It was summer and Daphne Blackwell was bored. She was one of those rare children that actually enjoyed school and now that school had let out, she didn't quite know what to do with herself. Her parents, who were good parents, though slightly clueless, didn't quite know what to do with her either, so every day, they sent her outside "to play."
This inevitably meant that Daphne would walk to the local library and read for the rest of the afternoon and then, when she felt her parents thought she would be coming home, she came home. It wasn't exciting, it wasn't interesting, but it was better than nothing.
Today, however, was a Sunday. And on Sundays, the library was closed.
This presented a problem. Her parents usually did something as a family on Sunday, but today, both her mother and father were busy. They didn't expect her to go out and play, but they expected her not to sit around and do nothing.
Daphne had walked outside and then immediately regretted it. Today, it wasn't just hot: it was sweltering. Daphne had learned that word in a book from the library and now wished she had checked it out, so she could continue to read it.
Unfortunately, she had failed to check out a new book when she returned her old ones. And now she was stuck without anything to read on a blazing hot day with no one around.
Daphne walked around the house listlessly. They had moved here only a few months before and Daphne hadn't really explored the nooks and crannies. Perhaps, her mind reaching for something to stave off boredom, perhaps there was something to find in this old house, some sort of treasure. Even just a pretend treasure.
So she carefully explored the house and the grounds, but found quite a lot of nothing. Perhaps if it hadn't been so hot, she wouldn't have been so disappointed, but it was and she was.
Dejectedly, she walked back to the front door of the house and opened it.
And she saw another door.
Daphne stepped back. There was a door beneath the front door. It was small and squat, barely four feet by four feet, but Daphne knew that it hadn't been there before. How could it have been? She had walked across that floor many times and never seen it.
And, faced with this impossible door, Daphne did what her mind was telling her not to do: she opened it.
There was an expanse of darkness on the other side. "Hello?" Daphne said and leaned forward, holding onto the door's handle. Unfortunately, this was exactly the wrong thing to do and the wrong time to do it. Daphne's foot slipped on the floor and her hand slipped off the handle.
And Daphne plunged headfirst through the door and into the unknown.
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