"Three Doors Down"

“Three Doors Down”

By Cody Williams

 

1.

Those who choose to ignore the darkness that surround us are blind. There is darkness. And it is real. But what is darkness exactly? Nothing to be afraid of I suppose. Just an area that is not as brightly lit as others…but it is just as real. We do not fear darkness.

Children often sleep with nightlights because they are “afraid of the dark.” But what is it that they are really afraid of? Is it the darkness? Not really. It’s what might be lurking within it that scares us the most. That’s why we keep all of our appendages underneath the covers a night so that the arm of the monster beneath our beds cannot reach up, grab us, and pull us under.

            This is something Mindy Sanchez knows all too well. Things changed with Mindy since her husband, Gregg, died earlier this spring. It was a car crash that took his life. He was driving that old t**d that he bought for his son off of a used car dealer in Betsy. It was a 1995 blue Monte Carlo with the finders rusted out. Gregg decided that he needed to take it for a drive before their son came home from his class trip to Europe.

            It was sometime after dinner. I know that because the two of them always ate dinner at or around five o’clock on the dot every day. I suppose he left the house at about six thirty. I imagine that he gave his wife a kiss on the cheek and maybe even gave her a tender “I love you” before he walked out the door only to never return.

            What happened next? I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. Perhaps Mindy took a long hot shower just before settling down in front of a turned off television screen with a cup of tea in one hand and a Danielle Steel book in the other. Perhaps she took that shower and then laid down for a nap only to be woken up with that dreaded phone call. That’s not what is important. What is important is what happened later that night.

            It was around nine thirty or ten o’clock that night when she got the phone call. It was Gregg. She was sure of that. So she picked up the telephone with little hesitation.

            “Hey there doctor! I need you home hone! I’m in a dire need of a Brest exam if you know what I mean!” Mindy said with a seductive tone as she bit the part of her glasses that went over her ears.

            “Mrs. Sanchez? Is that you?” A voice on the other line asked. Mindy’s blood ran cold and her skin turned paper white. That was the moment that she first knew that something was wrong…terribly wrong.

            “Ye…yes!” She managed to utter. “Is everything alright?” A dumb question I know. But she was still hoping for a yes. Everything wasn’t alright. Gregg stopped by the convenience store just across David’s Deli where he picked up some Trojan rubbers and rose for his beloved wife. After he left he sat at that damn intersection staring at a red traffic light shining back at him. Gregg looked to his left and then to his right. There was nothing coming. But he still remained put not wanting to flat out run the red light. When his light turned green, he began to go. That’s when it all happened.

            Gregg made it about half way through the intersection before he was hit in the driver side door and his car flipped a few times. He didn’t survive the crash. By the time the rescue workers were there, there was nothing they could do for him. The driver side widow was shattered and part of Gregg’s lifeless body hanging out. His face was almost unrecognizable. It had been scrapped up against the pavement. His right eyeball was hanging out of the eye sockets and was effortlessly resting on what was left of his right cheek.

            When she first heard the news, Mindy dropped the phone, rolled out of bed into the floor, and laid there in the fetal position crying. That’s when I believe this whole little obsession of hers first began. She became obsessed with the dead.

 

2.

It was the room three doors down from the entrance of the hallway where most of her “experiments” took place. It was what used to me Gregg’s home office. The room used to be clear for the most part. As soon as you enter the doorway, straight ahead was where his desk sat. On top of his desk was a computer. That’s where Gregg would write the manuscripts that he would later send to his agent who would in turn shop them around the publishing scene until somebody hung would finally snatch it up and buy into it.

            The drawer to the left of where Gregg sat in the desk were about four or five unpublished manuscripts that Gregg wrote in college but failed to sell to any publishing house. Mindy didn’t touch any of that. The desk remained there in the same place that Gregg had left it. She would often times keep a plain white sheet handy to cover it up because it was just too painful to look at.

            She kept a book by her at all times. Mindy did love to read. Mostly Daniel Steel before the accident, but her taste changed to more gothic fiction like Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft after her horrific loss. One novel in particular peeked her interest. It was an old gothic horror novel Arthur Machen. The name of the short novel was The Great God Pan.

            Another book she read constantly after the accident she got for free when her and Gregg were down in New Orleans on a business trip. A woman standing outside of the local Wal-Mart gave it to her as they both walked out the front door of the store. It was called New Orleans Voodoo. The cover was primarily black with a lightning bolt coming down the center of it. There was a voodoo doll on the cover, but the book had no author. Mindy did read the introduction and the first chapter or so until she finally realized what the damned thing was.

            “This is a damn book on witchcraft!” She told her husband on the plain ride back to Tennessee. He grabbed it from her and looked at it for a moment. He laughed and dismissed it.

            “Bullshit!” He said as he handed it back to her. Mindy had forgotten about the book until she ran across to it again while trying to clean out Gregg’s office. That’s when she started to read it again. She read it all the way through. One chapter in particular she read over and over again. The chapter was one that was towards the end of the book and it was called “How to raise the dead”. That only fueled her obsession.

 

3.

Months had gone by since Gregg’s painful death. Mindy continued to cope at the best she could by reading dark fiction.

            There’s nothing you can do now Mindy! Let it go! Just let it go! She would think to herself constantly. But that wasn’t exactly true. That chapter “How to raise the dead” stuck out in her mind. Why not try it? What is the worst that could happen? It’s probably all bullshit anyway just like Gregg said. She thought.

            Mindy decided to go on with the plan. Three o’clock in the morning would be the most opportune time. She knew that. Mindy say her alarm clock of 3 am and prepared for what could possibly be the most important night of her life. The alarm clock began to buzz. It didn’t wake Mindy up. She had never gone to sleep. She reached over and pressed the button at the top of the alarm clock and turned it off. Mindy sighed and sat up in her bed. She straitened her back and could hear the spine crack. Mindy put her slippers on and stood up from the bed.

            Mindy walked down the hallway to the room three doors down and walked inside. She constantly ran through the list of ingredients that were needed for the night. She had them all. A dead cat to sacrifice in return for her husband. It was the neighbor’s cat; Smucky and it always seemed to play in her garden out back. She took care of that. There was a milk jug filled with pig’s blood. She got that from the butcher in down town Little Rock. There was a symbol she had to paint of the hard wood floor with the blood. It was a basic circular with a cross upside down when facing you. It seemed simple enough.

            Mindy grabbed a pain brush and opened the milk jug of blood. She dipped it in there and began to pain the circle. The circle was about three feet across once she finished drawing it on the floor. The next thing to be done was to place the book at the point where the two lines intersected with the book open to the chapter. Mindy opened the book to page 456. That’s where the chapter began. Mindy closed her eyes as she slowly lowered her arms and placed the open book where the two lines crossed. As soon as the book hit the ground, Mindy leaped back and stood in the corner of the room.

            Nothing happened at first. The room was still and quite for a moment. Then a dark cloud began to rise in a funnel shape from the book. The cloud rose to about halfway up the ceiling. Mindy opened her eyes and stayed in the corner watching. Then something began to make it way out of the funnel cloud. It looked like a tentacle at first, but Mindy soon discovered that the damn thing had a mouth at the end of it. The creature was followed by a few more, but they never fully came out of the cloud. It was as if all of the creatures were all attached to a larger body. Kind of like an eyeless snake with four heads.

            The creatures let out a loud screech and one of them went down and scooped up the dead cat that was laying n the floor and put it into it’s mouth. The four heads fought over the cat until it was eventually all gone and then the creatures retreated back down into the cloud.

            “Why have you summoned me?” I loud voice from inside the cloud asked.

            “My…my husband. I want you to bring him back! I offered you the cat in exchange!” Mindy said. The creature was silent for a moment until it finally replied.

            “This is what you wish?” The creature asked.

            “Yes! Yes! Yes! This is what I want! Please bring him back!”

            “As you wish!” The voice said laughing. Mindy waited for a moment, then her husband Gregg appeared.

            “Honey?” Mindy said as Gregg appeared out of the funnel cloud. She ran over and hugged him. Mindy gave him a kiss on the cheek and then hugged him again. She closed her eyes and began to cry. Mindy held him for a few moments until she began to feel something tug on him. “Gregg?” Mindy asked as she opened her eyes.

            “Agghh! Help!” Gregg shouted as one of the tentacles bit down on his head. Blood and pieces of Gregg’s brain spattered on Mindy’s face.

            “Gregg!” She shouted as the creature gobbled up the remains of his body. The creature went back down to the funnel cloud and the cloud disappeared and the book shut on it’s own. Mindy fell to her knees and began to sop.

            “Why? Why? Why?” She cried out. Mindy stayed there for several more moments until she smelt a strange odor that made her sick to her stomach. She looked up at a man standing in the doorway of the room. He was nearly unrecognizable. What ever skin was on his face was moldy and turning green. His right eyeball was missing and there were several places on the man’s head that was bare with no hair or skin covering it.

            “Honey, I’m home!” A very familiar voice said to her as the man smiled. She could the maggots crawling in between his teeth. He stood there and smiled for a moment as he slowly reached for the knife in the back of his pants. “You couldn’t just let me rest could you?” He asked as he spewed maggots all over the floor in front of him.

Copyright 2014 by Cody Williams
Courtesy of TRUE TERROR PUBLICATIONS
A division of TTP Entertainment

Author's Note

I think that this may be one of my better stories. I will seriously consider adding it to the collection. I got the idea of this story while sitting through a play titled "Two Rooms". The play was a war tragedy and was not very horrific, but I couldn't help but think if this was the case. Thanks for reading. Reviews and comments are welcome as always.

-CW

Reviews

[Dayran]

Human nature ... human nature ... human nature ... that's all anyone would say ... if asked why we dabble with what is obviously perfect in creation. And to that we might add ... because we love. Good job of story telling CW. Keep at it. A slip in the use of pronouns ... Freudian?

“Why have you summoned me?” I loud voice from inside the cloud asked. I?

[Sami Khalil]

I will definitely added it if you choose. A wonderful write and depiction...:)......

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Sami!

-CW

[Sami Khalil]

You are welcome...:).......