The Door

3-20-01

1:02 A.M.
Sunday, March 20
2001

The voices started again tonight. They had been gone for a few days. Elias had begun to think he was safe by some miracle.

Maybe God had had mercy on him. Perhaps he was different than the rest and didn't deserve this torture. Maybe that's why he had been freed. Or so he thought. He was devastated to hear the familiar voice start again behind his door.

"Elias..." They would call out to him. It? He?  Elias didn't even know what the thing behind his door was. The only thing he did know was that it was unholy. Horrid. Monstrous. The closest thing to hell he had ever seen. Each time he heard the voice start again, he felt sick. He wanted to throw up. Vomit. He wanted to fall asleep and beg to the empty ceiling to wake up in silence. And he had for days. Until today.

It was past midnight when it began... he  was going insane. At first he was sure he could survive... wait it out even. Pray and hope that the entity would grow tired. But today, realization had hit him like a brick. There was no getting out of this situation. He was stuck. Stuck like a weak and stupid little rat. A rat that could be mangled with an torn apart if anyone, or now as he knew, anything, wanted to. He had no savior. He had no shield. He was alone. And the only barrier between him and his demise was a thin and splintering wooden door. It was almost funny.

"Oh please, please open the door. You will be so much happier doing so... you will be free. Isn't that what you want? To leave your room? Get out? See your precious family again? Just a turn from he knob and it'll all be a wish come true." The voice continued. Elias had his hands clasped over his ears and his fingers digging into his skin. Maybe he had drawn blood... he didn't know. He didn't care. He just wanted that sound out. Out of his ear. Away from him. But it was impossible to block out. He could muffle it, yes. But the words were clear enough to make him scream.

He screamed. Like ever day. It was a routine now. A few more days of this routine and his vocals would be fried. Each day that the stupid voice would start its taunting, Elias would scream his lungs out until he physically couldn't get anything out anymore. Until his whole throat seared hot in pain. This and covering his ears were the only things keeping him sane enough. "Oh for fucks sake!" Elias yelled in utter and complete frustration, his voice now morphed into a raspy and broken mess from such a force in range. The house was now daily filled with this. This pleading. This screaming. All of it. And nothing seemed to phase the thing behind the door. It would simply go quiet for a bit, almost laughing at Elias' face, before talking again and showing that Elias' efforts had been useless.

Elias frantically searched for his notebook. Another tiny tool that had kept his minds stable enough had been this stupid notebook. It was a black covered notebook, nothing to look at. But inside was a written description of each day from the past week. And Elias was determined to keep writing each day until his fingers bled and grew in ache. He didn't care how helpless he felt, he felt the need to show somthing, a mark that he was here. That he survived enough days through the torture of this thing to write page after page about it.

He began with trembling hands and tears in his eyes from the force of screaming.

Today marks a week.

A week exactly.

It seems to not have moved an inch.

It is as close to the door as it has been.

I hear it. I hear it's voice grow louder and louder. It knows I hear it. It surely knows I'm writing as well. It seems to know everything. It knows it's driving me crazy.

And that's what it wants.

I don't have much time left. A few more days of this and I'll open the door myself. I can't take it. It won't leave.

I thought it would get bored but it seems persistent. It's having fun, that's why it won't leave. I'm sure it's having a thrill.

May god help me. May god have mercy on me.

Elias swallowed thickly and froze, looking around. It stopped.

Oh for the holy lord, it had stopped for today. Elias knew this wasn't anything good, it just showed that the entity was having fun torturing him, giving him breaks and then torturing him again. But in the moment, Elias didn't care. Even a few.moments of silence was like a blissful blessing to him a small one, but one nonetheless.

Elias didn't know what awaited him. He didn't know what to do. He could open the door and face the creature, see what it wants. He could continue writing his stupid journal and hope that it can help someone when, or if, his body is found, or he could wait for starvation to hit him soon enough after surviving in this locked room.

In either scenario. He was fucked. And badly.