Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

The tables jumped again as Alan took a step toward Nancy.
Nancy, whose grip tightened on the doorknob until her knuckles turned
white. “Who’s there?” she asked, voice carrying, causing everyone to turn
and look at her.
“Yeah,” Alan panted. “Yes. I’m here. Oh my god, I’m here. Listen to me,
you need to—”
Wallace didn’t think.
One moment, he was a tea plant, unmoving. The next, he stood in front of
Alan again, hand over his mouth, teeth scraping against his palm. “Stop it,”
he hissed.
Alan struggled against him, trying to shove him away. But Wallace was
bigger than he was, and though he was rail thin, he held firm. Alan’s eyes
blazed in fury above Wallace’s hand.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” a woman asked Nancy, turning in her chair to
look up at her.
Nancy didn’t so much as glance at her. She continued to stare in Wallace
and Alan’s direction, but if she saw them, she didn’t react. She opened her
mouth as if to speak again, but shook her head before walking through the
door, slamming it behind her.
Alan screamed into the hand covering his mouth before shoving Wallace
as hard as he could. Wallace stumbled back, hitting a chair behind him. The
man sitting in the chair looked around wildly as the legs scraped along the
floor.
“She heard me,” Alan snarled. “She heard me. She can—” He never
finished. He hurried toward the door.
Hugo said, “If you walk out that door, you’ll lose yourself. And I don’t
know how to bring you back.”
Alan stopped, chest heaving.
Silence filled the nooks and crannies of Charon’s Crossing. Everyone
turned slowly to look at Hugo. Nelson groaned, face in his hands as Apollo
growled at Alan.
“Right!” Mei said brightly. “Because if you haven’t finished your cup of
tea before you leave, you’ll spend the rest of your day fretting over what
you’ve lost. And we don’t know how to bring it back, because reheated tea is
the worst. Isn’t that right, Hugo?”
Hugo didn’t respond. He stared at Alan, unblinking.