Stuck

The screen was blank, and the cursor blinked to my frustration. Empty of words to write, a block. I wondered: why not write about love? "This is a story of love, a story that narrates love..." I stopped. I don't think I like how this story is going. I cleared the screen. I pondered numerous topics: hate, loneliness, anger, but I didn't exceed a paragraph. The silence of the room amplified the emptiness.

"Emptiness"... so I wrote: "The emptiness of my mind has imprisoned my words. I feel 'stuck' in the blankness..."

"Stuck," he said.

"Who said that?" I said. It was a man; he entered my perception.

"You said you were stuck, which is something we have in common," he replied.

"We?"

"Yes... we. Us. We are stuck. I am stuck in a place I don't know. I don't know how I got there, and I don't think I can get out," he said.

"I see," I said.

"Are you perhaps a writer?" he asked.

"You can say that..."

"Great, you can help me?"

"How do I do that?" I asked.

"As you are a writer, a being capable of raising worlds and altering fate, you are the only one who can help me. That's what he told me," he said.

"He?"

"We're running out of time. He said you would need to write my story."

How do I write a story I don't know? How could I help him when I have not been able to write a single paragraph?

"Where do we begin?" I asked.

"My earliest memory was in a car......" We were in a car, driving in the night, on a dark road with trees on both sides. He was driving. "Where are we going?" I enquired.

"I am going home. Weij."

"Weij....?" Where have I heard of that before?

His face looked tired, but something else was keeping him awake. He didn't seem comfortable. Could it be he wanted "to go"? Well, how do I know. The drive was quiet, with classical music playing in the background. "Are you alright?" I asked.

"I'm not too bad, just tired. Just hoping for a stop soon." He sounded almost certain there was a stop.

Shortly after, we saw lights. It was a rest stop. We got closer; the place was huge, about three floors, and the lights were so bright. The front was made of glass; you could see the inside. A large hall with benches and other areas to explore. The parking lot was empty, which caused me to notice there was no one on site. It felt rather wrong; in better words, I would say ominous.

"The place is empty," I said.

"Yes, that leaves all the space for us," he replied.

The radio began to glitch as we drove to the lot, and it went completely off, leaving behind only ticks, like from a clock. It gave an eerie feeling.

"Does your radio do that often?" I asked.

"I don't think so; perhaps the area is the problem."

We came out of the car and headed to the building. It was so quiet outside, with nothing on site. We entered, and the reception was empty; the room was well arranged, almost to perfection. There was no door aside from one. A single door at the end of the hall.

"I guess the bathroom is that way," he said, leading the way.

I wonder why he didn't find any of this weird.

The door was cream in color, more like a cosmic latte. We entered, and before us was a hallway full of doors, all as white as the walls, almost endless, but only a single door stood out: a red door. There was a red door with a poster on it and a warning sign: "Out of Service, Do Not Enter." What are the odds the bathroom was behind the only red door in the hall? This was more than a coincidence.

"I don't think it would be a good idea to go in," I said.

"Come on, don't tell me you are scared." And he pushed his way through.

The bathroom was white: the tiles, the door, the sink, all in bright white unison, but a yellow tape was tied across the room. The tape looked like caution tape but had runes on it, like a Taoist talisman.

"I am not sure you should cross that," I said.

"I didn't think you were that suspicious," he said, and ripped his way through.

I stepped out first, before him. The hallway suddenly looked longer, like space itself was distorted. The ends had vanished into darkness, leaving an endless hallway of doors. He came out after me, and the door shut behind him. He froze. "What is this?" he asked himself.

"I think the space in the hallway has altered," I said, but he seemed not to hear me.

"Hey." I stood in front of him and waved at his face, but nothing. He turned to go back, but the red door had disappeared.

He was left to choose between the endless doors and the darkness at the ends of the hallway. He turned and headed towards the left end of the hallway. His steps were hesitant. I could hear his breath, his anxiety oozing out of him. He entered the darkness. Then there was music, the classical he had been playing in the car. It sounded soothing yet ominous, a paradox on its own. He walked towards the sound and saw a door, it looked the same as the previous one but felt different. He went through it and came back to the hall. It was large and perfect. Everything was perfect: the arrangement of the benches, the light... Outside lay beyond the glass, but it didn't feel reachable. He went back to the entrance, but it was gone.

"Where is he? Did he perhaps go through one of the doors?" he thought to himself.

"Wait... who is he? Who is he that I am looking for?" he thought harder.

I was right there watching him, but it seemed the distortion of space had affected his mind.

From desperation, he took a chair and began slamming it against the glass, but it didn't budge. The anxiety was breaking him, breaking his mind. Then the music ceased, and the ticking followed, just like what we heard in the car. It sounded like that of a clock, but with two ticks at an interval. The air in the room changed. Something was coming.

"Hide...!" It was as if he could finally hear me. He rushed to the reception table and hid under it. There was a sudden ripple on the glass, and a group stepped through. They were human-like beings, with almost every feature of man, but they didn't seem human. Their eyes were covered with flesh, like the skin on their foreheads had bloated and covered up their eyes and nose. They had no hair and were dressed in a peculiar manner. They had on penguin suits and carried briefcases.

They examined the room the moment they stepped out, as though they sensed the disorder in the hall. One moved towards the chair on the ground. It was out of place. Then it turned towards the receptionist's table. The ticks seemed to get louder. It was almost at the table when the one at the center communicated with it to return. I could feel his fear from under the table. The creature stood there for a while, and then it returned to the group. They walked to the centre of the hall and paused. The one in the middle looked up, and they all did the same. They stood staring at the bright white ceiling. They turned to a wall and walked towards it. They didn't stop when at the wall; they proceeded to walk on the wall like gravity didn't bind them. They walked to the centre of the ceiling, opened a secret door, and went through it.

The music came back on after they left. I was certain they sensed him there. I heard the one in the middle tell the other to leave "it" alone. They spoke a strange language. Somehow, I understood. "Why did they leave him alone?" I wondered.

He crawled out slowly. There was a look of relief on his face. He wandered around the room for a way out.

He went back through the cosmic latte door, through the darkness, back into the hallway of doors. The white doors remained, but there was no red door. He walked to the other dark end. It was colder and darker, too dark to even see. All he had were his senses. He walked slowly until he met an end. He felt a door and looked out for a knob. He pushed his way through the door, and something ripped. It was a door sealed behind wallpaper, with a poster on it. That poster looked so familiar. He was in a room, a bedroom. The room was dark, but not too dark. He was fixed on the poster. He stood before the door, staring blankly at the poster.

"You made it..." a voice said from behind him. He got startled. A figure emerged from the dark; it was a man in black. "I can see you brought him with you." He turned towards me and bowed. "Master," he said.

"Master?" I thought. "Hmmm, it seems you are my master, but not completely him. You're the him before he began... what?" I asked.

"Who are you talking to?" he asked the man in black.

He turned back to him. "It seems the alter realm distorted your mind," said the man in black. He was good-looking, with pale white skin, and he wore the purest black. He walked to the exit and crossed the door twice. "Come with me." And we followed him through the door. We arrived at a diner: Mommies.

It's very familiar, like the Mommies I imagined before. "I am Zeroth..." the man in black said, "... I mean, that is what you named me. I am your Herald, one of the primordials."

He seemed so familiar, yet I have no memory of him. "Professor....." The man in black turned to him. "What is going on?"

"You got trapped in the alter realm, and you brought the writer, a being who can save you."

How does he get out... "The red door?" I thought.

"The red door?" the man said. Did he hear me?

"Find the red door.... THEY are waiting for you. Trust your instincts," the man in black said.

"See you soon, Master."

I wondered; how does he find the red door? I am certain it will come to me.

The man in black took him to the door and opened a path to the alter realm. He went through, and it was total darkness. We appeared in the hallway.

The music had stopped. There was only silence. That made it scarier; there were no ticks. The hallway was void of sound. He stood with chills all over, hoping to hear the presence he could sense. The darkness crawled over the light. It was as if they were closing in from both ends. Then there was "a drop", the sound of water dripping behind one of the doors

Suddenly, the ticks began, more ominous and intense. Then the sound of footsteps closing in on him. "They are coming," he said, looking around. He needed to find where the sound of water was coming from. He began to follow the sound of the drops. The darkness got closer and closer. "There, the door with the triangular knob." He reached for it and opened it. Before the darkness could engulf him, he went through the door, and pale hands reached out of the darkness. He shut the door.

The floors were flooded. The dripping got louder. He was getting close.

The lights were blinking, and the room was far from perfect. The further he went, the deeper the water got.

The water got deeper. It was right up to his waist. The dripping got louder. The deeper he got, the closer he got, and the lights went off.

"Deeper," He dived into the water. "Deeper, they are coming..." He dived. Deeper and deeper. The ticks began, and they swam the room. Then, splashes. They were coming closer. And he saw it: the red door underneath the water.

They grabbed his leg and began to pull him up. "No... no!" he screamed, holding his words, only allowing bubbles.

He held them and pulled them in.

The creature lost its grip, and he swam to the red door and went through. He immediately put up the Taoist talisman.

The instant they pushed past the door, the runes on the talisman began to glow and burn them to ash. He sat on the floor, dripping wet, exhausted, and afraid.

He carried himself off the floor. He stood and watched the ash on the floor for a while, as though he was trying to understand all that had happened. He walked out, his thoughts weighing heavily. He walked to the hall, and to his relief, the exit was right there. He walked into his car and gave up a final sigh.

He put on the radio and tuned to a long glitch, then suddenly... the ticks.