A Passage to Nowhere

It was today that I decided to visit this place again. Looking at the surface, the locked doors are in a decrepit and dilapidated state, a testament to the years of neglect for this place. Looking rather weak, I decided not to pry these doors and instead reach in my pocket for the keys. As I shimmy the keychain out of my pocket, I am greeted by an old, albeit familiar, jingle that momentarily pauses me to think “is it right coming to this place?” I eventually find the key for the door and slide it into the worn-out lock. As I slowly turn the key, a loud clang from the lock can be heard, and the doors slowly open, scattering the dust and overgrowth that built-up against the door.

As I look inside, the scene was unlike any other. A narrow hallway stretched as far as the eye can see, and a bright light fills my eyes. As I take a moment to adjust, I am greeted by a long hallway that, despite the doors, is in pristine condition. The dust from the outside seeps in and sparkles beneath the bright light from above. The doors to the side are colored, and the adjacent windows are of frosted glass. A wonderful place untouched ever since its abandonment. I gingerly take a few steps down and notice the first room. The door was blue and the handle was white, pretty odd coloring if you ask me. I am hesitant to open the door, so I settle for the window instead.

I see a guy, black hair, black suit, and black shoes. I see two children run up to him as a dark figure from behind slowly makes itself visible. The guy slowly grabs the children up to his chest with his arms, as the figure approaches him and kisses him from the side. For a second there, I thought that he would be afraid of the figure behind him, but I was wrong. I try to move closer, trying to get a better look at the being beside him which seems to be completely enveloped in the shadows. My nose and lips meet the glass and the guy looks in my general direction. He seems to take note of my presence and says something inaudible before opening the door and hustling his kids and the figure to a car and then driving off into the distance.

A sudden epiphany greets me as I step back from the glass, realizing what had happened. I realize now that I wasn’t looking in, but rather, I was peering out; he, on the other side, was looking in.

Moving onto the other room nearby, opposite to that side, I am greeted by the sight of a young woman. She is of a short figure, sitting in the middle of an empty room, playing what seems to be a guitar or ukulele, and she appears to be singing. While it does not immediately strike me as such, her condition seems to be rather lonely. Playing for an imaginary audience in the middle of an empty room, with no one to hear her. It seems that she has some kind of importance to this place, but I can’t put my finger on it.

I move on and glance at the other rooms, all with similar themes. In another room, I see a bunch of guys playing or having fun in a swimming pool. In another, two people: a boy and a girl, wandering around a place adorned with artworks. And yet in another, three guys and a girl at a restaurant of some sort. I can’t help but feel some sort of warmth radiating from outside the walls and into the hallway. My steps thus far haven’t been cold nor alone, but rather quite comfortable and soothing.

As I make my way down into the seemingly endless corridor, the warmth that seems to radiate weakens. The rooms inside, however, still seem to contain the same theme from the first few rooms. With that thought, I skip some rooms until I get to a rather interesting spot in the hallway.

It appears I was wrong, the light doesn’t stretch out until the very end of this hallway. It oddly ends at this spot, and a darkened road looms ahead of me; a stark contrast between two portions of the same thing. I stride forward and notice that there’s an end to this journey, but I can’t make out anything of it yet.

The first few rooms seem to have taken a drastic change in theme compared to the rooms bathed in light. In the first one, I see dark brown bottles and a giant person screaming what seems to be obscenities at a wooden door. This leads me to think "Who is the man and who is he yelling at? Who is the person behind the door?"

I get tired of wondering and move on to the next window. Unlike the first few rooms, the ones here are few and far apart. Eventually, I make my way into the next room and, looking through the window, it appears to be… empty, and the glass crystal clear. I tap briefly at the glass, with no response. I wonder what’s in this room. I suppose the only way to find out is by opening the door, although it never occurred to me that the previous doors were unlocked. I guess this may be an exception. I put my hand on the knob and a sharp cold pierces through my hand. Not wanting to let go, I turn the knob and gently open the door.

As I step in, the door shuts behind me, leaving me alone in the room. I knock on the door behind me, and to my relief, a figure appears behind the door. As I take in their appearance, their mouth slowly becomes larger, and their eyes light up at the sight of me. They let out a frightening shout and scream obscenities at me. I back off further into the room as I was now the target of this scary being. Backing into a corner, I quickly accept my fate by this being and huddle into a ball while covering my ears. Teardrops form around my eyes and I see the door ahead left ajar. Taking this opportunity, I bolt toward the exit and shut the door within seconds.

Running down the hallway, I quickly seek for the exit, as the hall slowly becomes darker and redder. Various voices can be heard while I was running, and at first, the sounds seem to be coming from the rooms, but now it seems as if they’re coming from the walls. I head down to the last door at the end of this hallway. This must be the exit, it must be, it just has to be. The door is colored red and, unlike the others, which were wooden, this one was of steel. The handle is different from the others as well, as the handle was just one long steel bar stretching from the adjacent edges of the door. I close my eyes, push forward, and hope for the best.

My eyes quickly open to the sight of a nearly pitch-black room. There’s just a computer on the table, with the image on the screen appearing to be a crude drawing. And at the darkest corner of the room is a boy, sobbing. He seems distraught, depressed, lonely. The boy quickly realizes my presence and looks up, there’s some rope tied to his neck. I look around and see the other snapped part fixed to the ceiling. It seems that this boy has failed to commit suicide.

I reach out to him, assuring him that he’s okay and that he will feel better, and he just yells at me to get out in an exasperated tone. His eyes and voice dry and weary from all the crying, and yet he musters up enough courage to tell me to leave. I try to give him some gifts and tell him that I could introduce him to the other rooms, but all he does is give off a dejected vibe. I guess this boy is too far gone. I make a promise to him that I will come back and help him when I am more prepared, when I am more knowledgeable in dealing with him. I give the boy a huge hug but he doesn’t hug me back, his arms firmly remaining by his side.

I break off and remind him of my promise as I head out the door. As I walk back to the entrance, I can’t help but think of that boy at the back of my mind. Heck, I can’t help but think of who all these people are, and the significance of them as well as this place. I wonder if more rooms will be added and in what part of the hallway they would go.

Upon reaching the exit, I wake up.