I started writing this short story last night, but I couldn't find an appropriate ending. Now it's finished. What lurks behind the front bedroom door?

Behind the Bedroom Door

By Scott D. Zachary

 

Elise treasured her Saturday morning sleep-ins, and this Saturday was no exception. In fact, today she would have been content to doze all day long in her queen-size Victorian-style bed. Elise snuggled under the cozy comforter and felt a soft inner warmth blossom inside her bosom as rain pelted the metal roof of her rental house. She customarily closed all the blinds and curtains in her house on Friday nights, creating an illusion of darkness outside, even after the sun came up.

The only thoughts that disturbed her inner peace while resting on Saturday mornings were an occasional recollection of a conversation she had with a waitress at the local diner. The waitress, Dottie May, had told Elise about a previous tenant who died in this house mysteriously. The coroner was unable to determine the cause of death. According to Dottie May, the tenant, Charlie Mason, was found on the front bedroom floor, his body covered in a strange gelatinous substance. His eyeballs were gone. Ever since Elise heard that story, she kept the front bedroom door closed and never again went in there.

Elise wished she had never heard that story, which began to echo in her mind on this rainy morning. Usually, she had been able to dismiss those macabre thoughts and focus on nicer subjects until Dottie May’s story faded from her consciousness, enabling her to doze off again. For some reason, today she couldn’t divert her thoughts from Charlie Mason’s inexplicable death.

Elise slowly opened her eyes. The only light in her field of vision was a faint ray of light down the hallway coming from the partially opened front bedroom door. Adrenaline gushed into her spine. She scowled. A part of Elise wanted to get out of bed, turn on the wall light switch, and investigate how that door had come to be open. A larger part of Elise froze, wishing she had never heard that story. As a small child at night, Elise had always felt protected in the dark when her covers were pulled up tight around her neck. Now, as an adult, she snugged the blanket tightly around her throat, focusing on the barely visible opening into the front bedroom.

Feeling like a prisoner in her own bed, afraid to leave the protection of her covers, Elise watched intently for any movement in the dark, gray hallway. She returned her focus to the slightly open front bedroom door. It seemed to be open an inch or two more than it was before . . . or was it just her imagination?

Elise bravely ventured her right arm from beneath the covers while maintaining her focus down the hallway. She extended her arm to the telephone on the night stand. Elise wrapped her hand around the mouthpiece and quickly retrieved it to the security of her bed. There was no dial tone. She began to shake with fear.

A very brief shadow moved beyond the opening in that doorway . . . or was it just a blink of her eyelids? Elise strained to keep her eyes open as long as she could, watching, waiting. She shivered in the warmth of her bed. Suddenly, the front bedroom door opened wide, splashing a diffused light onto the hallway carpet. Elise pulled the covers over her head. She could hear a thumping sound coming from that room . . . or was it the pounding of her heart? She couldn’t be sure.

Several minutes passed. Elise slowly, slowly lowered the blanket until she could peek into the hallway. Something was on the floor in front of that door. It was approximately the size of a basketball, but the similarity ended there. In fact, it didn’t look like anything Elise had ever seen. It looked like a blob of reddish-orange Jell-O. Then she recalled Dottie May’s words . . . "his body covered in a strange gelatinous substance."

The cordless phone under Elise’s blanket rang, jolting her into a frenzy. It rang again. Elise groped under the covers, grabbed the phone, and warily placed it on her ear. A metallic voice stated, "This is your only warning," and the phone went dead. At that same instant, the front bedroom door slammed shut. Elise panicked, jumped out of her bed, ran to the wall switch, and turned the light on. She looked down the hallway. Nothing. The front bedroom door was closed, and the hallway was empty. Elise was overcome with a sense of indignation. "This is my home," she thought, "and I’m going to find out what the hell is going on." She crept toward the front bedroom door. As she passed the hallway closet, she opened it and retrieved a crowbar that she kept there for such an occasion, although Elise never imagined that she might need it to defend herself against a blob.

Elise cautiously continued down the hallway to the front bedroom door. As she reached for the doorknob, hellish thoughts reeled through her mind. Upon recalling the phone message "This is your only warning," she froze momentarily, reconsidering her bold attitude.

The door swung open and the light switched on. "Surprise!" cheered a dozen or more relatives and friends inside the room. They laughed and hooted. At the center of the commotion in the room, laughing harder than anyone else, was Elise’s cousin, Elmer. He was giggling deliriously. Upon seeing Elmer, Elise knew immediately what this was all about. Two years ago when Elmer bought his farm, Elise had planned Elmer’s house-warming party. While Elmer was in town signing the closing papers, she and a crew of mechanics disassembled his brand-new tractor and reassembled it in his dining room. When Elmer returned from town and saw his tractor in his dining room, he was devastated. Elise thought that was the funniest thing ever.

"I told you payback will be hell!" declared Elmer, tears of merriment running down his face. "Sorry it took me so long to arrange a house-warming party, but if I did it any sooner, you would have expected it."

Elise narrowed her focus on Elmer, fuming, "You shitass!"

Elmer fell on the floor and burst into uncontrollable laughter.