The Basement Door

There’s an image that I have, that of a closed door, one that I know leads to the dark and forbidding realm of the basement.  Behind that door lie steps that descend into the darkness, slowly leading you from the brighter world above.

It’s a thing that scares me, the thought of going down into the earth, to a realm in which I surely don’t belong: quiet and cold with things lurking in the corners. This is a place I pause before entering as I stare down those steps, tentatively placing my hand on the wooden railing to my left.

I am often even frightened of it when the door is closed, thinking only of how dark the doorway would become once opened. Yet that’s where I find myself with Veles, standing with the door open, lingering just past the threshold in the twilight realm between the basement and the lit kitchen behind me.

Instead of going down as I feel like I should, I sit on that top step as I continue to look down. I know he’s at my back, preventing me from returning to the world behind me. His presence, however, is more a comfort than not. I trust Veles. But I don’t trust my own darkness and the monsters that lurk within it.

So we stay there between the light and the dark as his shadow falls on me.

It’s not long though before I speak to him.

“I’ll be okay right?”

“Yes,” is his answer. That’s the reassurance I need from him, that I will be fine in the end even if find things difficult or painful at times. And that he would be there for me. With that answer, I stand up, steel my nerves and take a step, beginning my descent, my work.