Chapter 10: The Hallway of Mild Inconvenience and Existential Dread
643 Words
Chapter 10: “The Hallway of Mild Inconvenience and Existential Dread”
It began with the door.
Jamie stood staring at the hallway door like it had personally insulted his mother.
Ghostie floated beside him, holding a flashlight that glowed purple and whispered affirmations like “You matter” and “Your screams are valid.”
> “Ready?”
“No. This is a hallway. It should not require emotional preparation.”
> “It’s not just a hallway. It’s the hallway. We... may have activated something when we knocked down that suspicious wall panel.”
“You mean the one that said ‘Here Lies Regret’ in Latin?!”
> “It added character!”
Jamie opened the door.
Instead of the familiar, slightly sticky hallway of Apartment 3B, he was greeted by a corridor that stretched into infinity. The lighting buzzed softly with the sound of whispers. Wallpaper peeled and reattached itself like it couldn’t make up its mind.
At the far end floated a glowing sign:
“RETURN THE BOOKS. OR ELSE.”
Jamie squinted. “What books?!”
> “Maybe we borrowed something from the Interdimensional Lending Library by accident.”
“I borrow toast. Not cursed literature.”
> “Mistakes were made.”
They stepped inside. The door slammed shut behind them.
Instantly, a ghostly librarian appeared. She wore a cardigan made of cobwebs and glasses that hovered in front of empty eye sockets.
“You are overdue,” she said in a voice like paper cuts.
Jamie stepped behind Ghostie. “Is she… dangerous?”
> “Only if you dog-ear pages.”
The hallway transformed into a labyrinth of floating bookshelves and shushing echoes.
Each wrong turn brought new horrors:
A self-help section that tried to gaslight Jamie into believing he was a book.
A horror aisle that summoned Jamie’s middle school report cards.
A romance shelf where the books whispered, “He’s not texting back because he’s made of fog.”
“Ghostie,” Jamie panted, “we have to find this book and return it!”
> “Right, right. Check your backpack.”
Jamie opened it and pulled out… a dusty tome titled:
“Dating the Dead: An Unauthorized Guide to Flirting Beyond the Grave”
“…This is yours.”
> “Technically, we both used it.”
“YOU BOOKMARKED CHAPTER FOURTEEN: How to Ghost Your Ghost.”
> “It’s a power move.”
They raced back toward the librarian, dodging a book on taxes that tried to bite Jamie’s ankle.
The librarian appeared once more, reaching out her skeletal hand. “Do you return the book willingly?”
“Yes!” Jamie cried, hurling it forward. “Take it and leave me in peace!”
She caught it, flipped to the marked page, raised an eyebrow (that wasn’t there), and said, “Very well.”
The hallway flickered—and transformed back into the ordinary, weird-smelling corridor Jamie had grown to tolerate.
Ghostie clapped. > “See? Not so bad.”
“I was almost devoured by Auditing for Beginners!”
> “Knowledge is power.”
Back in the apartment, Jamie collapsed on the couch.
Brenda beeped once, then slowly rolled away to make calming toast.
Ghostie floated beside Jamie, smug.
> “We faced an eldritch library spirit and survived. That’s what I call team bonding.”
Jamie glared. “You’re banned from borrowing anything ever again.”
> “So no haunted DVD rentals?”
“Nope.”
> “Not even that VHS tape that screams your greatest insecurity?”
Jamie winced. “…That one hit too close.”
Just as Jamie began to relax, Brenda popped up a new piece of toast. Burned into it were the words:
“Overdue Fines Pending.”
Jamie screamed.
Ghostie laughed.
End of Chapter 10
- Writer
