Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #11 February 2015 | Page 6

The path has ended, were it not for the lack of a roof
I would call this place a room or chamber for though
it is near as long as the sections path it is ten times as
wide, a great open space. To my left the wall is again
low and as I walk to it I can lean across the several feet
of its thickness and look down upon the path below
where I gazed upon the bay and the ships.

Almost as if people had stood here in crowds, spread
out and waited then walked together through the doors
to, to where? What was this place? Why was I here?

It was strange, I could hear something now, faint and
distant but it reminded me that I had not heard a
sound here save my own steps upon the stone. It was
faint, I could not make it out but somehow it was faAside from the low wall facing the bay the other three
miliar. I waited as it grew louder, no not louder; it was
sides of this, room, chamber, perhaps square or meetcoming closer as if whatever was making the sound
ing place, the walls are twice my height and of the same was walking up the path.
rough cut stone. Crude but solid, great blocks I could
scarcely stretch my arms across to touch each side.
The noise teased me; I knew it but could not put a
No, I am wrong in my recollection. There is a point
name to it. It was music, a song I had not heard in
where the wall is higher. The wall that runs across the
many a year. Violins and cellos playing together in harback of this open place, its exact middle is taller and
mony. Several of each, so familiar I could almost see
there is a door set in it. I did not see it at first, perhaps
them being played. A few men holding their violins to
the glare of the sun was in my eyes, perhaps the green
their shoulders, a few others bracing their cellos on the
hues of the door blended with the lichen but I would
deck. I could almost see their faces.
swear I did not see it upon first glance.
A voice, calling my name. “Ernest” it said. “Ernest” it
Still it was there, two great doors set as a pair, each so
called again, so close it was I turned to see who had
wide across that my finger tips at full reach could not
spoken but I was alone. I would swear it was my brothtouch the edges of a single door. On the outer side they er Fred’s voice, when he was a younger man, when I
were twice my height as the wall had been but the wall had last heard him speak, when he was still among
rose so some two feet of stone was above the tops of
the living. How did I hear him now, calling me? Was
the doors. A great arch of stone that came to a pointthis part of my dream. I called his name, “Fred Allen”
ed peak where the inner edges of the doors met three
I said, then I shouted it but there was no answer for he
times my height above me.
was dead and this was just a dream. I had not seen my
brother for fifty six years. Not since the day the sea had
Great doors of metal, stained green with age and covtaken him and he had gone down with the ship in that
ered in what once were deep carvings but now were
icy water.
little more than weathered dips and rises in the metal.
I see no hinges nor any handle but I could not muster
Now, suddenly I remember the music, I remember
the courage to touch either door. There was a chill in
where I had heard it last, so many years ago. They were
the air, before those doors. The bright summer sun
playing it on deck, I remember hearing them as I stood
high overhead and yet I shivered in my night shirt as
in the swaying lifeboat helping a woman aboard. I
some mortal dread touched my flesh.
heard the strings playing music, playing that song but
I could never remember the tune. All those years and
I tear my eyes away from the door and look across the
suddenly I remember it now.
wide open area and a thought strikes me, as I walked
up the path the ground was worn away from many
I hear the sound of ancient metal creaking as it moved.
feet but here the whole area was so marked. It was
The chill grows, the sun seems to dim in the sky. A
almost as if thousands had walked up here and filled
shadow falls across the open area, though as I glance
the square then walked to the door from every corner
up I see not a single cloud above me.
of this wide area. There was no sing