The Door at the End of the Hallway - Fee Thomas

Sam edged closer to the large red door in front of him. It wasn’t really that large, but all the same it loomed over him like a guillotine. He could hear cheers of his friends behind him, egging him on. Sam slowly moved his hand closer to the door knob. He wondered how many people were in this same exact spot before they died. No one had opened the door and lived to tell the tale, after all, who knew how many poor souls disappeared on this spot. He pulled back. He couldn’t do it. He just couldn’t. He scrambled away from the door of death.

“What are you doing! Just open the door already! Are you a chicken!” Jake yelled behind him.

“No.” Sam muttered. “Please, I really don’t want to.”

Thomas sighed and said, “Sam, there’s nothing to worry about, it’s just a door. And you, Jake, stop being an ass.”

“He said he would open it though!,” Jake yelled “Sam should stick to his words. I always stick to my words.”

“I’m not opening the stupid door!” Sam cried. “I don’t wanna die!”

“You’re not gonna die!”

“Yes I am!”

Thomas barked, “Look! All the stories about the door are just urban legends. You’ll be fine, Sam! But if you’re not gonna do it, can we just leave already. This building is creepy.”

Sam agreed a hundred percent that the abandoned building they were in was creepy. It was in the woods, down a rarely used and poorly maintained trail. The only time anybody ever went down this way, was if they were there to ogle at the door of so many rumors. 

The building used to belong to loggers, as he heard it. But there were many rumors about it, some said it belonged to a family who were all murdered. Some said that it used to belong to someone that held séances. There were other rumors that it was secretly once a government lab. Sam wasn’t sure what to believe, maybe multiple of them could be true.

The door to enter the building no longer exists, probably removed by some other urban explorer, leaving an empty mouth into the building. The floor is covered in glass and leaves, and all sorts of other debris, including litter like empty water bottles and nutrition bar wrappers. Graffiti covered the walls like spots on a leopard. Parts of the walls looked like they were flaking off.

However in all of this damage and abandonment, there was the door. Bright red paint covered it, not a sign of fading or chipping at all. It was down a long hallway that seemed to stretch on farther past what the building looked like it could accommodate on the outside. The graffiti never got anywhere near the door, in fact, it almost formed a halo around the door. The door looked fresh and new just as it always does, and always will, Sam believes.

Sam said, “Yeah Thomas, let’s leave.”

“Not until you open the door.” Jake said.

Thomas held his hand up. “How about a compromise? Instead of opening the door… just poke it. Then we can leave.”

“No. If you’re not opening the door, you should hold your hand against it, at least for ten seconds.” Jake said.

Sam thought about it. It wasn’t opening the door… he didn’t want to touch it at all, but he could probably do this. He heard of plenty of people who touched or poked the door and were fine. He would be fine as long as he didn’t open it.

He turned to look at the door. It stared at him in all its bright red glory, challenging him to go through with it. Sam crept slowly forward, like he was approaching a wild animal that was ready to pounce. He carefully lifted up his hand and placed it on the door. It felt warm… maybe he was just imagining it? He hoped he was just imagining it. Doors shouldn’t be randomly warm. At least not doors in the middle of a long dark hallway, nowhere near any windows.

“One…” Jake said loudly, drawing out every syllable, “Two…”

Sam internally sighed, Jake was going to draw this out as long as possible to make up for Sam not opening the door. And knowing Jake, he’d probably draw out the numbers more and more the closer he got to ten. The door was still weirdly warm on his hand.

“Three…ee…ee. Four…our…our.“ Now Jake was literally adding syllables that didn’t even exist. Thomas let out a puff of laughter from Jake’s theatrics, and muttered something about getting stuck waiting all day. Despite his words, he didn’t sound upset in the least bit. Sam really hoped Jake wouldn’t find some way to live up to Thomas’s words. He felt himself getting warmer from embarrassment. He felt a little silly just standing here, hand flat against the door. Maybe he was just being a chicken afterall.

”Fiveveveve… Sixxxxxxx..“

The door under Sam’s hand increased in temperature. It reminded him of touching blacktop in the summer. He almost pulled his hand away but thought about what Jake would say. Jake would make him start over if he stopped.

”Sevenenenenen… Eiiiiiight…t…t…t“

Sam’s whole body felt like it was heating up like a kettle on a stove. God, couldn’t Jake just hurry up already?! Sam felt like he would catch on fire if he kept touching the door like this.

”Ninnnnnnneeeeeeee…“

Sam felt the door… move? It felt like it was bulging slightly outward, like a balloon being filled up. His eyes widened and his head snapped to look at his hand. The door was bulging, it was subtle, but the door wasn’t completely flat any more. Sam was just about to scream for Thomas and Jake to come over when the door moved back to its original position. Just as Jake was getting to ten.

”tennnnnn… there! that wasn’t so bad, was it?“

Sam moved away from the door. He stared at it… waiting for it to move again. He glanced at his hand, almost expecting there to be something wrong. It was just his hand though, it wasn’t suddenly red, it wasn’t covered in ants, it didn’t have any extra fingers. But he felt so sure there was something wrong with his hand, in some unknown way he couldn’t explain, he was just sure there was something wrong. Sam wanted to cry.

”Are you in love, or something?“ Jake’s question broke through the cloud in Sam’s mind.

”Wha…“ he replied dumbly.

”Well you keep staring at it. Has holding hands with the door made you fall in love? Maybe you should kiss it.“

”No! No…“ Sam stared at the door again. The idea of kissing that thing… of getting his lips… his anything anywhere near it, he didn’t like it. It would do something to him again, like it did something to his hand, whatever it was.

”Well Sam had his hand on the door for the full ten seconds, more than ten, really.“ Thomas said ”Jake, you’re a man of your word, aren’t you? You said it yourself.“

Jake looked taken aback. He scratched his head “Yeah, okay. We can leave.”

Sam could cry from relief. He probably would when he got back home. He wouldn’t do it in front of Jake though, bad idea. 

“Yeah” Sam said numbly “We should leave.”

And when Sam got back home, he would collapse on his bed and cry, just as he knew he would. He would hold his hand away from himself like it was a tarantula. And he would try to sleep but he wouldn’t. His thoughts would keep turning towards the blood red door. This would be the first of many sleepless nights.