The Door
There was only one rule: don't open the door.
No matter how long Daddy was shut in there, or how eldritch the screams. Piercing the night, and rising and falling. Stitching pain to the darkness itself.
The little girl stares at the door, hugging her knees with goosefleshed arms, the floorboards hard and cold under her bottom. Sometimes, with Babbit tucked tightly under an arm, she clamped her hands over her ears.
What creature could make such sounds? What kind of teeth and claws went with a noise like that? Fearsome. Razor-sharp. What kind of throat were they ripped from, and worse, what could possibly do the ripping?
Daddy always came out eventually. Tired-looking. Pushing his little round glasses up his nose, or else taking them off and cleaning spots of blood of them. She'd seen him spattered in it, wiping it from his hands and wrists with a rag.
She imagines him pushing his hands into the monsters, and pulling out their insides. Plucking their hearts like strawberries. Chopping the secret parts of them with shiny silver knives.
Daddy didn't look like a beast-killer. He was tall, thin and neat. He wrote lots of notes in cramped script. When he wasn't slaying beasts, he read her stories, and then kissed her on her forehead and the tip of her nose.
Tonight, she worries what might came out. Would he win again? Would a giant brute burst through the door, splintering the frame and bearing down on her? Or... would something Daddy-shaped emerge?
...Had that happened already?
Last time, she'd heard a baby cry. Is that how he did it? She'd imagined the Creature crunching on its legs, and was nearly sick.
But whatever he did to survive, he always came out.
Tonight, it's gone awful-quiet. Something tar-like is seeping under the door.
About the Creator
L.C. Schäfer
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I'm not a writer! I've just had too much coffee!
Sometimes writes under S.E.Holz
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Comments (12)
This is positively brimming with great horror elements! Very gripping read!
I love the eeriness of this piece LC!! The way you just kept turning up the creep factor right up until that final line!!
A/N: Yes, I submitted this to the challenge. I checked the rules and it doesn't actually specify "body text" when it says it must be the first line, so I made an executive decision. I just really don't like prescribed first lines, and I think we SHOULD be allowed to put them in the subheading. It's a really good use for it, IMO. ● You must have an account on Vocal.media (“Vocal”) to enter the Contest. ● Your entry must be in English. ● You must be 13 years of age or over at time of entry. ● You must have a Vocal+ membership account at time of entry to the Contest. You must have a Stripe account connected to your Vocal account in order to be eligible to receive cash prizes. This means you must be a resident of a Stripesupported country OR have Stripe Atlas enabled to be eligible to win. Supported countries can be found here. ● You can submit as many times as you want, as long as your submissions meet the contest guidelines as well as the Vocal guidelines, found here: https://shopping-feedback.today/resources/community-guidelines%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3C/span%3E%3C/a%3E. ● Your entry must be created by you. ● Your entry (body text) must be between 200-300 words. ● Your entry must start with the first sentence: “There was only one rule: don’t open the door.” ● Your entry must be submitted to the Fiction community.
Brilliant as always, LC. I'm really intrigued by this world that you've created for this piece!
Hey is this the one you submitted into the challenge? If yes, this has to be in the Horror community. Also, I'm not sure if they'd accept the opening line in the subtitle 😅
Well done, just watch for the small grammatical errors.
I thought it was a doc delivering babies, but now with the blood seeping under the door, I am not so sure. Creepy AF anyway and I love the way you have subverted the challenge with the opening line! Ha! Well done L.C.
This truly is excellent. I'm glad I didn't listen to you, and read both. I'm not sure if it deliberate, but it likely won't qualify without the opening sentence. Feel free to tell me where to go.
Ha! I see that in a bit of rebelliousness, you flatly refused to open your story with the dictated lines although you managed to succumb to it in the heading. Regardless, this is an awesome bit of writing and a wonderful entry for the challenge.
creepy and sinister with something a bit off! well done!
Wow… just wow. Best submission so far. Great work Schäfer. Absolutely delightful read.
Scared me, and I'm fearless! lol Great writing, L.C.!