Short Stories

Prompt #26

"Welcome to the Island of Nightmares, where your dreams come to life. Enjoy your stay because you're not leaving... ever."

Waking up on a strange island should have startled me more than it did, but maybe it was the familiarity of it all that set my fear instinct at ease. Looking around me, I could briefly remember some of these places that stood around me like a cartoon high street. Despite being misshapen and multi-coloured, paired with mismatching roof tiles and windows that came in any sort of rectangular form, I still recognised many of the structures that were ahead of me.

The sky was a clear blue, nothing quite nightmarish at all and I could clearly hear the sounds of birdsong in the distance. Standing to my feet and brushing the dry soil from my knees, I looked over to the sole signpost on the dirt path I had landed on. 

"This way to Door #1"

Door #1? Was I in a game show? 

I still had little idea to whether this strange island was a dream or a physical piece of land beneath my feet. The idea of it being a game show added no useful support to either argument. If this was a dream, then it would seem like quite an entertaining one at least, it would explain my sudden appearance in such a strange space, the weirdly familiar buildings that made up the street in the distance. Though on the other hand, those buildings were real ones I had shopped in, the strange space could be explained by any numerous real world incidents, amnesia, sleep walking, abduction, perhaps I had another identity within me that had led me here and fallen back asleep. 

I let myself walk in the direction of the sign post, circling my eyes around me once every few paces to ensure that I was well and truly alone. If I was it could add evidence to the dream theory. It could also add to the idea that this was a game show and I was the contestant, but I still chose to doubt that theory given I have no remembrance of signing up for one.

As I arrived at 'Door #1', placed where the doorway to my local corner store would be, I was disappointment to find that it was quite simply a plain mahogany door, coated in a dark blue and decorated with a pattern of flowers around the corners of the top right and bottom left panel. Seemed pretty safe. Other than being in a completely unknown place, everything about this place seemed...normal.

Taking hold of the round, golden door handle, I opened the door wide and stared into a dark room. My eyes tried to adjust as I stared, hoping to make features or shapes from the black space, but the void remained unknown and disfigured. Door #1.

Leaving the door open, I stepped back and looked to the buildings either side of me. Surely there were other doors, because you don't call something 'Door #1' unless there's also a 'Door #2' and 'Door #3'. 

I make my way over to the hairdressers building next-door. In place of their doorway is a padlocked door. On it is a sign that says 'Door #0. DO NOT OPEN.' I try the handle anyway, acting on the innate human desire to try open things that were locked.. When it gives a little, a sense of panic runs through me, but there is a chain on the inside that prevents the door from opening any further. 

Peering in through the crack, I see another dark room, empty and shapeless. I try adjusting my position, hoping to get a different view of the inside if I craned my neck a little or if I crouched and tried to look up. Still nothing. Just another void.

I return to 'Door #1' and look instead to my right. On the door of the pharmacy there is no sign, no lock, but even stranger, no door handle. I inspect the wood for a keyhole and find that despite it taking the shape of a standard door, it bore a greater resemblance to a wall. In my head I have already labelled it 'Door #3'.

With no other option than 'Door #1' I return again to the blue door to nowhere.

There is nothing saying I must go inside the room, but there is no other clues around me to explain my circumstances. Against all that is reasonable my only option was to step inside.

I step over the threshold, waiting for something spontaneous to happen. I am startled out of my skin as the door becomes heavy, swinging shut behind me with a thud that makes the room shiver and causes goose bumps to ride up and down my arms in ripples. "Hello?" I call out.

I'm walking into the room now. I cannot see where I am going, I have no idea how far I have walked since entering and as I walk there is less and less reason to turn back. The darkness is disorientating as I try to stretch my hands out, searching for a wall or window to regain some sense of comfort. 

I hit a wall finally, my fingers instantly clutching at the cold stone surface ahead of me. I run my hands across its length and find another door. This time I don't hesitate in opening it, knowing my only path was onwards. 

I freeze as I step inside. 

I'm no longer standing but trapped in my childhood bedroom, lying in bed as the fire alarms in my house are screeching like a hungry and unsatisfied new-born baby. I'm weighed down by my duvet and I can smell the smoke coming from under my door. I look right and down; out of my window my family look up from outside at me as the flames lick my back and tears are streaming down my face. I try to clamber out, but the bed frame is metal and my skin is scorched as I desperately pray for an exit. The fire climbs up and grows and burns, consuming my bed until it reaches me and the pain starts searing through my body. I want to scream and cry but there is no sound coming from the back of my throat. I black out from the pain. 

I wake up. 

I look around. 

I am back again. 

This time the signpost says, "This way to Door #2"