The Darkest Room

Originally written on a lunch break, April 23, 2019.

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Thomas walked into the dark apartment, knocking softly on the two-thirds of the door still in the frame as he did so.

“Rachel? Rachel are you in here? Your mom is still looking for you. I thought we agreed you would head home so as not to worry her three hours ago.”

He peered into the dim sunset light filtering through the dusty windows. Rachel and Thomas had both recently graduated high school, and were in their last summer before Thomas went up north for school, and Rachel moved down south to work full-time trying to get into cinema. Since they were thirteen, Rachel came up to this semi-furnished apartment on the second floor of an old run-down building when she felt the need to hide from the world, usually once every couple of weeks. Only Thomas knew about this place, and so there had been formed a routine that whenever Mrs. Dewar would call him saying Rachel had gone missing, he’d promise to see if he could find her and make sure she would make it home. Every time before now, he’d come up here, found Rachel sitting in one of the old soft chairs in the corner, reading with a tiny flashlight and a book. He’d talk about what was bothering her, and he’d send her back to her mother. Every time before now that had been the end of it.

Tonight though, Rachel had said she would head home straightaway, but Mrs. Dewar had called a couple of hours later to say that Rachel had never showed. So Thomas had headed back up the stairs of the dilapidated brick building and returned to the room.

Rachel wasn’t in the chairs.

There was a pressing quiet in the room around him. Thomas had never been alone here. He had first entered this building with Rachel when they were younger. She had wanted to explore, and he had not wanted to seem like a coward so he went with here. The first floor was mostly empty rooms and locked doors, cobwebs coating most of the walls and ceilings. The stairs led up to a second floor, again mostly empty rooms, more cobwebs, more dust. Thomas had been ready to leave at that point, but Rachel had pointed out the broken door and wanted to see the entire building. Inside was the only furniture they had found, and the room had no spiders to be seen. Rachel loved it immediately, Thomas could tell. Thomas always got the creeps.

“Rachel?” Thomas called again, louder this time. He knew he had no reason to be afraid here, yet he was, “Rachel, come on, don’t hide from me. Your mom is worried sick.”

Thomas checked the rest of the living room and kitchen area quickly, no sign of Rachel. He turned towards the bedroom door. The door was shut. Thomas had not gone into that bedroom ever, even on that first day. The windows had been covered in black fabric years before they found the place, and the room was a dark hole. It didn’t give Thomas the creeps, it downright terrified him, and he had refused to enter it. However, he had never seen that door closed. The black rectangle beyond the doorway had always nagged at the corner of his vision when he came here.

Now he swallowed, then tried add some annoyance into his tone to take out the fear. “Rachel. This isn’t funny. Come on out now so we can head home. The sun will be down soon and I…” He paused, but only briefly, “...don’t want to be here when it does.”

The door remained shut. Thomas stared at it.

Nearly a minute passed before Thomas realized that he was standing stiffly, staring at the door. He crept forward as quietly as possible, though he had no idea why, until he was standing silent right in front of the door.

He reached forward and turned the knob. He pushed softly on the door and it swung open. Beyond was blackness. Tonight it didn’t just seem like a dark hole, it seemed like a vast nothingness beyond that door. If he stepped forward, he would just vanish into the shadows, never to be seen again.

Perhaps the shadows had swallowed up Rachel. Maybe she was gone for good.

Or maybe Thomas was being an idiot and Rachel was hiding for whatever reason. Thomas lifted his foot to step forward.

“NO!” The voice wasn’t completely in his ears. It felt like it was far away and yet right in his brain. It was Rachel’s voice. Thomas’ foot came down where it had lifted from.

“Rachel! What game are you playing? This isn’t funny.”

Silence pressed around him again, the sun had definitely sunk since he’d entered the apartment, and the shadows seemed like they were coming alive around him. He nervously steeled himself to enter the bedroom.

Another minute passed. Thomas began to move forward again.

“NO!” The voice was the same as before.

Thomas sighed, “Rachel. I don’t like this. Your mom is worried about you and you’re messing with me. Let’s go.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and turned on the flashlight, pointing it into the bedroom.

There was the bed, covered in a dark purple duvet. A nightstand sat beside it, and a dresser along the wall. There was a patch on the wall above the bed that looked as if a picture had hung there for a time, but was not there now. Thomas walked into the room, checking under the bed and in the bathroom and walk-in closet, which was empty. Rachel was nowhere to be found.

As Thomas made his way to the door, the LED on his phone flickered, then went out completely. A scream rent the air in the bedroom. Then silence.

Fifteen minutes crept by, and nothing stirred in that room.

The sun set fully, and the apartment settled into a murky darkness, only vaguely illuminated by a streetlight outside.

Thomas and Rachel stepped out of the bedroom, and left the apartment.

Thomas and Rachel remained trapped within the darkness of that room.