Welcome To Mystery by Dana Smith (best color ebook reader txt) 📖

breakfast.

The dining hall was relatively empty when she entered it, and after grabbing herself a bowl of cereal, she sat at the table in the corner of the room.

Kessie chewed a mouthful of cereal and thought through what happened yesterday. It was impossible. Whatever had happened was totally impossible. It totally went against everything that modern science believed in. While taking another mouthful of cereal, she absentmindedly fiddled with the ribbon that was still hanging around her neck.

A couple of minutes later the room started to fill up. One girl in-particular caught her eye. She had messy brown hair that was tied back in a bun, and a copper key hanging on a silver chain hanging around her neck.

I know it probably sounds weird, going by something on a whim, but it seemed like that key belonged to the other two. So that meant, that that girl knew how to get in the door, or at least how to find it again.


3 - The Returning Visitor


The first two hours dragged by slowly, consisting of Kessie daydreaming and being shouted at by the teachers. The third was science, which she loved. It was going quite well until the head teachers Announcement filled the room.

"There has been a key stolen from one of our young school ambassadors. If anyone knows anything about the key or where it could be please report to the main office."


Kessie sat at the front of the class room; she wished that she could see how the girl with the other key had reacted. Kessie thought her name was Adeline, she usually kept herself to herself, and Kessie might have just found out why.

The nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach didn't clear until the end of lesson, where she had asked her teacher if 'magic doors' could really exist. His only real explanation was a theory to do with space-time and worm holes.

Kessie knew about worm holes, in all the since fiction movies they connected to a different time or part of our world; but what she saw through that door wasn't anything that she had ever read about in history text books; nor did it look like a future version of this planet. It looked... Like a completely different world.

Making her way into the dining room, Kessie noticed that it was emptier than usual, with more than ten seats empty. Adeline, however, was there, sat opposite from her on a table by herself. She was staring blankly into space while eating her lunch.

The door bursting open shocked both Kessie and Adeline, judging by the look on her face. A man walked through the door, so Kessie could tell he wasn't a student, since it was an all-girl’s boarding school. He walked up to Adeline and grabbed her hand gently, but rough enough to make her stand up and follow him like she knew him. Not like she had much choice in the matter though.

As they turned around to leave Kessie caught a glance of the man’s face; she saw enough detail to see who it was. It was the guy in the top hat who she had followed the first time she went through the door. Kessie quickly looked away, hoping that he wouldn't see her.

When they went through the door and it shut behind them, Kessie got up to follow them, leaving her unfinished dinner on the table.

The girl sneakily followed them all the way to the attic; and stopped in front of the White door. It was slightly open, the light behind it shining warmly, as if beckoning her in. Kessie hesitated, could she do this again? Would she be lucky enough to end up back here? Kessie knew she couldn't leave Adeline with that man, he could be dangerous; so throwing all caution to the wind, she ran after them through her mystery door.

The forest on the other side was marvellous, the deep green leaves on the trees contrasted the purple and yellow flowers beautifully, and the feathers on the birds in the trees were equally as colourful as the different types of flowers that surrounded Kessie.

The brunette was taken aback for a moment by the sheer beauty of the simple forest; Kessie knew she wasn't on earth anymore.

Kessie saw Adeline and her kidnapper walking up ahead, with his hand still holding firmly on to her arm. He had changed from his modern suit back into the Victorian clothes and the top hat, and Kessie wondered absentmindedly how he could have done it so fast.

They both stopped abruptly and he pushed her into the bush by the side of the sandy narrow road. Kessie was about to run to adenines aid when she heard them; the unmistakable sound of horses hooves.

The noise came louder until Kessie was sure that they were standing right behind her, and it all happened too quickly for her to react. Kessie had seen it in so many cowboy movies; so she put her hands up in defence, however when she turned round she realized that they weren't cowboys, nor Indians, they were what seemed to be knights. Knights with White amour lined with golden thread in a pretty pattern. There was also a golden outline of a half moon in the middle of their chest.

By now Kessie realized that she was staring at them, maybe even gaping a little, so she quickly shut her mouth and averted her gaze, suddenly remembering what Kai had told her.

Kessie hoped that either Adeline or her kidnapper had seen her, but then what hope did she have of them coming to her rescue? Was she even in need of being rescued? No, Kessie told herself firmly, she was just simply in their way. The girl moved to the side of the path, but they all stayed motionless, all looking at her.

"You seem lost miss." one of the men spoke, Kessie took her time in looking at his uniform, the half-moon was filled in, so she guessed he must have been a captain or whatever.

"I'm not lost." Kessie lied in the loudest voice she could manage, it wasn't a total lie, she could find her way back to the door, and if it was still there could get back to school.

“Should we escort you back to the castle?" he said and snapped his fingers at one of his men, who came round with a White Andalusian.

All Kessie could do was grin at a chance of being able to ride, she loved riding but since she was at a boarding school she never got the chance to. The girl looked down at her skirt and sighed; it would be totally awkward to ride in this, and besides, if the knights were telling the truth and they were going to take her to their castle, how could Kessie be sure that they wouldn't just lock her in the dungeon. The man in charge sighed in frustration.

"You can come along peacefully, or I can make you come." he said with a smile, it was genuine, which made it hard for Kessie to believe his words.

Kessie glared at him and grabbed the reigns out of the young soldier’s hand, before stroking the horse on the cheek. She smiled at the comfort it brought her, just to be around horses again. Kessie placed her foot in the stirrup and in one swift movement got on the horse, to all the men’s surprise.

The saddle was a little uncomfortable and totally different to what Kessie was used to, nevertheless she was sure that it wouldn't make that much difference to her riding ability. The commandant smiled again before kicking his own horse into a canter. Kessie clicked her tongue and followed swiftly behind him.

The castle was surprisingly close by, and if she had to, Kessie could probably find her way back to the door. It was a typical medieval castle, complete with Draw Bridge and all. Flags flared all around them as they rode into the court yard, all baring the symbol of the crescent moon on a White background.

The commandant got off his horse while one of the servants, or what Kessie took to be servants, held it. The girl didn't wait for someone to help her; instead she swung her leg over and landed gently on the ground. While patting her neck she looked at her gentle face.

She knew that you’re not meant to look horses in the eye, but she couldn't help it. Kessie loved the way their pupils exploded, like they could see thing that humans couldn't, it was mesmerizingly beautiful.

Someone cleared their throat behind her, shaking her out of her daydream. Taking one last deep breath, she smiled before turning around.

All her emotions came flooding back when she was following the commandant for the halls, which were surprisingly pretty. There was fear that she would get locked up in a cell, or worse; There was excitement about who she was meeting and where we were going; she was nervous about the fact that she might never get back home; and then there was that nagging feeling at the pit of her stomach that something was wrong with her. Maybe she was getting a cold.

"Beautiful aren't they?" the commandant asked as they walked for the surprisingly long corridor

"Huh?" Kessie asked, his question catching her off guard.

"Horses." he smiled, not noticing her lack of attention.

"Oh, yeah." was all she could manage to say before they rounded a corner and approached a blue door, which was guarded by two knights, one on either side.

The knights opened the door and stepped to the side. They had walked into a large room that could only be described as a very big throne room. There were three thrones, two larger than the third. There was only one man in the room, and he was looking out of the window, gazing up at the sky with serene eyes. Kessie couldn't help but feel her fear melt away at the sight of how piece full it was here.

The girl and the commandant crossed the last distance that separated them from the old man and stood in front of him. He was a large man, both in height and in size, and looked somewhat distracted. The commandant stopped in front of Kessie and bowed at the large man with grey hair, while she just stood there awkwardly fiddling with her hands.

The man nodded in acknowledgement, his deep forest green eyes sparkling with interest. The commandant walked up to him, Kessie however made no move to follow. They stood for a while, looking out of the large window which had sunlight pouring in through it, seemingly lost in their own thoughts. Absentmindedly Kessie wondered if they were discussing her fate in their heads; could you blame her though, I mean only a day ago she had discovered a magic door and a new world. She’d begun to think that a lot of things were possible.

Anger boiled up inside of her, this was ridiculous, and if they were discussing her fate the least they could do was discuss it with her, right? Kessie had to get out of this place before it threatened to overwhelm her. She could feel it gnawing at the edge of her mind, prodding and testing, trying get in. That just made her even angrier; she would not allow this thing to get into her head.

Suddenly the man in the robe walked away