Chapter 6 — The Door
597 Words
Chapter 6 — The Door
Three knocks.
Then silence.
Travis stared at the office door.
May had stopped breathing for a moment. Her fingers gripped the edge of the chair as she watched the darkness surrounding them.
Another knock came.
This time, slower.
Travis reached for his phone and switched on the flashlight.
“Stay here,” he whispered.
May immediately shook her head.
“No.”
“May—”
“You don't understand. That's what happened last time.”
“What happened?”
She lowered her voice.
“When I heard the footsteps.”
Travis looked at her.
“You heard them last Thursday?”
May nodded.
“I thought someone was following me. I ran into the stairwell, but when I looked behind me, nobody was there.”
“And then?”
“I heard your voice.”
Travis's face tightened.
“What did I say?”
May hesitated.
“You told me to keep walking.”
A cold feeling settled in his chest.
“I never said that.”
“I know.”
The knocking stopped.
Travis moved toward the door.
May grabbed his sleeve.
“Don't.”
He looked down at her hand.
“Why?”
“Because last Thursday, the door opened by itself.”
Travis slowly turned back toward the door.
The handle moved.
Just slightly.
May stood.
The lights suddenly came back on.
The hallway outside was empty.
Travis opened the door.
Nothing.
No footsteps.
No person.
Only the long hospital corridor stretching toward the elevators.
He stepped outside.
“Hello?”
His voice disappeared into the fluorescent silence.
Then something caught his attention.
A small white envelope lay on the floor directly outside his office.
He picked it up.
There was no name on the front.
Inside was a photograph.
Travis stared at it.
It showed his office.
His office exactly as it looked now.
The photograph had been taken from the hallway.
But that wasn't what frightened him.
May was sitting in the chair.
Travis was standing beside the desk.
And in the photograph, someone was standing behind them.
A woman.
Her face was blurred.
May came closer.
“Who is that?”
“I don't know.”
She looked at the photograph again.
“Yes, you do.”
Travis turned toward her.
“What?”
May pointed at the woman's hand.
A thin silver bracelet circled the wrist.
Three tiny charms hung from it.
A star.
A key.
And a crescent moon.
May's face went pale.
“I've seen that bracelet before.”
“Where?”
She didn't answer.
“May?”
“In the photograph.”
Travis frowned.
“No. You couldn't have. The photograph was just taken.”
May shook her head.
“I mean I've seen it before this.”
“Where?”
Her eyes lifted slowly toward him.
“On the woman who used to live across from my apartment.”
Travis felt his pulse quicken.
“Used to?”
“She disappeared.”
“When?”
May's lips parted.
“Exactly one year ago.”
The hospital lights flickered again.
Travis looked down at the photograph.
Something had changed.
The woman in the picture was no longer standing behind them.
She was closer.
Much closer.
Her blurred face was now only inches behind May's shoulder.
Travis dropped the photograph.
May looked at him.
“What?”
He couldn't answer.
Because on the back of the photograph, a new message had appeared.
SHE REMEMBERS EVERYTHING.
And beneath it was a time.
3:27 PM.
Travis looked at the clock.
3:26.
One minute remained.
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