As I walked along the long, straight corridor I felt an eerie presence. I couldn’t tell what it was and I could not see, hear, or even smell anything, but I knew someone – or something – was near me, perhaps even following me. I kept turning around to look behind me but the only things visible were the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. And the almost pitch-black darkness.
After returning my sight in my original direction I walked further into the darkness still feeling that unearthly feeling. And as I continued down the cold hallway I asked myself what could cause the feeling of being watched, of being followed?
I could not answer the question I asked myself, but something else could. And did. Before my bewildered and excited eyes was a creature – no, a monster – of some demonic sort. It loomed over me like the towers of an ancient castle. The monster was covered in thick, dark hair like an ape. What it was I could not tell for my eyes were unable to see well enough in the looming darkness.
Once I came to my senses I became more frightened than I had ever been. The fear was so immense that I felt death reaching for me at that very moment.
I turned and ran opposite of the direction I had come, but another creature was there, blocking my escape. I was cornered. Or so I believed.
I looked around me, surveying any possible routes of escape when I was able to make out the outline of a doorway. I ran for the door but slammed into it and was knocked to the ground when I discovered it was locked. I looked up and saw the monster – but only one monster. Where was the second? Was there a second?
The creature’s claws were bared and ready to rip into my flesh. It drew up its arms. My fear paralyzed me and its razor-like claws came down upon me. I closed my eyes.
I opened my eyes. I asked myself how could I not be dead? Surely no person could have ever survived such an attack. But alas, there was not a mark on me, not a drop of blood around me, and not a creature in sight.
Was it only my imagination, my fear caused by this dark place, that made me see and believe such things? I did not know. I only knew that I wanted to leave this place.
I stood up and looked around once more. In the hallway, in the direction I was headed before being attacked, was a bright white light. It appeared to be a door, or so its shape made it appear. I could only stare in wonder at this strange light.
As I finally made myself turn away from the phenomenon and proceeded to walk the way from which I had come, there stood yet another doorway of light. It was blue, like the light of the moon on a still pond of water. I felt it pull on me, as if some life force was pulling on me.
I turned away from this light also, and noticed that the door that I had tried to escape through was now open. No light shone from its threshold. Instead, it was dark. Darker than any night.
Confusion swept over me. What was this place? My fear was growing stronger.
I then watched as the walls, the floor and the ceiling slowly morphed into a red, pulsating light, red like that of blood. Within the light I saw figures moving about and standing still. They were just silhouettes, but it seemed as if they were alive.
Then came screams. Screams of pain and agony. And voices uttering words I could not understand. And noises unlike any I had ever heard. The sounds emanated from the doors of light.
I walked to the white door and put my hand into it, my hand disappearing into the light. All of the sounds ceased, except for that of the voices, still uttering those unknowable words. And many voices they were, each a different voice. They were harsh voices, angry voices, growing louder and louder until my ears ached from the sound.
I removed my hand and stepped away from the white door. The screams and indiscernible noises returned, silencing the voices to a more tolerable volume. I then turned and moved towards the black door.
I stood in front of the doorway and put my hand into the darkness. Again my hand disappeared, as did the voices and noises. But the screams remained. Such agony and pain! Screams of death by a most unimaginable method. Louder they grew, but I pulled my hand away before I could no longer stand it.
All was quiet. None of the sounds returned, and the screaming had stopped. I looked to the blue door, wondering if I should also place my hand into it. I walked to the blue door, but not as my own self, but as a lemming guided by another power.
I stopped before the door. The blue light was so peaceful, so serene. I moved my hand toward the light, but it would not penetrate. Again I tried, but to no avail.
Suddenly, the screams and voices and noises started again, this time with such intensity that my ears felt as if they were being speared. I tried to yell out, but my voice was nothing compared to the unbearable discord.
I turned and ran from the blue door, back to the white door. The noises once again stopped. I turned and walked towards the blue door again. The disquieting sounds returned and became louder with each step. I stopped again and returned to the white door. All was again quiet.
I looked at the blood-red light in the walls. The shadowy figures were now moving at a furious pace, none were still. Then they stopped. They began to close in on me, watching me, reaching for me. They got closer and closer, and I could begin to see their faces. They carried no expression, no life. Their eyes were white as snow. They peered into me and I could feel their empty stares in my soul. Their snake-like bodies moved towards me, their tentacles of arms reaching for me.
Something picked up my arm and moved it toward the red wall. My hand entered into the red abyss.
Such silence! Nothing to be heard, like the silence of death.
I felt something grab my hand. I tried to pull away, but whatever it was wrenched me into the wall.
The figures had all disappeared. I looked at myself and realized that I now was one of those figures. My arms were replaced with long tentacles, and my legs with the tail of a serpent.
I looked around me and saw the three doors once again, this time beside each other. First the blue door, then the white door. The black door stood on the right. The two doors of light had diminished in brightness. Inside each door stood something. I moved closer to each door, one by one, and examined what was in each.
I could not make out the object inside the blue door, the first I peered into. Inside the white door it appeared to be a body lying on a floor. Lastly, I looked into the black door. It was indeed the body of a man, dead and lying on his back.
Instinct pushed me through the black door. But as I entered this new room a blinding white light appeared directly in front of me. I turned to go back through the door, but it had vanished. Instead there was blackness. I turned again, and the light had been replaced with the same blackness.
I looked around again and realized I had been returned to the hallway. I looked at the body.
There, at my feet, was the monster that had attacked me not minutes earlier. But it was different somehow. Its expression was empty but the face was not that of the monster; it was mine. The eyes were open, but the sockets were empty, filled only with a black void.
Without warning, the monster’s hand reared up and hit me, slamming me into the wall. I fell to the floor and lay limp on my back, pain searing through my body. I turned my head toward the creature, but it had vanished again. I looked to the other side, but only the wall was there. I lifted up my head and looked, but saw only the walls, and another door.
I stood on my feet, still aching from the blow. I walked toward the door and opened it. A strong blast of air threw me backwards, slamming me into a wall. The blast ceased and I stood again.
Then the walls began moving, drawing closer and closer to me. All fours walls were closing upon me, and I could not escape, for the door had been removed. Quickly the walls closed in on me and squeezed me. I screamed in pain, and the walls finished crushing me.
But all was not black. All was not silent. No, all was loud and white. The white slowly changed colors. First to a red, then blue and continued through the colors of the rainbow until it stopped at yellow. The loud sound grew quieter as the colors passed until it was almost inaudible.
Then black and silence again. Then I opened my eyes.
I was lying on my back again, in yet another small room. I rose up and realized I was lying on a bed, which was placed against one of the walls which had two windows. Opposite the bed was a door, slightly ajar with a faint green light shining through.
On the other two walls were mirrors, each mirror filling the entire wall space. I looked into one of the mirrors, the other mirror’s reflection creating a tunnel of mirrors, but did not see my own reflection.
I walked to the door and opened it. I was back in the hallway. I turned and began walking.
I walked to the white door, which was in the same place it was before. All the doors were there, each in the same place.
I walked through the white door and entered a long white tunnel. It appeared endless. For what seemed like endless, uneventful hours I walked, but I finally reached the end.
There was the blue door. I entered the door, into another tunnel, this time blue. This tunnel was much shorter than the white. At the end I could see a red door. I walked to it and looked through. I could see throbbing red. It was the hallway again. I walked through the door.
The doors were still in their original locations. This time I went to the black door and stepped through, entering into yet another hallway. This time it was black, and cold.
The fear, the confusion, the utter insanity had taken its toll on my mind and body. I fainted and fell....
...I wake up. I see a staircase, so I stand and go towards it. I quickly make my way down the stairs, still dizzy form the utter madness I had just witnessed.
I see another door. I go to the door. I open the door. I walk through the door.
This time, it’s not a hallway, nor a tunnel, but the open beauty of reality. I am outside the house. I am back in the world again, the real world…

© Erick Pratt