《An Open Door》 Closing A Door Harry was sitting at hit computer desk mindlessly watching YouTube videos. He had a headset on to hear better and occasionally while listening he would take a puff out of the cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth. Every few minutes he tapped the ash out into the tray placed on the edge of his desk next to the half-empty Pepsi bottle and keyboard. He had been sitting there for 4 hours, He usually goes straight to his room after making and eating dinner. "Knock....Knock....Knock" .... "Knock....Knock...Knock" .... Harry looked away from the computer monitor and slowly took his headset off. "What is that?" he had pondered silently while looking around his room. "Knock...Knock...Knock" "Sounds like there is someone at the front door, but who could that be at this time of night?" Harry had thought while putting the headset down on the keyboard in front of him and standing up. Harry then opened up the door to his room and walked down the hallway to answer the door. The hallway was dark and none of the lights were on in the house since he went straight to his room once he finished eating. He slowly reached the front door and looked out through the peephole to see if anyone was outside. He did not see anyone outside so he unlocked the deadbolt and slowly opened the door while turning the porch light on. Harry stuck his head out the door first and took a quick look around, but he didn''t see anybody in the flickering streetlight and dim porch light illuminating his lawn. He decided to step out on the porch. "That''s weird I know I heard knocking up here but nobodies out here. I hate being messed with freaking kids playing knock knock ditch." he had thought while standing on his porch looking around. Harry decided to go back inside it was cold out and the darkness gave him a tingle down his spine. He closed the door and latched the deadbolt, he checked to make the curtains to the window overlooking the lawn were closed while turning on the lamp to the living room. After turning the lamp on he decided to check the back door and all the windows to make sure it was locked and the windows were covered as well, the knocking and the darkness is causing a lot of stress. After checking everything and noticing nothing out of place he got a glass of water from the kitchen and decided to go back and watch some more videos. He left the light on in the living room on so the hallway wouldn''t be so dark. A few hours later that night Henry decided to get ready to sleep. He had shut down his computer and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. After brushing his teeth and getting undressed, he turned the light off and laid down in his bed. Several minutes later he had fallen asleep.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. "Knock...Knock...Knock..." ... "Knock...Knock...Knock..." Henry had awakened with a gasp. "Knock...Knock...Knock..." "Oh no, it''s those knocks again" he had thought while slowly getting out of bed. He looked at the alarm clock at the side of his headboard. 3:01 A.M. Henry''s skin had broken out in goosebumps as he glanced at the clock. "Man this is getting scary," He had thought as he tore his gaze away from the clock and stumbled his way to the door of his room. He opened the door to his room and a cold draft blew into the room causing Henry to shiver. He walked to the door as his eyes adjusted to the light coming from the living room lamp. "Why is it so ...." He had thought as he stopped motionlessly turning the corner of the hallway to the front door, after turning the corner the saw the door was wide open showing the dimly lit lawn outside. "Oh my god somebody has broken into my house," he thought as he ran back down the hallway to his room to grab the the .22 rifle leaning in the corner of his room. He reached his room went inside and closed the door behind him locking it. He went to the corner got the rifle and pulled the ammunition from the drawer under the alarm clock. "I don''t hear anybody," He had thought as he loaded the gun and loaded the chamber. He slowly walked to the door while listening intently for any noise in the house. He listened for a minute before slowly opening the door to the room. The room quickly filled in with more cold air as he slowly entered the hallway with the gun leading in front of him. There is only one other door in the hallway before the living room which was the bathroom. The light was off and the door closed which was the way he left it after getting ready for bed earlier that night. He approached the bathroom slowly while still listening to any noise in the house. There was nothing in the bathroom so he continued onto the living room. he reached the corner to the hallway and front door, after taking a moment to collect himself he quickly peaked around the corner to the door. Nothing has noticeably changed from a few minute earlier so he quickly went to the door and closed it. After closing the door he turned around and went to the last room in the house which was the kitchen. Slowly passing the archway into the kitchen Henry noticed the back door was also wide open. Henry declared the house safe after checking all the rooms so he felt a little better as he went to the backdoor to close it. Henry made it to the door and was closing the door when he noticed something on the walkway between the garage and garden. He couldn''t tell what it was exactly since there was not light that far from the back porch but he knew something was defiantly there. "Who are you!" He had yelled toward the thing on the walkway shrouded in darkness while pointing the gun at it. "Step forward into the light," Henry had said as he took a few steps forward to the edge of the porch trying to get a better look at the thing, while still pointing the gun towards the thing he sees. "I''m going to call the cops if you don''t follow my directions," He had said while taking another small step forward. but as soon as he stepped forward the thing he saw faded away. Henry stared blankly at the empty area wondering what happened to the thing. "Where did it.--" Henry had thought as he lost consciousness from being sucked up into the dark sky. After Henry was taken the back door to his house slowly closed and all the lights to his house went off at once. Out Of The Darkness Henry didn''t'' know how much time had passed since he lost consciousness. He awoke to complete darkness and an unsettling silence. He couldn''t feel anything not even when he tried moving his body. Henry remained calm as he assessed his predicament, trying to change anything in the silent black void. An indiscernible amount of time later Henry noticed a change in the darkness. "What is that?" he asked himself as he watched an illuminated object slowly approaching. As the object got closer and closer Henry realized that it was a giant gray screen. When the screen filled a majority of his vision it came to a halt. Large letters and words began to fill the screen as Henry studied it. "You have been chosen" appeared on the screen. "What? I have been chosen?" Henry pondered as more words slowly appeared. "Your original body has been destroyed while your soul has been extracted in order to transition you to the new body that has been constructed. Transmission shall begin in 5.....4......3.....2......1...Begin" the screen wrote as Harry lost consciousness again. "Pop!" Harry awakens with a ringing in his ears and white light blinding his vision. He found himself laying on hard compact dirt in the middle of a clearing. The clearing is surrounded by large 200-foot trees with just some brush and bushes scattered nilly willy. "Where am I this time?" he thought as he slowly sits up and looks around. The first thing he noticed was that he was higher on the ground than he was used to. Realizing this he examined his body to see what else had changed. He appeared to be taller and more muscular than he was before. He is now stood about 6 foot 2 inches tall and felt like he could lift a small car by the strength he felt in his arms. While examining himself Henry noticed a very small gray bar at the edge of his vision. As he noticed it and thought about it the bar moved to the center of his vision and he noticed that is said "Menu". "Wow! A menu button, this must be what virtual reality is like." he thought as the Menu bar expanded. Menu -Status -Inventory -??? -??? "Just two options available and not log out or quit button. I guess this isn''t a game" he thought while looking at the menu. He opened the Staus window. Status Name: Henry Blueblade Race: Human Age: 18 Level: 0 (Mortal) Health- 100 Mana- 150 Attack- 5-6 This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.Defence- 0 Strength-10 Dextarity- 10 Wisdom- 20 Vitality- 10 Skills- Swordplay Swordsmanship(Basic) - 1 Scan(Basic) -1 Knowledge(Basic) -1 Swordsmanship -Basic skill Basic understanding of how to attack and defend with a sword. Scan- Basic skill Allows the user to scan people and objects revealing basic information. The effect of this skill lowers against beings of a higher level than the user. Knowledge- Basic skill The user starts to understand how the world works and the ways of its inhabitants. Henry closed the status page after browsing the skills for a few minutes. "It could be worse." Henry thought as he opened the inventory bar." Inventory Gold- 0 Silver- 0 Copper- 50 Rusty Sword x 1 Wooden Sheild x 1 Rusty Sword - Common Attack- 1-3 A sword that has be laying in the sun unused for a long period of time. Wooden Sheild - Common Defense- 3 A shield made out of common wood. Henry closes the inventory after equipping the sword and shield. He started swinging the sword around pondering the way it felt familiar even though he had never touched a sword in his past life. "Cool, this must be the effect of the Swordsmanship skill" he thought as he continued to swing around while occasionally raising his shield against imaginary enemies. "There should be a village or something nearby if this is like a game" he murmured as he began walking into the forest on the edge of the clearing. He had been walking for 30 minutes when suddenly a short green figure jumped out from behind the tree in front of him. He noticed the creatures face was ugly with a long nose and pointy ears as it swung a crude ax towards his stomach. Henry paused staring blankly at the approaching ax for a moment before jumping backward with a short hop while simultaneously raising his shield to block. "Oh shit!" he yelled aloud while thinking "What in the fuck is this ugly thing? A freaking goblin? Why is it attacking me!" "Fresh meat!!!" screamed the goblin as the ax was blocked by the shield. Henry pushed the goblin back with his shield while jabbing his sword straight at the goblin''s stomach. "Agagagagagah" garbled the goblin as the sword impaled his stomach and blood filled its mouth" Henry pulled the sword up and out while noticed numbers fading above the goblins head. -9 -5 -5 -5 -5 -1 Henry took a deep breath as he calmed himself from the fight. "I killed it" he thought while he watched as the goblin slowly bled to death. When he realized the goblin died he suddenly became sick to his stomach cause him to lean against and tree and hurl. "That fight was intense, " he thought as he slowly calmed down, he then noticed a gray search bar appear floating above the body of the goblin. He decided to search the body after finding no more enemies around him. Luckily he didn''t have to touch the body as the items showed up in the gray bar, he just chose the take all option in the search screen. He acquired 5 copper coins and the crude axe that the goblin attacked him with. Crude Ax- Common A simple ax made of stone used to chop trees. Attack- 2-4 He scanned the ax before placing it and the copper into his inventory. He then opened his status screen to see if there were any changes from the battle. Status Name: Henry Blueblade Race: Human Age: 18 Level: 0 (25/100) (Mortal) Health- 100 Mana- 150 Attack- 6-9 Defence- 5 Strength-10 Dextarity- 10 Wisdom- 20 Vitality- 10 Skills- Swordplay Swordsmanship(Basic) (1/100) - 1 Scan(Basic) (1/100) -1 Knowledge(Basic) - 1 He noticed that his level and some skills had experience bars next to their names and his attack and defense went up from the equipment. Henry realized that this world was going to be more dangerous than he originally thought. "I will be able to grow stronger if I fight and defeat my enemies and grow more competent in my skills the more I practice them" he with a glint in is eyes as he continued his search for people.