Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

CHAPTER
6
The first obstacle was the door.
He grabbed for the handle.
His hand passed right through it.
With a strangled yell, he jumped at the door. Through the door. He opened
his eyes, finding himself on the porch of the tea shop. He looked down. All
his bits and bobs still seemed to be attached, though the hook and cable were
still there, the latter extending back into the tea shop. Something heavy moved
thunderously toward the door, and he leapt from the porch, landing on the
gravel. The stars stuttered in the sky above him, the trees more ominous than
they’d been when he’d first arrived. They seemed to bend and sway as if
beckoning him. He stumbled when he thought he saw movement off in the
trees to his left, a great beast watching him, a crown of antlers atop its head,
but it had to be a trick of the shadows because when he blinked, all he saw
were branches.
He took off down the road, heading back the way he’d come earlier with
Mei. If he got to the village, he could find someone to help him. He’d tell
them about the crazy people in the tea shop in the middle of the woods.
The hook in his chest pulled sharply, the cable growing taut as it wrapped
around his side. He almost fell to his knees. He managed to stay upright, flipflops
snapping against the bottoms of his feet. How on earth had he ever
thought flip-flops were a good idea?
He glanced back over his shoulder toward the tea shop in time to see Mei
and Hugo burst out onto the porch, shouting after him. Mei said, “Of all the
stupid things” just as Hugo said, “Wallace, Wallace, you can’t, you don’t
know what’s out there—” but Wallace doubled down, running as fast as he
could.