I dreamed during that nap, and it was a dream that I had dreamed before. It didn't happen often, but often enough that I could always remember it. I can still recall it with astounding clarity even now. 

I'm in an open area, though I can see little through the thick mists that obscure everything around. The sky is dark. I can feel that something important is ahead of me. A dim light filters through the mists, and I know that it is my goal, though I can't recall why. I am supposed to be doing something, but what is it? Why is it that I can not remember? 

So I continue stumbling and feeling my way through the mists, chasing the light that always feels just out of reach. 

Finally, I break through the mists into a clearing. A bubble of clear air surrounds it, the mists held at bay by the light coming from it. In the center sits a large wrought black iron frame wrapped in elaborate patterns of woven silver wire. The frame is almost shaped like a doorway, arching over the top and coming flat against the floor. Suspended in its center, a floor length mirror hangs, its silvery face obviously the source of the light; as beautiful as it is ominous. 

The image reflected in the mirror is not right. The dream state I am in hides the true image from me, but I can feel it in my very soul. It is wrong in every possible way, an abomination to everything good in the world. It must be destroyed! In my anger, I lash out at the mirror with all of my strength. Seeing the mirror shatter was usually the end of the dream, but not this time. 

Rather than the dream ending abruptly as usual, in this instance it instead continued a moment longer. The blurred and grotesque image in the mirror cleared just as my hand struck the glass. It was not any such monster, simply my own reflection. The mirrored Allan appearing much as I had at the time, broadly built and standing almost exactly six foot tall. Short cropped brown hair topped a face that expressed only pain, his eyes dull and almost lifeless. 

As the mirror shattered, I glimpsed the void that laid hidden beneath. The doorway stood open. 

-----‐--------------------------------------------------

I woke up, panting hard. The unknowable mirror had revealed its secret to me at long last, but it left me feeling far from satisfied with the answer. Such dreams usually left me feeling a bit melancholy for the next few hours, but this time had been much more intense. I certainly hadn't woken up panting like that and in a cold sweat previous times. Why had this time been so much different than other times I'd had that same dream? I couldn't answer that question right then. 

I still felt dazed and confused after my unexpected nap when I attempted to sit up. That feeling worsened as I looked around the room, trying to get my bearings. 

"Which side did I come in from?" It was a panic inducing thought when I realized that I didn't know. Somehow the last half hour or so of my conscious memory felt blurred and indistinct. I could remember entering the chamber, but not from which side. To make matters much worse, when I checked the time on my phone, the signal was completely gone and the clock showed it to be a few minutes before four pm. Somehow I had slept away more than four hours of precious daylight. The sun was due to set at six thirty that night. The hike to this cavern had taken 3 hours. I only had two and a half to get back to camp before dark, maybe less due to being on the east side of the mountains. I needed to leave immediately. I picked up my things and moved to one tunnel. The air from it seemed to be unmoving and somewhat warm. The opposite tunnel proved to be nearly the opposite. The air was just slightly cooler and was carried by slightest of breezes. My mind rationalized this tunnel to be the correct choice and I rushed in, moving as fast as I dared through it.

The tunnel felt the same as the one I had trekked through previous, so with growing confidence, I lumbered on. Strangely, the air grew colder as I continued through the rocky flume. The tunnel felt right, though in my mind though and I kept walking. For a brief moment I almost felt something pass through me,  leaving behind an odd feeling of displacement. There was a sense of almost wrongness in my chest where that pull had been now. Something wasn’t right. 

That sense was proven valid just a minute later though, when the tunnel abruptly dead ended. Set in to the rock wall however, was a door, standing just cracked, but open. The barest hints of light filtering in through it. 

A door framed in wrought iron. 

Wrapped in silver wire. 

The door from my dreams. 

I was out of time, I needed to get back to camp. But… What could be behind the door? Why would there even be a door like this inside of a cave?

In another moment of brilliant, read that as: ‘stupid’, inspiration, my curiosity once again got the best of me. All of my instincts were telling me to stop, my common sense telling me that I didn’t have time for any of this if I wanted to return to camp. None of that mattered though in that moment. I needed to know what was on the other side of the door.

I approached. The cooler temperatures and slight movement of air could obviously be traced back to this open door. Illogically, the air outside this door carried a good bit of moisture and a touch of scent that reminded me of fresh rain. Nothing felt real anymore. What I was doing spit in the face of the rules of reality. My heart pounded in my chest, a turbulent mix of fear of the unknown, confusion towards this situation and bold faced curiosity were driving it nearly out of my chest. One hand trying to hold my heart in place, the other reached out to grip the impossible door. I pulled and it opened on smooth hinges. 

Beyond the doorway, I was met with another seeming impossibility. Another tunnel, this one transverse to me ran to either side. Red brick walls lined the walls and I found myself wondering what on Earth I had stumbled on. My utter bewilderment was summed up in the simple phrase of, “What the hell?”

Continuing my current track record of intelligent tactical decisions, I stepped through the door, driven by all consuming curiosity. I looked to either side and decided that I must still be dreaming. The tunnel was fairly short, my mental guesstimator measuring it to be about twenty-five feet to either side and about the same to the opposite wall from me. Through both openings however, I could make out the strangely well lit forms of several large trees, their branches bare in the autumnal air. Leaves of all colors were catered on the ground. The sky seemed dark, but otherwise gave no indication of time. The tunnel was obviously some sort of bridge over the footpath that ran through it, but there was nowhere in Arizona that I could remember having any such construction. 

What happened next would haunt my nightmares for the next week. I felt it as much as heard a kind of static, accompanied by a metallic screech. I turned around just in time to see the door slam shut. I frantically tried to open it again, but the door refused to budge.

I was trapped. 

My mind raced for a solution or at least an explanation, but came back empty. In a state of numbness, I walked out of the tunnel. I could hear myself mumbling questions, wondering where I was and what could possibly be going on. Was all of this just a dream? Had something in that cavern acted as a hallucinogen? I felt myself collapse boneless to the ground as my short reprieve was shattered and my mind lost its foothills against the wave of panic that set over me. What could I do? Cry? Beg? Pray? I didn’t know. I was a quivering and babbling mess on the ground when a gentle hand found my shoulder.

“Sir? Are you okay?” The voice pierced my panic. I looked up and saw a pair of bright ice blue eyes that poured cool water through the fires burning in my broken  mind. The woman stood there, her auburn hair framing a face that was etched with worry and care. She wore a jogger’s outfit and a set of wireless earbuds were held loosely in her other hand. She had obviously been out for a run when she found me. 

“Where am I?” was all I could think to ask. This woman had to know. I really didn’t know what I would do if she didn’t. 

“The Glade Arch. Are you lost?” The concern seemed to deepen, and her brows furrowed.

I could barely process the name, only really knowing that it held no meaning to me. I think that’s when it started finally setting in that something mind bendingly impossible had actually happened to me. “Yes Ma’am. I-I believe I am. Very lost in fact…” Understatement much? My confusion must have shown plainly as the woman’s frown deepened yet further. “Where exactly is the ‘Glade Arch’?”

“Hun, you are in Central Park. New York City.” Her face had gone from confusion to straight up befuddlement by this point. 

Oh god… “What? How?! I just walked through a tunnel and through that…” I trailed off as I turned to point at the door, only to find that it was gone without trace, only a smooth red brick wall occupied the spot now. “Door…” The panic returned in full force at that moment and all hope fled in its wake. "That doesn't make sense… it was… it was just there!!" I was just a hiker. But hikers didn’t get lost and end up in a completely different city. That sounded like some sort of anime trope. My heart went cold as my breathing went ragged, quickly changing to hyperventilation.  

“Oh.” Her eyes widened slightly as some realization seemed to strike her.. “Oh by the goddess that begins to explain things."  The woman took a deep breath and steadied herself. "Take a deep breath sir. I have an idea of what happened and with some help, I think I can get you home, okay?" 

I know she meant to help, but I couldn’t stop shaking. My terror was complete and it would take more than that to break me out of my panic attack. All of the memories from the day rushed back and each and every mistake burned itself in my mind, taunting me. I had ignored my better judgement and now look where I was. Trapped in a city I had no connection to and in a situation I had no place in. I didn’t belong here. 

"Oh you poor thing…” I could hear only concern and pity in her voice as she spoke against my panic. “I know this must all be very confusing, and I'll admit that I'm not completely sure how you stumbled through that door, but you will be safe alright? I had best take you back to my place. I’ll have to see what we can do to help you in the morning. I need you to calm down a bit for me though, first." A kind hand gently rubbed at my back as the woman whispered soothing words in my ear. I could feel her arms around me. The odd thought that they weren’t as warm as they ought to be is what honestly actually broke the train of thought that carried my sanity away, not that I was willing to admit that.

It was likely still several minutes before my shattered psyche tried to pull itself back together into a functional state. I took one last deep, shuddering breath and turned my eyes back to her, tears brimming.

"Thank you. You… you don't even know me but you are helping me so much. I just… I'm so confused." And that was the gods be damned truth. None of this made any sense in my mind. “People don't just teleport from one end of the continent to the other!” was the thought that pounded in my mind. But nothing could be done for that right at that moment. If this wasn't a dream, then the only real option I had was to take up this total stranger's offer of help. May whatever powers that be have mercy on my soul. 

The woman stood and brushed the dirt from her knees before offering a hand. “What's your name, stranger?” 

My voice still shook with the roiling emotions that were only just held at bay. “Allan. My name is Allan…” I didn’t know what to think anymore. I had just somehow spontaneously traveled more than two thousand miles by walking through a door. I had no home here, all of my things were back at the truck except for what little I still carried in my pockets and my backpack. 

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. We will fix this, okay? My name is Grace, nice to meet you.” I took her hand and she helped pull me up with a surprising amount of strength for her lithe form. As I was pulled from the ground, I could only think of early that morning; that thought of this being where my adventure began coming to mind. I almost laughed at it. 

“There, now we aren't strangers." Her voice slipped into my thoughts once more. Part of me hoped that her simple statement would actually hold true.