Five Years Later

Frankly, William found this old place underwhelming.

As a child, it had been the creepiest thing in the world. Nothing could be exciting than the cellar of an old abandoned cabin, barely still standing, in the middle of the woods. This old place had captured his imagination, and he had spent countless hours out here. The little chair he had dragged out there still sat in the corner, untouched for years.

He had loved spending time there, until he began hearing noises. To his young ears, it had sounded as if the walls were thin, and behind them something was scratching, trying to get out. After hearing that noise a few times, he had left and never come back.

Now, ten years later, he knew it had just been his imagination. He was twenty one years old. The walls of the cellar were clearly solid earth, and he heard nothing at all. Of course there was nothing behind them.

William suddenly became aware of a feeling he had not expected to feel here: boredom. Now that he was older, the place had lost its air of magic and mystery. He turned to climb the ladder to leave.

Then he heard it. It was perhaps the quietest sound he had ever heard. Everything was dead silent, and then...

He froze. A quiet scratching sound was coming from the wall behind him.

William stood still, listening, wanting to run but unwilling to let himself. Then he heard the sound again, a little fainter, but still clearly audible in the utter silence.

Finally, curiosity conquered fear. He turned around, pulled out his pocketknife, and began to scrape away at the dirt wall. To his surprise, the knife slipped through the soft dirt and immediately struck stone.

The dirt layer was paper thin. Within a few minutes, he had brushed it all away, and found himself facing a stone door. An ancient-looking dial sat in the middle of the door, with a few words in a foreign language chiseled around the outside.

There was no sound now, not even the scratching William had heard earlier. Everything was dead silent.

He reached for the dial, then hesitated. What could be behind that door? He no longer felt an irrational fear, but rather a rational understanding that he was radically underprepared for what might come next.

Once, he would have given anything for the chance to have an adventure like this. Now, he wasn't so sure. Reason told him to leave. What possible good could come from opening this door right now?

William hesitated only for a moment, then turned to climb back up the ladder. He wasn't a child anymore. He couldn't justify charging into this place alone, completely unsure of what he was facing, as much fun as that would be.

Perhaps he would come back here one day, but now was not the time.

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A Picture is Worth 1000 Words freewrite

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