‘Get out!’ the old woman said again, turning her back on Keagan.

‘Sorry,’ said Keagan. He didn’t want to leave. He desperately wanted to know more about the computer chip key. Curiosity burned within him like never before.

‘Apology accepted,’ said the woman, turning to face him. Her smile returned. ‘Now, what’s your name?’

‘Keagan.’

‘Keagan,’ repeated the woman, her voice dropping to a whisper. ‘Interesting. It means Keeper of Keys.’

‘Does it?’ He wanted to bring the conversation back to the computer chip but didn’t want to appear too eager. He figured he should ask her name first. ‘I suppose you’re Matilda?’

‘Indeed I am,’ she replied proudly. ‘A fine name. Given to me by my grandmother.’

Keagan didn’t care. What he wanted to do was get his hands on the chip. He could feel his fingertips tingling with anticipation.

‘Nice to meet you,’ he said. Then he could hold back no longer. ‘Um … can I hold the computer chip?’

Matilda glared at him and he withered under her stare. ‘I might buy it,’ he said, searching for an excuse. ‘But I need to see it properly first.’

‘Maybe.’

The old woman scuttled out from behind the counter, squeezing past the suit of armour to move towards him. She was dressed in layers of black – scarves over cardigan, over shirt, with a voluminous black skirt that swished and folded around her. Copious amounts of gold and silver jewellery jangled and tinkled as she moved.

Keagan’s eyes focused on her shoes. She wore a pair of bright pink high-top sneakers covered in pictures of kittens.

‘What?’ blurted Matilda, as she noticed the direction of Keagan’s eyes. ‘I like cats.’

Keagan lifted his gaze to the cabinet where the stuffed cat stared down at him with glass eyes. He quickly looked elsewhere … to see another stuffed cat. Glancing around, he became aware that there were cats everywhere. There was even a cat bed filled with taxidermied kittens sitting on the counter. This was too freaky for words.

Keagan started as Matilda reached out a hand and clasped his shoulder. ‘Are you ready to go exploring?’

‘I’m more of a sit-at-home sort of person,’ explained Keagan, twisting out of her grasp.

‘Are you now?’

‘Um … yeah.’ Keagan shrugged. ‘I spend a lot of time reading and doing stuff on my computer.’

‘Stuff?’

‘Yeah … stuff.’ Keagan saw she was expecting more of an answer. ‘You know … reading and watching sci-fi, playing online games with my friend Ravi, surfing the Net, doing a bit of programming.’ Being a complete nerd, Keagan thought to himself. Avoiding bullies at school by staying in the library at lunchtime.

‘Ah!’ Matilda nodded. ‘That’s why your key is a computer chip.’

‘My key?’

‘Yes, your key.’ She stared at Keagan, as if trying to decide something important. ‘There are many keys. All over the world.’ Matilda paused. ‘Each key is connected to a person.’

‘Connected?’

‘Yes, connected!’ she said. ‘An empathic link.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Emotions,’ snapped Matilda. ‘It’s tied into something about the way you feel, or think.’ She studied him intently. ‘Each key is linked to someone. Sometimes more than one person.’

‘Does everyone have a key?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ Matilda laughed. ‘Only special people are connected to a key.’

‘I’m special?’ Keagan was used to the other kids at school calling him weird. He was used to the teachers referring to him as unusual. He liked the idea of being special a whole lot better.

‘Special. Unique. Unusual. Eccentric. Odd. Weird. Freakish! It’s all the same. Now shut up and listen.’ Matilda sighed. ‘A special person will find themselves drawn to a key – as if it’s calling to them. They will want to touch it. By touching it, they open a doorway to another world.’

‘What?’ Keagan blurted out, doing a mental double take over this incredible revelation. ‘Another world? Are you joking?’

‘Why would I be joking?’ Matilda ran a hand across her brow in frustration. ‘Stop interrupting. I could get the explanations over with a lot faster if you refrained from interrupting me.’

‘Sorry,’ said Keagan, trying to calm down. He took a deep breath to get his racing thoughts and heart under control. This was mad … and yet, deep down, he somehow knew it was all true.

‘Each key opens a door to another world.’ The woman pulled a pair of white gloves from a pocket in her cardigan and put them on. ‘By touching the key, you activate it.’ She unlocked the cabinet and opened the glass door.

‘So you’re wearing the gloves so you don’t set off my key?’ asked Keagan.

‘Perhaps I am not being clear enough?’ said Matilda, putting a finger to her temple and massaging it. ‘Only you can activate your key.’ She held her gloved hands up in front of Keagan’s face. ‘I’m wearing gloves so that I don’t accidentally activate my key.’

‘Your key?’

‘Yes, my key.’

‘You have a key?’

‘Yes, I have a key!’

Keagan’s eyes settled on the taxidermied cat. ‘That’s your key? A stuffed cat?’

‘I like cats.’ Matilda reached into the cabinet. Her hand went straight for the cat. With a sharp intake of breath, she stopped herself, her hand hovering before the stuffed feline. She moved her fingers, as if tracing the outline of the long-dead animal in the air around it. ‘The urge to touch it is great.’ Keagan could hear the strain in her voice. ‘That is why I wear the gloves.’

Keagan gazed into the cabinet and saw that the third object at the back of the shelf was an old tarnished copper coin. He wondered if that was a key too.

With great effort, Matilda diverted the course of her hand from the cat and plucked the computer chip from the shelf.

Instinctively, Keagan reached for the key.

‘Not yet,’ said Matilda, closing her hand around it. ‘You need to understand what will happen when you touch it.’

‘How come you don’t want to touch yours?’ asked Keagan.

‘I do want to,’ explained Matilda. ‘The desire to use the key is quite strong, in fact. But …’ She hesitated. ‘I also have a bad feeling about it.’ She stopped Keagan before he could interrupt. ‘Evil. I can sense something malevolent. A key is supposed to let the right person through a doorway into another world. As for my key … Well … I think there’s something on the other side that wants to come into our world. Something that shouldn’t. Something dangerous.’

‘How come you know so much about all this?’ asked Keagan.

‘I’m a collector,’ she said, sweeping her arms around in a gesture to indicate the contents of her shop. ‘I collect all sorts of things. And my favourite thing to collect is information.’ She pointed to the shelves laden with dusty old books. ‘And I’ve been collecting information about the keys for a very long time.’ She smiled. ‘I’m older than I look.’

‘Are you?’ Keagan thought she seemed pretty old.

‘Cheeky,’ the woman muttered as she placed the computer chip down onto a side table. Keagan’s eyes followed it hungrily.

‘No!’ she commanded, as if she were training a puppy. ‘Wait.’

Keagan clasped his hands together to stop himself. The urge was getting harder to resist.

Matilda reached into the cabinet again, this time to a lower shelf. From the shadows, she pulled out a slim plastic folder. She handed it to Keagan. The black cover was covered in cute, colourful kitten stickers. He opened it. Inside the plastic sleeves were ancient scraps of parchment.

‘There are references to the doorways and other worlds in many ancient texts,’ said the woman. ‘But these are from a book called The Multitude of Other Worlds. Sadly, I have been unable to track down any more of it.’

The scraps in the folder were covered in dense indecipherable scrawls.

‘An ancient language,’ she explained. ‘I’ve managed to work out some of it. The information is incomplete, but it’s useful. And you need to know it before you use your key.’

Keagan’s eyes drifted again to the computer chip. The need within him was growing. He marvelled that this strange old woman was able to resist her key. Yet, she seemed in no doubt that he would use his.

‘Each key can only be used once,’ she continued. ‘When you touch it, a doorway into another world will open. It is up to you whether or not you go through, although you will want to.’

‘So, what about coming back?’ asked Keagan.

‘Ah!’ Matilda held up a finger and waggled it. ‘Now that … I don’t know.’

‘What?’ Keagan was alarmed.

‘The information I have is incomplete. I think you should be able to return. There is a reference to being “led home”. I don’t know what that means. So you’ll have to work it out for yourself.’

‘What about the coin?’ Keagan looked back at the cabinet. ‘Is it another key?’

‘I think so,’ said Matilda. ‘My grandmother always kept the three objects together, so I assume it is. But I won’t know for sure until someone is drawn to it.’

Grandmother? wondered Keagan. Had the key disguised itself as a computer chip before they had even been invented? How was that possible? But then, how was any of this possible?

Matilda snatched the folder back from Keagan and returned it to the cabinet. Closing and locking the door, she slipped the gloves off.

Keagan tried not to look at the computer chip, but couldn’t help himself. Surely her lecture was finished. He reached for the key.

‘WAIT!’

Startled, Keagan leapt back, tripped and fell against the display cabinet. It teetered on its old legs and he grasped it. The stuffed cat fell forward, and for a moment, Keagan imagined that the creature leapt in the air. Then the glass shattered and the cat fell out.

Instinctively, Matilda caught it. ‘Oh no!’

As her bare hands closed around it, the cat flared with light. The air in front of the cabinet swirled. And there it was. An opening: shimmering and indistinct around the edges. Not a door, as such. A vague doorway shaped hole, hewn into the fabric of reality.

A light breeze ruffled Keagan’s hair and an odd decaying smell hit him. Through the doorway was another world. Another world! He could hardly believe it. He gasped as he gazed across a devastated cityscape. Crumbling buildings. Piles of rubble. It was as if a bomb had gone off.

A gust of wind surged through the opening, bringing with it a screeching howl. Matilda’s wild hair danced around her face as papers blew across the shop. She lifted a hand and pointed through the doorway.

In the distance, a cloud of darkness swept across the broken landscape. Buildings fell beneath its relentless progress. It looked like the broken city was being swallowed up.

And then Keagan realised that the darkness was surging towards them.