[ When was a door not a door? When it was ajar, of course.

Apparently this Door was very ajar. So ajar that worlds spilled into it, saturating the landscape in a mismatch of people who knew nothing about nothing and everything about something else. Julia among them. Julia, who probably knew the least about anything.

But she knew a little. And she had fought hard for that little.

This wasn’t Fillory. She knew that. She didn’t know what this was. That was the nothing. She knew nothing of this land or why it’d pulled her.

A cat approached her. She paused, tilting her head. Then held out her palm. ]

Here kitty, kitty... [ Her voice was soft, almost empty of anything. ]

[ Do you know what’s hard to do? Perform hand signals when in a box.

There was no room for hand signals. Julia barely had the ability to lift her hands and push against the coffin. She certainly couldn’t move her hands in the complicated ways that indicated what spell she wanted to perform.

If she even knew a spell to unbury herself. How fucked up was that thought? She had to ask herself if anything she knew could dig her up out of the earth. Blast the earth off her? Scrape it away? How did she even begin to parse this situation out well enough to think of a plan?

She didn’t. That was how.

How long had she screamed when she woke up? Seconds? Hours? Days? Fuck. How long had she been buried alive?

Her breathing had levelled off after the hysterics had ended. “Levelled off.” More like she felt like she was suffocating, so her brain finally kicked it’s ass into gear. She calmed herself the fuck down. She was in a box she couldn’t escape from. She was running out of air. She had to be careful with it. So she forced herself to breath as carefully as she could, far from normal but better than before. Her heart still pounded in her ears.

Magic was out. Prying herself out. So what now? Think, Julia, think. This wasn’t how this ended. She would be fucking damned if she died in a fucking box in god only knows where.

She lashed out with her fist, slamming it against the box as she screamed out. ]

Is anyone there? Can anyone here me?!

[ Pound again. ] Get me the fuck out of here!

[ The little things didn’t bother Julia often. Why would they? There were so many big things to be bothered by. Things so big they happened without people noticing they happened. Liars and cheats that reshaped the world with a romantic twist to hide the grime underneath. It happened every second of every day-

She was getting away from herself. This was about the little things this time. The big things would always be there. They always were.

No, today it was the little things. The way it rained when she left this morning. The way it stopped just shortly after she left, highlighting that if she’d waited a minute or two she could have escaped the rain. There was a man who stared too long at her ( was there a stain on her shirt? ) she had snarled at. A bird that wouldn’t shut the fuck up.

This day just needed to end.

Finally, the day had gotten too long. Too full of little things that were swelling into a big thing. A rough shoulder jostled her, knocking her off her path. Maybe it was her who’d run into the person? Who knew. She certainly didn’t remember seeing anyone there.

It didn’t matter. Her hands sparked as she turned. ]

Watch where you are going next time. [ She snaps at the person. For all her anger, she looks half calm. Mostly empty.

It’s there, though. Rising to the surface. How easily it calls to her. How readily she answers. ]