This story is based off a writing prompt where your doorbell rings in the early morning. You open the door to find only an unmarked package.

    I’m woken up by the buzzing of my doorbell. Groggily, I roll over and check the alarm clock on my bedside table. 4:33 A.M. it read. Throwing the blankets off myself, I hurriedly made my way through the darkened house to the front door. If it’s this early, I think to myself, it must be an emergency. Several different situations worth of bad news race through my head before I reach the door handle. 

     Pausing, I peek through the small window at the top of the door and see no one there. Perhaps I took too long to answer and they’ve left to seek help elsewhere. I unlock the door and slowly open it, cautious, but there is no one there. Puzzled, I step out onto my porch and offer a hesitant “Hello?” as I look in all directions for the bell ringer. Being only met with silence and darkness, I turn to go back inside and stub my foot on a small, heavy box that i had not noticed before.

     After grasping my foot and uttering several obscenities, I pick up the parcel. The porch light wasn’t much help for examination so I bring the package into my living room and lock the door as I come inside. I switch on the lights and sit down on the couch with the box in my hands. Turning it over and over, I can’t find any address or post mark on it. It’s covered in a plain brown paper, like that of a lunch sack, fastened at both ends with masking tape. It is slightly heavier than it looks and I’m wondering what’s inside. I’m not sure if I should open it or not so I give it a slight shake. There’s a jostling sound inside and I can tell that it’s a single object.

     Curiosity then gets the better of me. I tear away the paper to reveal a plain cardboard box completely sealed with packing tape. Whoever wrapped this didn’t want it to be easily opened, I thought as I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and sliced the box open. I then turn it over onto the coffee table and out falls what looks like a large brown river rock with many strange symbols carved into it.I pick it up and begin turning it over in my hands. The surface is pleasantly smooth and cool, while the etchings are incredibly precise. The strange patterns look eerily familiar, though I cannot place them. Equally as odd, the stone seems to be vibrating slightly. This is incredibly puzzling. I set the stone down on the coffee table but it is still and does not rattle.

     I spend nearly an hour holding the rock, placing it on different objects in the house and trying, to no avail, to research the strange symbols online. Just as my frustration is building, I notice the time and realize I’m going to be late for work. I hurriedly ready myself; wash my face, put on my slacks and button up, and grab my coat. As I’m gripping the door handle to leave, I begin to feel an intense worrying. I glance over my shoulder and see the stone sitting where I had left it on the table. Something in my mind is telling me that I have to take it with me. So I listen. It’s no bigger than a flattened baseball so I slip it into my coat pocket and rush out the door. Just as as I’m in my car and pulling out of the driveway I can feel the stone’s vibrating energy against my side. It’s a strange thing I notice as I make my commute. The stone seams to be reacting to my driving. If I make a left turn here, the vibration intensifies. If I make a right turn there, it all but disappears. I know it’s trying to take me somewhere.

     I abandon all efforts of making it to work and I pull the stone from my coat pocket, holding it in my hand. I try leaning it in different directions and it behaves like it’s pointing me somewhere. There’s a strange pulling in my chest and I know I have to follow it. Four hours I drive with the stone as my compass, determined to reach its destination. I eventually reach a spot inaccessible by car. Without hesitation, I park on the side of what you could call a dirt road and quickly survey my surroundings. It looks like a deserted piece of country. In front of me is a small clearing but just beyond it is a large expanse of densely packed trees.

     Leaving my coat in the car behind, stone in hand,I push my way into the thicket. As soon as I enter the mass of trees it seems like I’ve gone to a different world. Little sunlight filtered through the canopy above, casting eerie specks onto the unfamiliar plants and insects buzzing about. The only sounds are that of the cicadas and the twigs snapping under my desperate feet. I’m uneasy about where the stone is taking me but I must follow it.

     With every tree I round and every rock I pass, I can feel the stone vibrating stronger in my hand. Before long I notice the etchings are starting to give off a faint glow, illuminating the surroundings with a soft green light. I follow it’s energy until the trees abruptly end in a small clearing surrounding a very small stone archway. I rush to it as the stone feels like it might slip from my hand. It looks like its made from dozens of various sized stones just like mine, mudded together to keep them in place. I run my fingers across some of the stones and feel identical vibrating energy coming from all of them. Then I notice it. Near the top left there’s a hole the same size as the stone in my hand. I know what I have to do.

     I place my stone in it’s home and step back as the strange symbols on all the stones glow with that same faint green and a low humming can be heard. The passage through the arch changed into what looked like murky water and the green light shown from within. I was in awe. This is what the stone wanted to show me. After a moment, I held my breath and stepped through.