The Door That Leads to Nowhere

When people come across something unexplainable, they try to find rational reasoning behind it. I mean, it’s only natural, right? Well, sometimes things are better left unexplained. I learned this the hard way.

It was a cool Thursday afternoon. I had just got off work, and wanted to take a stroll to clear my head. I find it therapeutic. Temperatures weren’t too cold, but it was cool enough that you’d want to wear a thin jacket. Typical fall weather. As I walked, I felt the wind breeze through my hair as it whistled in my ear. I usually only walk through my small neighborhood on the sidewalk, but saw a rather large wooded area. I decided to walk into it, thinking that a change of scenery would be nice. As I wandered into the woods, I heard the crunching of leaves beneath my feet. The farther I walked into the woods, the more trees I began seeing around me. I told myself that it’d probably be best if I didn’t stroll too far, so I wouldn’t have a hard time finding my way back. As I continued walking at a steady pace, I noticed a small dirt trail. Not thinking too much about it, I followed it.

It led me to a cove of some sort, with enough trees surrounding that it formed a pretty big circle. The dirt trail ended, and there was no path ahead. Just a circle with surrounding trees. The ground was covered with a ton of leaves, but one thing in particular caught my attention. A door. A door in the middle of this forest cove. It was possibly the strangest thing I had ever seen. My curiosity caused me to walk up to it. It was no bigger than your average house door. It had a dark brown color to it, and was very clearly made out of wood. The door was old, but still stood sturdy and strong. I put my hand on the door and felt it’s rough, wooded exterior. It had a door frame around it, so that if you could, you could open it like any other door would.

I looked down at the doorknob. To no surprise, the doorknob was just as old and ruined as the rest of the door, but still sturdy. I reached down and grabbed the knob. It was black and metal. The knob was cold due to the cool, fall air. I tried turning the knob, but to no avail. It felt like the door was locked. I tried twisting and turning a few more times, but again, the door did not open. I walked to the other side of the door and tried the knob one more time. I was met with the same results. Something inside of me wanted to open this door, no matter what. I tried kicking the door, and it was surprisingly way sturdier than I thought. It felt as if it was bolted to the ground. I looked down at the ground around the door. After kicking the leaves away, I came to a discovery. The doorframe went inside of the ground. The door must’ve been here for quite a while, because the ground around it showed no signs of any digging or tampering. I messed with the door for a long period of time, trying different ways to get it to open. All of my attempts ended in failure. After failing, I realized that it was getting quite late, and decided to head home.

At my house, I made a small dinner and turned on the TV. After flipping through multiple channels, one channel caught my eye. The news channel. “Eh, why not” I thought. I kept it on the news channel, and started eating. They had been reporting on a murder that happened recently. Apparently, the victim was a 24 year old man, blond hair, and was in a wheelchair. He had been shot in the head by some people that were robbing a store nearby. “Gruesome stuff” I said to myself. I finished up my dinner, brushed my teeth, and went to bed.

The next day was like any other weekday. I went to work at a small-town retail store. It wasn’t your ideal job, but it worked. It put food on the table and paid the bills. That’s all I really needed. After working a long and tiresome shift, I clocked out and went on another walk. I found myself walking toward that same forest I went to yesterday, but somehow, I didn’t realize it. Eventually I ended up at the entrance to the woods. I took a deep breath, and entered. Seeking out the dirt trail was quite a challenge, since I didn’t remember where exactly it was. After a short time period, I finally found it. I followed the trail and reached the strange cove. What I saw before me was the worn out, wooden door. I ran up to it and immediately tried the door knob. It was still locked. I was frustrated, because I really wanted this door to open. It was almost a need to me.

I began pacing back and forth in front of the door, thinking of the many ways I could get it to open. As I continued the pacing, I noticed a slight elevation on the ground in front of the door. I looked down and kicked the leaves out of the way. What was revealed was a very dirtied welcome mat. I hadn’t noticed it before. What was read on the mat was “Lift me”. I picked up the mat. Under it was several dead bugs. I instantly threw the mat and took a big step back. “What the hell…”. I looked down and saw a key in the middle of all the disgusting dead creatures. It was broken into two pieces. I picked them up and inspected them. The pieces were rusted, there was no way I could glue the two together. I took the end of the key and put it into the lock on the door, but it wasn’t long enough. I had to have the whole key. I looked up and saw the sun setting and the sky getting dark. I stuffed the broken key into my pocket and turned back to head home.

Today was Saturday. I had weekends off, so I had the whole day free. I made up my mind to find a way to get this key fixed somehow. There was an old antique shop in town, and they would fix old things that were broken if you brought it in. I decided to try my luck with that.

I parked right in front of the shop. It was a small store that was right in between two other stores. I exited my vehicle and went into the shop. I looked around and saw a variety of items around me. Everything ranging from house décor, musical instruments, paintings, and mirrors. I looked forward to find an old man sitting at the counter. He seemed really old, and had that grumpy look. He had a messy, white beard and the few hairs he had on his head were white as well. He was reading the newspaper, so he didn’t really notice me at first. “Umm, excuse me, sir?” I waved at him. He looked up at me. I looked into his eyes. His left eye was cloudy and his right was a light blue color. “I was um, wondering if you could get this fixed for me?” For some odd reason, I was intimidated by the old man. I showed him the broken key. “You want me to fix a key for ya?” His voice was deep and raspy. His teeth were yellow and rotten. Some were even missing. “Um, yes please” I answered. He held his hand out. His hand was withered, very wrinkly. Almost like a skeleton’s hand. I dropped the key pieces into his hand. “It’ll be a while.” He spoke. “No problem.” The old man grabbed his cane and slowly walked to the door that led to the back of the building.

I waited around the store for what seemed like half an hour. The old man came out and I walked up to him. He reached out with a key in his hand. I took it. The key was whole again, and though it still felt a bit rough, it seemed like it would work. I paid him for his work. “May I ask you what you are doing with an old, broken key like that?” I looked at him. “Just… found this old house and hoped this key would work. I’m curious to see what’s inside.” I answered him. The old man smirked and said “Curiosity killed the cat.” He then laughed with his rotten mouth. I nervously giggled. I thanked him, and sprinted out of the store and to my car. I got in and drove to the forest.

I arrived back at the spot where the door was. I walked up to it, and faced it. I tried the doorknob, just to see if anyone else may have gotten it open. My curiosity was soon answered with a locked door. “Figures” I said to myself. I looked down at the lock and took the key out of my pocket. I slowly inserted the key into the lock, and turned. The lock slot turned with the key. I put my hand on the door knob, twisted it. This time it twisted all the way. I then pushed the door forward, and it opened. I could hear a creaking noise as it slowly opened.

What I saw was just the other side of the door. Nothing special happened. I stepped through the doorframe and closed the door behind me. I looked around. The air began getting colder. The wind was whistling louder. Fog began appearing around me. What was happening? I didn’t understand. Then I saw something… or someone rather. What crept out of the fog was a man in a wheelchair. “Excuse me! Who are you? What’s going on?” I asked. I was met with silence as the man came closer and closer to me. The closer he got, the better I could see him. He had blond hair. His face was covered in red. There was a hole in the middle of his head. It occurred to me that what I had been looking at was a dead man. The same man I saw on the news the other day. “Let… us… out”, he choked out. Frozen in fear, all I could do was stand still as he came even closer. I slowly started walking backwards toward the door. I tripped over something as I was walking back. I fell to the ground, and I soon saw what was beneath me. It was a dead body. A mangled corpse. You could only tell it was a body because the head was still intact. The head turned slowly towards mine. “You… you could… free us”, the head spoke. At this point, I got up on my feet as quickly as I could, and ran toward the door. It seemed as if the door had gotten farther from me then it was before. I sprinted while screaming. “Ah, help! Someone help!” I yelled out. The fog had cleared up a bit. As I ran, I looked around and saw more dead people. Some were hanging from nooses on the trees, some were on the ground, bloodied. Some were even walking toward me, well, the ones who still had legs to walk with. But there’s one thing they all had in common. They seemed to be speaking. I couldn’t hear what the ones farthest from me were saying, but the ones closer were whispering something along the lines of “Let me out”, “You can’t leave”, and “Stay with us”. The ones who weren’t saying anything were crying and screaming. All I could hear around me was those whispers and screams. I reached the door, and fumbled the key out of my pocket. The dead people were getting closer to me. I was shaking so much that I had dropped the key into the leaves on the ground. I reached down and rapidly brushed away the leaves so I could get the key. I grabbed the key, and inserted it into the lock.

I quickly twisted, and pushed the door open. I ran through the door and slammed it shut behind me. Breathing very heavily, I noticed the air become warmer, and the fog vanished completely. I ran away from the door and started yelling. “Help! Someone! Please!” All I did was yell. As I ran farther from the forest cove, I ran into a police officer with a flashlight in hand. There was so much going on that I didn’t notice how dark it had gotten. “Woah, calm down. What’s wrong?” The concerned officer asked me. I was panting. “Please! You have to come with me! There’s… there’s dead people!” I yelled frantically. “Listen, calm down. I’m here because we’ve been getting calls about screaming going on in this forest. Was that all you?” “No nonono not just me. There’s people that need help, you gotta help them!” I pleaded desperately. “Alright, bring me to them. I’ll get them help right away.” I lead the officer back to the cove. But what I stumbled upon shocked me. The door wasn’t there. It had completely vanished. “What am I looking for?” The officer asked me. “Wait it’s not here. Why? IT was JUST here!” I yelled. “What was?” The officer looked at me very confused. I looked down and sighed. “Nothing… must’ve been my imagination.” I was defeated. “Are you sure you’re alright?” The officer asked me while pointing to his head. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I’m not crazy.” “Well, I’m gonna stick around and look for a bit, just to make sure. You head on home, alright? Get some sleep.” “Yeah, I’ll do that.” I walked out of the cove and made my way out of the forest.

Every day since then, all I could think about was that incident. What was that? Was it… all just a dream? I knew none of my questions would ever be answered. No one would ever believe me, either. If I tried telling anybody, they’d definitely think I’m crazy. The door may have disappeared, but the key remained. Why? Don’t ask me. I don’t have a clue. I can’t bring myself to get rid of it, either. I always keep it on me. Maybe I’ll stumble upon that door again. And curiosity will kill me one more time.

Credit : Hispherey