The Only Rule - What Would You Do?
For the Spooky Microfiction challenge - Choose Your Own Adventure - so I'm not to blame.
"There was only one rule: Don't open the door."
As you walk through a dense forest with your best friend, the leaves and overgrown grass rustle softly in the breeze. A warm, welcoming glow pours from the windows of a small thatched cottage up ahead. The inviting smell of freshly baked bread fills your lungs, but something feels off. You exchange uneasy glances as the woman’s warning at the forest entrance echoes in your mind.
What will you do?
Open the door? (Go to a)
Turn your back on the door? (Go to b)
Let your friend open the door? (Go to c)
a) You grip the door handle, as your heartbeat quickens. Dismissing the warning as a false threat, you push the door open. The warm glow vanishes. There’s just darkness. Before you can scream, an unseen force drags you deeper into the nothingness, as the door slams behind you.
b) Grinning, you turn your back on the door, proud of not playing twisted games. But as you step away, you hear gentle creaking. The warmth of the wood wraps around you and pulls you towards it. You try to fight and scream, but the door stretches your skin across its surface, coating it in your likeness. Your bones crack, assimilating with the wood. You feel everything. Your body and soul feeding the door, forever.
c) With a sly smile, you suggest your friend opens the door. “You do the honours!” They hesitate, but touch the handle, guilt twisting in your stomach. For a brief moment, nothing happens as they push the door open. Then, with terrifying speed, they are violently pulled inside. You glimpse sharp, shining blades and a large centrifuge spinning, before the door slams shut, their screams drowned out by the screeching of metal grinding flesh.
About the Creator
Paul Stewart
Award-Winning Writer, Poet, Scottish-Italian, Subversive.
The Accidental Poet - Poetry Collection out now!
Streams and Scratches in My Mind coming soon!
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Comments (13)
Hey Paul! Just finished reading this and I really enjoyed it! You managed to establish some great atmosphere and chilling horror in a very small amount of words, which is impressive! I think ending B was my favorite, but C is a close second. Delightfully horrific imagery across all three choices, though!
Ah!!! Paul it's your choose your own adventure we talked about!! I can't believe it took me so long to get here!! I think my favourite enduing is C, mostly because as the MC is "me" (because you narrated as "you" for the reader) then I get to live!! 😅
lovely piece
Hahahahahahaha I loveeeeee how every option had a terrible ending! You're the best Sir Paul 🍩🥐
My, my! How clever! I used multiple lives to try each scenario! Very well done, Paul!!
I used to love those 'choose your own adventure' books when I was a kid. Loved your take on the challenge - think I am with most other people and would prefer an option D - run and don't look back!
I don't like either option. I'm going home, and I'm never going anywhere with you again.
Ah the choice stories we’ll done for only 300 words Awesome
As one who follows his instincts, I opted to walk on by the little house, so the door wasn't an issue. Why? 1) there was a warning. 2) I prefer the walk through the forest with my friend. Great job taking a unique approach to the challenge. I'm still debating whether I want to enter this one.
Er....Mr. Stewart, is there an option D?
Pick your adventure: d) abandon walk for Greggs and head home with donut instead as this story has been written by Paul Stewart and is bound to end badly. Instead, eat sweet treat, remain relatively unscathed, the prospect of diabetes only on the horizon.
That's what you get when you don't follow the rules.
Ha! Cleverly done! C was my answer! Some friend, hey?