Ghost of Doors (City of Doors) Read Online Free

He adjusted his glasses as he turned to his only son and asked, "You're going through with this, aren't you?"
    The glare briefly stole Wolfgang's reply. "To the Hindernis ?" Dr. Schäfer nodded. "Yes, Dad." Wolfgang gripped Vogelfang tighter, the halberd with the axe head shaped like a raven's beak and the hook shaped like a wing glowing weakly in response to his agitation. It almost never left his side, and if he left it somewhere for some reason he would feel like he had forgotten his arm. He had grown up beside it, the notches on its shaft marking off his growth in the form of the near misses from his opponents' strikes.
    " Aar will not save you," his father said, invoking the ancient name of the weapon and rebuking its glow with a trembling finger. "Not from the...things you will run into there, Wolfgang--things unlike the...the people you know here. There they are wild, dead, or something in between. Uncontrollable. Not worth the time for SUN or MOON to deal with. Luckily for us here, they do not--or cannot--leave the forest. The Hindernis is some kind of lost world and no one from the outside can last long enough in it to study it the way it should be studied." He looked uncertain, mistaking perhaps the horror on Wolfgang's face for disbelief. Satisfied after a moment of observation, he continued, "And, speaking of studies, you should take me to this burnt-out door so I can get a look at it. I'd like to see it for myself. Your mother didn't come out to look?"
    "She wasn't home. We thought she was here."
    "Well, your mother is a grown woman. She can take care of herself." He tried not to sound worried, but Wolfgang knew him too well. The fact that she had not come immediately to the laboratory if she had abandoned their home because the street was turning did not sit well with Wolfgang either. But if she needed help, he was certain she would call for it. She did not hate life enough to stand against MOON alone. "I followed you into this world. And I would love to follow you out. But I don't think I can. Not at my age. Not even with a weapon like you have there." His eyes fixed grimly on Vogelfang. "You're not the only person to try this, you know. Most people fail."
    "Most," Wolfgang agreed, "but not everyone."
    "I failed," the doctor admitted.
    "You? I didn't know you tried."
    Wolfgang cringed from his father's sneer and pointing finger. "Of course I did. Several times." He became distant, his voice as quiet as his footsteps on the concrete floor as he clambered from the chair and took to pacing. "The last time, I was almost lost for good." A wave of his hand dismissed it all as past foolishness. "You were far too young to remember," he explained to his son. "Besides, it's not like you came along. I went alone."
    "Mom didn't come?"
    He smiled. "Mom had to take care of you."
    Wolfgang thought about this. He had never really thought that his father even wanted to go back. Whenever Wolfgang had asked the question, his father had always said that he didn't want to go, that he wanted to stay with him and Lorelei forever. Wolfgang had believed him. But then again, Wolfgang was only a child. What child wants to hear that his father wants to leave? What child would understand?
    "Even if you won't come now, can you help me?"
    "Yes. I can. But the real question is, should I?" Wolfgang did not have a chance to feel hurt, because his father quickly added, "What I mean is, I don't want anything bad to happen to you. I'd rather you forget your plan. Stick with SUN. They'll work with you, help you to survive here. Look how well things turned out for your mother and me."
    Then Wolfgang realized what had happened to his dad--he had settled. He had failed at his dream and settled here for whatever he could get, lectured himself that whatever was in Doors was all he ever wanted. But Wolfgang realized that, even now, his father hadn't convinced himself that was real; the dream was not gone, or he would never have brought it up again. He