Zqo wanted to open the book.
He stood staring at it for a long time, pondering everything.
He was feeling afraid... shocked... and deeply bewildered.
But the girl's face...
She was the girl he had been thinking about since childhood. The girl who used to visit his dreams for no apparent reason.
Something inside him was telling him to open the book, while something else was screaming at him to stay away.
He knew that the book held a secret. But knowing that only made the secret more mysterious, which fueled his curiosity even further.
He began to examine it, gazing at its details.
There were seven doors randomly engraved on its cover.
And an erased word...
He was ready to pay any price just to know what it was.
But he couldn't figure it out.
His confusion deepened, turning into anxiety.
Without realizing it, sleep overcame him.
He woke up in the morning.
The book was still near his hand.
He didn't know what to do. He was still stunned by what had happened.
He got up and headed to the kitchen.
Zqo: Good morning, Mom.
Mom: Good morning... Good to see you awake; breakfast is ready.
Zqo noticed a bag beside her and also caught her sense of hurry.
Zqo: Mom, are you going somewhere?
Mom: Yes, I'm heading to the capital in an hour. It might take a day or three to finish your father's insurance paperwork... and I'll be staying over at your aunt's house.
Zqo felt a pang of anxiety.
How can you leave me alone in this house?
I don't even know if what happened was real. I don't know what's going on under this roof.
And that girl is still haunting my dreams...
Mom: What's wrong, Zqo? You look lost in thought.
Zqo: It's nothing, Mom. Just let me know if you want me to come with you or if you need any help.
Mom: No, the lawyer told me everything is going smoothly. They're just quick legal procedures, so there's no need to worry.
She smiled slightly and added:
Mom: Besides, I want to visit my sister like I used to... maybe it'll help me a bit.
Zqo understood that his mother needed some time for herself too.
Zqo: Alright, Mom... Have a safe trip.
The driver arrived right on time.
His mother left...
And he was left alone in that strange house.
Everything went on as usual.
No strange movements. Nothing out of the ordinary.
The same house. The same rural town. The same farm.
But the solitude felt heavier this time...
Because he was left all by himself.
The day passed slowly.
Memories of what had happened kept rushing back every now and then, but he tried to distract himself.
He didn't want to give them any weight, as if trying to convince himself that it never happened.
Yet, he knew it did.
He also knew that something was pushing him to venture into this.
Still, he was afraid.
Terrified of the unknown.
Of a girl...
A girl painted by his imagination years ago, who had now begun to haunt his dreams.
He went to his room.
The thought grew louder in his mind, and he tried once more to push it away.
Then he fell asleep, locked in that internal struggle.
This time...
He didn't dream of her.
He was asleep.
Unconsciously...
He felt that strange sensation sleepers get when they sense someone watching them.
He opened his eyes, and found her face right before him.
She was looking at him...
With love, wonder, longing, and hope.
Her gaze was filled with joy, yet it clearly bore the heavy sadness she carried.
She was happy to see him... and sad at the same time.
It lasted for a few seconds.
Then reality hit him.
He woke up startled.
She vanished.
He caught his breath.
He didn't know what had just happened and had no answers.
Her face wasn't terrifying... It was her sudden appearance that scared him.
He remained seated, thinking of her.
He couldn't understand this feeling.
It felt as though he had known her for years.
His heart was pounding...
Out of fear?
Or admiration?
He stared at the spot where she had been just moments ago, as if he had been admiring her face for years.
Those wide eyes... Those smiling cheeks... The delicate small mouth with its wonderful smile line... And that silky, light brown hair...
She was beautiful. In fact, she was perfection.
She left behind a strange sense of warmth.
He felt that a piece of her was still present in the room.
His heart began to race violently.
Then, he heard a sound outside his room's door.
Anxiety seized him.
Without thinking, driven by sheer fear, he blurted out:
Zqo: Come in...
The door opened slowly.
But what pushed it open wasn't a person standing behind it.
It was...
a hand.
A delicate, soft hand.
A girl's hand.
Draping from her wrist was the sleeve of a strange dress, as if it belonged to another era.
She stepped into view slowly.
She looked terrified.
Just like him.
Perhaps it was desperation that brought her to him.
If she saw him as a threat and yet faced him... there had to be another danger forcing her to take the risk.
That was what echoed in his mind, his heart pounding.
Yet, he recognized her just from that hand.
He said in a frightened, hesitant voice:
Zqo: Come in... Don't be afraid.
She froze at the doorway, her whole body visible now.
His heart was beating fast, and so was hers.
She was scared.
But he was mesmerized.
The look of fear on her face was far greater than his own.
So he said to her:
Zqo: I won't hurt you...
That sentence wasn't just words spoken to her.
It felt...
as if he had handed her the entire world.
As if he gave her something she had never known in her whole life.
A gentle girl... who had never heard such a word before.
Where had she been? How had people treated her? What had happened to her?
Her eyes widened.
Then, she ran toward him.
Zqo remained frozen in place.
She was slightly taller than him while he was seated.
She wrapped her arms around him.
Through that hug, he could feel the immense sense of safety she felt.
She held him for a long time.
Her scent was unusual... in fact, it was the sweetest perfume he had ever smelled in his life.
He had never smelled anything like it before.
A feeling of warmth. A feeling of mystery.
Events were unfolding faster than he could comprehend.
She hadn't thought twice when she hugged him; it felt as though she couldn't resist it.
Then she spoke:
The Girl: It's the first time anyone has ever been this kind to me.
He was surprised.
Zqo: I didn't do anything.
She looked at him.
The Girl: Will you really not hurt me?
Zqo: What reason would I have to do that?
She looked at him, bewildered.
The Girl: Do you need a reason to hurt me?
She looked as if she were constantly subjected to pain, as if it was all she had ever known in her life.
Who was she?
And where did she live?
What kind of world was this where she knew nothing but harm?
Seeing him silent, she then said with sudden enthusiasm:
The Girl: You're my author... I know you!
Her eyes widened as she said it.
She continued:
The Girl: I hugged you instinctively... something inside me pushed me to do it.
Zqo was baffled.
Zqo: How do you know me?
The Girl: For years...
She paused for a moment.
The Girl: Not a single day passed without me thinking of you.
He listened to her in utter disbelief.
He couldn't bring himself to tell her that he was experiencing the exact same thing.
She said:
The Girl: You're the reason I endure all of this.
Then she smiled sadly.
The Girl: I feel safe whenever you enter my imagination. I always used to escape to you.
And suddenly...
She looked as though she remembered something horrifying.
Terror flashed in her eyes, and her face turned pale.
Her features filled with dread, and her tone shifted as she said:
The Girl: Especially on that day...
Zqo looked at her in confusion.
Zqo: Which day?
She froze.
She stared at him in silence for a few seconds.
Fear filled her eyes, along with despair... and grief.
And suddenly...
A flash of thunder roared outside.
Both of them looked toward the window.
And there...
Was that same terrifying figure.
Only this time, he wasn't alone.
There was someone else with him...
In human form.
His face was indistinct.
A man with long hair, wearing leather clothes.
He had a somewhat massive build, tall, and terrifying in a strange way.
He raised his head...
and looked right at her.
Zqo noticed something that hadn't been there moments ago.
Shackles on her hands...
And a collar wrapped around her waist, attached to a long chain stretching all the way to that man.
He froze in place.
Those restraints were not there at first.
They had appeared out of thin air.
The girl looked at him in fear and said:
The Girl: They've come...
Zqo: Who are they?
She looked behind her, then quickly back at him.
The Girl: They want to take me...
Swallowing her fear, she continued:
The Girl: I snuck out again... I don't think I can do it ever again.
She began to be pulled backward.
She was fighting against something dragging her back.
Zqo looked toward the window.
And there he saw it...
That terrifying shadow with claws.
He was the one pulling her.
She tried to cling to anything she could, resisting with all her strength.
Then she cried out in a trembling voice, as if pleading with the last person she could turn to:
The Girl: Please!
Zqo looked at her, helpless.
The Girl: Open the book!
Zqo: What?
The Girl: You'll find me when you open it!
Zqo's eyes widened.
Zqo: I don't know how to open it!
But time had run out.
The long-haired man approached the chain.
He grabbed its other end with his hand.
And the moment he held it...
He yanked.
He was impossibly strong.
The girl couldn't resist him.
She was jerked violently toward him, screaming.
She reached her hand out toward Zqo, trying to hold on to anything, but she couldn't.
She was dragged rapidly outside.
And as she was being pulled away, she shouted:
The Girl: The feather!
Zqo froze.
Zqo: What?!
But she was already gone.
She was dragged behind the trees right before his eyes.
He stood rooted to the spot.
He didn't move.
He couldn't even process what had just happened.
He stared at the spot where she had disappeared.
Silence returned to the room.
But this time...
There was no doubt.
It wasn't a dream.
She was real.
The girl he had lived with in his imagination all those years...
was real.
And she...
had been seeing him too, just as he had seen her.
Zqo brought his hand to his chest.
His heart ached.
He didn't know if what he felt was fear...
or sorrow...
or love.
But he knew one thing for certain.
He had become even more attached to her.
His fondness for her had grown.
Perhaps...
he was beginning to fall in love with her.
He had pictured her in his mind so often, always assuming she was merely a figment of his imagination.
But now she was real.
And she was in danger.
And that reality was far more terrifying than any nightmare.
He sat on the edge of the bed.
He began to think.
What was he supposed to do?
Should he open the book?
How?
And who were those figures who took her?
What did the feather have to do with any of this?
And why did she say he would find her in the book when he opens it?
Then he remembered something.
The book...
It was still in the room.
He looked toward it.
It lay right beside his hand.
He approached it slowly.
He extended his hand toward it...
then paused.
For the first time since he found it...
he was no longer afraid of what was inside.
He was afraid of something else:
opening it...
and not finding her.
He held the book, his heart in his hands.
He remembered the seven doors engraved on its cover.
Then he remembered the erased word.
And suddenly...
He heard a sound.
A very faint voice, as if coming from inside the book.
"Zqo..."
He froze.
He raised his head.
The voice hadn't come from outside. It came from the book itself.
He opened his eyes slowly.
Then he heard it again:
"Zqo... open it."
Zqo threw the book away from his hands.
He had become terrified. He simply couldn't handle such an overwhelming cascade of sudden events.
Yet something deep inside him still wanted the girl. He was bound to her in some undeniable way, feeling as though she belonged to him—and that he bore a share of the weight she was suffering.
He was afraid, shocked, and desperate to help her.
His breathing remained rapid, and his heart pounded in tandem. He truly had no idea what to do.
Panic surged through his thoughts as he reasoned with himself:
"There's a high chance they will come for me again... and this time, without her. What am I supposed to do? That man is impossibly strong... I don't even know who they are, what I'm up against, or if I should even attempt to fight."
Realizing that running was impossible, he summoned every ounce of his courage and walked toward the book.
He picked it up, took the feather, and spent a long time searching through the volume until he spotted a tiny, almost invisible piece embedded within the engraving of the largest door.
He tried to pull it out, but failed. He struggled with it repeatedly until, after several attempts, he inadvertently pressed down on it without realizing it.
Something clicked open.
It revealed what looked like a slot made specifically for a secret key.
It hit him instantly: he was meant to insert the tip of the feather inside.
He placed it in.
A sound echoed, echoing the click of an unlocking mechanism.
The lock gave way.
His heart raced faster, and sweat broke out across his skin. He was terrified of what he was about to see.
He turned to the first page.
Written upon it were the words:
"The book in your hands is not a book. It is a world.
You enter it as a visitor, and leave it as a hero...
or...
you remain its resident forever."
He flipped to the second page.
It was aged yellow, with only a single sentence written across it:
"Do not open until I call you."
He tried to turn to the next page, but he couldn't.
There was a lock preventing him.
He closed the book, went back to his bed, and lay there lost in thought over everything that had transpired.
He kept pondering every single detail... until sleep took him before he even realized it.
In the dream, that towering monster stood in place of the scarecrow, staring directly at him.
Zqo was looking out through the window.
Something long was extending from the monster’s hand, crawling slowly toward him.
Zqo couldn't avert his gaze from the creature. He couldn't move.
Something was forcing him to remain completely still.
That thing reached close to him.
It was a chain, wrapping tightly around Zqo's arm.
The clawed beast tried to yank it.
Zqo resisted.
The chain coiled with brutal force around his arm, yet he kept fighting back with everything he had.
He woke up in a panic.
He looked down at his arm...
The mark was still there.
It was two o'clock in the morning.
The rain had stopped just minutes ago, and the moon shone clearly tonight.
The sound of the wind alone was enough to freeze you with cold.
He was all alone in the house, surrounded by his fear, his curiosity, and all that deep mystery.
The girl hadn't left his mind for a single moment.
He turned toward the book.
It was as if a candle burned inside it... its light seeping through those ancient, yellowed pages.
He opened the book.
The second page.
Written upon it now were the words:
"Open now..."
He turned the page.
It was completely blank.
Yet something thin began to emerge from it, like the tip of a needle.
A single word appeared beneath it:
"Touch."
Without thinking...
Curiosity was consuming him alive. He desperately wanted to know what lay inside that book.
So he didn't hesitate, and touched the object directly with his thumb.
The metallic point shot toward his finger, piercing it before retracting instantly.
Zqo winced in pain.
Taken by surprise, a single drop of blood fell from his finger onto the book.
But it was no ordinary drop of blood...
It expanded like an entire ocean.
Letters began to flood the pages of the book, as though forming from his very blood.
Strange characters. Symbols. Numbers.
He had no idea what was happening.
They appeared in a bizarre, chaotic fashion, as if the book were writing itself.
He slammed the book shut.
And for the very first time, the missing word appeared on its cover.
The book now carried its full, complete title:
"The Seven Doors of Hell."
That was the title.
He fell asleep without even realizing it...
Or at least, that is what he thought had happened to him.
For the moment he drifted into sleep...
He found himself standing in a pitch-black abyss, like the void itself...
There was nothing clearly visible in that place.
Just darkness... and a distant light.
He walked toward that light, taking every single step with extreme caution. He didn't know where he was, what awaited him, or even what lay beneath his feet.
He began walking, whispering to himself:
"This isn't a dream... is it?"
He could feel everything.
The smell of the place resembled fire... a suffocating stench.
"I'm not dreaming."
He began pinching his hand, then slapping it.
It hurt.
He was conscious.
It wasn't a dream.
"I fell asleep just a minute ago... Is my body still back there? Is this my soul walking here?"
He didn't know.
He continued walking toward that light.
The closer he got, the clearer the surrounding space became.
It appeared to be a defined place after all.
Once he was close enough, he quickened his pace until he reached the source of the glow.
He saw an entrance.
A massive doorway, illuminated by a radiance resembling the flare of fire.
He stepped through it and walked for a long time...
until he reached a corridor.
A very long corridor.
So long that he couldn't see its end.
He tried staring into the distant gloom, but saw nothing.
Just a corridor.
Its walls were a strange blend of black and red, as if their colors had merged in an inexplicable manner.
There was a light akin to firelight, yet he saw no fire.
Nothing at all...
And yet, he noticed something strange.
He wasn't tired from walking.
Even though he had never walked like this in his entire life, he felt no exhaustion.
He wasn't thirsty.
He wasn't hungry.
Yet he had felt pain when he struck his hand.
And that alone was enough to confirm that what was happening was real.
Then he saw something he didn't expect.
A door to his right.
It resembled the doors he had seen in the book.
And to his left, he could barely make out another structure:
a second door.
He wanted to head toward it.
Cautiously...
a slow step,
then another,
until he saw something moving toward him.
It was short.
Like a shadow stepping out from the heart of the darkness.
It was muttering words he couldn't understand.
It drew closer...
until it was right next to him.
It was a creature resembling a dwarf.
Bare-chested on top, it had strange legs, short arms, and feet with toes shaped like hooves.
As for its face...
it was human, but looked as though a portion of it had been wiped away or erased.
Its hair was long and unkempt.
It kept repeating incessantly:
"I will open the door for you... I will open the door for you..."
Zqo asked in a voice laced with fear:
"Who are you?"
The creature answered:
"I am... Hersal."
Zqo didn't understand the word.
Did it carry a meaning?
Or was it its name?
He didn't know.
Hersal pointed toward the first door—the one on the right—and began leading him toward it.
It was a colossal door...
gargantuan.
Then he said to Zqo:
"Read."
Zqo looked at the door.
There were words inscribed upon it:
Welcome to a world that many humans have long heard of. Some believed it to be real, while others saw it as mere fiction. But now, you are in it.
Welcome to Hell.
Know this, however...
This is your last chance.
Once you enter through that door, there is no turning back.
Retreat now...
or enter.
Zqo stood before the door for a few moments.
Then he made his decision.
To retreat.
He turned his face away.
But he didn't know where to go.
He turned behind him...
and found a door that hadn't been there moments ago.
Inscribed upon it was:
Retreat
He walked toward it.
He grabbed the doorknob.
He wanted to open it...
but a voice stopped him.
The voice of a girl.
The girl he had come here to find.
He heard her scream:
"Let go of meee!"
Then:
"Let me see him!"
"Let me go to him again!"
He froze in place.
He realized she was begging to see him.
But he didn't know...
who she was begging.
He let go of the door in front of him and sprinted toward the first door.
He tried to open it.
It wouldn't budge.
He began pounding on the door, slamming against it violently.
"Open it!"
"Open the doooor!"
"Open it for me!"
He kept pounding and screaming...
but no one answered him.
After a while, he stopped.
He stopped in utter despair.
The girl's voice vanished.
He sat grieving behind the door.
Then...
he heard the sound of a lock disengaging.
He raised his head.
He turned around.
And there stood Hersal.
He had opened the door for him.
He looked at Zqo and said:
"This is your choice."
Zqo remained hesitant.
He looked at the door...
then gathered his courage.
He decided to enter.
He took a step forward...
and stepped inside.
...