The Door of Colours

By M.C. Lara

When Sophie decides to break into an abandoned manor house with her friends, she couldn't imagine that she would embark on an adventure that would change her life forever. Sophie discovers a legendary, magical door that takes her to Akvarell, a troubled world divided into differently coloured realms.

Will Sophie find her way out? What secrets does Akvarell keep regarding her parents?

• Language: English
• Publisher: M.C. Lara
• Release date: Jan 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215849118

Book preview

For my family

Chapter 1

The Abandoned House

THE ANCIENT IRON GATE groaned as I pushed it open. Sneaking onto the gravel driveway towards the abandoned manor house, I looked over my shoulder. Nobody had followed me. What had gone through Emily’s head when she told us to meet here? 

The orange lights of the late afternoon sky reflected on the front windows. Two headless beast sculptures flanked the massive wooden door. Most of the upper-floor windows were either gone or broken. Parts of the roof sagged like a lazy giant had sat on it. I took some pictures of the old manor house. 

An unnatural silence lingered around the house’s entrance. No birds chirped, but I spotted some brown and red feathery shapes hanging from the treetops surrounding the house. No sound of wind rustling, not even when the dead leaves flew and danced around the front yard. Even the noise of the town, which wasn’t that far, vanished as I slowly made my way around the place. I could only hear the sound of my hiking boots stepping on gravel. Weird. 

Breaking the silence, Emily’s and Kat’s distant voices came from somewhere around a bushy corner that hid the gates.

‘Hey, guys, over here.’ I waved at them, relieved. ‘What took you so long?’ 

‘We stopped at the corner shop since our friend here couldn’t survive another minute without his fizzy drink. As always.’ Emily rolled her eyes. 

Kat shrugged, gulping the contents of the red can. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘I say we split up, take some photos of the grounds, and go inside.’

‘Inside? Are you mental? We’re already trespassing, never mind breaking into the house. Nah. I’m out.’ An image of a dozen spiders crawling up my legs popped into my mind, making me hold my breath. 

Emily put one arm around my shoulders, her bubble-gum-coloured hair fluttering with the wind in front of her round face. ‘Sophie, Katsuro is right.’

He glared at Emily. ‘For the billionth time, it’s Kat. Only my mum calls me Katsuro. And you’re not my mum, last time I checked.’

‘All right, Mister, as you wish,’ Emily said, letting go of me.

‘Don’t you guys see that it’s not safe? The whole thing is collapsing outside. Imagine what it’d be like on the inside. This place gives me the creeps,’ I said.

Emily continued. ‘I know you’re still freaked out by the time your aunt caught you skipping school. I get it. I mean, your aunt is one scary lady. But you can’t live in fear like that, right, Soph?’ 

‘Aunt Carmel promised that next time she’ll ground me for life. I swore to myself that I’d do nothing silly again, but here I am, breaking into someone’s property. I think we should go.’ 

Emily turned to the house. ‘A bet is a bet, and we lost it. We have to take pictures from outside and inside. Those are the rules. It’s not that complicated, is it?’ 

‘Come on, it’s a stupid game. The rules didn’t specify this place. We could—’

‘Sophie, it’s not a stupid game.’ Kat zipped up his hoodie. ‘Besides, apart from people calling you Rusty, Lobster or... Ginger Nut—՚

‘That’s my favourite.’ Emily chuckled.

‘... do you wanna include Coward to your name?’ Kat frowned at Emily, who shrugged. 

I tucked one of my reddish locks behind my ears. ‘You forgot Mad Firecracker,’ I said. They both giggled. 

‘You don’t mind, do you?’ Emily asked me.

‘Mind what?’

‘Being called all those weird names?’

‘Nope,’ I said, turning my eyes toward the house so Emily couldn’t spot that it was a big fat lie. Of course, I minded. Who wouldn’t? But I’d decided long ago that I’d never say anything back to anyone. Things could get worse, and I didn’t need that in my life.

Emily patted my shoulder. ‘Good for you. Now, let’s break into this glorified shambles.’ 

‘We could fall through the floorboards or get shards of glass stuck in our feet or find a closet full of stinking corpses,’ I said, still gazing at the decrepit, falling apart house. 

‘Or we can prove to everyone when we’re back to school on Monday that we’re not the losers they think we are. Of course, to be honest, I’d rather be at home enjoying my newest manga or doing nothing as usual, but... here I am, helping you girls,’ Kat said.

I pulled my woolly hat farther down over my ears. ‘Yeah, right.’ 

‘Oh, that’s kind of you, Katsuro,’ Emily said in a teasing voice.

Kat threw his arms in the air. ‘I give up.’ 

We moved in different directions around the weed-infested garden taking photos of the trees, the overgrown shrubs, the broken fountain at the back of the house, and even the stone path that led into the woods. 

‘Now...’ Emily joined Kat and me, as we stood in front of the house again. ‘How do we get in?’ 

Kat pointed to the building. ‘I say we go through that bay window on the left side. One of the glass windows is completely gone.’ 

Before we ventured inside the manor, something caught my attention. I looked up to the sky to see a full rainbow that wasn’t there before. 

‘Why is there a rainbow up in the sky?’ 

Emily and Kat looked up. 

‘Well, because if it were in any other place it’d be weird, right?’ Emily chuckled again.

‘Gosh, Emily. What Sophie means is why is there a rainbow when it hasn’t rained in like two days or something?’

‘Exactly,’ I said, wondering if that was even possible. Do rainbows appear out of nowhere? I asked myself. 

Emily pressed Kat’s shoulder. ‘Relax, boy. It’s only a joke.’

Moving on, we stepped into the manor. Cobwebs brushed our faces, and I swatted away the sticky threads stuck to my hair. A mixture of mustiness, animal urine and old wooden furniture combined into one stifling smell filled my nostrils. Holding my breath, I moved to the centre of the massive room. Two sets of familiar footsteps followed me. Debris cluttered everywhere we looked. Remains of broken furniture lay disorderly on the floor. A doll’s head, covered in dirt, rested in one of the corners of the room. Stumbling, we moved from the entrance through an archway, which led us into a bigger hall which had an impressive staircase leading to the upstairs area. 

‘It’s a pity the staircase has collapsed,’ Emily pointed out. ‘I’d love to see the rooms up there. Imagine the size of the bedrooms?’ 

Kat came closer. ‘Look at this place. I’d love to live here. It’s so—’ 

‘So stinky, dusty and packed with rats,’ I cut him off as a small black silhouette scurried across the top of the stairs. ‘... and lots of nasty spiders.’ I looked up to see a gigantic chandelier covered in cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. ‘It’s weird to think that once this house was full of life and happy people lived here, probably, and now everything is dead. That’s so sad and horrible.’

Emily turned to face me. ‘Are you kidding me? This house is awesome. A true shrine of lost memories. A fine Victorian building of—՚ 

‘Victorian? How do you even know that? You thought the Capital of Kenya was Narnia.’ Kat snorted.

‘I... I got a little bit confused,’ Emily said with a shrug.

I shook my head. ‘We need to hurry. It’ll be dark soon, and I can’t imagine how this place might be at night.’

We split up again, the clicking sound of our phone cameras disturbing the silence in the room. I headed to the front part of the once-grand hall where heavy, ragged curtains hung from the sky-high, stained glass windows. After taking a couple of pictures, I turned back to see Emily and Kat gathering at the bottom of the stairs. From where I stood, I could see three doors around the room. Emily saw them too. She pointed to the doors as I joined them.

‘Brilliant. I say we go in. Three doors, one for each one of us.’ Kat looked like he was already choosing which one he’d pick.

‘I think we should leave. It’s getting late.’ I slipped the phone into one of my pockets. ‘I’ve got homework to do, and Aunt Carmel will kill me if I’m late for tea.’

‘Come on, Sophie. Homework? Seriously? How can you think of that when we’re on an adventure? It won’t take long, we promise.’ Kat winked at Emily and grinned. ‘Aren’t you curious about what might be on the other side of these doors?’ He then moved to the one on the right side of the hall. 

‘Soph, homework is bor-ring. You know that, don’t you?’ Emily moved along and now stood in front of her chosen door. 

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘But only for a couple of minutes, right? It’s almost dinner time and I don’t want to—’

Before I finished my sentence, Emily and Kat had already disappeared inside their rooms. I wasn’t sure if we should be doing that, I mean, breaking into other people’s houses and snooping around. Maybe a little bit of an adventure would be fun, right?

I gazed at the only door left and stumbled towards it. I reached for the handle and opened it carefully as I fought with cobwebs all over the threshold. A creaking noise echoed in the room. I stepped inside and behind me, the door groaned shut by itself. Perhaps it was a draught, I told myself to stop the hair on the back of my neck from lifting. 

A huge dining table, covered in a thick layer of dust, took up most of the space in the middle of the exquisite room. Plates, cups, cutlery and two pairs of candlesticks were still set like the meal was about to be served. On the other side of the room, an ancient fireplace lay under a smeared framed mirror of massive proportions. Four tall stained-glass windows let the sunbeams flood the place making the floating particles look like fairy dust. The reflection of the colours inside the room caught my attention. I pulled out my phone again. That’d be a heck of a good photo.

A loud bang came from outside. Was someone already out? The dirty planks creaked under my boots as I walked around the room. There was a humming noise, more like a faint sound of a soft melodic piano playing somewhere. Browsing around, I spotted an old radio sitting on top of an end table in one of the corners. It was disconnected, of course. Perhaps my pink-haired friend was on the other side laughing. She was thirteen years old like me and Kat, but sometimes she acted as if she was four. Typical.

‘Duh, Emily. You can’t scare me,’ I shouted.

I was ready to go back to the main hall and out of that place. I looked around to check if there was anything else for me to shoot there. 

The beautiful chairs tucked around the huge dining table? Tick.

The frilly curtains hanging from the tall windows? Tick.

The stunning chandelier? Tick.

The dull old picture of a fruit bowl on the wall behind me? Tick.

The shining balls of light inside the mirror... wait. What? 

I rubbed my eyes, blinking many times. What the ...? 

The reflected sparkling balls had different colours, each one as big as a grapefruit. One by one they made their way out of the mirror towards the centre of the dining room. I stepped back, my mouth falling open and my heart skipped a beat. Like in a choreographed dance they hovered on the ceiling above my head. Now, dozens of them floated around the room. I knew magic wasn’t real, but that was so... magical. 

The coloured orbs continued their dance until they squirmed and merged with a thunderous bang into each other. Red with red, blue with blue and so on. They kept doing that until they were the size of watermelons. The piano music grew louder. Whizzing, one of the balls crashed onto the door like a drunk firefly, leaving a glowing yellow splash of colour on the door. The other spheres followed the same drunk dive until all the colours were part of a striking mosaic. Yellow, red, blue, green, orange, grey, purple, brown, black, and white; all gleaming in front of my blinking eyes. 

Taking a deep breath, I tiptoed towards the peculiar door. First, I turned the doorknob carefully, hoping to open it. The door was locked now. Grabbing the doorknob with both hands, I frantically shook it in the hope that the old thing would unlatch. Nope, it didn’t. I banged on the door and called out to my friends. Only silence came from the other side. With trembling, sweaty hands, I tried to use my phone to call Emily but I dropped it on the floor. The screen cracked beyond repair. Still, I tried to call my friend but the thing was dead. 

‘For goodness sake,’ I whispered.

I stepped back from the door and tried the windows. All locked. My heart was beating faster than a train downhill. I looked around to check if anything else magical was happening in the room. It was all quiet now. I dragged my feet towards the colourful door again because that’d be the only way out. I regretted entering the room, and even the old house with all my heart. What was I thinking? 

When I got closer and gazed at the door, I had to rub my eyes. The doorknob had transformed itself into the shape of a greeting hand. I lifted my hand towards the handle only to pull it back against my chest. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. I had to try it again as it seemed the only thing to do. 

I touched the cold silver metal fingers, and it grabbed my hand right away. I gasped for air, my wobbly knees trembling like they were about to give in. I tried to free my hand, but it wouldn’t let me go. I shouted for help from the top of my lungs. All at once, the door blew open. The hand-shaped doorknob pulled me through the threshold and freed me. I fell forwards as if invisible forces threw me out of the room. Next thing I knew, I wasn’t in the manor house anymore.

Chapter 2

The Tram Station

CRAWLING, I LIFTED my head and looked around. The music was now loud and clear, coming from a couple of silver metal speakers above my head. The air smelled like smoke and burning oil. A thunderous noise, like some sort of machine, hit my ears. I couldn’t tell if it was day or night, as the place looked like a gigantic warehouse. Trying to adjust my eyes to the artificial light, I staggered to my feet in what seemed to be a tram station when the multi-coloured door slammed shut behind me. 

Several wide columns, built of twisted metal, were scattered all over the place, rising several metres high. Each column had a lift to what looked like platforms high above the ground. Every one of them had a different colour. Looking up, I could see cable cars hanging from above, suspended in the air by steel cables, running all over the warehouse ceiling. They were also matched according to the colours of the doors on the lifts going up and down the metal columns. 

Somebody bumped against my shoulder, giving me a fright. 

‘Sorry,’ a middle-aged man dressed in red from head to toe mumbled as he walked by. Most intriguing of all were the people wandering around the place. Apparently, they were part of some sort of carnival or something. One person wore only yellow, from his trousers to his hat. A lady wore an orange dress with matching tights and gloves, another wore green overalls, a green shirt, green socks, and shoes. It was as if they had wardrobes full of only their favourite colours and nothing else. They looked like a box full of crayons brought to life. Small groups of girls and boys, grown-ups