KEEP LOCKED AT ALL TIMES!

‘What was that?’ Alice said as she grabbed hold of Sally’s arm afraid of the sound that she had just heard. Sally said nothing, because there was nothing that could be said. She wasn’t aware of what that was, or who that was, or even what kind of sound they had both just heard. She had never heard this sound before, so how on earth could she answer, when she too was wondering what exactly ‘that’ was.

The noise was coming from behind a door, but this wasn’t just any door, this was a door that no one had ever been in to or out of before. Or at least this is what they believed. It had a small but poignant sign engraved on the front that read:

                       ‘KEEP LOCKED AT ALL TIMES’

But there was no key that anyone knew of, so therefore no way to get in to or out of the room. This was their fisrt home together and this was the only room in the entire house, that neither of them had actually seen. The house was of course an absolute steal, but they had both thought nothing of it. Whenever they had previously viewed the house, the estate agent had always informed them that students were staying in the room, or that unfortunately building work was taking place so they were unable to view it. He had shown them the plans and insisted that if anything, this was the best room in the house. But there was always something quite suspicious about the sign, and the fact that there was a sign on the door in the first place. The agent had always acted strangely positive about this one room, and had always rushed through their questions never really fully answering any of them.

The message was peculiar, almost too peculiar, and it had echoed within Sally’s thoughts every day since they had moved in, and if she was honest, every day since they had first viewed the place. But she put it down to silliness and continued with the sale regardless. These 5 words, and in particular the 3 words at the end would unnervingly repeat in her head over and over again everytime she would pass the door:

          AT ALL TIMES! AT ALL TIMES! KEEP LOCKED AT ALL TIMES!

She couldn’t shake it off. She dreamt about it, day dreamed about it, had nightmares about it, and had even forgotten to run simple errands because all she was ever thinking about was this damn door, and what exactly was behind it. It had been 3 months since they had moved in, and 2 months and 29 days since the first ‘episode’ had occurred. They would often hear strange sounds and what they thought was movement behind the door, but they both deliberately tried to ignore it and instead focused on absolutely everything and anything else they could. 

Until one day without any warning, everything changed. It was a normal day much like any other as Alice and Sally woke up and went downstairs for breakfast. As Sally approached the corridor on this particular day expecting to see the same old sign upon the same old locked door, she instead saw something entirely different. In that moment, fiction as she knew it, become fact. She gasped as she fell back against the wall. Alice came running out of the bedroom to see what all the fuss was about. She stopped, inhaled deeply but did not exhale, and she paused. They both stood as still as anything as the door, that had always remained closed, slowly but surely, started to creek open...

End