The Door
I WISH I’D NEVER GONE through that door. It was frightening to look at. The long stairway ended with the door, and over the years the wood around the door had turned gray and old. It had aged much faster than it should have, given that it was never exposed to the outside elements. The gray spread partway down the staircase. The stairs became warped.
Sometimes it sounded like there were a dozen people up there stomping around. Other times it sounded like a being with clawed feet was running back and forth. Scratching sounds, moaning, crying, shrieking. No one knew what was behind that door because if anyone came back, they were shells of their former selves.
It was an old house set in the center of a swamp surrounded by willow trees that swayed and moaned in a breeze that always
