Free Through the Door by Jodi McIsaac Page B

was always the same. A tall figure, hooded and cloaked, walking with arms open wide through a barren field piledhigh with bodies. The bodies were torn apart, limbs missing and entrails spilling onto the ground, and Cedar’s dream gaze tried to avoid them. A thick mist rose from the ground, and the air was filled with a high-pitched keening coming from somewhere far away. The hooded figure walked on, and it seemed as though the field of bodies would never end. Tonight, however, something was different. Usually she just watched from a distance, but tonight she followed him, stepping around dismembered limbs and trying to look at anything except the staring faces of the bodies around her. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a scrap of pink lace. She tried to look away, but her head turned as if forced by unseen hands. She tried to close her eyes, but they stayed as open as the unseeing eyes around her. The lace was torn, hanging by a thread from a little girl’s nightgown. Cedar felt her feet move until she stood so close she could have reached down and touched it. Eden’s lifeless body lay limp at her feet, her nightgown shredded and her face caked with blood. Her eyes and mouth were open. Then, as Cedar watched with horror, Eden’s head turned, and she looked directly into Cedar’s eyes without blinking. Her mouth moved and emitted a ghostly whisper, “Where were you, Mummy?”

CHAPTER SEVEN
    Cedar woke only a couple of hours later to the sound of her phone ringing. She picked it up and was immediately awake.
    “It’s Jane; I’m downstairs, let me up.”
    Jane.
Eden.
Everything flooded back in one agonizing blow to the pit of her stomach. She jumped off the bed, dislodging Watson from where he had settled for the night, and ran down the hall to Eden’s room, buzzing Jane in on the way. It was empty. She stared wildly around the apartment, looking for any sign that Eden might have come home. Then Jane knocked on the door. Cedar flung it open and dragged her inside.
    “Tell me what happened,” she demanded.
    Jane looked terrified, and close to tears. She backed away from Cedar with a pleading look, her hands in the air. Her purple bangs hung limp on her forehead, and she had gray circles under her eyes. “I swear to God, it’s just like I said on the phone. I don’t know. I told you everything I can remember.”
    Cedar breathed deeply, trying to fight the impulse to rage at her. How could she not remember? From the look on her face, Jane could tell what Cedar was thinking. “Damn it,Ceeds, I am so sorry. I would never let anything happen to Eden. I’ll do whatever I can; I’ll tell the police everything I told you, and maybe something will help.”
    Cedar sat down at the table and put her face into her hands. “The police aren’t involved—yet,” she mumbled through her fingers.
    “
What?
” Jane said. “You haven’t called the police? Why the hell not?”
    “It sounds insane, I know. I can’t even explain it to myself without sounding like a lunatic,” Cedar said.
    Jane crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows at Cedar. “Ceeds. I just found myself in New-bloody-York with no memory of the last several hours. And you’re worried that
you’re
the one who sounds like a lunatic?”
    Cedar took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. She watched Jane closely as she said, “Remember how I was asking you about magic, if it was real?” Jane nodded. “Well, Eden seems to have this, um, magical ability. If she thinks of a place, and then opens a door, any door, that place appears on the other side. And you can walk right into it, no matter how far away it is.”
    Jane’s mouth was slightly open, and her eyes were wide. “For real?”
    “Yeah, I know how it sounds. But it’s true; I’ve gone through those doors myself. And I’m assuming that’s how you got to New York.”
    Jane’s eyes were still wide, but she had closed her mouth and was nodding slowly. “Okay. So, let’s pretend for a