The Door at the End of the Hallway

As writers, we love a challenge. That being said, we decided to give ourselves a bit of a challenge recently. We found a writing prompt online and each had a go at it. The results could not have been more different!

So, without further ado, here are our short stories prompted by: The door at the end of the hallway must never be opened.

Mandy

The door at the end of the hallway must never be opened.

Those were the last instructions she left me with before closing the door behind her. Now I’ve been doing this for a long time, and always follow instructions to a tee. However, when left with one cryptic warning like that, how am I not supposed to be curious?

I sat on the floor in the middle of the hallway, eating an apple and staring at the mysterious locked door. As I crunched my apple in the otherwise silent house, I couldn’t help but wonder what could possibly be behind that door. From this side it seemed like an ordinary door. There was nothing to distinguish it from any of the other doors in the house. There was nothing remarkable about it at all.

I tossed the remains of the apple into a nearby bin and wiped my mouth on my sleeve, never taking my eyes off the door. The longer I stared at it the more is seemed to send out a vibration of sorts. The house was still completely silent, but I could feel a hum reverberating through my entire body. It called to me, whispering my name, begging for me to open it.

I closed my eyes and willed it away, out of my head. I knew I needed to walk away and forget about this door. I needed to go about my business for the next three days, as promised, and ignore the fact that this door existed. As I opened my eyes and pushed myself up from the floor, I glanced out the window and realized the sun was setting.

That meant I had been sitting in that spot all day. I hadn’t moved from there in hours. But, that couldn’t be true, I had only thrown away my apple core a few minutes ago. I hurried over to the bin, only to find the apple core brown and beginning to shrivel. I felt a shiver travel up my spine, and my hands began to shake. My breath quickened as the pull toward the door grew stronger.

I squeezed my eyes shut willing the feeling to go away. I had to get out of there; not just out of the hallway, but out of the house. I needed to run away and never look back. Screw the job, and screw the old lady. She could keep her money. I told my feet to move. I ordered my body to listen, but it wouldn’t. I couldn’t move except to turn back towards that door at the end of the hallway.

Totally against my will, I felt my feet begin to take steps down the hallway. I quickly covered the distance between myself and the door. As suddenly as I had begun walking, I was standing directly in front of the door. The humming vibrated my whole body, causing my fingers and toes to tingle. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, and it became harder and harder to breathe as I stood there. My body was still moving about on its own. I had no control over any of it, even the tears that streamed down my cheeks as my hand grasped the silver handle.

No, I don’t want to do this. Please, don’t make me do this.

Despite my inner pleas, I felt myself turn the knob, which surprisingly had no lock on it. The door opened slowly. A bright white light shone in my face, and I felt a heat coming from it. Sobs tore from my body as I was pulled into the light. I tried to fight it, but it was of no use. I had lost all control the minute I had accepted the job and walked into that house. My fate had been sealed the moment she closed the front door with those final cryptic words. My screams echoed through the empty house as the door slammed closed once again, and I wondered how many others had fallen victim to this door at the end of the hallway…

---

Andrew

Funny woman, my mother. Don't misunderstand me, she's nice enough, in a quirky sort of way. She's quite short, sort of a cross between Yoda and a Gremlin. Not one of the cute ones, oh God no. One of those you end up with if you feed them after midnight and accidentally get them wet. Combined with being quite short she has one of those 'lived in' faces. Well, when I say 'lived in' it looks more like it's got squatters to be quite honest, but that may have something to do with having more wrinkles than a pensioner's scrotum in a tight posing pouch.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. When I was a boy I made an incredible and unexpected discovery about my mother. In our house we had a long hallway, and at the end of that long hallway was a door. A door that was always kept locked.

“You must never open the door at the end of the hallway,” my mother would reply when I would ask what was on the other side, before she'd scuttle off to play bingo with the other ladies from the amateur striptease club. Although to be fair she soon gave that up as she was so flabby when she ran off the stage at the end of her act she started her own applause.

So, anyway, one day while she was out I decided I was going to look behind the door at the end of the hallway. I found the key which she kept under the ornamental commode in the living room, and with a racing heart, I walked slowly down the hallway towards the door. My hand trembled as I put the key into the lock and turned it, the key not the lock, that would be just weird. I grasped the knob and turned it. The door creaked loudly. Slowly, very slowly, I opened it and switched on the light. My eyes widened as I looked inside. Hanging there were assorted furry handcuffs, leather masks, whips, chains, gags and blindfolds.

That was when I discovered my mother was obviously a secret.........

…......Superhero!