For years, I fixed drainage pipes, repaired faucets, and maintained things that average people would frown at. I consider myself to be an upstanding individual who worked wherever I could and came to where I am. I lived a monotone but comfortable life, away from petty troubles and thoughts. I visited church often; I loved my family and did the best for my children. Until that day, I thought I figured everything out in my life, just for my reality to crash on itself. A lady called me and told me that she had a broken faucet that needed to be fixed. I would've never picked that job if I knew what horrors that would fall upon me.
I opened my workshop at 7 AM and brewed my coffee. I helped with my son’s homework and had to stay up late for that. I watched the beautiful sunset and thanked God for providing me with this life. This is something I do every day. I didn't have the best upbringing, but I always believed in God to bring me to the right path and stability. After I finished my coffee, I worked on the things the customers brought me yesterday. It took me until midday to fix the leftover stuff and sell stuff to customers.
I sat down and relaxed for quite some time, nobody came for a couple of hours and I hated wasting time doing nothing. Just then, my phone rang. It was a young lady. She told me her faucet had been leaking water and told me she'd pay twice the price. Even though she lived in a village far from the city, it seemed like a good deal. I picked up my equipment and buckled up for a drive.
A couple of hours passed until I arrived at the place. A modest village welcomed me, the smell of sweat and grain filled my nostrils as I drove to her location. The house, however, gave me a weird feeling that put me off. First of all, the house sat on the side of a mountain remote from other houses. I chalked it off to the owner of the house who wanted to build the house somewhere reclusive. Another thing that unnerved me was the abandoned look of the house. I counted more than 2 entrance doors, and seeing the barred windows, I worried about this being my last job. It seemed like a house built by an amateur architect rather than an actual house.
Having come this far, I didn't want to go back and spend extra money on gas. As I approached the building, the lady came out from one of the front doors. I did not feel comfortable around her, the heavy air made me feel like drowning. Other than that, being a lady in her 20s, you wouldn't be suspicious of her at all. She was charming, beautiful, and considerate. We briefly introduced ourselves and after a chit-chat, I entered that damn place.
Compared to what I witnessed later, the entrance hall had a delicate and beautiful design. Whoever designed this place knew their job. The magenta walls, wooden chairs, and the glistering flowers in that porcelain vase were just a few things in that hall. I couldn't help but feel a sense of envy for this young lady. For my whole life, day and night, I worked like an ant, and I could barely afford a house. I knew life didn't care about you, but facing it stung differently.
Her smile did not fade one bit when we walked past innumerable rooms. These dark oak doors accompanied a red carpet in the hallway. One thing that put me off was the weird noises coming from the room “42”. Muffled sounds of something being crushed with heavy machinery. What could that be, I thought. Nothing worth explanatory, or logical came to my mind. I garnered enough courage to speak to this ever-smiling marionette.
“It must be hard to manage a motel just by yourself. There are weird people around here too.”
She chuckled. “What do you mean? This is just one insignificant house on the side of a mountain.”
Petrified, I tried to speak, but my nonsensical blabber fell on deaf ears. She neither stopped nor looked at me. My survival instincts kicked in; adrenaline rushed to my brain. I wanted to run, so I dropped my stuff, and turned back.
I couldn’t see the entrance from here, we must’ve walked for at least half an hour on this corridor. It twisted and vibrated in discrete ways. Surrounded by doors and nauseating walls, I froze, and the lady finally stopped. She gave me this haunting face that still gives me chills when I think about it. Her voice echoed in the corridor.
“Will you do this job, or not?” She lowered her voice after she saw my horrified face.
“You can go back if you want to, I am not stopping you. Forget about the money if you will.”
I didn’t dare to say anything, so we went on. I didn’t even care about the money at this point, I just wanted to go home. However, other than going deeper, there didn’t seem to be any exit. My mind crumbled with the thoughts of weird noises coming from the doors and this damn corridor that went on for eternity. I entertained the idea of the house being bigger than its appearance. Maybe, just maybe, someone carved into this mountain and built the house there. But my brain couldn’t grasp a hall that went this long, bending in inexplicable ways. Just to have a grasp on the time, I checked my phone, 6 PM. It was still early, so if I ever managed to get out of this place alive, I could have dinner with my family. I prayed to God, to my ancestors, to whatever came to my mind to bring me out of this purgatory.
As if the hall didn’t torture me enough, weird noises arose from each door, intensifying to the point that my ears rang like a broken alarm. Before, the deafening silence brought me to my breaking point, but this was a never-ending torture. It only worsened each moment of my existence. I couldn’t take it anymore, I stumbled to a wall and fainted. The lady’s hands reached to me as my consciousness drifted from this world.
I opened my eyes in a dark hallway, illuminated only by the neon green lights from the exit signs. I sat down and recollected my thoughts. Where am I, what happened, who was that lady, will I ever go back to my home… I could not stop thinking about what I had done to deserve such ill fate. However, even in this mental state, I knew that I wouldn’t go home crying in this hallway. I had to find out where I was, and to accomplish that I looked outside from one of the windows.
The pale light of the moon enlightened the building from a corner in the cloudy sky. Moon calmed me a bit, and I assumed that this place was still somewhere on the earth. I lowered my eyes to see the building I came to. The building consisted of 5 floors, and I happened to be at the top of it. The illusions of mine shattered down as I looked further away, however. Other than the building and the short walls surrounding it, I found a thick fog coating everything else in the distance. I didn’t know what to say, or think of, so I let my mind drift through various thoughts. After what felt like hours, I decided to explore this building to see if I could find an exit.
I walked by some corridors where lights worked; however, the exit signs gave me reliable, albeit dim light. I checked every door, but they didn’t budge. I inspected every corner of the building to no avail. I mustered enough courage to walk outside, there didn’t seem to be anything in the building. I strolled inside the walls and checked everywhere several times to get a clue about how to leave this place. Or hell, I didn’t even know the purpose of this building. The place felt familiar enough to relax me, but the distortions and weirdness of it stressed me out. I checked the nameplate; I couldn’t read it from the haze.
I felt hopeless after finding nothing substantial, and I sat down at a bank to consider my options. Plus, I had all the time in this frozen place. I have been here for who knows how long and even a flower didn’t flinch. Time did not exist in this place. Time… I hastily checked my phone, 6 PM, again. I remembered why I was here. I came to that house to check a faucet, yet I forgot the only reason I came here until now. I regrettably realized that I dropped most of my equipment in that endless corridor. The thought of being unable to do one thing I came here for after such agony shook me to my core. At least I had my most vital equipment on my belt and pockets, so I felt relieved. I also found a notebook in my pocket; I didn’t put it there so it wasn’t mine. Yet, I opened it to see what it had.
“Find the oak door.” Only one sentence in the whole notebook. I had a goal now and this propped me up quite a bit. Just as I stood up and turned back, I saw a person on the top floor. He gazed at the distance without saying anything. Excited, I cried several times to no avail. Maybe this is not someone to be trusted, I thought to myself. I didn’t expect what he did next, however. He leaped from the open window and fell to his death. I ran to help him, but his pulse grew weaker and weaker and stopped.
I didn’t know what to make of this, someone I just met nonchalantly offed themselves. It seemed to be someone in his 20s too, a very young age to do such a thing. I prayed for the young man and went back to pick up my stuff. I looked at him for the last time and noticed a red note slip from his pocket. I picked it up and departed from the scene like a criminal. The air inside felt different from the last time. The fog must’ve settled inside the building when I went outside.
I couldn’t breathe properly from all the condensed air, and the cold temperature of it made it even more uncomfortable to walk. A simple walk became a tedious task. I opened every window my eyes laid upon, yet it wouldn’t go away. I thought about opening my phone’s flashlight, however, if there was one thing that kept me tied to the real world, it sat in my right pocket. If the battery died, it would be over for me. Losing my sense of time, whether the clock is right or wrong, kept the last bits of sanity inside it.
Everything seemed so similar that I could only identify the floors by moving through the stairs. However, I had one thing to look for: Find the oak door. From the first to the fifth floor, I checked every single door, but nothing came of it. Later, I stumbled upon a door in the middle of the fifth floor. This floating door made me laugh so hard that I forgot everything around me. This absurd thing, compared to what I witnessed up until now, felt very mild. I opened the door, and to my bewilderment, the lady greeted me with a basket full of cake and juice. The same infinite corridor never felt this relieving before. I ate and drank until I felt content with myself. However, I didn’t feel hungry or thirsty until now. I lost some of my appetite, wondering if I existed somewhere outside of time and space.
“I knew you would be done with the faucet quickly. I am glad I chose you over anyone else.”
Maybe it is over, I thought. But no, it wasn’t meant to be.
She looked distant. “My bathtub seems to be leaking water. Could you take a look at it before you go, please?”
Chills ran through my spine. I didn’t want to do anything with this place, however, if the lady brought me here, she should be able to bring me to the exit too, right? Besides, when I glanced at the room numbers, I saw them extending infinitely. The hall’s ceiling went as far as I could see, the numbers were so large that the ceiling had to extend itself forever. Whether she toyed with me or tortured me, I could only rely on her to be able to go home.
Her smile widened as these thoughts passed through my mind. I didn’t even want to think about the possibility of her reading my mind. The idea of being violated even in the darkest corner of me was something I didn’t even attempt to entertain. I ate and drank everything she gave me to not disappoint or piss her off. After our chit-chat ended, we walked together again. This time, I tried to talk to her just to pass the time, if it ever passed at all. Maybe I could get some answers about this inexplicable place.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“I love how the inside looks; did you design all of it yourself?”
“Yes, and no. You see, it does not look the same for everyone. For some, the carpet is grey, for me it is black and for you, it is something else.”
This did not answer my question at all, I thought. However, leaving it dead here did not feel right.
“You mean… It is different for everyone?”
“Correct, people live through life in their own way after all. Your experiences will not be the same as mine, even if we are twins.”
The topic strayed further and further from the question, but I didn’t mind. A little brain gymnastics wouldn’t hurt in an infinite house.
“The people you meet, the music you listen to, the painting you observe, the memories you have… They are all different.”
“But there must be something objective to build a sense of reality, otherwise nothing can be proven.”
“Right, like this hallway you mean?”
“It could be, yes.”
She stopped and turned to me. The smile on her face faded and held the doorknob of a random door.
“Look at here and tell me what you see.”
I almost lost consciousness from the horror I saw. For a brief moment, I gazed upon the known universe. A sparkle of light surrounded by nothing. I only saw simple pictures of it from the net, but this felt real. Too real for me to handle. The indifference of the universe to me, and to everything I lived for crushed my psyche into tiny bits.
She closed the door before I even noticed. I couldn’t process anything for the time being, so I sat in front of that door for what felt like days.
“Do you know what I saw? The birth, life, and death of the universe. How tragic, yet beautiful it was. I assume you understand what I meant now.”
I tried to speak, but the chaotic state of my mind prevented me from doing anything as my body refused to react to her. This previously quiet woman continued talking nonstop as we walked, but I don’t remember much. We arrived at a stairway when I came to my senses. I struggled to understand how a stairway could be here when the ceiling didn’t have an end. Did this mean we would climb one floor for an eternity? Did this infinite hallway end here? The lady rudely interrupted my conflicting thoughts.
“I am afraid I cannot accompany you any further from here. You will find the bathroom on the 237th floor but don’t worry, time flies here. It only took a couple of minutes for you to fix the faucet.”
“Forgive my rudeness, but which room is it, ma’am?”
“It is the white door. It has a distinct aura from the other doors.”
I bid her farewell and left. I did not have the mental capacity or will the question anything anymore. I just wanted to be done with this and shut my brain off. I felt relieved when I climbed the stairs and noticed that it bent the logic by passing the infinite hall altogether. The short stairs extended to infinity at the same time. With a couple of steps, I left the first floor behind, then the second, third and it went on. I had to count the floors by myself because I didn’t see any floor numbers. This, in turn, did not let me think about anything but the numbers. If I somehow messed it up, I would be stuck here forever.
I reached to 100th floor and noticed the perfect harmony of the floors breaking down. In my first observation, I saw a single white door but what terrified me was the “number”. Every other number in the rooms seemed to be normal numbers. However, this one just had an “e” on it. How could a hall with infinite room numbers have a letter? I knew this was the incorrect door, but my interest grew stronger the longer I stayed there. I didn’t know what would happen if I opened any of these doors, so I immediately departed from that location to get a hold of myself. While the stairway protected its integrity, I noticed the floors fluctuating in various ways as I went on.
Some floors had no rooms, some bent inwards, and some bent outwards. The one that terrified me however was the one with a volatile air filling the hall. It had rooms without doors, so you could see inside. I felt an overwhelming urge inside me to take a look at them. This floor’s ceiling did not reach for eternity, but the room plates had symbols that I had never seen before. After stepping inside, the roaring wind almost pulled me apart. I barely managed to save myself, however, it sucked my notebook and pen away. I did my best to not look at any open doors. Whatever resided in these rooms, my mind could not comprehend it. I almost went insane several times, and the thought of losing myself after coming this far teared me up.
I didn’t glance at any floors after that, I kept myself busy with counting the floors. The trauma I suffered from that experience will stay with me. So, I counted and counted, that is all I had to do. This lasted until I arrived at the 200th floor, and for this occasion, I peeked from the stairway. This hall, if I could even call that, did not have a ground. The numbers took over the wall like a parasite, I could barely see the wall beneath. I looked down to see a door, but the darkness prevented me from doing so. Each floor had some type of distinct corruption so mind-breaking that I had to stop and try to make sense of it. I managed to lock most of them in my subconscious so that I would never have to remember them again.
It took a long time to reach my destination. Compared to my other trips, this was shorter, but I felt the intensity all the way. In the end, I arrived at the 237th floor. Compared to other floors which had messed up the interior, this room seemed to be normal. I didn’t see any white doors from the stairway so I inspected the hall for more clues. This hallway at least had a ceiling, so I felt a resemblance of normality returning to my surroundings. Maybe this way leads directly to my home?
Being alone this far started to take a toll on me, loneliness and anxiety grasped my soul with their hands. I thought about how many times I could’ve died, or if the lady purposefully led me into a dead end. Once again, I lost myself in my darkest thoughts. For a moment, I stopped to check the clock for the final time, 6 PM. So much time passed in such a short time, I thought. Nothing was an oxymoron, or impossible in this realm.
I heard a noise from behind after I put the phone in my pocket, and saw my biggest fear welcoming me with open arms: A black hole consuming everything in its path, threatening to end me here. I ran for my life, if I stopped even for a moment, it would be over for me. In a primal rage mixed with desperation, I ran faster and faster, I didn’t think about anything but going through that white door. After running for hours, I looked behind for a moment to see the damage the black hole caused. What I saw confused me so much that I almost tripped and fell.
The emptiness was being taken over by many colorful spirals extending in many ways. Some small, some big, they looked like tree vines. The black hole consumed every door and its secrets, instead leaving a color palette that every painter would die to look at once. I continued to run, I knew my goal and this did not distract me but gave me a newfound motivation. I would be either consumed by a black hole or dissolved in a spiral soup.
I found the white door in the end, being in a constant focused state worn down my mental capabilities. I was glad I found the door before I became one with the hall. I propped myself up and opened the door, just for my hopes to be crushed once again. A dark tunnel going deep to nothingness. I had no choice, however; it was either that or getting consumed by the void. I rushed inside and closed the door, barely avoiding the black hole.
I warily walked in pure darkness for half an hour until the tunnel opened up to something even worse. A giant column with a spiral staircase going both up and down. I couldn’t even call this a staircase. Thin iron slabs evenly decorated this giant column. If someone actually built this, they would be fired on the spot, but this would be my final obstacle on my way out.
The tunnel disappeared the moment I stepped onto the staircase, and I almost fell. I experienced facing death in the face of true nothingness. I lifted myself up to the staircase and sat down for a bit so my eyes could get adjusted to the environment. I contemplated my life several times while looking at the darkness below. What would happen if I jumped down, or what if I lost my balance? I entertained myself with these questions until a cold breeze started picking up and became a full-blown thunderstorm. I held the column with both of my hands and started my descent. After all, you don’t solve a problem by running away from it.
I motivated myself with empty talk throughout the way, however, it did not work. Not only I was slow, but I also faced the wind throwing me off once in a while. Every sense of mine faced brutal resistance, my mind suffering the worst from it. I still endured, not for myself, but for the people who needed my care and attention. I didn’t move an inch from the column to the point that my body fused with it.
I truly became a robot with how I moved my legs and arms, and the way I turned off my senses to this cold, abandoned dimension. I stopped thinking about anything, rubbing my whole body to the column almost in a perverted way. This continued until the wind slowed down, and I could afford to let my body go from the column once again. I stretched my arms and legs, preparing for the next occasion, but something entirely different happened.
Hundreds of sparking lights rained from the empty sky. Almost all of them had the same yellow color, but the white ones shined brighter than the others. It reminded me of my childhood when I would look at the sky for hours past midnight to see the stars. I got a little emotional and carried on. The wind came back, but unlike the last time, it was calm. For the first time, I enjoyed something in this decrepit place. I stopped for a moment and saw one of those objectives drifting towards the staircase. If I could time it right, I could touch one of these things. I waited for the right opportunity and grabbed it. I expected it to be hot since it was supposed to get energy from somewhere, but I remembered where I was and didn’t question it any further.
The light turned into a piece of paper, and taking advantage of the passing comets, I leaned back to the column to read it better.
“Dear Martin.
I hope this message finds you after I depart from this world. I realized that I am better off somewhere else other than this place. I don’t belong here, my family berates me when I call them, my roommates bully me, and I don’t get enjoyment from doing anything. I feel sick all the time because my body is weak, this is also the reason I couldn’t come to the party last week. All I do is sit all day and write on my laptop, wondering about a future that may never come. My grades suck, so I don’t expect to get a job from anywhere when I graduate.
My friend, I hope you will not read this message and fall in despair. That is the last thing I want you to do. Just live the life however you want, because I couldn’t. Good night, and stay safe.”
I couldn’t even finish the last sentences from crying my eyes out. This was the last message my closest friend sent before he jumped off the top floor of our dormitory. I didn’t have the best grades or dates, but I had him, and when he left, I ruined myself along the way. I failed at college, so I picked my father’s job and perfected it.
After finishing the letter, I gained a new perspective on my situation. The comets, this barren void, everything made a little more sense to me. With my renewed confidence and energy, I continued on my way, for however long it may be. It didn’t make my job easier, however. The wind picked up, making me physically unable to open my eyes or move freely. I refused to stop even though every single part of my body felt the unwavering cold. My skin shriveled, and wounds popped off in my hands. My mind raced with thoughts; at this rate, I would actually fuse with the column. My fingertips grew numb, and my legs became as stiff as a stick. I couldn’t handle it anymore, so I shrieked in pain. I bit my lips and kept walking. I could only move at a snail’s pace, however.
After the torture I went through, the wind calmed down a little bit, however, I neither had the strength nor the mental energy to go any further. It truly felt like a breaking point in my body and mind. I managed to open my frozen eyelids, just to see a white door fused inside the column. This was the end; I only needed a little strength to carry myself to the exit. My body didn’t budge, the cold crystallized every part of my skin. I couldn’t give up in the end, so I dragged my body to the door, reached for the handle, and opened it. She saw the awful state I was in and carried me to the hall. Relieved to be at the hands of the only person I knew, I let my consciousness go for a break.
I opened my eyes in the entrance hall of the house. She put a towel on my face and prepared some snacks. It felt very comfortable, so I didn’t want to move for a while. One thing, however, I had to check it immediately.
8 PM. Time actually passed, so I must be on the Earth, I thought. She noticed the change in my mood.
“You seem very happy; you enjoyed my company this much so you fainted on me?”
I chuckled as well; however, I knew what she did to me there.
“You know what happened back there, don’t you?”
She glanced away; her mind seemed to be full of thoughts.
“More or less. Everyone experiences life differently, after all. Right?”
I only nodded and got up. She asked me to stay a little bit more, but if I stayed in that house one more minute, I could’ve lost myself. For the plumbing costs, I am not sure if I did any, she gave me a hefty check. After I bid her farewell, I walked outside of my prison. I couldn’t hold myself anymore, so I cried the whole way home. I hugged my children and kissed my wife; we sat down and ate that night’s dinner.
After that day, I’ve had consistent nightmares about that place for a couple of years. I went to therapy and used medicine but nothing worked. My job also suffered because of it. My mental health got a bit better as time went on, and I stopped visiting the church entirely. Some of my friends distanced themselves for it, but I didn’t care. That house proved to me a place where the laws God put did not apply. My search for the truth snowballed from there, and while I have yet to find it, I know I eventually will.
For that house, I never visited that part of the state again. We moved our house across the country because of that event. I couldn’t feel at peace when it was so close to me. Later, I heard that the house was destroyed by a storm, but I am not sure if that is possible. Regardless, I found the truth out there at the cost of my sanity and physical health. I hope people will learn something from my agonizing, yet eye-opening experience.