Noises in the Closet

a WIP; inspired by the WDC Prompt widget

A strange noise is coming from inside the closet. Should you open and explore? (Prompt from WDC Community Hub widget)

As a child, I had the same fears as everyone else -of monsters in the closet, or hiding under my bed, of being afraid of the dark (because that’s when the monsters came out of the closet or from underneath my bed), of clowns (because … well, they’re just creepy).

But as an adult, I have other fears -no job equaling no money to pay the mortgage, or to feed the cats running around my house, of a country being torn asunder by invading armies and corrupt politics. My days of worrying about monsters under my bed or in my closet have long since passed, since I know now that they’re parading out on my front lawn with their Molotov cocktails and automatic rifles.

So when, one night, I heard a noise coming from my closet, I thought nothing of it at first; one of the cats must’ve gotten locked in there by accident. But when I opened the door, none of the little fur-balls came out. Huh.

I shuffled back into bed, turned out the light, and started to drift off to sleep.

Another noise from the closet, like boxes falling from a top shelf. What the -? Another sleepy shuffle from my bed to the closet. Another ‘no-go’ for the cats. But then I heard the whispering, coming from behind my blouses. Pushing the hangers aside revealed … nothing. Just the white wall of the back of my closet. Stepping back to look up at the shelves, none of the boxes were out of place, either. Odd.

I shuffled back to my bed, checked the bedside table for my weapon (a Walther P320 pistol), and under the bed for my baseball bat, dimmed the light, and closed my eyes.

And there it was again; a now unmistakable sound of a whispered conversation, coming from my closet. I grabbed my pistol, and threw open the door.

“I told you she was awake!”

“Well, how was I supposed to know? It’s not like she snores or talks in her sleep.”

I screamed -as silently as my fear choked voice would let me- and pulled the trigger. The resulting bang left me nearly deaf in one ear, but I could still see clearly, where … whatever those things were … had opened a door on the back wall of my closet, and stepped through it in a rush; it didn’t latch properly, and I caught a slight glimpse of what was behind the door.

With my weapon in my hands, I used the barrel tip to push the door at the back of my closet open, and what I saw beyond … was beyond anything I could’ve ever imagined.

You know those stories about falling down a rabbit hole into a world that could only exist in your most impossible of dreams, or curiouser still, the ones about not being the only intelligent life in the universe? Well, that’s what I found on the other side of that door -a whole new world.



TO BE CONTINUED ….