The Door That Opened Inward
Episode 4: Stepping Through
Determined to find his way back to reality, Julian lunged across the spinning floor and grabbed the brass handle of a grey door marked with a familiar brass numeral corresponding to the university library archive. He threw the door open and leaped through the threshold without hesitation, plunging into the blinding white light that poured from the opening. The sensation of motion stopped abruptly, and he crashed hard onto carpeted flooring, sliding across smooth tiles until he collided with a heavy wooden bookshelf.
Closing the Latch
Julian scrambled to his feet, gasping for breath as he looked around the room: he was standing in the restricted stacks on the third sub-level of the St. Jude University library, surrounded by ordinary metal shelving units and fluorescent lighting. The narrow wooden service door with its brass latch was standing open just a few feet away from him, revealing the dim Victorian hallway beyond. Without a second thought, Julian slammed the grey door shut, dropped the heavy brass latch into its keeper, and wedged a heavy metal book cart firmly against the panels to block the threshold.