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At Death’s Door

by T. R. Steele

 

Here are my instructions for passing through death’s door:

1. Trap one of Them, one who crosses in and out of the realm of death, and steal her name by any means necessary.

A. This is not entirely the first step, but I want to get to the point. In reality, first, you need to find the door. My advice is to find it in childhood. Like most doors that aren’t doors, it moves frequently, but is most often caught in the roots of old, old trees. Usually the tree has survived some sort of deforestation or upheaval; in my case, it was an ancient oak in the suburban sprawl, caged on all sides by duplexes and public parks. Me? I wasn’t sure what the door was when I first found it; an impossible shadow, shifting at the roots even when the sun was blocked by clouds. But after I followed the owls and bats and foxes through the woods and watched as they slipped into the gloom underneath, I knew: it led somewhere. Somewhere else. (Continue Reading…)