3rd Place, Youth Fiction

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The Girl Who Dreamed Awake, by Gavin Stanley

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Location: Library 

Object: Mirror 

Line: "They told me not to, but..." 

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“Hey, Isabel!” The librarian smiled brightly as she walked in. 

“Hi Ms. Serena, how are you?” Isabel asked as she put her past due books on the table. “Sorry they're late.” 

“Oh, I'm doing well, I'm doing well. Do you need to check any out again? Need any book recommendations?” She inquired kindly. 

“No, not this time, thank you. I know what I'm looking for.” Isabel said with an easy smile. Ms. Serena told her to ask if she needed help. 

Isabel walked towards the back of the library through the long aisles. She was lost in her own thoughts as she walked. Making her way through the fantastical worlds that lived inside her own head. When she was a kid, she wanted to be a writer. Every book she ever read was a new world. A new dimension to explore, a new adventure to go on, a new mystery to solve. She wanted to make her own world, her own story, where every decision was hers and hers alone. 

She was snapped out of her thoughts as she reached the end of the library. Rushing back to the middle of the aisle to find her book, she saw something in the corner of her eye. 

“Huh, well that's new.” She said, staring at the red door on the wall. The door seemed simple; it looked new and had a black doorknob. She directed her attention to the small black bookshelf next to it and scanned over the shelves. Beyond not recognizing the titles, she didn't even recognize the language they were written in. She figured Ms. Selena would know and decided to ask her. With that, she grabbed her book and walked back to the counter. 

“The Mirror, eh? I've heard it's good.” The librarian smiled as Isabel placed her book on the counter. 

“Yeah, I've been meaning to read it for a while. I saw you guys built a new room; what's it for?” Isabel asked. 

“A…new room?” Ms. Serena tilted her head as her smile filled with confusion. “Yeah, the uh… the one with the red door?” Isabel specified, maybe she had forgotten?

“This library hasn't had an upgrade in nearly 10 years; could you show me this door?” Ms. Serena looked more concerned now, and Isabel nodded, leading her to where she saw the door. But the most curious thing happened once they got there. 

“It's gone.” Isabel said. There was no sight of the door anywhere. “It was right here, next to the…” But the bookshelf was gone too. Like they never existed in the first place. Ms. Serena looked at Isabel with concerned eyes. 

“Um, well, uh, I must've just…imagined it. I'll, uh, I'll get out of your hair.” She smiled tightly and rushed past Ms. Serena, shoving her book in her bag before she reached the main entrance. 

She walked back to her house and tried to shove the memory from her mind. She knew what she saw, though. It was right there, close enough to touch, calling out to her. She decided to tell her roommate, though they looked beyond skeptical. 

“A disappearing red door, next to books written in a language that doesn't exist.” Her roommate stated flatly. 

“Okay, look, I know it sounds crazy, but I know what I saw. It was there, Ellis.” Isabel insisted. Ellis sighed as they thought through their next words. 

“Okay, let's assume that there is a mysterious door that comes and goes in the library; maybe you should stop going there, yeah?” They suggested. Isabel didn't want to stop going, though. There was something there, and she couldn't drop it that easily. Ellis sighed again at the silence. 

“Look, I know you just want to solve every mystery in the world, but maybe this is one you should leave alone. I mean, if you did get hurt, who would pay your half of the rent?” Isabel knew Ellis was joking, but their voice sounded serious when they continued. “But actually. Don't go looking in places that don't want you there, and if the door disappeared, it clearly doesn't want you there.” 

“Yeah…yeah, you're right. Want me to get dinner, or do you want to?” Isabel asked, trying to change the subject. 

“I'll get it; I don't wanna take a chance on you running off and getting eaten by a book or something.” Ellis said as they stood up, flashing a smile at Isabel that she returned with an eyeroll. 

After eating, the two went to bed. Isabel tossed and turned the entire night. In her few moments of sleep, she dreamt of nightmares. 

She got up the next day, got ready, and drove to the library. 

“Back already?” Ms. Serena asked kindly with no mention of yesterday's events.

“Ah, yes, I, uh, I…forgot a book! Yes, that's it. I forgot a book.” Isabel stumbled over her words, doing her best to sound confident and unsuspicious. 

“Right…” Ms. Serena looked concerned again, but not in the same way as yesterday. 

“Right… So, I'm going to go…find…my book.” Isabel said as she backed away from Ms. Serena, who smiled confusedly. 

Isabel turned around and walked through multiple aisles to look less suspicious, scanning shelves and feeling like the worst nonchalant person to ever exist. When she got to the same aisle as yesterday, she hesitantly looked over her shoulder, expecting to see nothing. But right there, just like yesterday, she saw the door. And next to the door, she saw the shelves. 

She stared for a long time when she heard a whisper. 

“Come in, child, we've been waiting a long time for you.” 

Isabel tripped over her own feet as she tried to run backwards, falling to the floor loudly, embarrassed and in pain. 

“Are you alright?” Ms. Serena called out from the end of the aisle, looking worried. 

“Yep! Yeah, I'm doing great, just, uh, got distracted, you know? No, uh, no need to come check on me!” She said, quickly standing up and shooting an unconvincing smile towards Ms. Serena. The librarian looked her up and down before shaking her head and walking away. 

“Open me, and you can be where you've always wanted to be.” 

Isabel urgently whispered to the door, “I'm where I've always wanted to be, with a good roommate, good friends, a good job—” 

“No. You're not. You'll never be truly happy where you are, and you know it.” 

The voice sounded too smug for her liking. And she didn't appreciate the door telling her how she felt. How did the door know what she wanted anyway? 

“I know many things, child, things your kind could only dream of.” 

Had she said that out loud? 

Isabel thought for a long time. Stared, thought, tried to read a book. And eventually, she left. Grabbing a random book on her way.

When she got to the counter, she realized what book she'd grabbed. Every Man's Guide to Smoking a Pig. 

Ms. Serena, ever the saint, didn't point it out. Small miracles. 

“Thank you, goodbye, Ms. Serena.” Isabel smiled, trying to ignore her thoughts. She heard it when she walked out. 

“We'll be waiting, child. Don't let us down.” 

She walked home, ate dinner, wished Ellis a goodnight, and went to bed. Akin to the previous night, she tossed and turned. The same thing playing on a loop in her head. You'll never be truly happy where you are, and you know it. 

The door couldn't know how she felt, right? Not to say she was unhappy. Ellis was practically family to her at that point, like a sibling she never had. And she loved her friends with their endless support. Though her job was no low point either, she was a web developer and got paid nearly $90,000 a year. But she wasn't happy, was she? 

No, she couldn't be happy, because all she'd ever truly wanted to do was live in her own little world. Where she could be whoever she wanted to be. Where she could change the story in a split second. That's what she wanted to do, but could a stupid red door that she's not even sure exists provide all that? 

Maybe, a small part of her thought. And maybe she wanted that part to be right. But she couldn't know till she tried, right? 

She got up when her alarm went off, deciding to skip class today and go straight to the library instead. 

“Ah, Isabel, how's the book on grilling pigs?” Ms. Selena asked with a teasing lilt to her voice. 

“The book on…Oh! Yeah, yeah, it's, uh, going great.” Isabel stumbled, and Ms. Selena had a knowing look in her eye as she laughed. But today, Isabel had more important things to tend to. 

Isabel walked down the aisle quickly and efficiently, determined in every step. She needed to know. Wanted to know. She heard a quiet chuckle in the back of her head. 

“I knew you wouldn't let us down, Isabel.”

Hearing her name made her freeze, and right in time, as the door was only 5 feet away. Slowly, she inched forward, doing her best to ignore the voice. Until eventually, it was right there. Only a foot of space separated her and the mysterious door. 

“They told me not to, but…you can't know unless you try, right?” 

With that, Isabel took a deep, bracing breath before grabbing the handle. Then, before she could give herself a chance to back out, she opened the door. 

The room was transported. Years of the bookshelves she had come to love falling away through the ground. The carpeted floor got pulled out from under her as she was left floating in darkness. The soft white paint on the walls melted away and down into the darkness. But as the world around her started to fall apart, she quickly found herself in a new place. 

The floors were black tile that looked like obsidian. Walls around her were covered in books, and when she looked up, she saw no ceiling. The shelves seemed never-ending. Like if she started floating, they would never stop. Still written in a language she didn't know, but maybe one she could learn. And as she turned around, there was no door to be seen. 

But in the middle of the room, there sat a mirror. 

A single, full-body mirror. Though it didn't reflect the books around it, instead it was filled with a black, never-ending inkiness. Curiosity filled Isabel's mind as she stepped towards it. 

Though when she looked in it, she saw things she never thought she would. 

A dog with superpowers she had created in her mind in elementary school. A gadget she had daydreamed about in her middle school science class. Herself winning a case as a lawyer, a scenario she had played over and over again when she was bored in high school. Every time she looked, there was a new story, a new dream, a new world. 

She reached out a hand towards the mirror, gasping when she felt her hand go right through it. Inquisitively, she looked behind the mirror, but there was nothing there, as if her hand had gone into the mirror. 

She tentatively pushed her arm into the mirror before making a decision she wasn't sure if she’d regret later. She silently apologized to Ellis in her head. 

You'll have to find someone else to pay my half of the rent. 

With that last thought, she fell forward, allowing herself to have the life she had always wanted. She fell inside her own head, with a new dimension every hour, a new adventure every minute, and a new mystery every second. She fell into the world of her dreams, and she never looked back. But there sat the red door, waiting for the next daydreamer to find it, as it watched Isabel's adventures and watched as she created things that other people could only dream of.