The Room

A story about a room that eats the couple who live there.

The room was just a room as it had no purpose. Neither Mr nor Mrs Ufrejetsz could bare to call it a spare room. They left it a hollow shell. They had a futon and a couple of air mattresses they kept in the living room in case guests came over. They were happy mostly, but they ever so slightly and imperceptibly didn’t like to look at the door at the end of the corridor. The lightbulb down that end hasn’t been changed in years because it makes it less “there” for them. But it is there, and it’s getting lonely.

Mrs’ Ufrejetsz’ breakfast was lovely this morning. Mr Ufrejetz had everything he wanted which was rare as he never actually told his wife what he really enjoyed having, he just liked having what she made, and loved it when she made what he wanted to have aswell. It was long ago established that she was the cook of the house, and though he felt a private shame when they had barbecues and she was the one doing the cooking, he knew not to mention it as she would only bring up when it had been established who does the cooking.

Mrs Ufrejetsz’ loved it when Mr Ufrejetz did the dishes but never asked him to do them, she liked it when he felt he really should. He was lazy so it meant a lot to her when he did, like the food had really satisfied him or he had appreciated something else about something, sometimes she could even tell what that thing was, a lot of the time she was wrong, it was almost always the right meal at the right time for him but none of them ever really knew any of this so it didn’t really matter. The knowing might have even ruined the little joys that they were having; they had a cycle of symbiotic joys circle around their lives with each other and for that reason they were mostly happy.

The room upstairs at the bottom of the corridor could sense the happiness the other rooms got to share; the summer times were the worst times, the barbecues, the people that came and laughed at Mrs Ufrejetz’ chastizing her husband and Mr Ufrejetz shooting back with a witty comment, and sometimes going too far and there being a silence. One time the two went into the kitchen and argued because Mr Ufrejetz went too far this time, and as they argued, the people outside were laughing in a muffled kind of way, to not let them know inside how hilarious they were being. One time they came upstairs and argued in their bedroom at the other end of the corridor, and Mrs Ufrejetsz was crying and Mr Ufrejetz was consoling her. Noone was laughing in the garden that day, and they all left eventually without wanting to say goodbye. I felt lonely too. But I always feel lonely now. I liked it better when they put stuff they never used in me, at least I was doing something then. At least I served a function. I was supposed to be loved inside of.

Sometimes Mrs Ufrejetz feeds a stray cat in secret, leaving food by the door for when it comes, Mr Ufrejetz says he is allergic to cats but Mrs Ufrejetsz knows he isn’t because she sometimes has the cat in the house when he is not there and plays with him and he is always fine, he just doesn’t like cats. Mr Ufrejetsz doesn’t mind cats, he just doesn’t like that one, seeing her playing with it reminds him of me upstairs. The empty room, I’m so lonely.

It was bedtime for the pair, it had been a nice Saturday, they had worked on the garden and were truly knackered. Both were envisioning the moment their heads would hit them pillows and comfortable mattress. Squishing themselves into the blanket and each other. They still loved being a comfort for one another, aftr all the years of marriage, they had married early as they always knew. Mr Ufretsz was first up the stairs and noticed that the corridor looked closer. Where the shadow was, was not usually where it was. The door looked bigger aswell, closer. Mrs Ufrejetsz came up the stairs and looked at Mr Ufrejetsz and then at the corridor. She noticed it too, and Mt Ufrejetsz noticed that she had noticed, and both were incredibly confused as to what they were looking at; Mr Ufrejetsz eventually broke the silence;

“Does that look different to you in some way?”

“It looks closer”

“Maybe it’s the light casting a different shadow, have you changed it?”

“I haven’t changed it.”

“I wonder what it is then?”

”I don’t know there must be something different.”

They snuggled when they got into bed but they didn’t speak about it, they mostly closed their eyes as they embraced each other but they could feel it on the other. The next morning it was the first thing either of them could think of. Mrs Ufrejetsz was the first one to notice. It was even closer.

“Should we call in a surveyor?”

“And say what, that we think our house is shrinking?”

“Well maybe we can get the blue prints or the measurements and measure it ourselves?”

With a few emails they were found, Mr Ufrejetsz got the tape measure out of the kitchen drawer and was satisfied that he finally had a use for it. Mrs Ufrejetsz could see that glee, and smirked a little under the cover of her hand. They went upstairs and Mrs Ufrejetsz stayed at the other end of the corridor whilst Mr Ufrejetsz  went to lay the tape the other end and the door opened, swallowing him and taking a little more corridor with it. Mrs Ufrejetsz fainted, and when she woke up she was in the room with Mr Ufrejetsz and there was their baby sleeping, and when he woke up they played with him until he was tired again and would put him back to sleep until he woke again and they would play again until they both died.

A few weeks passed before a friend got to wondering why they hadn’t received an invitation to a barbecue yet, and why they were not answering their phones and decided to go over. Their cars were still in the driveway. She knocked on the door, then looked in all the windows, and something didn’t look right. They were there still it seemed from the rooms there looking so currently lived in.  She broke a window. There was no alarm and she had not anticipated there would be, having convinced herself that something seriously wrong had happened in the house already. She smashed all the shards from the window frame and lay a towel over the sharp edges at the bottom, she cut herself slightly on the crown of her head. As she walked around all the rooms she felt an awful adrenaline feeling in her body. She went up the stairs and looked down the corridor at the room that she had never been in before. She first checked the bedroom, then the bathroom, and the study. There was only one room left. She knew they were in there, but still knowing does not change the shock of seeing two friends lying, snuggling on the floor decomposing. The flesh around their mouths all rotted away into a Cheshire cat grin. A forensics expert found that there had been a gas leak in the spare room that very slowly suffocated them. It doesn’t appear as though they suffered.

Both of them would have given their lives to have one more day with their son. But they never told each other that, maybe they knew. It was fun while it lasted. I got to experience what it must be like to be in a loving family, so it was win-win really. I can’t wait for the next family.