COULD

THERE WAS ONLY ONE RULE: DON’T OPEN THE DOOR.

But I’ve always been a do now and ask for forgiveness later kind of guy.

So, before I could lose my nerve, I turned the brass handle and stepped into the darkness.

Immediately, the door slammed shut behind me.

As my eyes adjusted, a square room with another door on the opposite wall came into focus.

A small table sat in the middle; on it, a deck of cards.

I could smell the cold sweat on my hand as I reached for the top card. I nearly dropped it as I read the words scrawled on the other side in red.

Aren’t you curious how you could die?

I tried my best to keep my inner skeptic from running scared.

The next card revealed a drawing of myself. I had a growth protruding from my head and was lying in a hospital bed with various tubes tangled into my arms.

I shuffled through the rest, each unlocking a new terror I hadn’t been imaginative enough to think of before.

I never thought my death would be anything other than old and boring.

A neon Exit sign appeared above the door opposite the one I entered. Screw that door. If I wasn’t supposed to open it, why did it open in the first place?

I exited quickly, unexpectedly greeted with direct sunlight. It felt absurd – like going outside after seeing a horror movie at the theater during the daytime.

Was that my life now? A horror movie where the fear that something terrible could happen follows me everywhere I go?

Could. The card wasn’t definitive, but isn’t that what made it all the more terrifying?

My only choice now was to be afraid of everything or nothing at all.