The Door Opens

My husband stared at the blank wall and openly asked, "is that it?"
"Someone's a little excited to see my secret." I joked. My husband did not seem amused so I stopped to make sure that he was still with me. "Are you sure you're okay?"
He shook himself, as if trying to wake himself from a dream, and assured me that he was fine.
I noticed he had a tie tack on him that was shaped like a strange  lion. "Where did you get this?" I asked him as I pointed to the tack.
"Oh, I don't know, I think you gave it to me a couple of ..." clearing his throat as he finished, "years ago."
"I don't remember giving you this, it's kind of ugly. I must have gotten it at one of the many garage sales I have been to over the years. Whatever, anyway, are you sure that you are okay?" He looked up at the ceiling as if searching for the right words and muttered, "I'm fine...honey...I'm just excited and scared about what all this has really been about."  
I wasn't quite convinced with his answer, mainly because he never calls me "honey", but I really just wanted to move forward with the truth so I could feel better about the secret that I had been keeping from him. I took a deep breath and turned back toward the door.
I took the blue, glass ring in my hand and turned it so the ball of glass faced my palm. I held out my palm and pressed firmly on the blank part of the wall. I closed my eyes and muttered, "Credendo Vides."
The blank door became clear as new glass and then fell away completely so my hand could move through what used to be the wall. As my hand entered the newly opened space I felt around for the latch that I knew  was on the opposite side of the door, just above the door frame. I finally found the latch and clicked it open.
"There," I said "that should make it easier."
I grabbed the door from the inside with my other hand and slid it straight up the wall. It moved effortlessly as if it was on a track. When the door was finally at my eye level I held my ring hand up again and closed my eyes and muttered, "magnus."
The door flashed blue as the whole wall glowed steadily, while the door began to increase in size. The symbol on the front of the door remained the same size and soon you could see within the center of the  symbol was a key hole. The door stopped growing when it became the perfect size to walk through. Once again the door was as solid as it was before. I stepped forward to put the key into the newly formed hole.
The door opened and the illumination quickly moved to light the room.
I stepped inside first and Bob stepped in a moment behind me. As I glanced back at him I noticed his lion tie tack giving off a faint orange glow. The newly formed shadow around the animal look like something I had seen before.
My heart jumped. I exhaled a deep, quick breath; I remembered where I had seen this animal before. It wasn't a lion! That animal on the front was a big dog called a Chow Chow. I wasn't sure who the tie tack really belonged to, but I knew that it wasn't my husband's, and I knew I needed to get it off without him knowing.
I quickly turned and faced him, hoping to cut off his vision from the rest of the room.
"What's wrong...honey?" he muttered as he continued to strain his neck to see above me.
"I just thought of something. I know how hard this is for you, so I just want you relax. Close your eyes for just a second." He closed his eyes as his right hand moved closer to his chest. I spoke calmly and softly, "Think about that first moment when we met, how I looked , how you felt about me the first time we kissed." He leaned his head slightly back as he started to remember. "Think about that moment that you first told me you loved me, when you accidentally asked me to marry you...." He chuckled a little at the word "accidentally". As he continued to remember, I watched his right hand move away from the tack.
I whispered, "abducto" and reached to grab the  tie tack. I could feel a dull force of electricity fighting back as I removed it. I quickly chucked it behind Bob and then commanded the door to close. The room filled with brilliant and beautiful bluish light.
"Ok, you can open your eyes now." I said.
"What was that all about?" Bob asked as he stood there shaking his head from side to side. I grabbed his hand and said, "I just wanted to remind you of how real and honest our love is before I show you what's in here." As I turned back around to lead him further into the room, I added, "Remember, don't freak out."
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Bob took a exaggerated breath as he finally stepped inside. I must admit, I didn't remember the room being quite this big. I hadn't been inside for at least a couple of years, so my eyes gazed around the room in awe at how big it had become. 
At first glance someone would say that the room looked like Times Square. It was filled with screens of every size and shape, sitting on rows and rows of clear, blue shelves. Instead of advertisements for hair creme or the newest Broadway musical, you saw images from the world's most popular books, movies, radio shows, and any other idea that could create sparks of belief in people, bringing that idea here.
Each screen seemed to draw you in, giving you the distinct impression that you had fallen into a dream.The images on some of the screens were hazy, some were fading in and out, and others emitted nothing but muted white noise.
My husband followed me as I tried to explain, "These represent the collective hopes and dreams of the world. Things that usually, in your world, um , that is our world, do not exist; that is until they are believed in so much by enough of humanity that they are created and brought here for safekeeping."
My husband looked at me, shell-shocked and confused, "Love, what the freakity ho ho is this? Is there a credit card bill coming for all these TVs? How exactly did you get so many?"
I shook off my first reaction to be upset by his accusation and thought that it would be a better idea to show him rather than tell him.
"Okay...follow me." We walked together towards a group of artifacts. As we walked I ignored his bemused expression and carried on with the explanation. "We are heading toward what is called the Specter Class, or "S" Class. The items found here are slightly older, and therefore less powerful. I mean, an item draws its strength from the collective power of ...well, faith,...or belief. It is strong in nature, but weak in the energy that gives it life." I found my words were just confusing me as well. Bob let out a deep sigh of patience. I stopped and thought for a second, pacing up and down the aisle, "Okay, watch."
I took his hand and did my best impression of a "Darth Vader" walk toward "S" Class, row 19, section 78. I turned and faced a screen paused on the image of a three and a half foot crystal wand. I put my right hand up to the screen and commanded , "Crendendo Vides!" causing a flash of blinding light. When it cleared, I was holding the wand and staring at a grey lifeless screen.
My husband's pale face was frozen in shock. "Bob, breathe!" I shouted as I snapped my fingers in front of his face.

The Small Locked Door

My house was still  in shambles from the attack, but we did manage to have a new maroon door put on the next day . It was sort of funny how glad I was to have a door that looked more like something I would have chosen, rather than the copy and paste one that came with the house. It even had a smaller iron door in place of a normal keyhole.
The rest of the destruction was, miraculously, minimal. The chandelier was in pieces, which we replaced with a cheaper  garage sale version. The book shelves had been knocked over, but only one of the individual shelves had actually broken. Some of my favorite 99 cent store "dust collectors" had been smashed to dust, by what ever power Earl had been using. The only thing that I was extremely sad to lose was a bejeweled box that carried an authentic dream-catcher. It was said to be several decades old and was given to me by a kindred spirit that I met while visiting Colorado in 1999.
Even though the house was slowly getting back to normal, every thing with my husband was extremely strained. We used to be able to sit in silence quite comfortably, but now every moment felt awkward and painful. The only peace came when we had to go to work. We would mechanically kiss goodbye and we would go our separate ways, each wishing we could stay and talk but also glad there was no time for things that would remain unsaid.
I was sure the week was never going to end, as each minute moved forward I could swear another two minutes moved backward.
Through all the tears of the broken things, my husband tried to be patient, waiting for me to tell him the real story of what happened that day with Earl. I wanted to tell him everything...at least the parts I remembered. How do you gently say, "I'm not the woman you thought I was, here's who I really am" without a lot of potential screaming. It wasn't that I was afraid of him harming me, I just didn't want to lose him. I didn't want him to think my love for him was as fake as the person that I was pretending to be. Truth is, after 20 years with no contact, I've been wondering for a long time if this "calling" was really what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be. I just couldn't be sure anymore, but I also couldn't see a way out of telling my husband either. So, a week after "the incident" with Earl, I decided it was time to let him in on my...secret.
"Love, I have something to tell you." I said as I sat down beside him while he was reading (his favorite) book. He looked up from his book and let out sigh as if to say, finally, I have been waiting for this, as he said,
"I'm listening."
I took his hand and walked him over to a little picture frame with a key inside. The key was glued to a paper backing and above it had an inscription that said,"You Have The Key To My Heart" written in old style black script.
I pulled the picture frame off the wall and opened up the back, and gently pulled out the key. He looked at me, puzzled, but did not say a word.
"Okay so...what ever I am about to show you please remember that I love you with all my heart..." as I took his hand in mine I added, "and don't freak out." I tried to give him a confident, loving smile but I was pretty sure it just looked awkward and forced.
"just breath," I told myself as we walked towards on of the empty, extra, spare rooms. I opened up the mirrored closet door and started to clean up all the boxes that were strewn all over the floor. Finally after a little "digging" I uncovered a small, black door that was about the size of my hand. I turned my glass ring around in my finger and laid my palm gently on the door. My heart and mind became one as I thought of all the hopes and dreams that I had as a child. The ring sprang to life in my hand, and soon the door changed from pitch black to glowing blue. As the blue essence seeped within the door frame and the scroll work, the door turned a deep shade of red with gold filigree around the frame and a blue emblem in the middle of the door. The blue emblem, that looked like a blue pearl caught in a net, continued to glow as the rest of the door returned to normal.
I stole a quick glance at my husband who seemed not to be breathing as he stared at the door. I could see the wonder in his eyes and tried to envision how all of this new information was going to effect him. I wondered for a moment if he would faint, yell, or panic...or maybe he would do a mixture of all three. He caught me looking at him and whispered, almost inaudibly, "finally."
"Um...what," I said.
"sorry, did I distract you?" he questioned
"no, I just thought I would take this slowly...for you." I added "are you okay?"
He simply nodded as he looked back at the door. Maybe it was the way the glowing light hit my husband's square framed glasses, but he seemed to have this intense and somewhat sinister look on his face.
I mumbled, "okay, moving forward," as I took the key and put it in the middle of the emblem. The door had no hole, yet as I pushed the key in, the door gave way freely. I opened the door and my husband let out a deep breath as there was nothing but white wall behind the door.