The Landlady (with my ending)

my ending

This is my ending! I think it's pretty good and has the same writing style but let me know what you think :) this takes place right after the ending of Roald Dahl's The Landlady. I can't upload it here because of copyright but I'd recommend looking it up. Or maybe I'll be able to put it in the comments keep in mind that it might take a while to copy and paste the entire thing in the comments.

"No dear, only you."

Billy felt that something was amiss, he glanced down at his tea. “You mean to tell me that I’m the only visitor in… how many years was it?” His head was feeling fuzzy.

“My dear,” She said in a sickeningly sweet voice, “that's not of any importance! What matters is that you’re here now.” She patted his arm with her own cold, frail hand.

Billy tried to look at the old lady in front of him but it was hard to focus on much of anything. He felt that he had to get out of this place immediately. “What was in that tea?” he slurred, stumbling to his feet.

She laughed airily, “Oh, it was just my mother’s recipe.” She tried to grab his hand again but he yanked it away. 

He knew the room they were in was only a few meters away from the door, all he had to do was get to the door. He staggered in that direction, trying to focus on putting one foot in front of the other and not on the feeling of her eyes boring into him.

Billy opened the front door but instead of freedom, there was another hallway. He turned, trying to find his bearings but the front room wasn’t behind him anymore, replaced by an even longer corridor than the previous. 

At the end of the passage stood the landlady, smiling sweetly at him.

“Come now, Elias, don’t you want to spend the night? After all, you did sign the book, didn't you?” She was standing in front of a door that was different from the others. The other doors were a pale yellow but the one she was standing in front of was a deep red making it stand out drastically from the white floral wallpaper. If he had been looking closer he might have noticed that the flowers on the wallpaper were specifically yellow chrysanthemums, like the ones in the window.

Billy shook his head confusedly, “My name’s Billy, not Elias.”

“Forgive me, that was my son’s name, you look just like him… after the war…” she got a far off look in her eyes. Billy used that moment of distraction to open the nearest door in order to get away from her.

His limbs felt like lead but he managed to get through the door and close it behind him. He raised his head to find the landlady at the end of the hallway standing before the same red door. His eyes widened, “what?” His heart was racing.

“You signed the book. You’ll always come back to this hallway… to me. Unlike my poor Elias.”

Billy felt hot bile rise up his throat as he realized that he would never leave this place. He felt a sharp pain in his chest and fell to the ground. He stared at her as she walked towards him but no… her feet weren't moving. It was as though he was being pulled towards her.His vision was doubling and he felt as though his entire body was tingling.  As he neared her she held out a yellow chrysanthemum to him.

“Here, they were Elias’s favorite. You’ll be a better replacement than the other two” she smiled at him and put the flower in his hand.

The door behind her opened slowly, seemingly by itself. The sight was horrible, it seemed to be a bedroom and in the bed there was a human being propped up in the sheets, his eyes blank and staring at nothing. Billy realized with a start that that must be one of the missing boys. In the corner, sat up on a chair was the other missing boy.

"Now I can have as many Elias's as I want!" The terrifying old lady exclaimed excitedly, clapping her hands like a small child.

Billy felt that he was going to throw up, his hands were trembling and the chrysanthemum fell from his grip.

"It's okay dearie, it'll all be over soon" the sinister old lady said soothingly, "then I'll take care of you forever."

Billy felt more pain than ever before and with one final groan Billy's vision went black with the last thing he ever saw being and old lady gazing at him lovingly.