It was now a week since Caroline had moved in and the ensuing party. A week in which Andy's life had returned to its normal state of tedious monotony. Interspersed with outbreaks of terrifying panic and pain, both physical and mental. despite this it had been a while since anyone had hit him, so Andy was in an upbeat mood as he finished work on Friday. He'd been doing some overtime getting a new server up and running. It had required a few installs onto the terminals on the network. Thanks to working until 6:30 he wouldn't have to come in over the weekend. It was all his. Although he'd missed meeting up for a drink with Caroline, it was a price worth paying. At least it was until he'd called her. Only then did Andy discover Daisy was with her.
The situation between him and his beautiful housemate had improved radically. Whereas before she'd only tolerated or ignored him, now she tolerated him and acknowledged his existence. Sometimes she even got his name right. Although never twice in the same sentence. Last night she'd called him Barry, when she asked him to pass the mustard. Two steps forward one step back. Now he'd missed the opportunity to have a drink with her. Caroline was still talking to him. About what, he didn't know. Andy was in mourning for that lost opportunity. Then she'd said something that instantly made his ears prick up. He got her to backtrack, to see what exactly it was. Pretending something had distracted him. The two women were heading back home. Almost there. That wasn't what set off the alarm bells. He heard one of them putting their key in the door. The sound changed as they stepped inside. Dropping their bags in the kitchen, Caroline was a pretty good narrator. They were both desperate for a pee.
That one got his antenna twitching. Now what was it exactly? It wasn't that this was an alternate Tuesday between four and seven. There was no full moon tonight. There was nothing that should be a problem. Unless Ed wasn't there. Unless he wasn't there and it was a Friday between the hours of six and midnight. Ed was always there though, except for those rare occasions when he wasn't. Neither Daisy nor Caroline had greeted him. Now that internal alarm bell was wailing and flashing.
"Caroline? Is Ed there?" His voice almost cracking.
"No. He's left a note pinned to the kitchen door with a dagger through it. It says he has some business to take care of, so not to wait up. And it states that it's my turn to read you a bedtime story."
Even his memos were insulting. That was beside the point. Everything was beside the point excluding what he was about to say.
"Right this is really important." He burbled rapidly. "Whatever you do, don't go through..." His smartphone emitted an ear piercing shriek followed by static. "...the door from the living room to the downstairs bathroom." His warning stumbled to a halt. "Oh no. Caroline? Are you still there?"
"An empty message cannot be sent." The computer generated voice declared.
This had the potential to be bad. Not to him personally, which was a striking change from the norm. It could be bad for Daisy and Caroline. He was in love with Daisy. He liked Caroline to, on the basis she was never intentionally mean to him. Now if the worst came to the worst he'd have to love and like two other people, plus get used to some new housemates. This might not be as bad as it most certainly was. Caroline's phone could be faulty. Grasping at straws such as this, Andy headed home. The situation so urgent, he took an Uber instead of waiting for his usual express bus. Minutes later he was giving the driver a 5 star review as he hurried up the path to the front door. No matter the circumstances they weren't worth him losing his customer rating. If Caroline and Daisy were dead or only permanently missing, it was already too late for this particular coward to do anything. As he fumbled his key into the lock, Andy couldn't help wondering if Kaley might need somewhere to live. If not now, at some point in the future.
It didn't take long to figure out they'd opened that door. On a Friday between six and midnight. When Ed wasn't there. Were they suicidal or what? Of course there was always the possibility no one had warned them. No one had warned Andy. Mainly because anyone who might do was missing presumed dead. Adrian, Roy, Phil, Christopher and Karl had all gone through that door. Not one of them had returned. Caroline's smartphone on the floor with the severed ears lying next to it did not bode well. The ears didn't belong to either Caroline or Daisy. They could be Karl's of course. Which would mean the torn liver and the four foot length of bowel were Christopher's.
Ed denied any danger existed. Using the Schrodinger's cat analogy. Those entrails and vital organs could be anyone's. Just because all those people had disappeared, didn't mean they were dead. Andy and Ed had passed through that door and survived. Barely, but their injuries hadn't been life threatening. Andy insisted on sticking to his own interpretation. Opening that door at the wrong time had a 70% fatality rate. Therefore it was dangerous. The door was closed now. As long as he didn't go anywhere near it, Andy would be okay. For all he knew Caroline could have dropped her phone in the middle of her call to him. She and Daisy were in all probability upstairs right now. If he didn't check he could evade the growing sense of guilt. If he did check, it would delay him knowing their fate for certain. Postpone him worrying about what he could do. As the only man in the house, the only person available, some could have argued he should go after them. Attempt a rescue. Well those people could go fuck themselves. He was going to have a cheese and ham sandwich with mayo.
If he checked for them upstairs though he could eliminate one of the near infinite number of places he knew they wouldn't be. Strike that one off his list. He'd never been to Glasgow, checking they weren't there would take longer. If he checked enough places he knew they wouldn't be he could return long after all this had all boiled over. Feign ignorance of their fate. When he checked the train tickets were very expensive though. Going upstairs to see if they were there, wouldn't cost him anything. At least he'd be able to pretend he'd tried. It only took a couple of minutes for him to turn up a blank. So he had a shower then changed out of his work clothes. Disappointingly his two housemates were still disappeared when he got back.
It was all very well his conscience pricking him. Daisy and Caroline had unknowingly stepped into the unknown. Which was very easy to do. It didn't require any preparation. Knowingly stepping into the unknown required forethought and planning. It also required courage or stupidity. Andy had none of the first and wasn't quite that stupid. The sandwich wasn't going to make itself. As the only one there, he'd have to do it. Daisy had made him a sandwich on Wednesday. She'd cut the crusts off for him. Things between them had been moving along at very near a snail's pace. Given sufficient time their relationship could have blossomed. In a decade or so Daisy could have reached the point where she liked him. Andy was playing the long game. Until she'd been torn from this reality into whatever lurked on the other side of that doorway. Caroline was nice as well. She treated him as an equal.
Oh shit. He was going to do something stupid. Knowingly head into the unknown. Not even knowing if the unknown he was knowingly stepping into was the same unknown the ladies had unknowingly stepped into. You had to be there to understand this. He'd made far too many sandwiches for him not to be contemplating doing something recklessly dangerous. He was already making a second thermos of coffee. A packet of power bars, two razor sharp carving knives and a semi-automatic pistol later, he was all set. It was almost eight. They'd been gone for about an hour and a half. Now if Ed was correct with his muffin based system of measurements, that would mean as long as Andy went through the door at an acute enough angle, he could arrive shortly after they did. Not necessarily in the same place, but muffin based measurements were like that. He should take a good length of rope with him as well.
Right. He was ready. Andy paused, hoping his natural cowardice and lack of a spine would kick in. This was not the time for delay. So finding an excuse to back out now was a priority. Andy was experiencing something unique. The wish Ed was here. He'd know what to do. In the sense he'd just plow straight on without thinking and get out the other side unharmed. The only casualties being anyone who got in his way, and the truth. When Ed got going reality moved out of the way. Andy had been standing there for at least ten minutes. Stiffening sinews and girding his loins. If anything he'd overdone the loin girding. Pulling at his pants he went over his options based on what Ed had told him. Which could have been any old shit he felt like making up. According to Ed, you always entered from the left unless it was counterclockwise. At all other times it didn't actually matter, because the truth was whatever you believed it to be. Andy put his back to the wall, reaching across with his right hand he opened it, before slipping through sideways with a half twist clockwise.