Thankful that the darkness hid the redness rising in his cheeks, he planted his hand firmly on the edge of the wood and gave it a solid shove. It opened slowly, despite how hard he was pushing, and a dark, narrow passage was revealed behind it.
“Go ahead,” she told him, gesturing towards the passage. “It’s perfectly safe. Safer than being out here at least.”
Kre glanced at the floating mites of glowing light. “I don’t suppose now would be a good time to unban those guys and have them go in first?”
“Like they listen to me,” she chuckled politely. Despite her jest, she waved her hand dismissively and the fireflies danced in the air briefly before they dispersed to the treetops far above, taking their precious light with them.
“Now that we’re alone in the darkness again, there’s nothing stopping you. Dark here. Dark there.”
“Yeah,” Kre responded, his voice just barely above a squeak. “But the dark in there seems a lot more confining than the dark out here.”
“You’re afraid,” she said matter-of-factly after a moment’s pause. “I can’t believe I didn’t realize that. It’s been a while…”
She muttered a bit and tapped a finger to the side of her nose. “It’s the enclosed space part of it, isn’t it? Were you trapped in a well for days after falling in it? No, probably not… maybe you have an older sibling that locked you in a cramped hen house when you annoyed them? That’s probably not it… hrmm… you seem too young for it to be prison…”
“Prison…” he repeated, trailing off as his thoughts wandered.
“Really? You spent some time in a small cramped prison cell and that’s why you don’t like enclosed spaces?”
“Well, no… my cell, if you could even call it that, was more like the back room of the town hall. Well, not more like. It was the back room to the town hall.”
“Fascinating! I kind of want to hear more about this. You seem rather young to be in the kind of trouble that requires prison. Still, that back room must have been tiny for it to have affected you like this.”
Kre shook his head, “Actually, it was pretty roomy, all things considered. Being that it was the town hall, it had some pretty cheerful memories for me too. Dances and feasts, parties and friends. Except for the trial, I don’t think I had ever had a bad memory that involved the town hall. I could have stayed in a prison like that forever.”
“Well then,” she grinned, “you’re going to love this place.” With that, she gave Kre a hearty shove and sent him stumbling into the darkness beyond the door.