The Journal - A Short Story Collection

Normal Green Door

There was this green door, a normal wooden door, but an odd door nonetheless. It was strange because, in all my life in this rural town, I don't ever recall seeing this door. Maybe even more striking was the strange coldness the door emanated, even though we were in the middle of summer. My friend and I found it embedded into the cliff near the water where we lived. It had a single rusted metal handle and a similar latch that attached to one of the wooden panels alongside the door, locked with a padlock. The padlock required a key that neither my friend nor I found in the surrounding area, so after some time we gave up on discovering what was behind this mysterious door.

Over time, my friend grew a disinterest in the door, but I kept my curiosity, finding myself wandering back to it at least once a week to examine it. In all my journeys back to the door, not once did I ever see a person enter or leave whatever laid inside. The more I watched it and searched around the area, the more I felt like the place was abandoned. I even asked around town about the door, but everyone dismissed my question for childish tricks.

While it made the most sense to leave it alone, something kept my curiosity high enough to continue my searches. I couldn't explain it, but I just couldn't get the image of the door out of my head. Though it wasn't my typical behavior, I came back one day with my father's axe. If this place really was deserted, then I didn't see any problem opening it. If anything, I could just clarify: I found the ruined door.

My first attempt was aimed at the padlock. Yet, swing after swing did no damage to the lock. Opting for the door itself, the same results occurred. Either I was much weaker than I thought, or this door wasn't made out of real wood. While the latter made more sense, it only created more questions about the door, and what I'd find inside.

After that, I was out of ideas. It wasn't until a package came in the mail that changed everything and ultimately terrified me. Opening the package with no marked address to or from, one black key was the only thing that laid in the box. Picking up the key and examining it, I felt like I knew where the key belonged to.

That night, having been unable to sleep due to recent events, I went out to the cliff side. Now having the ability to unlock the door, I was impatient to find out what secrets were on the other side.

Once at the door, with minor hesitation, I pushed the key into the lock, which inserted effortlessly. Twisting and tugging on the lock, it opened. I gasped in surprise, even though I already expected this to happen. Ripping the lock off, I slowly grabbed the handle, feeling the icy coldness send shivers down my spine.

Opening the door slowly outward, I got blasted with ice-cold wind which also caused the door to be forcefully ripped out of my grasped and opened all the way. My eyes squinted in reflex as I peered through the door at the dark abyss that seemed to be the other side. Edging closer, I held onto the wood panels as I peered into the void.

I felt a tugging on my shirt as I looked down to notice it being pulled into the darkness by seemingly nothing. Then the rest of my body felt that tug until it was so strong I could barely move an inch backward. Having no way to pull myself away, I lost my grip on the wood panel and felt my body get thrown into the void, free falling as the green door closed behind me with a loud boom.

A gradual but uncontrollable spin made me nauseous while I descended, but my mind spun faster, unsure and terrified on when I would land. At the length of my fall already, I knew I wouldn't survive the landing. The air grew colder the further I fell. Suddenly fires of blue flames ignited in my decent, paving the massive hole in brilliant blue light. Even though there were fires, the air continued to get colder until I shivered from the freezing temperatures.

The hole I found myself in widen suddenly into a large chamber. The ground grew rapidly but I felt myself slowing down substantially as I landed on my stomach.

Giving myself a moment to breathe, I contemplated over how it was possible for me to have survived such a fall. It wasn't the only thing about my situation that didn't make sense so instead I slowly stood up, brushing myself off and looked around. The dimly lit chamber appeared empty save for the fires until I looked up. Easily over a hundred cages swung loosely from chains. Upon closer inspection of ones that were closer to the floor of the cave, I could see people in them. My stomach clenched at the grueling sight and rancid smell that impaled my nostrils. There were those who were alive and lay as tortured souls, while others were either dying or long dead.

Stumbling back from the horrific scene, and trying not to heave up my dinner, I tumbled backwards over rocks as a creature emerged from one of the fires. A humanoid of sorts with blue skin and black tattooed markings of unrecognizable symbols engraved down his arms and chest. I assumed they continued down his legs, but I couldn't confirm that because of the black silk pants the creature wore. The man had long black hair with a set of horns jutting from the top of his head. A long blue tail waved behind him, with the end being ignited with a blue flame.

"Welcome to my hell," proclaimed the humanoid, "You will be an excellent addition to my collection." He gestured up at the cages of the weeping humans.

Everything distorted in front of me for a second before returning to normal. I no longer rested on the floor at the bottom of the chamber with the humanoid-like demon, but instead was suspended in a cage high up near the ceiling. With no way out, I shouted along with the rest of my species, cursing the mistake I made for having such a high curiosity for a normal green door.

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