The Two Doors

By: JesusFreak

I am in love, in love with a princess, a princess to a barbaric king. Goodness, what was I thinking? She is very beautiful I must add, but I am afraid of the king. So we meet in secret. I have heard that the king has a special way of dealing with prisoners. He puts them in a coliseum and there are two doors at the end. You must walk to the middle and bow to the king, which is the tradition. There are two doors, one has a tiger in it, and another has a woman in it. If you choose the tiger, well… But if you choose the door with the woman in it, you have to marry her on the spot, even if you’re already married. Here is my story, what happened to me:

I was with my lover; we had been together for a long time, meeting in secret. Sometimes in secret places, or in each others rooms. I thought it was time for me to make my move, to get a kiss. I leaned over to her, my heat pounding, hoping she wouldn’t turn away. She didn’t. I was a few inches from her lips; I started to lean forward, across the table in the middle of the room. BOOM! I turned around and froze; a guard had entered the room and turned towards me. He grabbed me by the scruff of my shirt collar, lifting me up with one hand. I tried to escape, struggling against the great brute. He shook me, nearly scrambling my brain. I stopped struggling, and went along with the guard. I tried to read the emotion on the guards face, but there was none. His face was blank, he must have been thinking of nothing or had such a hard heart and he didn’t care.

The guard brought me before the king and threw me on the ground. I got up, shaking on my feet. I didn’t want to look the king in the eye, I mean; he just found out that some bozo had been hitting on his daughter.

“I’m sorry king,” I said to the king, bowing before him. I still didn’t want to look up. I didn’t even feel worthy.

“I have to ask, how long have you been with her?” He said this in a non-angry voice. It was like he had known that I had been seeing his daughter since the beginning. I was surprised that he was not angry.

“About four months now, sire” I answered. I was thinking if I lied, he would know. I thought how can I get out of this mess without getting sentenced with a death sentence or loss of a valuable part?

“Hmmm”, he said. “Four months is quite a long time you know.”

“Yes sire, I’m sorry sire.”

“I have made up my mind; you will go to the coliseum and choose a door. You know the process, right?”

“Yes sire”

“Look at my face, son.” I did. “You must choose the correct door; my daughter would be torn to pieces if you died. So, I give you my blessing, a blessing from the king!”

As they led me out of the castle and into the dungeon, I glanced up to my Lovers room. She stood looking down at me. A sparkling drop of liquid fell from her, it fell all of the three stories. I stuck my hand out and caught it. A tear. A tear from my Lover. I took the tear up close and whispered, “If there is a God in this evil world, let him be on my side as I choose to die or not.”

Two days later I was in the coliseum. The towers glared at me hundreds of feet in the air. Also, there were hundreds of people cheering as I entered the colossal coliseum. A tiger prowled the arena, blood on its muzzle. The corpse of a criminal lied on the ground, mauled. I watched as they led the tiger away, through a door to put it in another door, one of the doors I was supposed to choose.

I walked to the middle of the arena, and bowed to the king and his daughter. I moved my hand a little, signaling that I was watching her. The Princess stretched and in the middle of it, jerked her hand to the right. The right door.

I had a feeling, a bad feeling. I walked to the right door and put my hand on the doorknob. I started twisting it; I jumped to the side. I thought, trust the gut. An orange blur raced past my face. The tiger. A back paw scratched across my face, I felt blood drip down my cheek. That was the least of my problems.

I turned to the tiger; it had turned around and was facing me. I considered my options. A left over closed door, an empty open door, walls surrounding me, an opening on the opposite end of the coliseum, about a one hundred foot run. I had to think fast, for the tiger was circling me. I risked a look behind me. The door! The tiger saw this and dove at me. I jumped backwards, and grabbed the door and slammed it shut. There was a thump and a roar as the tiger started to tear the door down.

I looked around; it was a small enclosed space with an open roof not that much higher than me, but high enough that I couldn’t reach it. A crunched sounded and the tigers paw broke through the door. I jumped back as far as I could. The tiger’s head came through the door slowly. It was struggling through the door; the wood was scratching its skin and was leaving small cuts.

The shoulders came through the door. That’s it! I took my shoe off and jammed it into the tiger’s mouth and put my other foot on its shoulders. I used his shoulders to give me a boost to get over.

There was the door. I dragged myself up and ran through the door, the road was clear as I ran down it. I ran with one shoe on, a scratched face, and a broken heart. My lover had betrayed me. She would’ve rather had me dead than any other woman having me. My love in her is gone. I am alive and will live a normal life. I find another love, a normal farm girl and marry her. We have kids, one daughter, and two boys. I live to be seventy-two and die from a disease.

Well, that’s the story of me and how I survived the death penalty, got a broken heart, and lived the rest of my life, all on these sheets of paper.