"Tonight's the night," Ehz said excitedly to a pair of opposite spectrum cats who lounged nearby. The petite young girl with short brown hair and slate gray eyes paced anxiously from one side to the other of the topmost room of her house. Perpetual sunlight illuminated the room from the hole in the ceiling. It was never night time in Limbo.
In the center of the room was a pedestal made of polished and gleaming silver. An object that didn't belong in the dusty disarray of her mansion. It was something new. Something she had put there herself. In the center of the pedestal was a keyhole, and in her hand a tarnished old key which she was rolling around in her fingertips.
The white cat looked at the black cat, and they both twitched their tails nervously. They each had their reservations about this entire idea, but neither of them had been able to persuade the girl not to do it. So they blinked, and they sighed, and they lounged on their respective crates set in either corner of the attic.
"It'll be a glorious night. A splendiferous adventure for any and all who've got any ounce of curiosity to step on through and have a look. There'll be music and dancing and pretty dresses, I'm sure!" She stopped pacing abruptly in the middle point between two walls and turned to grin wildly at the shining silver pedestal.
She walked up to it and admired her handiwork as a mad scientist might admire a Frankenstein. "It's almost time," she said, jamming the key into the hole. "It'll be midnight somewhere at some time, which is near enough to perfect anywhere in the multiverse."
She waited like a runner at the start of a race. Beyond the decrepit old walls of her mansion, thousands upon thousands of doors stood closed and waiting. They hovered in the air, stuck to the ground. Some tilted inward and some stood perfectly upright. They waited as anxiously as she waited. Thousands of doors leading to thousands of worlds and dimensions and times. And the time was ripe to open them.
For the first time in an eternity, a clock tolled the time in the downstairs foyer of the house that Limbo built. Ehz counted each hollow gong aloud. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six." With each chime she echoed back, her excitement grew. "Seven. Eight. Nine." The girl started to bounce on the balls of her feet. "Ten. Eleven." And when she squealed this last one with glee, she turned the key. "Twelve!"
A shockwave blasted out from the pedestal and shook the foundations of the building to its very core. So strong an impulse of energy was it that Ehz also was knocked backward and sent skidding on her back across the attic floor. Outside, those thousands upon thousands of doors flung themselves wide open and gaped ravenously at the house they encircled.
The girl that Limbo adopted lay on the floor and cackled gleefully to the lit-up sky. "Let the party begin," she cheered, tossing a fist high into the air. Cut and Paste shared a feline frown with each other and sighed once again.
In the center of the room was a pedestal made of polished and gleaming silver. An object that didn't belong in the dusty disarray of her mansion. It was something new. Something she had put there herself. In the center of the pedestal was a keyhole, and in her hand a tarnished old key which she was rolling around in her fingertips.
The white cat looked at the black cat, and they both twitched their tails nervously. They each had their reservations about this entire idea, but neither of them had been able to persuade the girl not to do it. So they blinked, and they sighed, and they lounged on their respective crates set in either corner of the attic.
"It'll be a glorious night. A splendiferous adventure for any and all who've got any ounce of curiosity to step on through and have a look. There'll be music and dancing and pretty dresses, I'm sure!" She stopped pacing abruptly in the middle point between two walls and turned to grin wildly at the shining silver pedestal.
She walked up to it and admired her handiwork as a mad scientist might admire a Frankenstein. "It's almost time," she said, jamming the key into the hole. "It'll be midnight somewhere at some time, which is near enough to perfect anywhere in the multiverse."
She waited like a runner at the start of a race. Beyond the decrepit old walls of her mansion, thousands upon thousands of doors stood closed and waiting. They hovered in the air, stuck to the ground. Some tilted inward and some stood perfectly upright. They waited as anxiously as she waited. Thousands of doors leading to thousands of worlds and dimensions and times. And the time was ripe to open them.
For the first time in an eternity, a clock tolled the time in the downstairs foyer of the house that Limbo built. Ehz counted each hollow gong aloud. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six." With each chime she echoed back, her excitement grew. "Seven. Eight. Nine." The girl started to bounce on the balls of her feet. "Ten. Eleven." And when she squealed this last one with glee, she turned the key. "Twelve!"
A shockwave blasted out from the pedestal and shook the foundations of the building to its very core. So strong an impulse of energy was it that Ehz also was knocked backward and sent skidding on her back across the attic floor. Outside, those thousands upon thousands of doors flung themselves wide open and gaped ravenously at the house they encircled.
The girl that Limbo adopted lay on the floor and cackled gleefully to the lit-up sky. "Let the party begin," she cheered, tossing a fist high into the air. Cut and Paste shared a feline frown with each other and sighed once again.