Mind the Door

My partner decided I should write this down. I don’t think it’s necessary, but she says maybe someone else has found one of these. I doubt it- but I’ll tell the story anyway. Forgive my carelessness:

The fast-food life was not the way I had imagined I’d spend my time on this Earth, but there I was on the way back to the golden arches after the sixth 7-3AM shift this pay period. My apron hadn’t been washed and I was about ready to throw in the towel- though this was the same thing I thought yesterday, and the day before. I couldn’t have quit even if I wanted to. This was my only income, and I had rent to pay.

I always thought that the best parts of the job were the drives in and out. Not because I didn’t want to be there, which I didn’t, but because on the way in I could usually catch a glimpse of the sunset. The yellow and red sign was an eyesore against the moody rainbow that made up most evenings, but it was fitting.

The way home was nice too, but more so because there were no people on the road, and that meant I could drive faster than was legal. It made me feel badass I guess. We were a little out of the way from any real towns, so it wasn’t like anyone would notice or care anyway. I hadn’t gotten pulled over by that point, at least.

Once I had made it to the sorry excuse for a ‘food establishment’, I parked, gathered my things, and went in. Immediately my nose was smacked with the smell of cooking oil and salt. This place was where I’d always imagined diets, clean eating, and eventually people came to die. It was not where I thought I’d be spending my 20s. Regardless of what I thought, though, people wanted their burgers, and I was there to flip them.

“Adrian?” A woman’s voice piped up from behind the register. She glanced up, smiled, and bowed her head back towards the open drawer in front of her. “Good to see you! When you put your things down come out here, I have some things to update you on.”

I flattened my hand in a salute as I walked past her.

My coworker, Catherine, was the same age as me. She’d gotten pretty cozy with management recently, so they started letting her run things overnight. The woman cared more about the place than anyone else, and she always managed to make people look forward to coming in, myself included.

She was pretty average in terms of her height and had a mess of dirty blonde hair that was always tied up and back into a bun, probably for food safety reasons. She was generally well liked, mostly because shifts with her went smooth, however, she could really put the fear of God in you if you gave her a reason. She happened to be the silent anger type- the ones that always scare me. I used to hear people say she had this look about her- one that read ‘do better, or else’ without her so much as opening her mouth. She wasn’t afraid to put her foot down and let us know that she was disappointed. Luckily, I hadn’t been one of the people she’s done that to, and I plan on keeping it that way for as long as I can. I’m lucky to say that even now I manage to stay in her good graces.

I guess you can tell, but I was super into her. I hadn’t mustered up the courage to ask her out yet, though. I was working on it, but she had a kind of air about her that made her unapproachable to me. We’d hung out a few times before, with other people we worked with, but I never really had mustered up the chest hair to get it out.

The salute was all I could manage.

I made my way to the break room, taking in a breath of old fry oil and mildew. There were a few lockers and chairs next to a table that adorned the back right corner. It wasn’t very large, but neither was the team who used it. We were about 10 people max, not counting those who were being paid a salary. Administration, representatives, and the like.

It took all of 5 minutes to shove my belongings into an empty locker and throw on my apron.

“Cathy?” I called as I walked out. There was no one in the restaurant at this point, so it wasn’t like anyone would mind hearing whatever she needed to tell me.

“What’s up?”

“Don’t forget to punch in.” I heard her voice fall flat from around the corner. To this day I don’t know how she’d known I had.

“Shit, let me do that.”

“Please do,” She called. “it’s less work for me to do later, and I’ll be sure to vote you employee of the month!”

From the punch box I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. It hadn’t even sounded like she was joking. Part of me suddenly felt a little proud for coming into such good fortune.

I made my way back over with a smile. She really knew how to make a guy giddy. “So, what was it you had to tell me?”

With her attention unwavering from the register, she answered. “Gary, the new hire. You remember him, right?”

I wracked my brain. Gary? “Right, right, yeah I remember him.”

Liar.

Catherine finally looked up at me. It reminded me of the way my parents looked at me when they were trying to make me feel guilty for something. I couldn’t say I remembered then, because she would have definitely known I was lying. After a couple moments passed us in silence, she gave up and sighed.

“Well, he called in this afternoon to let us know that he would be quitting.”

“What? How long has he even been here?”

I didn’t blame the guy, but that was pretty low. He should’ve at least handed in a 2-week notice and kept coming in or something.

“This would’ve been his second shift I think.”

I quickly made a mental note that this Gary guy was probably a douchebag.

“Why even go through the whole application and hiring process?”

“Don’t ask me, I don’t know.”

“You trained him though, you weren’t there when they hired him?”

“I mean, yeah I was there for training, but I wasn’t the person who picked him. I just happened to be in.”

That made sense to me, so I dropped the line of questioning.

“Anyway, why’d you need to tell me that?”

I clearly caught her off guard with that question, as she didn’t answer me right away. Her gaze became soft and distant. She pressed a finger to her lips, and I hate to admit it, but I stopped paying attention. It was over for me.

I’m sure it would’ve been much more helpful for me to have helped her get back to the point, but my mind had already wandered far beyond the arches. My thoughts came and went like bullets; she was looking right through me. Her eyes were mesmerizing. Everything faded around us. I began to feel a knot in my chest and realized I was in deep shit if this was how I felt before asking her out. I needed to calm down.

“Right...” she stammered, throwing a hand to her forehead that immediately reversed the spell her eyes had cast. I blinked, and she sported a newfound look of remembrance. “Right! It’s just going to be us until 1. So, with that, and the fact that not everything was done because I was expecting to have help this afternoon, we’re going to have to pull some extra weight.”

I groaned, “Oh no! Stuck here alone with you. How will I ever survive?”

“Shut up and get to the grill please, I think I just heard the headset beep.”

It hadn’t, but it had seemed like my playfulness had rubbed off on her.  As she turned her attention back to our register and counting the till, I went into the kitchen.

 With only two people in the store, it isn’t hard to imagine that the night was dragging on. However, for whatever reason this night had dragged on so unbelievably long that Catherine and I were almost forced to talk to each other out of sheer boredom. There weren’t many customers either, but that was always a given with the overnight shifts. I had made 5 or 6 meals max by the time 3 hours dripped away.

To kill time, I tried to strike up another conversation. We were just talking about her very interesting time at our coworker, Hal’s, house the evening prior and how likely it was that he was a serial killer. We’d determined that he probably wasn’t, but one could never be too sure. That brought us from 9 to 9:45. I was hoping that some more interesting or important topics would get us to at least midnight.

“So,” I started. “What are your plans after this?”

“What?” Her gaze turned up to me. I bit my cheek, wondering if I’d said something wrong.

“I mean, what do you do when you aren’t working?”

I rephrased but still wasn’t sure if my words were coming across right.

“Oh, um, really just sleep, schoolwork, and then get ready to come back here.” Her eyes lowered again as she counted the till for what seemed like the thousandth time. However, after a moment, she stopped counting. “Why?”

I stammered. “Well, I just…”

I hadn’t expected this to be when or how I asked her, but I felt cornered now.

“I was wondering if there was room for us to go out for some coffee or something.” I panicked, “But! But, I understand if your schedule is packed though. You totally can say no, that’s understandable honestly. I know you work like every day and with school-“

Through my fumbling I made out the sound of laughter, and felt my cheeks warm up. As if she could read my mind, she answered.

“I’m sorry,” A smile had grown on her lips, “I don’t mean to sound like I’m laughing at you- I’m not.”

I breathed a sigh, relieved. I could’ve melted at her feet right there. Her eyes searched me as I tried to find the right next words. I don’t know if there were any.

“So... how about it?”

“Us going out?”

I nodded, saying anything else at that point could’ve be detrimental to the outcome. She seemed to think on it, still scanning my person, and pursed her lips.

“Well, you’ll have to let me see what my schedule is like for next week, but yeah. I think I could make it work.”

When I tell you I was elated: it was like Jesus himself told me I was his favorite disciple. I felt in that moment as if I could flip a million patties at once. Euphoria couldn’t have begun to cover what had washed over me. I welcomed it, more than happy with this outcome. I was a new man, confident, emboldened.

“Of course, take whatever time you need. Just let me know.”

“Sure. Actually,” Her attention had turned to another area of the store. She gestured towards the back. “There’s something we have to do before I forget. You remember where the supply closet is right?”

“Yeah, but I’m not usually in there.”

“Unfortunately, we both will be now that we’re the only people and Gary quit before doing the job for me. We have to get the floor cleaner. I don’t think anyone’s mopped today and it’s disgusting back here.”

I didn’t say anything, but I also didn’t think anyone had mopped in at least a few weeks. Catherine did a lot of jobs, and this was not typically one of them. It was surprising she just noticed now, and I began wondering how upset she would be when the mop inevitably revealed the weeks of dirt and grease. Thank God it wasn’t supposed to be my job.

“Alright,” she clasped her hands together almost excitedly, which caught me off guard “let’s get it moving then, I’ll turn the closed sign on for a little while. It isn’t like anyone is coming now anyway.”

She was right, the people in our area weren’t prone to coming in the late-night hours, but our regional manager had decided we’d be a 24-hour store regardless. Any sales were good sales I guess, even if there weren’t too many of them. It was 10pm, we’d probably get this done before someone accidentally came through the drive-thru and realized the sign wasn’t on.

The supply closet was next to the break room down the same hall I’d taken when I got in. Letting Catherine get ahead of me, I followed her down to the small door. She fished out a ring of keys and sighed.

“Something wrong?” I asked, though I felt like I already knew the answer.

“Nope. Just fine.” There was jingling as she continued. “I asked a few weeks ago for these keys to get labeled and it looks like no one fucking did.”

“Sounds about right.”

These were the kinds of things that went on at our location. People, even management, were not keen on doing anything that wasn’t outlined when they were being trained and that they weren’t getting extra money to do. Who, other than her, was going to actually take the time and label the keys knowing it meant basically nothing?

Before I knew it the door lock had clicked open, and Catherine let out a less irritated huff. “There’s been some renovations starting and they put a new lock on this door- There we go- I’ll have to get this key cleaned or something, but the door is open.”

“What’s wrong with the key?”

Spinning around, Catherine greeted me with the key I assumed she’d used to get the door unlocked. It was a disgusting mix of rust and chipped silver, with a rougher texture than the rest of the keys on the hoop. It looked like someone left it in a vat of salt water and waited for it to look like an antique before using it here. Why hadn’t they cleaned it ever or made a newer, nicer copy? Probably because people are lazy.

Shaking my head of the thought I grabbed past her and landed on the door handle. I gotta tell you, it was cold, like, unnecessarily cold now that I think about it. At the time I figured, Whatever, we’re probably under a vent, and pushed ahead. Upon opening I was met with something I’d never seen in this, or really any, fast food restaurant around here: a staircase leading down.

“Must’ve done some reno. I’m surprised I didn’t notice this.” I joked, nudging Catherine, but when she didn’t say a word, I glanced over to find her pale. “What’s wrong?”

“I just… this… the closet isn’t supposed to be like this.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was just in here yesterday for some gloves- there was no staircase. They just changed these locks.”

We shared some silence, but after a moment, I started laughing. She didn’t laugh with me as she stared down the stairs, so I nudged her arm softly. I thought it was a joke. I don’t know why I didn’t take her seriously then.

“That was really funny Cathy, but for real, when did we get this?”

“We didn’t!” Her voice cracked, breaking me from my laughter. We must’ve both been out of the loop with whatever was being done here, so I tried to offer her some peace of mind. I thought I was being helpful. Why didn’t I listen?

“Maybe it was covered or something. The cleaner is probably down there. Once we grab it we can lock the door up and ask whoever comes in tomorrow about it. Deal?” My first instinct was to place an arm around her shoulders, which I almost pulled back from, but she accepted and pressed into me.

“Want me to go down first?”

Catherine spun to face me, grabbing my hand. Her grip was firm enough to not come loose as I pulled back. “You’re really gonna go down? I have no idea if it’s even safe for us to-“

“Cathy!” I took a deep breath, and she followed. “Everything is going to be fine. If it’s not at the top of the stairs, it must be at the bottom. I’ll let you know if it’s all good- okay? No need for you to go down there if there’s just raw asbestos or something floating around.”

As if my words had brought her adrenaline down, she shook her head and barely mustered up a smile. Letting go of my hand, we stepped away from one another.

“I’m sorry,” She put a hand up to her face. “I don’t know why I’m freaking out so bad. I think the double shifts are catching up to me.”

I nodded. Taking a step toward new ground, I felt my stomach get light as the stairwell came into view.

They went down at least 15 feet, which felt wholly unnecessary for a joint in the middle of nowhere. At the landing the hall made a sharp left, obscuring my vision of the rest of the basement, which wasn’t great to begin with as the only light sources seemed to be oil-lamps starting at around 5 feet in. I turned to Cathy for a moment, nodded my head for her to stay put, and began my descent. I found that there was dust and dirt on each step, now perfuming out with my steps or sticking to my shoes. A mildewy, new construction and stale body sweat smell was taking up all the air in my lungs. It wasn’t like other sites I’d been to.

Gross, I thought. I guess the guys that did this haven’t come back to clean up.

Once I got to the landing and turned, to my surprise, there were more steps. This case wasn’t more than 5 feet down, but it still struck me as poor planning on the part of whoever designed it. Why need such a large staircase?

Before I decided to go further down, I turned and called up to Catherine that things were fine, and there were more stairs, but everything looked good. Leaving the door propped open with a mop bucket, she met me at the landing and from there we continued on. I hadn’t insisted on walking ahead of her, though she all but encouraged me to do so.

At the base of the steps there was a large, empty room save for a group of wooden boxes, plastic barrels, and power-tools, a few piles of strewn about paper and more oil lamps that hung from the walls. To the right of us was another hall leading to room with a small platform and a lectern, ahead was a door, and to the left another door with no light around it. Seeing as the floor cleaner wasn’t in my immediate view, I turned to consult my coworker.

“What’s the plan, then?”

“I don’t really want to, but I guess we should look around.”

I was surprised to hear this. I’d really expected her to forget the whole thing and march us back upstairs. She’d always been cool and collected whenever there were rowdy customers I guess, but that wasn’t really a good gauge for how she would react to this. I took a deep breath and smiled.

“We don’t have to split up if you don’t want to. We aren’t some mystery gang.”

This seemed to earn me some brownie points as I heard her laugh to herself, her tension breaking. Taking the lead, I brought us around the room. We started with searching through the scattered containers. Those boxes were more like crates as I got to examine them closer, and all but one was empty. It housed only some power tools and a burlap sack that folded over itself by the top. It looked like it was full of something, but I opted not to touch it. The smell coming from it was horrible. I’d never experienced whatever it was before, and at first figured the crew had left some lunch meat and fruit to rot.

Turning to give Cathy an update, I found she was halfway across the room from me, staring down the hall that led to the lectern. So much for wanting to stick together. As I went to call out to her, I was interrupted by what sounded like the scraping of feet along the floor to my side. Hair standing on end I turned my head as fast as I could, but the space beside me was empty. There was nothing, but I swore I heard something dragging itself right beside me. To now be unable to find any trace or signs of a source had me holding my breath. I couldn’t find any explanation though, so I figured maybe it’d been something above us. Shaking myself free of the horrors my mind was already making up, I finally called out.

“Anything over there?”

“Not sure, but I want to go see what’s up in this room. The oil lamps are weird enough, but why would they leave anything else down here?”

“Probably to ask us to clean it later. Why, what’s there?”

“Something on the lectern… I can’t tell from here.”

“Well yeah, it’s fucking dark.”

As if I hadn’t literally meant that, I heard her laugh, and once again I was lost on her. She really was beautiful, even in the dim view from the lamps. I wanted to say something, anything, but decided that if I did I might take her out of the laughter and lose the fluttery feeling in my stomach. So, I watched her, and as her laughter died down, we were brought back to the McDonald’s basement together. In hindsight I was definitely getting ahead of myself, but I was still naive then.

“I’m surprised they left anything down here really. There’re just some tools here and a huge sack. It reeks.”

“Sounds like the rest of the store,” Again, a smile that sent a pang through my chest. “Would you mind going in with me?”

Giving a, possibly too enthusiastic, nod in her direction, I took the lead once again. I’d been reinvigorated, my purpose to now escort the young woman beside me down the creepy dim hallway. We walked down, however, instead of there being plans or blueprints we’d expected on the lectern there sat a large blue marble notebook. Beside it, a large pale-yellow sticky note with faded writing stuck.

“Huh,” She picked it up, dusting off the top. “I haven’t seen this before.”

“Me either. Maybe we should leave it. I don’t want to get in trouble for touching anyone’s things.”

“Sure, I’ll put it back in a sec.”

As she flipped the book open, I shifted on my feet. I didn’t understand her newfound boldness after her hesitance to come down at all. Now she wanted to read from the random book? In the creepy basement? I said nothing but still felt hesitant. I kept telling myself it was just us, but something in the back of my mind was telling me that was wrong.

To occupy myself I reached out and took the sticky note off the lectern. I brought it close to my face so I could actually make out what was written on it, since it was pretty faded.

-         Speak with Apep about door properties

-         Copy key for instance 309

-         Scan for body

-         Lock up

I cocked my head to the side, feeling like I’d just lost my flashlight in a place I didn’t recognize. As far as I knew we didn’t have an Apep on the team. Was someone supposed to be living down here? That was question one. Two was: Why would anyone build a basement apartment underneath a McDonalds, and who would want to live there? Three: Body?

Cathy scoffed from her place a few steps from me, pulling my attention from the paper. “Whaddya got?”

Shaking her head, she came over to me and showed me the page she was on. It was full of writing on both sides. She looked from me to the book, and back up.

“Looks like someone was keeping a log.”

Hearing this, I placed a hand on the book and pressed it down from our gaze.

“Sounds like we shouldn’t be looking through it for sure. If it’s personal, we definitely want to leave it for someone else to deal with.”

“Adrian,” She looked up at me, her expression serious. “look at the date.”

I moved my hand away from the top of the pages. May 19th, 1990. That was well over 20 years ago, being the year was 2018. I wasn’t sure what she was trying to say yet, so I doubled down.

“Cool, so this is a super personal diary. Good for them for keeping up with it. We should leave it-”

“I don’t think you’re understanding me.” Cathy held the book up again, stepping back from me. “Someone has been living down here!”

I hate to admit it, but I laughed in her face once again. “I think I got that. The post it next to the book looked like it was from some contractor. I think they were making an apartment, but that’s impossible because there’s never been a basement here.”

“That’s true.”

Silence fell between us as it became painfully obvious to me that we both were trying to come up with some excuse for this place to exist. Dead air hung between us, only broken by the occasional sound of the flames flickering inside oil lamps. I’m not sure how long it was before one of us, Cathy, offered an idea. “Maybe they took down the back wall and there was just a staircase behind it?”

If only she’d been right. I wish that was all that had been down there.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “But we’re definitely intruding now, so why don’t we just head out?”

“Fair, I guess we can go. Let me just see how recent this gets.” If I had no control of myself, my jaw would’ve been on the floor. As she now was flipping through the pages, a newfound interest had replaced the fear. How could she just get over it like that?

I found myself looking around the room, more interested in leaving than her in an unexpected twist. It was at this point that I started noticing the splotchy paint on the walls and the graffiti that had been spray-painted around all the walls. There were symbols and words I didn’t understand. I had seen some of them in a video game once, a stick with a figure eight on the bottom and two lines through the top. It was crazy to me to see the sigil here, I had no idea it had any meaning in real life. Beside it was what I assumed to be another sigil, different than the others around the space. This one was bold, like it had been drawn over many times. A triangle, with a chunk taken from the top point. Stemming out from the center of the base was an uppercase Y shape that passed through the top gap, on either side of the Y, two lines jutted across the base, and in the middle, a closed eye.

“Aw that sucks.”

I looked back over to Catherine, who had now stopped going through the pages. “What’s wrong?”

“The last entry is from the same year, in July.”

“Maybe they weren’t keeping up.”

“Listen:

July 3rd, 1990

They’re going to lock me down here tonight for the sleep test. That guy Apep said I should keep a separate journal, so it doesn’t get mixed in with all the other things that are written in here.  I’m just glad to be catching a break. I couldn’t stay out on the street anymore. Hopefully things only go up from here. I’m sure he will read this, so thank you Apep for the place.”

As Cathy spoke, I gave the room another cautious once over.

“So, where’s the other book?”

As I asked, she procured a much smaller composition notebook from the inside of the larger.

“It was tucked into the last page here, conveniently.”

I scoffed as she handed it off to me and went to place the other book back onto its place. I opened it up to the first page and was almost happy to see another entry. I read aloud for Cathy:

“July 4th, 1990

Apep asked me specifically to record any dreams I had in here. I’ve never kept a diary before, but maybe it’ll help clear my head to get this out. Last night was awful. I was alone down here, then I blinked, and I wasn’t. Something towered in front of me. A huge, undulating mass was in my face. At first, I couldn’t really tell what I was looking at, but gradually I could see the distinct colors of flesh and muscle. A human arm twitched with sickening slaps to my right, another fused at the wrist and shoulder flopped aimlessly. Eyes, too many and too human, all trained on me.

It spoke to me. It didn’t have a mouth, but I heard it. Or I felt it? I don’t know. Neither of us spoke, but I got the message. I knew it was going to test me. It demanded to know if I was worthy. If I was, I’m destined for something great. That’s what confused me I guess. Dreams are weird- it looked so real I thought if I reached out I’d actually feel it there. Honestly, it was difficult to know when I was asleep or awake.

I was out by the stairs, just in the other room. I tried to turn away, but my body wouldn’t move, and panic began to settle. It sounds insane but, suddenly, the thought that my life was in danger wasn’t only real but imminent. Again, knowledge assaulted my mind, and I was painfully aware of too much. Something about old gods and doors and a Lighten- but it was really too much. It felt like someone had been trying to pry my skull apart. It hurts to remember.

All sense cut off abruptly at some point- I didn’t really understand any of what I’d gained, but with the silence I could finally move my head. As my gaze snapped up to get a better view, I found I would’ve had to step back to get the full picture of this thing. Dozens of human limbs flailed, save for those that were fused completely with its’ mass, eyes rolling and dashing wildly. I wanted to run, but I knew it’d be pointless to try. Then, all movement from the creature ceased. The thing just sat there, unmoving, like it had died right in front of me. It wasn’t comforting though, the feeling of imminent danger still pinning me to the spot. I heard a noise, turned my head, and when I came back to attention, the thing had a hand inches away from my face. I woke up screaming, but more than happy to find it was just a dream. It was by far the most realistic one I’ve ever had, but I think it must be a side effect of these pills. I’ll ask later.”

Reaching the end of the page, I looked over the words again. “That is crazy. This guy must be talking about a different basement he got locked in, because we’ve only ever had a supply closet up there.”

“Fuck that. Forget the cleaner- let’s go up.”

Still in disbelief, I gestured out to the hall. “Sure. Come on. I just want to get back to flipping shit.”

In silent agreement we both made our way back to the main room. I noticed as we were walking that I still had the notebook in my hands.

“You think I should leave this?” I asked ahead to Cathy. Without turning around, she shrugged. “I don’t know. Whatever you want. I’m leaving.”

That was fair. I looked around the main room and decided to just toss the notebook in the direction of the crates I’d looked through earlier. I no longer wanted any part of anything going on down here, and I was glad Cathy didn’t either. I was almost itching to continue talking about what we’d do on our date and get some solid plans down. Anything that could get us away from the new, poorly lit, McDonalds basement apartment was good enough for me. As I thought on this and tried to catch up to my coworker, I heard that same sound that made my guts clench. I stopped dead in my tracks. It’d been further than before, but still clear as day. Seeing as I had almost a full view of the space and couldn’t see anything that would’ve caused the sound, I dropped it much faster than the first instance but kept it in mind.

I made a swift ascent and stopped at the top of the stairs, just in front of the exit with Catherine. The mop bucket must’ve fallen over or rolled back a little because the door was shut.

“Forget something?” I asked, looking up at the back of her head until she faced me.

“I’m such an idiot.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t have the key on me anymore.”

“Oh, we should be fine. I watched you unlock it. It was open before, so it should still be.”

She reached her arm back, and the sound that followed made my stomach drop. As she jiggled the handle for me, the welcoming click of the pin releasing never came. We stared at each other, probably aware of what the other was thinking. It must not have actually unlocked when we came in, or maybe we’d relocked it on our way down without a key? No, that made no sense. The door was propped open on the way down, I was certain we’d left it that way. I became aware of my coworker’s expression, panic now laden in her face.

“Hey, hey,” I started. “Don’t worry, if there’s a basement here then there must be some cellar doors or something to get out. Wouldn’t it be illegal or something if they didn’t? It sounds like a fire hazard.” Trying to lighten the mood here was not working, judging by how Catherine didn’t laugh this time and she kept shifting her weight from one foot to the other. To further try and remedy this, I reached my hand out and offered her a smile.

“It’s going to be okay.”

Still, this didn’t change her expression, but she did reach out and take my hand. I took this for the small victory it was and started to lead her back downstairs. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t nervous- scared more accurately, but for the sake of us both I tried to keep my composure as best I could.

As we descended, I started to wonder what could’ve even been down there. It was just us- but the notebook had made it seem like someone had been here for a while. I began to wonder what became of them, and why no one had ever made it a point to mention it was even apart of this building’s history. Maybe we’d just stumbled across something we shouldn’t have.

Now back by the crates, Catherine let out an amused breath. She bent over and grabbed the small book I’d tossed from the floor, her other hand still in mine.

“Maybe this guy knew another exit.”

“Good point. If he was living down here he’d need more than one way out.”

Giving a short nod, she pulled her other hand free of me and began flipping. As she was searching the pages, I looked around again. I don’t know what compelled me to do so, seeing as we’d just been here a few moments before, but I had the feeling that I needed to. Something about the air had changed. It was making my throat dry with each deep breath.

That’s when I noticed it.

The door that had been shrouded in the almost dark, leftover glow of the lanterns to our left was open. Not all the way so we could see inside, but enough to notice that it was in a different position than before. Neither of us had gone over there, and there was no one else down here with us. There wasn’t anyone, we would’ve seen or heard someone by now. Right?

I took a step forward; towards the door. I wanted to know what was behind it. Maybe there was an exit or something that could help us find it. Either way I felt it was my job to investigate, for both of us. Just a peek. Nothing was down here with us. I took another step, fixated on the gap in the door and wall, staring into the dark. If I could just get in there, I’d be rewarded for sure. I couldn’t peel my eyes away, maybe in fear or maybe in awe, I couldn’t place the feelings anymore. I had to see what was beyond the door.

“Something there?”

Catherine’s voice took my attention back and I spun to see I’d made it halfway across the basement from her. I only remember taking a few steps, but clearly I’d gone further.

“The door over here is open. I came over to see.”

“The door is still closed.”

In the dim lights, I could see her expression change. She was confused, just as I now was. I turned back, and she was right. The door sat closed, an overbearing watchman in the darkest corner of our cell. There was no gap, no hope for escape. I made my way back over to her quickly. “I really thought it was open.”

Cathy stayed silent for a moment, but her shoulders dropped slightly. I hadn’t even noticed how tense she’d become.

“Okay. You were just walking over there, and it was starting to freak me out.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” I rubbed the back of my neck gingerly. Had the door really been closed this entire time? I figured the creepy shit we’d been experiencing was getting to me. I wanted out now more than ever, but we had to find it first.

“Anything useful in there?”

Shaking her head, I shared her disappointment. “Nothing. Not a word. This guy just keeps going on about his sleep test and his weird dreams.”

“More about the flesh thing?”

“Basically nothing but that, except now he’s just flat out refusing to sleep.”

I nodded to her, and she read:

“I don’t know what day it is anymore. I thought I’d been sleeping through the night but there is no night. There is no time. There are no days. I feel like I am losing my mind down here. Pills. The pills make me tired. I’m not taking them. I can’t take them. They bring it in here. Every time I close my eyes I see it. I’m scared. No one has come for me. There’s no way out but up but it’s locked. I am stuck and the more I see it the more real it looks. Not sleeping.”

“This guy sounds like he is going through some kind of withdrawals or something. If he doesn’t mention a door or window, then I don’t think we’re going to find anything useful in there.” I was starting to get hot, pissed off by the lack of useful information anywhere in this basement. “Let’s just start looking through the rooms.”

Any fear I had was replaced with a maddening desire to escape. The walls felt like they could come in on me at any moment. I wanted to be topside. I wanted to forget any of this had happened. Without another word I made my way to the door ahead of us and threw it open.

I heard Cathy call my name from behind, but I paid her no attention and stepped through. The room beyond was about the same size as the one we’d been in with the lectern and weird shit on the wall, but this one was furnished. There was a bedroll on the floor in the back right corner.

It smelled like piss and vomit.

There were wads of paper thrown about the floor, which my mind quickly imagined had been used for wiping. How could these people leave this place so disgusting? How could there be no way out?

I stormed out, not interested in finding out anything further without the promise of a way out. This time, I headed to the door in the corner, but as I put my hand on the handle I felt a cold tremor fall over me. Everything told me to step away. The muscles in my hands tensed to firmly grasp the knob and turn it, but I found myself overexerting and gripping the handle so hard my knuckles were becoming pale. My stomach churned, I needed to leave this door alone. The sensation flowed over my person, and it became overbearing; overwhelming. My heart pounded, vision starting to become blurry. Why us? Something was waiting to bear down on us, I felt it. I crumbled to the floor, pulling my hands to my head as tears formed in the corner of my eyes. I was running out of ideas, I couldn’t hide that anymore. Just then, a sharp thud sounded from across the space, nearly sending the skin from my body. Every hair stood on end, and I could just barely make out a dust plume take flight near the congregation of crates.

“What the fuck is going on…”

“Something fell. Look, it’s going to be okay, we just have to wait it out.” Catherine’s voice was a light in the dark, guiding me back to lucidity. I looked up at her and opened my mouth to say something, but I had no words. She got down next to me and threw her arms around my body. Grabbing the strings of her apron, I gripped as tight as I could. The tears never fell as I stared out over the basement behind her, comforted by the small circles she rubbed into my back.

“I don’t know what came over me.” I sputtered, bringing her as close as I could manage.

“I don’t blame you.”

There was silence. The basement offered no sound, no strange noises to lull me back into panic.

“What do we do?”

“I guess the only thing we can. We’re just going to have to wait until someone opens the door.”

Hearing this, I pushed back. “When does the next shift start?”

“1 or 1:30 I think.”

“That’s…” I tried to think but had no idea what time we’d actually gotten down here. It felt like at least an hour, but with everything going on it wasn’t like I was really paying attention or could tell at all. “a few hours from now- I think.”

“Maybe we should just wait on the landing? You could try and get some sleep.”

I froze, tense again. Stay and wait? Sleep? No way. We needed to leave. There was something off about the air. There was something off about the door I just couldn’t open. Something was off about that guy’s book. Something was off about the entire basement.

Lost in my thoughts, I barely noticed Catherine’s hand find my cheek.

“We’re going to be okay Adrian.”

I wasn’t really using my brain to think anymore. Looking to the woman in front of me, I was comatose. It wasn’t her eyes; it wasn’t the way she was holding me now. It was the care that radiated off of her. Waves of relief allowed me to relax, and I used the moment to pull Cathy’s face towards my own.

I kissed her.

It was a split-second decision that my brain had let slip through the cracks before thinking through and really deciding if it were a good idea or not. My next thought was pulling away, but Cathy moved herself closer to me, and we went on. It didn’t feel magical or special, but it was comfort I guess we both felt we needed.

After a moment, I pulled away from her. Cathy left her hand against my cheek, and I leaned into it, locking eyes with her. Silent.

We decided to head to the landing after that without any more spooky ghost shit. We figured it was a good spot. Neither of us wanted to be down in the open basement for much longer, and it would be easier to hear someone or see shadows moving under the door from there. I kept telling myself that there was nothing down here with us. There was nothing.

I fell asleep with my head against the wall opposite the door leading down, my companion resting her head against my shoulder with her apron and mine draped over her.

I opened my eyes, only to find myself back in the dim light of the open basement floor. I now laid on my back, staring up at the ceiling.

You can imagine my fear when I remembered that this wasn’t where I’d fallen asleep.

My immediate thought was to find Catherine, but something deep within me knew she wasn’t here. Was I dreaming? Had something awful happened to her? Had she left me down here?

The sounds of scuffling along the floor beside me broke me from this thought and I bolted into a seated position. That’s when I saw it.

It writhed before my eyes, many eyes all trained directly on me atop mounds of flesh and what I assumed was muscle tissue. A few limbs of varying sizes kicked out of sync while others were rendered immovable as their feet were meshed with the flesh on other parts of the lump. Two, massive, distinct arms allowed it to scrape its way in front of me, leaving a trail of blood and viscera in its wake.

It spoke to me, but from no mouth on its disgusting frame. All its eyes were expressionless, and I felt an immense weight drape over me. I am special. I am the chosen. A Lighten is only born once a generation. Who am I?

The creature was enormous. I felt my mind slipping away as I gazed over its form. A hum had begun emanating off of it. Where was a mystery I wasn’t looking to solve. I knew then that this was what that guy had been warning about. I was a fly, caught by a God in their web, just like he’d been. We were nothing. I was-

“What are you?”

I was screaming, but the sound was muffled by the hum. What had started as fear had been pushed into rage then was pushed to madness. I was furious. Why was this thing toying with me? This was my dream, my life. I wanted to leave, not sit here with this disgusting thing; not worry about whether I’d ever make it out of this stupid basement or not. What sane person could think that face to face with a God?

A second later I started to experience the worst migraine I’ve ever had in my life. I was barely following anything the thing was projecting into my mind. It felt as if someone was trying to wedge right into my skull, with the intention of splitting my whole body in two. I saw stars, planets, and then nothing. I learned the universe was so much more complicated than I could possibly imagine. People died behind my eyes, civilizations were buried for new ones to rise. It was horrible and beautiful at the same time.

Just out of my vision, I saw the shadow of something large move and I spun. There was nothing, but I swear I saw something slither just out of view. I knew what I needed to do. I didn’t understand it, but I knew. I am the Lighten. It’s my destiny to bring the Old One back, to bring us all to the garden. When I turned back the creature was closer, almost touching my chest. Now it laid still. The writhing and the kicking and dripping and all noise had stopped. It’s gaze demanded I stay, and I was compelled to listen. I could end all evil. I could help make the world new and right all wrongs. There didn’t need to be any more destruction. Then suddenly I was shaking.

“Adrian.”

It was Catherine’s voice.

“I heard something... Adrian?”

I had to wake up.

“Let me out.” I demanded. The mass did not respond. It sat, silent, asthe world faded away around me.

A hazy orange light crept over my eyes until my entire field of view was assaulted by it. Catherine sat above me, still shaking vigorously.

“Are you okay?”

I nodded wildly. Just past Cathy the door to the inside of the restaurant was visible. The door was still closed, just as it had been before.

I shot up, almost hitting my companion head on as I thought of her words.

“Where?”

She pointed down the stairs, opened her mouth to speak, but wouldn’t get the chance as a loud thud took our attention. Then, the slow, sick sound of a body dragging itself along the concrete floor. Understanding whipped me out of shock: we had to go, it was here.

Stumbling to my feet I attempted to climb the first few stairs to the door. My knees shook, and I was barely able to keep myself steady, but I eventually found my footing and took them two at a time until I reached the top. I didn’t notice if Cathy had followed from her spot, but I was focused on getting the door open. Another slap and drag brought the smell of something dead wafting up the stairwell. I finally turned to find my partner staring down the hall, eyes wide, unmoving.

“Get up here!” I cried, gripping the handle as tight as I could and beginning to throw my full weight against it. She didn’t move though, and another impact sent tremors through the ground below me.

“What the fuck is that…” I heard her voice quivering as I heaved myself again and again. Was it already at the steps? What was she seeing?

Pain wracked through my body as the same heat radiated from my skull. I screamed. It wanted me. It would get me if I didn’t get this thing open now.

Against my better judgement, another thud and squelch gave me the strength I needed to rush back down the steps to Catherine. I couldn’t leave her down there with it. As I reached her and turned to follow her gaze, I was met with the visage of hell.

Arms, legs, all that could, were reaching out towards us as the thing struggled to pull its grotesque frame through the opening to the hall. Some eyes, those infinite windows into a world I didn’t know, fixed on us both, bloodshot and wide. Some looked wildly from wall to prey. Fluid I couldn’t place dripped down its malformed fingers and feet onto the steps below. It smelled like bile and burned my nose, forcing me to turn away.

“You need to move.”

Nothing. She was looking from me to the thing inching its way towards us, mouth agape, but did not move.

Grabbing her hard by the arms, I hoisted her up to her feet with me and gripped her wrist. “Now!”

As if I’d rebooted her, she sprung to action. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she followed me up to the door again. The thudding below us was starting to get more rapid. The thing had finally pulled itself through. While Catherine now was twisting the handle for me I was able to put all my strength behind my kicks. Just as I began to feel my stomach churning from the scent of dead meat, there was a click.

Taking her again I practically threw the both of us through the storage room door. As soon as we were out I spun and slammed the door shut, not before glimpsing into an empty stairwell. Ripping the ring from off the handle, I made sure to lock the door, took the key that opened that hell hole from it and shoved it hard into my pocket. My attention turned to my coworker, who looked on at me with a blank expression.

“What are you going to do with it?”

“I don’t know.”

“What was that thing?”

“I don’t know, but what we do know is that no one else needs to go down there.”

I did know, but how do you just talk about, I don’t know, all of that. I still have a problem sifting through all the information at times, even after looking into it with her. The silence that fell between us gave me the green light that she agreed with me. I pivoted.

“Who opened the door?”

“No idea,” She shook her head, eyes not leaving the key in my palm. “I stepped through and no one was here. It’s still just us.”

There was no time to think about it right now. I was still grappling with the fact that I had just experienced the exact same dream as the crackhead man. So many mysteries were just laid out in front of me, and I did not have the brain or will power to deal with it all at that moment. I’d just wanted to flip my burgers. I’d just wanted to go out with Catherine.

Without a word I walked out to the front and over to the register. Tapping the screen, I aimed to figure out the time. Maybe whoever had come in was in the bathroom or went home because the boss for the night wasn’t around to give them work to do.

It was 11PM, no one had come.

That was impossible, I turned to find Cathy at my side, watching the till from around my arm. She put a hand to her face, rubbing hard.

“We did not just spend a whole day down there…”’

“No Catherine, look, you’re still logged into this one.” I pointed to the display, up in the left corner the date was still the same as when we’d come in. “It’s the same day. We were down there for an hour.”

“No,” She stifled a painful laugh. “No, there is something wrong with the till. We slept down there, a whole 8 hours at least. You can’t tell me it was only an hour. I haven’t slept that long during a work week in years.”

“Look,” I said, more stern than I’d intended. “I don’t know what the fuck is up with that basement; this place. I am taking this key and putting it somewhere where no one else can find it. No one will know we went down, and we’ll just forget about the cleaner, okay?”

She nodded slowly, as did I, then an even better idea.

“You wanna leave?”

“Right now?”

“Yeah. I’ll even give you a ride home. There’s no way I can stay.” The events of the night had just plunged us deep into a world of monsters and Gods we didn’t understand, I didn’t care if someone wanted a burger and couldn’t get it at 2AM.

“Thank you,” She rubbed her puffy red eyes. “Let me get my things.”

I mustered up the best smile I could. After everything, I was eager to be out, though I didn’t plan on closing my eyes to sleep again for a while. I was almost sure it was just the nerves from the short dream I’d had- but just almost. Either way, it took us no time to gather our things and punch out, leaving our fast-food lives with an Irish goodbye.

This time, the drive out was a lot less sweet. Not for lack of enjoyable company, but for lack of understanding. The basement left my mind swimming, and there was no way I’d be able to find all the answers, not then anyway. I was left feeling incomplete. I tried pushing it away, but it wasn’t until I caught a glimpse of Catherine asleep in the passenger seat that I saw the pieces of my mind falling back into place. It didn’t matter how confusing everything was, we were both out. We were safe.

All these years later and we still don’t have a full understanding of what that thing was, but we definitely know more. To all who will listen: be careful out there. These doors pop up  everywhere, and as far as I’m concerned, that thing could be in every single one.

There’s more, but I don’t want to share it here, not with this story. Not now.

Be careful when checking your doors, you never know when you’ll stumble across one that brings you to their world.