[ WP ] God shows you 3 Doors . Door One leads to eternal happiness , Door Two leads to infinite knowledge . Then there is Door Three , and God has never opened it yet .

***Chapter One*** 
 
 `` You only get to make this choice once,'' He said. `` Existence is an infinite curve, but the chance to step through one of these two doors only comes around once. The gate of Death, of which you have now passed, affords you this chance. The first door is paradise, the promised land. A place of eternal happiness where you may find peace. The second, knowledge. Consider it a job, of sorts, employment in my Kingdom.'' 
 
 `` There are three,'' I said, and fought a nervous grin. *Surely you know that... * 
 
 `` Your pardon?'' He said. 
 
 `` There are three doors.'' I pointed to each door in turn, the first on a wooden pedestal, the second on stone, and the third door off to the side on a dais of obsidian crystal. Something about the third door seemed menacing. `` Uno, dos, tres, Padre.'' 
 
 As strands of soft white cloud whipped past us, under a sky burning with trillions of stars and bands of interstellar dust, God blinked. 
 
 He stood resplendent and noble in flowing white robes. His beard tucked into the waist of a simple brown belt, and His eyes were two chips of hard, yet kind, blue diamond. I knew without knowing that how I saw Him was just how my mind interpreted His being. I imagined the countless billions who had stood before me had seen countless variations of Him. 
 
 He looked from me to the third door and his eyes grew less than kind. A glint of something that surely could n't have been fear flashed across His face. 
 
 `` None see that door,'' He said. `` None dare.'' 
 
 `` Where does it lead?'' I asked, always the curious one. I'd died young, barely thirty, and the fact that there was any sort of afterlife at all had come as something of a shock. 
 
 `` I...'' He hesitated. God hesitated. `` I --'' 
 
 `` You do n't know.'' I took a step back and crossed my hands behind my back. 
 
 A long moment passed in that timeless place, under the burning heavens, and I stood politely. *What else could I do? * 
 
 `` You picture me as the Creator,'' He said finally, choosing his words with great care. `` You assume I am boundless, untethered to the structure of reality within creation. And in a great sense I am. However... however, John,'' And hearing my name uttered from the mouth of God is perhaps the most surreal thing that's ever happened to me, `` however. These doors were here before Me. They are part of My bargain. To pull the universe from the void requires a certain sort of contract. An agreement with agents of something I will simply call Nameless. Something that exists in spite of existence, outside of the universe. An anti-God, to put it rather crudely.'' 
 
 He laughed, but there was no mirth in it. A tear rolled down His cheek and melted into His beard. 
 
 `` Within the rules of the universe,'' he continued, `` I am bound more tightly than any mortal. Something as vast and as powerful as creation requires *elegance. *'' He stressed the word, as if it pained Him. `` You meet Me here, all of you sentient beings from across the cosmos, you meet Me here upon your deaths, because here before these doors is the *only* place in all of Creation where we can meet. Do you understand?'' 
 
 `` No,'' I said honestly. `` But then I'm not meant to, am I?'' 
 
 He shook his head and smiled grimly. `` You're a sharp one, John. Perceptive. It's what got you killed, you know.'' 
 
 I stared down at the rose blossom of crimson that stained my shirt, over my heart. The bullet had killed me instantly, fired from the shadows on a rainy night in London. I'd been walking with Mary Grace, my fiancee, toward Trafalgar Square. I'd really wanted a drink. I remember that, the thirst, more than the look on her face as my past caught up with me at the muzzle velocity of about a thousand feet per second. 
 
 `` So what's through the third door?'' I asked Him. `` Door one is happiness, door two is knowledge, door three is... well, either a goat or a car, I'm guessing.'' 
 
 `` Nameless,'' He said, and placed a hand on my shoulder. I felt a warmth, a light, a surety that all would be well and that God had a plan -- even if He did n't know it Himself. `` And so, Johnathon Hale, which door do you choose?'' 
 
 I cracked my knuckles and offered Him a quick salute. `` Eternal happiness sounds boring, infinite knowledge... I guess that means seeing the backstage of your show. Kind of ruins the magic, do n't you think? Unless its turtles all the way down? Is it turtles?'' 
 
 His expression cracked and shoulders slumped. `` The third door then. I'd hoped that creation would end before I had to open this door.'' He sighed and stood up tall. `` Very well then, Hale.'' 
 
 Together we stepped onto the crystal dais and the Old Man who tended tirelessly to the lighthouse grasped an ornate iron handle, caked in milleniums of dust. The dark door shone with emerald green light as he ever so effortlessly turned the handle. 
 
 A draft of warm air struck me in the face, carrying the heady scent of vanilla and something like freshly mown grass. I could taste old leather, hear the creak of warped floorboards. 
 
 `` What do you see?'' He asked. 
 
 `` I...'' I chuckled. `` Is this a joke? What do you see?'' 
 
 `` Nothing,'' He said. `` I see nothing but darkness.'' 
 
 Beams of sunlight from beyond the door warmed my face and I stared at Him intently before turning back to the door. 
 
 `` That's not what I see,'' I said, and stepped across the threshold. 
 
 The door swept closed behind me, and I stood alone in a room stacked high with books before a tremendous window alcove. 
 
 **** 
 
 Author Note: Will keep going if there's interest. 
 
 

