The Portal in the Closet

Alex had found an apartment. Finally. It was a challenge for sure and definitely not the first place she would have picked. Unfortunately, with her recent bout of homelessness and her poor credit, she figured beggars could not be choosers.

She jiggled the key in the lock. It was stuck. She pulled out her cellphone and glanced back down at the email from the landlord. Apartment 4 was the correct apartment, so why was the key not working?

She huffed a frustrated sigh and rested her head against the crooked door frame, her brown hair falling into her face with the movement. She was desperately trying to hold in the tears that had been threatening to fall all month. She thought things were finally looking up again, but it turns out her stream of bad luck would continue.

“Please” she sobbed, speaking to nobody in particular. “Please just give me this. I just want to lay down.”

She tried the key one more time, turning the key slightly more left than she had previously. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably and her eyes were clouded with tears. The lock clicked. Alex let out the breath she had been holding. Tears of relief began to stream down her face, making small track marks in the dirt covering her cheeks.

The door slowly creaked open. Alex carefully dropped her giant purple duffel bag onto the floor as she took in the apartment. It was worse than she expected. Sure the pictures online didn’t look too promising, and she knew the area wasn’t the greatest, but she wasn’t sure this apartment would ever pass an inspection.

The ugly lime-green wallpaper was peeling in several spots, giving Alex a peek at the hot pink walls lying underneath. She blanched as she moved further into the tiny, studio apartment. She saw a small couch with springs and stuffing poking out. It was sitting in the farthest corner of the room on top of what looked suspiciously like a blood stain. The television that sat directly in front of the couch looked ancient. It still had rabbit-ear antennas! Looking toward the small kitchen area, Alex groaned. There was definitely mold near the sink. She could hear the pests crawling around in the ceiling above the kitchen area. There was also an incessant dripping coming from the faucet. On top of all of that, the kitchen appliances looked like they were from the seventies. The refrigerator was a garish yellow color, contrasting sharply with the neon pink poking through the green wall paper.

Giving up on the kitchen, Alex made her way into the bathroom. The bathroom was worse than the kitchen. The tub was covered in grime and stains. The toilet looked as if it hadn’t been cleaned in years and was coated in a thick layer of dirt and god knows what else. She didn’t want to think about it. The tiles were peeling off the floor. The sink looked as if it was placed into a spot where it didn’t actually fit. The piping was everywhere and the sink itself was crooked.

She glanced towards the lone closet in the apartment. Who knows what she would find in there? She took a deep breath and prayed it would be better than the rest of the apartment. She screamed and stumbled backwards into the kitchen as she stared down into the bright green eyes of a beautiful young woman.

The woman had long hair that was dyed bright pink. She was wearing a plain white tank top and her long legs were stuffed into cut-off jean shorts. She finished the look with a pair of flip flops. If Alex hadn’t been so shocked, she would have definitely been skeptical of the woman’s ability to wear this outfit in the middle of December in New York.

Breathing heavy, Alex leaned against the kitchen counter and eyed the woman warily. She could feel the migraine forming and she was just so exhausted.

“Who are you? And why are you in my closet?” Alex asked.

“I’m Marley!” The girl replied with a wide, sweet smile. “And I came here through the door!”

“You came...through the door…” Alex repeated, trying desperately to understand what this pink-haired woman was saying. She stared at the girl and realized that Marley was just slightly translucent, almost as if she was incorporeal.

“I think you have the wrong apartment. This is apartment 4. My name is Alex.” Alex tried to remain calm. The woman didn’t seem dangerous, just a slightly more eccentric than she was used to in her regular circle of friends.

Marley shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

“I’m not sure where I’m supposed to be. I went through this door in the Underworld and ended up here. I was just trying to figure out where I was when you opened the door and started screaming at me.”

Alex glanced towards the wall behind Marley. It looked like an ordinary, decrepit wall. She pushed past Marley and placed her hand on the wood paneling inside the closet. It was cold, but there was definitely no door.

She turned back to the pink-haired beauty who was currently taking in her apartment.

“Did you s-s-ay ... t-t-the Underworld?” Alex stammered, she was sure that Marley could see the disbelief written on her face.

“Sure did! I died in 1985. Since I didn’t have a proper burial, I wasn’t able to cross over. I got lost in the labyrinth of the Underworld. I found this door after a while and it wasn’t guarded. It seemed like it was just a normal-looking door. I opened it, hoping to find something interesting, and ended up here.”

Alex studied the girl again. She was definitely no longer alive if the bruising around her neck was any indication. Marley looked towards the floor, mumbling sheepishly and rubbing her neck. Alex nodded, as if she understood anything this strange woman was saying.

“Well, aren’t you lucky? You just happened to end up in the shittiest apartment in Manhattan. Welcome!”

Marley smiled, her previous embarrassment forgotten. “So what about you?” She asked. “How did you end up in the shittiest apartment in Manhattan?”

Marley made her way over towards the couch and plopped down on the arm rest. Alex huffed in response. The pink-haired spirit watched her, eagerly awaiting a response.

“It’s a bit of a long story, but to put it simply, I caught my best friend and my boyfriend doing the nasty in our old bedroom, so I left. This was the only place that would take me since I was now homeless with a low credit score and an even lower income.”

Alex shrugged, pretending as if the situation didn’t bother her. She hoped Marley wouldn’t press too much about it. She wasn’t sure she would be able to get through the whole story without having a complete mental breakdown.

Marley looked out the window, her face suddenly solemn.

“Men are garbage and friendships are fleeting.” She crossed her arms over her chest, almost as if she were trying to make herself smaller. “I hope both of them get a nice face full of Karma.”

Alex smiled for the first time in what felt like forever. Maybe having a one-way portal from the Underworld that led directly to her apartment wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

“Okay, so I’m going to order some dinner. Please stay and hang out with me. We should probably figure out what's going on and also, it's refreshing to talk with you.”

As Alex grabbed her phone, she heard a quiet knocking coming from the inside of the closet. Great. First thing in the morning Alex would look into contacting the ruler of the Underworld and closing this portal.