Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

“Never in your life,” Nelson grunted, grip tightening around Wallace’s
ankle. Nelson’s hand slipped to Wallace’s shoe. His eyes widened. “No.”
“Goodbye,” Wallace whispered.
The shoe came off. Nelson and Apollo and Mei fell to the floor in a heap.
Wallace turned his face up. The whispers grew louder.
He rose through the ceiling of the first floor to the second. He heard the
others shouting below him as they ran for the stairs. Nelson appeared out of
thin air, reaching for him, but Wallace was too high. Mei and Hugo made it to
the second floor in time to see him rise through the ceiling.
“Wallace!” Hugo cried.
The third floor. He wished he’d spent more time in Hugo’s room. He
wondered what sort of life they could have made for themselves had he found
his way to this little place before his heart had given out. He thought it would
have been wonderful. But it was better to have had it for as long as he did
than to never have had it at all. What a tremendous thought that was.
But then it was a tremendous death, wasn’t it? Because of what he’d found
after life.
The whispers of the door called for him, singing his name over and over,
and in his chest, a light, like the sun. It burned within him. He was horizontal
to the floor below him, arms spread like they’d been when he’d ridden
behind Hugo on the scooter. He hit the ceiling of the third floor, and it gave
way as he rose through it to the fourth floor.
He wasn’t surprised to see the Manager already waiting for him below the
door, head cocked. For a moment, Wallace thought he’d continue up and up
and up. Maybe the door wouldn’t open, and he’d rise through the roof of the
house into the night sky and the never-ending stars. It wouldn’t be such a bad
way to go.
But he didn’t.
He stopped, suspended in air. Nelson appeared near the landing, but he
didn’t speak.
For the first time, the Manager looked unsure. Just a little boy with
flowers in his hair.
Wallace smiled. “I’m not afraid. Not of you. Not of the door. Not about
anything that came before or will come next.”
Nelson put his face in his hands.