school to the point where she's mentally scarred and there's no way to plaster her injury. Being the only person who gets picked on all the time, she's endured a lot as a 14-year-old. She's been facing these since she could even spell "anxiety" at seven. 

   "Ouch!" She was walking to math class when she was pushed down in the hallway. Laughter began to fill the hall which was silent when she fell. Her face was now laying flat on the marble floor which smelled like disinfectants as the school janitor must have disinfected the place during the weekend like every other weekend. She shut her eyes from embarrassment and quickly stood up for the washroom when she felt blood oozing from her lips which gave a metallic taste in her mouth. As she sprinted for the bathroom with her face hiding beneath her now messy hair, she felt a sharp pain in her right ankle. 

   She calmed herself down as she stood in front of the mirror, looking at her lips and cleaning it up with some tissue paper. As she did that, she saw her front tooth looking weird. She took a closer look and noticed it's now chipped. 

   "Great, just great. A chipped front tooth with a bloody lip and a sprained ankle. Should I go to the nurse's office or should I just stay here until the day ends? I think I'll stay here till lunch break. No-one will notice anyways." 

   Alicia then hid in one of the cubicles, locked herself in there and sat on the closed toilet seat with her palms in her head. Slowly, she got drowsy and drifted off to sleep. 

  "Look at her, she's coming this way. She must not see us, we need to hide." 

   Whispers filled the silent air as Alicia stood in front of the familiar-looking platinum door again. This time she decided not to slide it open, instead she turned around and decided to explore the place. There was nothing except whispers, birds chirping and a really huge blossoming pink cotton tree. She walked nearer to the tree but it seemed to be moving further and further away from her. Every step of the way seemed to be useless as it kept going further. Just as she stopped, she heard someone knocking in thin air. Everything zoomed back into place and she's now sitting on the toilet seat with her eyes shut close. She opened her eyes and she was looking down on the floor zoning out until she heard someone banging on the door that she came back to reality. 

   Her occupying the cubicle for hours was now the common discussion within the school. Most of her schoolmates glared at her during school lessons and even lunch break. Days passed. It was Friday, the last day of school before the weekend when they were assigned group projects in their science class. She was the only one without a group and she was once again reprimanded by her teacher that she was not taking group projects easily. The reprimand went on for a quarter hour before she was assigned to join one of the groups. 

   The whole group discussion for the rest of the class was a torture as it turned into a silent verbal abuse situation. She was verbally abused by all her other five group members when the teacher wasn't there and she was assigned to finish the whole project by herself. 

   Friday nights were supposed to be the best night of the week for Alicia. However, given the circumstances, she had skipped lunch and dinner earlier that day just to finish the project which she was instructed to send in before midnight. 

   "Click send. Close tabs. Shut down. I'm done... I'm done... Finally.. 11:50pm. I have 10 minutes to get ready for my Friday midnight binge reading session." 

   Time kept ticking. Alicia's eyelids started getting exhausted. They were slowly closing and her eyes started drooping. In less than 10 seconds after half an hour of reading, she fell asleep. 

  "What in the world is going on? This platinum door again? I have to open it this time", said Alicia to herself with both her hands on the vertical handle on the platinum door. She tried as hard as she could, used every single strength left in her body which was getting weaker, to slide open the door, to get an insight of what's behind that door. After a whole minute of trying to open the door, she began feeling dizzy and the next thing she knew, she passed out on the stone, cold, icy, hard ground. 

   "Excuse me, excuse me, are you alright?" 

   She opened her eyes to a pair of worried-looking ocean-coloured eyes. She got up with her arms supporting her body and looked up to see a peculiar-looking macaron-like girl with the ocean-coloured eyes. Before she could yell, the girl put her palms on her mouth to shut her from yelling. 

   "Don't yell. My name is Ovato Perin. You can call me Ovato. I'm the guardian of this land. So I am the only person who can slide this door open and see this castle. Only the door will be visible to one person. I guess that's you.. I've been seeing you trying to slide it open a couple times."

   Birds chirping in thin air began to die out and the whole surrounding went silent.

   "Quick, get in here, Alicia." 

   Ovato slided the door open with no difficulty and both of them entered the castle hidden behind the platinum door. Alicia looked around the place in awe whilst Ovato stood at the door which was no longer platinum but see-through - two-layered door and looked at the little boy wandering outside the door. 

   "Wait, Ovato. How do you know my name and what is the little boy doing here." Alicia has now stopped looking around the place and began interrogating Ovato. 

   "Well, I am a dream bringer. I am always on a mission to look out for people who are in great trouble and misery. Like you. I saw you getting bullied at school, so I brought you this dream every night or whenever you dozed off. No one I brought in has ever seen this aesthetic-looking castle before and the reason is because they have never tried sliding this door open so many times. You're the only person with so much determination and perseverance to open this door. So,... "

  "Ehem.. Ehem..." Ovato was now interrupted by a grumpy-voiced person. Alicia began searching around for the voice and was startled by his appearance when she looked in the cupboard. He looked exactly the same as Ovato except that he's red. 

   "Alicia, this is Ovila, my best buddy. He's another guardian of this castle." 

   "Pleasure meeting you, Alicia." After the introduction ceremony, Ovila went and hid in the cupboard again. 

   "Alicia, you need to keep what you see and hear in your dream today to yourself. This is a secret between us. I'm afraid you have to go but before you do..." 

   "Wait, what do you mean I have to go. I have been here for less than half an hour." Alicia has been dreading leaving and was thinking about exploring the place before her alarm goes off in the morning. 

   "Well, the time here is a little fast-paced. Uhm, half an hour here is actually equivalent to half a day in your world. I'm sorry but you will see us again. Just remember one thing, you need to stay strong. You're unique. You're one in a billion who's able to do this in your dream. Don't let others get to you. Forget about other people's opinion about you. Be yourself. Overtime you will be fine. Trust me. I'm sure we will see each other very soon. Goodbye."

  "Wait, Ovato. I haven't... Wait, what?! Half a day? Oh no!"

   Alicia woke up with a painful headache, as terrible as a migraine. She could feel her head spinning and she was about to throw up. She placed her palm on her forehead and felt something sticking on it. Slowly, she opened her eyes to see her mom sitting by her bed. 

   "Honey, you alright? You have been sleeping since last night. It's now noon and your fever is still not improving. I'll go get you your antipyretic pill." 

   She sat up and touched her forehead again. It's a fever reducing pad. Just as she started wondering how she got a fever, and how it was already noon when she was clearly in her dream for half an hour, her mom walked in her room with a fever-reducing tablet and some water. 

   "Thanks, mom" 

   "Ding!" Her phone's notification bell filled the silence as she took her medicine. She checked her phone for a message from an unknown person. It was an advertisement about a mini library opening just a minute away from where they live. 

   "Hey, mom. Did you know this? I didn't see any building in construction these few months. It says here that it's opening soon and that's next Sunday. Can we go?" 

   "No, there wasn't any building in that area nor any under construction but sure, if there are people going, we will go."

   The next message came in. It was an emoji of a platinum door and a strawberry-looking macaron next to it. 

   Tick off Sunday. Tick off Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Friday. Saturday.

  "Saturday is here. Tomorrow is Sunday which means I get to go to the library tomorrow. Oh my god." 

   It's a little past midnight when she decided it was time to stop reading and go to bed. 

   Five minutes into her sleep, she had the same dream again. This time, she was inside of the castle instead of standing right outside the platinum door sliding it open. 

   "Ovato? Ovila? Anyone?" There was no response. It was a deadly silence as if the place was not inhabited. She wandered around the castle, from the living room to the balcony and from the balcony back to the living room through secret passages and the most awesome place of the castle, the kitchen. Time was ticking. She's been here for ten minutes before she decided it was time to look for the both of them in the cupboard. Before she could open it, she was standing right outside of the castle in front of the platinum door once again. This time, she managed to slide it open to see both of them standing just right behind the door. 

   "Oh Alicia, we were just taking a stroll in the garden. Sorry to keep you waiting. But we are both equally excited to see you later. Sleep well." 

   "Wait, what does this mean? Wait.. Hang on..." 

   Just like that, she was twisted in the air back to her room with the alarm blaring her ears. "Sleep well? It's already 7am. I might as well get up already." 

   Fast forward to after breakfast, she was getting more excited and her heart was thumping with joy. Since it was a minute drive, she was now at the destination that she's been dreaming of for a whole week in less than twenty breaths. She got out of the car and went in through the ocean-looking door. She browsed the whole library and was at last at the topmost floor of the library which was guarded by a platinum door with a note "Do not enter." 

   "Should I enter or not." 

   "But we are both excited to see you tomorrow." These words kept spinning in Alicia's head but she hasn't seen them yet after browsing the whole library for a whole hour. 

   Without hesitating anymore, she made up her mind and braced herself while she slided the door open. It was just like in her dream. Both of them were standing in front of her with the most polite nod and a smile on their faces welcoming Alicia to their world.