The Trap Door

I had been driving all day and well into the night, just trying to get home for the Halloween weekend. The digital clock on my dash burned my eyes as I tried to read the time, 02:07. Feeling the exhaustion creeping into my bones, I needed to find a place to grab energy drinks, caffeine, or anything to help me stay awake. My GPS showed that there were several miles until the next possible stop. Rolling down the windows and letting the chill air nip at my cheeks, was going to be my savior for the time being. 

In the distance up ahead, a speck of light snaps me out of my daze. 02:15, I haven’t been driving long enough to be close to a stopping area. As the light grows closer, a sign reading “GAS & REFRESHMENTS” beacons me. My screen doesn’t show that this building exists on this road, but the exhaustion weighing my shoulders down won’t let me pass this up. I slow enough to pull in and park next to the pump. Before getting out, I grab the monitor off of the dash and zoom out and in. The nearest building is supposedly at least 15 miles up the road. “I guess, maybe it’s a glitch?? Or maybe this is new?” I say out loud to well, the steering wheel, I guess. Snatching my bag and keys, I get out and head inside the gas station. 

A little bell tings as I open the door to a flood of LED lights. My tired eyes flutter trying to adjust against the barrage of brightness. It is eerily quiet with just the hum of the refrigerators to be heard. Turning to my left, a dusty, unattended counter greets me. A glance to my right, just shows a door to the restrooms. 

“Hello?” I call out. Nothing.

“Hello?! Anyone here?” I try again. Still nothing.  

Heading towards the back fridge to grab some energy drinks, I can just hope that someone comes to the front soon. I make a few laps, grabbing snacks, drinks and some chocolate bars, but there is still nobody coming to the counter when I make it there. Putting down my items, one-by-one, I wait. A few minutes go by without any sign of movement, I check over my shoulders and head towards the back room. Maybe they can’t hear me? 

I round the corner and come face-to-face with a door. Break room is printed on a plaque at the top of the door. Hopefully somebody is hiding in here, I think as I push my way inside. The lights inside the room are flickering, casting eerie shadows on the turned over chairs scattering the floor. There are lockers on the right hand side of the wall, a sink right across from me with a microwave resting on top, which clearly hasn’t been used in a long time. Rust around the seam of it made that obvious. I walked in and turn to the left, letting the door slowly close behind me. There is a door on the far left wall, but before I have a chance to get over there and check it out, the door behind me closes with the click of a lock. Hurling myself at the door trying to open it but, no matter how much I pull, twist, and turn it will not budge. 

“Do not panic, it is probably just an old door, it’s probably just stuck.” I tell myself, knowing that’s a lie. Taking several deep breaths trying to slow my heart rate, I lean my back against the door, I scan the room again. This time it is to figure out if there is a way out of this dump. No windows, no vents, my only option is through that other door. What if that one also closes me in when I go through it? 

I get up the courage and walk across the room, grabbing a chair so I can prop the door open. My hand rests on the door knob as I brace myself for what may be on the other side. Turning my hand I rip the door open as fast as I can. I’m not sure what I was expecting to see but a janitorial closet was not it. Placing the chair in the doorway I slowly let the door close and make sure it will stay open. Feeling good that it won’t close, I take my phone out of my pocket and turn the flashlight on. A quick glance at the time showed me it was 02:30, roughly 15 minutes have passed since I got here.

 Shining my light around the room, a box on the floor draws my attention. Getting closer, I was expecting to find toilet paper, paper towels, anything but the VHS tapes I did find. They are covered in dust so clearly nobody has been watching them. I pick them up and read the label. There is a date, today’s date! So someone was definitely here! The other ones seem to be from roughly the same time every year previously. Sitting down on the floor, my foot accidentally knocks the box to the side and reveals a trap door in the floor. 

There is a little hole that I am assuming is the handle, I shine the light through there and see a ladder. Cautiously I lift the door, a plume of dust comes up as the door hits the floor. The cloud tickles my nose and I sneeze a few times before finally getting up the courage to go down the ladder. Wood creaks under my feet as I slowly ease further and further into the depths below. 

After several more steps my feet hit concrete. Slowly casting my light around, it doesn’t bring too much to light. There is a wall right behind the ladder and my only option would be to head down the dark corridor or go back up and be stuck anyway. Chancing it I put both feet on the ground and turning my back to the ladder, my phone beeps in my hand. 10% flashes across my screen. How?! I had almost a fully charged phone when I parked. Panic floods my veins, I have no choice but to start walking and hope I can find an exit before I am totally stranded without a way to reach civilization. 

I was walking for what felt like forever, when my phone beeped one last time and died. Blackness flooded my senses. My heart beat is in my ears, and breathing is getting harder to do by the second. Instinct takes over and I rush forward. First at a fast walk, then I am running. My feet feel like they are just carrying me along.

Out of nowhere pain floods my head and I hit the floor on my back. A trickle of something wet glides down the side of my head. My hand traces it back to a cut on my forehead. What did I hit? I slowly sit up, nausea plows through my stomach like a truck. Moving to my side I throw up. Great, definitely a concussion. Slowly with one hand raised above me, I stand. Fingertips make contact with something solid. My hands wrap around what feels like a cold pipe that’s going across the little tunnel. I wonder if that is one of the pipes to the fridges that are above me? Once I got my bearings, cautiously I start my walk again. This time keeping one hand raised above me to feel for any more obstacles.

I have lost track of how long I have been walking as finally, FINALLY a warm hue slices through the static around me. As I approach, the energy in the air seems to shift. Maybe it is because it is so out of place or what, but I feel like I am being watched. Being enveloped in the light puts into perspective just how dark the space I was just in, truly is. The light is in a constant, losing battle to the dark. Tracing my hand down the wall, now alight around me with lanterns paving the way, I resume trying to find the end of this place.

Up ahead there seems to be jars placed on the floor under the lanterns with something inside them. When I get to the first one, I kneel down and pick it up. With a gasp my hands release the jar and it breaks on the hard floor. The contents spill out, a kidney. A very old but clearly still a bean shaped kidney is now laying at my feet. With wide eyes I stare at the other jars. Each one has something fleshy floating in it. Now I definitely need to get out of here. 

I start walking again, this time staying away from the walls, but take note of the contents as I pass them. There were several body parts ranging from a heart to smaller pieces of something I could not make out. Just as quickly as the jars appeared they stopped. Like the collection was not able to be finished. Instead there is a knife where the jar should have been, then there is a very old scarf. I bend down and turn the brittle fabric over to find a name embossed on it. Mary Jane Kelly, it reads. A familiarity gnaws at the back of my mind that I cannot place. Looking ahead there are more scraps of clothing. Each looking more haggard than the rest. There is a jarring shift to the items when a newer looking beanie is splayed out. Kneeling beside it, the name of the missing teenage boy from last year is scribbled on the tag inside it. Collapsing to the floor, my brain is going a million miles an hour trying to figure out what I am looking at. A not-so-quiet voice screams in my head “You need to get out of here!”.

I am walking again when I feel a cool breeze pass over me. I pause. Breeze means exit! Turning in circles looking for a light source that may lead me to where it came from, I lock eyes with a man who looks like he belongs in a Sherlock Holmes movie. Dark eyes, black mustache and matching hair covered by a flat cap. His eyes are alight with a hatred that I cannot describe. When he opens his mouth, brown, crooked, gnarly teeth sneer at me. I glance down, and in his hand is the knife that I had just walked past! Once our eyes lock again with a wicked grin, only one word is said. “Run”. My feet are moving before I can even fully wrap my head around what I just saw. 

I am running through the lights, and back into the dark, keeping a slight hunch to make sure not to knock myself down again. My breathing and my feet slamming into the ground is all I can hear. Pumping my arms as fast as I can, pushing my pace as hard possible to get back to the ladder. Finally I slam right into it. With no further thought, I begin to climb. A sharp burn in my left leg tears a scream from my throat. Kicking wildly I hit the man in the head and he pulls the blade from my leg allowing me to scramble up the rest of the ladder. Slamming the lid closed, I grab the heavy box of tapes and put it on top of the door. One of the tapes falls out, but I don’t notice right away until I had stacked some more boxes and such to ensure that the door would not be opened. No slam or thump ever came from the door, like he didn’t even try to open the door. 

After a little bit my adrenaline wears off and the pain in my leg scorches through me. I tried to stand but I couldn’t put full weight on it. Looking around the janitor closet for anything to stop the bleeding, I find an old rag and a pair of overalls tucked into the corner. I tear off a sleeve of the overalls and tie it over the rag to get the bleeding to stop. It was only once that was done that I saw the tape, the same tape with today’s date on it. I grabbed it and headed back into the break room. 

With a hopeless heart, I yanked on the break room door and it popped right open. I almost cried with the relief I felt! Hobbling out back to the counter, I can see the sun rise coming through the windows. On the counter, right where I left them, was the items I had picked out. There was a very thin layer of dust on them. The clock above said it was 7:32, but the date on the clock says I have been here for a whole day. How has a full day vanished?! I was in the tunnel for no longer than 30 minutes tops. I glance into my hands and see the tape. Gazing around the store I see the TV with a VHS player underneath in the corner by the bathrooms. Weird location, but it is the least weird thing tonight. Curiosity had me by the throat, I couldn’t leave and not watch it.

Once I secure the tape into the player, and hit play, I was not prepared for what I saw. The tape goes black and white static for just a moment, before a scene of the basement flashes. In the light section of the tunnel, my back is lit up. You can see me looking at the jars and the clothes! Someone was watching me the whole time! Once I am in the light part of the tunnel, the person behind the camera occasionally slowly raises a knife to the back of my neck. You can see me turning around, and as I lock eyes with the man, the screen goes black. Static fills the store and pierces my ears. 

There is so much to process. Being here for a full day, the man in the tunnel, the wounds I have sustained. Did the man have a camera? Did I just not see it? The only logical thing I can think of was that, when I hit my head, I blacked out and the adrenaline made me more focused on the knife than to see if he had a camera. 

 Leaving behind the items on the counter, and the static on the TV, I hobble towards the door. My car is still parked where I left it. With a sigh of relief, I place my hands on the doors and with a final glance back, my breath catches. The shadow of the man stands in the hallway, waving the knife in a taunting motion. The shadow disappears as I am blinded by a bright light. 

A beeping slowly fades in from my right. My eyes try to adjust to the glaring new surroundings, a familiar voice fills my ears.

“She’s awake! Doctors come quick she’s awake!” My mother shouts.

Doctor's? What is she talking about? Where am I? I slowly turn my head and immediately regret it as pain slams into my head.

“Don’t move sweetie. Don’t move, I am right here.” mom says. 

“What happened? Where am I?” My voice is hoarse. My moms hands come to rest on mine.

“You were in a car accident a couple days ago. But you’re okay now!” Her thumb runs across the back of my hand.

“Mom, I wasn’t in a car accident. I stopped to get gas on route 12, and now I am here, it doesn’t make sense!” Her hand goes still.

“Honey, there are no gas stations out on route 12. A couple found you on the side of the road, on route 12, trapped in your car. The cops think you flipped the car, maybe you fell asleep. The paramedics said you’re very lucky, your injuries could have been much worse. You have a concussion, a couple stitches and a broken leg…” 

“Which leg?” I abruptly say before mom can finish.

“Your left. Why does that matter?” Mom sounds confused and worried at my question.

I explained what actually happened in a rushed voice. From being stuck in the gas station break room, to the tunnels with the mad man chasing me, and escaping after somehow being stuck there for over a day. My moms eyes fill with emotion as she pats my hand and runs a finger down my cheek. 

“The sedatives the doctors gave you must have given you weird dreams. I will get the doctor, you need to rest sweetie” With a gentle kiss to my cheek, she heads out of the room. 

 As I am laying there, listening to the steady beeping of the EKG machine next to me, my eye lids start to get heavy. Just as I drift off, my eyes snap open and lock with the same dark, hate-filled eyes from the tunnel. This time, they come dressed as a doctor. 

THE END.