The Locked Door

It was a strange door, and Alexandra (or Lexie as her mum called her) always had to wonder what a door like that was doing in her house. It would look much more at home in an ancient castle, instead of a small 1960's council terrace. 

It lurked at the very end of the hallway, just past her mum's shelf of knick-knacks. Not only was it out of place for how it looked, but where it was. Realistically, it would either open on a brick wall or their neighbour's dining room, but Lexie always felt that if she ever opened it, that wouldn't be what she would see. 

She wasn't about to find out anytime soon, thanks to the massive padlock that was constantly attached, the key for which hung around her mother's neck.

The strangest thing about this door is that Lexie and her mum were the only two people who could see it. Her mum would always warn Lexie away from the door, but even from a small baby, Lexie knew to. There was something evil behind that door that she had no intention of ever meeting.

As many of us do, Lexie grew into a teenager and as teenagers do, she lost most of her fear and gained a lot of curiosity. 

 One night as her mum and dad lay asleep in their twin beds, she snuck downstairs and tiptoed down the hall towards that sinister door. She could feel her heart beating in her ears, and her shallow breaths came quickly. She could fear her old fears rising, but her curiosity won out as she placed her ear against the rough dark wood. 

At first she thought that it was her own heartbeat she could hear, but it didn't take her long to realise it couldn't be. This certainly was a heartbeat, but one much slower than her own. Something in that sound told her that whatever was behind that door was old, older than she could ever imagine. For a moment, she was rooted to the spot in fear as she heard it speed up, almost as if whatever it was knew she was there. 

Finally breaking from her stupor, she ran all the way back up to her room, slamming the door behind her, but that noise followed her all the way up and didn't stop until she had thrown the covers over her head.

*

Lexie's father was a very cruel man, but luckily he was barely ever at home. The year Lexie turned 16, her dad lost his job. Now, if he was a cruel man before, afterwards, he was downright evil. Lexie was used to his occasional mental abuse, but now it had been stepped up a notch. Of course, her mum ended up getting the brunt of it all, including the physical side. Most mornings across the table, Lexie would notice a black eye or a new bruise that her mum had tried to cover up.

It was an unnaturally hot August evening, when Lexie was woken by her mum's screams. She was used to being woken by her dad's shouting, but never her mum. Normally Lexie would attempt to drown out those shouts by entering her own fantasy world, which would always star the boybands who lived in the posters on her walls. She would be rescued by her favourite member, taken far away from here to tour the world with them.

This particular night, she knew that wouldn't work, instead she knew exactly what she needed to do. She grabbed her lava lamp from her bedside table. For some reason, she had unplugged it before going to sleep that night, something she had never done before, but now she knew why.

Creeping down towards the kitchen, the source of her dad's awful shouts and her mum's even worse screams, she managed to nudge the door open and slip in. Her mum was cowered in the corner, between the sink and the back door, with her dad bent over her, his hand held high, as if he was about to strike. Judging by her mum's bloody face, this wasn't the first time he had hit her tonight.

As if with super- human strength she was able to bring the lamp crashing down onto her dad's head and for a moment, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Her dad's body crumpled to the floor, his eyes wide open and staring at her, condemning her for what she had done.

So transfixed by his stare, she barely noticed her mum get up and place a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay Lexie, it will all be okay now." She heard her mum's soft voice in her ear. "I need you to help me get him to the door."

*

When Lexie woke up the next morning, she had no memory of what has happened the night before. In fact, when her mum told her, over breakfast, that her dad had left last night and hadn't returned, she had no reason to doubt her.

The next five years spent with her mum were peaceful, if not, joyful. All thoughts of her dad, long gone. Sadly, peace doesn't last forever and all it took to break it was her mum's persistant cough.

It only took 2 months from the day of her mum's diagnosis for the disease to claim her, leaving Lexie in a state of loneliness and emptiness. Left in that small house with no-one but that looming door for company. 

It was two days after her mother's death that she received the official looking letter. The letter confirmed that the house was hers, but she knew it wasn't only the house that was her responsibility now. That wasn't the only thing in the manila envelope, the other was a smaller envelope  with her name, clearly written by her mother's hand. 

Ripping it open, something shiny fell to the floor. She bent down to pick it up and realised it was they key, the key that opened the door. In that moment, everything came back to her and she knew. She knew what she had to do now.

* 

Alexandra looked over the dimly lit table to the handsome man sitting opposite her. He was currently showing off his basic level of French as he read off the menu to the bemused waiter. Of course he was just trying to impress her, but he needn't have bothered. No matter what he did, she would be taking him home with her.

People like Steven Gould were the ones she would choose. Murderers, rapists, the worst of the worst. It was the only way to help ease her conscious of what she would do to them. She could tell herself that what she was doing was a type of justice.

Once she got him home, he would be taken towards the door at the end of the hall. It was always so easy to lure them there - as if they wanted, needed to look inside.

Opening the door, she would look into that darkness, knowing that the creature was not hiding in it, it was the darkness. 

Steven would look confused in that split second before she would push him in and lock the door behind him. The screams she would hear were awful, but what truly chilled her to the core each time was the sound that thing made after.

Once it finished, it would always scream for more.

She would have to feed the unimaginable creature, as generations of her family had before her, tasked to keep it locked away...

and keep the rest of the world safe.