I know where it is.

Pretty sure I’m one of three people in the entire family who do.

Most keys unlock a house, a car.

A building.

This key unlocks something very, very different.

Magic.

Energies and powers from many, many different worlds. We visit new ones once a month, when my parents go on holiday and my aunt stays over.

I too, would have scoffed in speculative disdain at such a claim to the powers of said key, until my aunt showed it to me for the first time.

“You mustn’t tell anyone.”

I nodded my small head in response.

“I mean it Ava. Not a word of this to nobody. It must be between us.”

It sounded so serious, so grave. As if people would get into trouble.

Again, I nodded.

My aunt picks up the key from the ground, and pushes it into the air as if unlocking the oxygen around us.

A soft click echoes around us.

And an otherworldly realm opens before us.

Colours I’ve never seen. Indescribable scents. Feeling and emotions I didn’t know existed, rushing past my face on a wind I’ve never felt before.

A door slams inches from my face.

A hand grasps my shoulder.

“Ava?”

And just like that, the experience was over. My aunt looks concerned at my stunned expression, until I melt into eurphoric laughter.

“That was so cool!! How did you open the door like that? When can we go again? What was that place?”

Naturally, I have a million questions. My aunt, unfazed by my unbridled interrogation simply says,

“That, dear Ava, is Earth.”