Three; An Open Door

The door was open.

After the night I had just had, I should have known to turn my back, go to the shops, get my groceries, buy a six pack and go back to my nice, empty apartment. But of course that isn’t what I did.

I reached out to push the door open even further. Looking back I know it was stupid. If for no other reason than if the complex manager caught me and thought I was trying to steal something, I'd almost have to be looking at an entry in the record books for fastest eviction ever.

The door swung open easily. It was dark inside, the usual crap had been piled up and abandoned. Tables and chairs, old TV sets, dusty boxes, a life size cardboard cut-out skeleton left over from Halloween that scared the clinks out of me when I first saw it.

With my heart racing, and my scare meter maxed out, good sense finally prevailed. I decided it was time to quit. So what if I'd dreamt of a door in the garage that I'd never seen before, who cares? People dream about all sorts of crazy things. My friend Stevo reckons when you dream about poo it means you're going to win money. I don’t know if that's true, but then I've never dreamt about poo.

It was just a door to a storeroom full of crap. I reached out to close the door. It squeaked loudly. That hadn't happened when I opened it, but there was nothing strange about that. The problem was I thought I heard something else while the door was squeaking.

I looked around expecting to somebody in the garage behind me, but there was nobody there. Half a dozen four wheel drives, all immaculately clean, empty parking spots, a scooter and a couple of rusty gym sets and an ab-roller that had been dumped at the end of the tenants allotted spaces.

"Help."

I heard it quite clearly this time. The voice sounded weak, it could have come from a crying kitten.

"Help."

It was coming from inside the storeroom. I pushed the door open again and felt around on the inside next to the doorframe for a light switch. I found it and flicked the switch. The light came on, but only for a second, it flashed, blinded me and then popped, plunging me into darkness.

"Hello," I called in to the darkness.

There was no answer. But I had heard something.

Chapter Four