I couldn't stop looking at the piece of paper Adrian left behind.
"Find the first door."
I read the sentence again and again until the words started to lose their meaning. Door? What door? Where? Why?
I took all the keys and placed them on the table again. Eleven keys. Eleven numbers. Eleven disappeared husbands.
But this time, I looked at them differently.
Not as memories.
As clues.
I turned key number 1 slowly in my fingers and looked carefully at the small symbol behind the number. A circle. Then I looked at key number 2. A triangle. Number 3. A line.
I suddenly remembered the corridor in my dream.
The doors had symbols too.
Not numbers.
Symbols.
My heart started beating faster. I ran to my notebook and drew all the symbols again in order from key 1 to key 11.
Circle. Triangle. Line. Square. Cross. Star. Wave. Eye. Door. Spiral. Moon.
When I connected the symbols with lines, something appeared.
It looked like a map.
A very simple map.
In the center, there was a circle.
"The first door…" I whispered.
The circle must be the first location.
But where?
I stared at the drawing for hours until suddenly I realized something.
The circle looked like a lake.
And there was only one lake near my town.
That night, I didn't sleep.
The next morning, I took key number 1 and went to the lake.
The place was quiet. No people. Just water and wind.
I walked around the lake slowly, holding the key in my pocket. I felt stupid. I didn't know what I was looking for.
Then I saw it.
An old wooden door.
Standing alone near a tree.
No walls. No house.
Just a door.
My heart started beating so fast I thought I would faint.
I walked slowly toward it.
On the door, there was a small symbol carved into the wood.
A circle.
I took key number 1 out of my pocket with shaking hands.
"There is no way…" I whispered.
But when I touched the key to the door, I heard a small click.
The door opened by itself.
And behind the door… there was no forest.
There was a long dark corridor.
The same corridor from my dreams...