The Door
A short horror story I wrote for a school assignment a month ago. Thought it might go well for my first submission!
I walk by the large door again; this time, stopping to stare at it. It's a large sullen looking stone frame enveloped the heavy iron door. It's single window, a ornate design made from stained glass, was blocked from curious eyes by the other side. I walked by this door every day for the past 15 years of my life, and everyday I imagined scenarios of what I thought was behind the 200 year old door.
This time, I worked up the courage to walk up to it. From the outside it looked like any other door in my town, considering all the houses were over 200 years old, including my own. The thing about this door, is that it wasn't attached to anything. It was between two of the oldest houses in the neighborhood, owned by the two oldest women; the town's elders. No one dared to touch the door, or let alone walk up to it.
"Lets see what secrets you hold." I whispered before placing my hand on the doorknob. I was expecting it to be locked, like every other time anyone had tried to open; but it to my surprise, it opened without any protest. I pushed open the door. It was heaver than I had expected it to be. I stepped through the doorway, I jumped as it slammed shut behind me.
Inside was a long dark hallway, there were no lights. I had to use my hands to guide me. The walls were sticky, with what? I don't know. My hands were constantly catching cobwebs. A chill ran down my spine, spreading out to my whole body. I heard a faint giggle, while my hand caught onto another door-frame, a faint light glowed underneath. A candle maybe.
I jiggled on the door-knob. It was stuck. I didn't want to turn around, when had I finally gained enough courage to check behind the mysterious door. I wasn't sure how far the hallway led, but I decided to continue going. The hallway widened out, and I soon found myself at a cross-roads. I decided to stick to the right and turn back if I needed to. It felt like the ground was sinking beneath me, and the brick wall turned into dirt; I was entering a tunnel system underneath the homes. Why is this here? I thought to myself. My foot caught on something, sending me plunging to the hard ground.
"Aye! Why aren' 'cha wachin' where you be goin'?" I heard a loud male voice shout in a thick Irish accent, followed by a deep chuckle.
"Who's there?" I asked, pushing myself from the ground and brushing myself off.
"Don' 'cha worry 'bout tha' now, lil' g'rly. I ain't gon' hurt yu'." I heard a fizzle of a match followed by a soft glow of a candle. I looked to the source of the light, and sitting below me, not 5 inches away, was a rotting corpse. The jaw was attached by only a few tendons and maggot filled flesh. The hands holding the candle were solely bone, nothing more. The body itself was rotted, flesh peeling from the bone. His whole ribcage was exposed, revealing each organ, and a still beating heart. I screamed, turning away, running in any direction I could.
"Aye! Where yu' goin' lil g'rly? I ain't gonna hurt 'cha!" He called after me. I swallowed back vomit that was creeping up my throat. The walls seemed to close in on me, enveloping me in a dirt filled hole.
The walls seemed to sing softly, or maybe it was in my head. It sang an eerie song, playing with my fears.
Where the band never sleeps
The dead waltz through the streets
And I'm slowly falling
There's a voice in my head
Whispering softly it says
"Join me, dance, dance, dance with the dead!"
I found myself singing along after a while, softly, I learned the song, soon I wasn't afraid to sing, I knew it all to well.
Where the band never sleeps
The dead waltz through the streets
And I'm slowly falling
There's a voice in my head
Whispering softly it says
"Join me, dance, dance, dance with the dead!"
I found myself in a mysterious place, found only in myths and legends. It seemed like years since I saw the outside light. Corpses littered the ground, each more bloody than the last, each in a different stage of decay. Some were filled with maggots, while others died not too long ago. I heard singing, this time louder than the last. It seemed like some strange ritual doing. The singing mixed with a witch's cackle.
I found myself walking into a clearing. It took my eyes a minute to adjust to the bright lighting, but when I opened them I saw a horrendous sight. Corpses danced as though they were alive, each visibly rotting as though they were buried under the ground; which they were if you thought about it.
There was a band playing loud music made entirely out of skeletons. There were no muscles on the bone, and I didn't quite understand how they could move, nonetheless, they were as alive as in my imagination.
Everything seemed so casual about it, witches cloaked in all blacked danced among the dead, letting out loud cackles every-so-often. I noticed pentagrams painted on the wall in red paint, or rather, what I hoped was paint.
"Dance with me!" I heard someone shout, grabbing me by the waist.
"No! With me!" Something said, taking my wrist.
"She's mine!' A nasally voice cackled taking me from the others.
"Leave! She's mine!!" The head witch shouted at those who were grabbing at me, taking me from them. They all seemed to back off. "How did you find us, Girly?" She asked me.
"I... I.. Walked through the door." I stuttered.
"That door is locked!" She commanded.
"No... Not today anyways." I was shaking under her wrath, she was pissed. She let me go, nearly forgetting about me for a minute.
"WHO FORGOT TO LOCK THE DOOR!?" She shouted, her voice echoing off of the walls. She walked right up to the corpse from earlier. "YOU! I KNOW it was you! It was your job!"
"Aye... I be sorry ma' lady. It willn't 'appen again."
"And I'm going to make sure it doesn't, you Irish bastard!" A loud cracking sound could be heard and he fell to the ground, a pile of rotting flesh and bones. "Now YOU!" She turned pointing to me as the corpses mourned for their fallen brother. "How DARE you just come into our layer, and intrude our party!" She shouted angrily. I quickly moved around her, dodging around each of the skeletons and corpses. I ran into the darkness.
I had no idea where I was headed, I couldn't see anything, I was in the darkness once again. I soon came up to the same door from before, the one with the light underneath it, but I wasn't stopping. I didn't stop until I reached the exit, and slammed the door shut behind me.