Never Open That Door – You Wouldn’t Listen, Would You?

This is part VI of this story. Part V can be found here and references the preceding three parts if you haven’t read them:

******

Gabby handed in her assignment and finished up at Uni. She had promised Mrs. Montgomery that she would call in and see her after her first week at Cory’s place. She had so much to tell Mrs. Montgomery, and she couldn’t wait to get there.

Mrs. Montgomery was glad to see her and had already made a light dinner for them both. Gabby wished that her mother had been more like Mrs. Montgomery.

Gabby talked nonstop for about an hour, telling her about the strange goings-on with Cory.

“You need to be very careful," Mrs. Montgomery advised in a motherly way. "Promise me you won’t do anything stupid, like trying to open that door.”

"I promise to be careful," she said, not lying about her plan to check the room tomorrow.

“Tell me, what is this Cory like? I mean, what does he look like?”

Gabby described in detail what Cory looked like.

“And you say he has a stutter?” Mrs. Montgomery continued to probe.

“Yes,” replied Gabby, “and it gets worse when he's up to no good, if you ask me.”

They finished up dinner. Gabby hugged Mrs. Montgomery and promised she would take care of herself.

******

When Gabby got home, the hall light was on, but Cory was nowhere to be seen. She stood in silence, trying to hear if he was upstairs.

Nothing.

Then a cough coming from behind the door broke the silence. Gabby made out a dim light coming from under the door. She retreated to her room.

While brushing her teeth in the bathroom, she almost expected to find Cory when she turned around. She had deliberately left the door open so that if he came out of that room, she would hear him. Nothing, so she scurried back to her room and locked the door.

She undressed and put on her nightie, then turned off the light and got into bed. Almost as soon as she had turned off the light, she heard the door to that room open.

She waited. She heard the door being locked and hoped that Cory was putting the key back on top of the door frame. She needed it for tomorrow.

She heard footsteps. They stopped outside her bedroom door. In the dim light coming through the window, she once again saw the handle turn. Luckily, she had locked it.

The footsteps moved away as she heard Cory go up the stairs and into his retreat.

Gabby was more determined than ever to find out what was in that room. She knew it was none of her business, but Cory was creepy and secretive about it; she seemed like a rat.

She fantasized about how this would be in her future journalism job and fell asleep.

*****

She was up early. She had already showered and was having a cup of coffee in the kitchen when she heard Cory coming down the stairs. She hadn’t seen or spoken to him since he returned her bracelet. She realized again that she was fiddling with it, twisting it around her wrist.

As Cory came down and saw her, he did not greet her. “I w—i—ll be g—oi—ng o---u-t n-ow. Be ba---ck la---ter," he offered.

“Okay,” replied Gabby, trying to be as calm as possible. “I will be out later on as well,” she added for good measure.

Gabby watched out the window until she saw Cory turning around the corner. She waited another five minutes just to be sure.

She put her cup down on the table and walked along the corridor. For some reason, she found herself tiptoeing to the door. There was no one else around.

“This is crazy,” she said as she started to take deliberate steps. I need to know what is in that room.

She reached the door. Standing on her toes, she could reach the lip at the top.

There it was. She felt the shape of the key and grabbed it with her fingers. Nervously, she put the key in the lock and turned it.

For a moment, she hesitated. "Maybe I should leave well enough alone,” she challenged herself.

“No, you’ve come this far. You need to see what’s in that room behind the door Cory guards so closely.”

She opened the door. It was dark initially, but then, as she looked further, there was a series of dull lights. It was not daylight; if there was a window, it had been covered up. It was more like computers or TVs in standby mode.

She fumbled for her phone and found the light switch. “Now or never,” she said to herself.

She held her breath one last time. Listening for any sound that Cory might have returned early.

Nothing. She flicked on the light switch and turned around.

"A-gg---hh--, A-g---hh,” she screamed at what she saw. She should have run then and there, but her morbid curiosity planted her in the same spot. Staring in disbelief at what confronted her.

*****

Gabby had become so obsessed with the room that she did not hear Cory’s car pull into the driveway. She did not hear him as he slammed his car door. He started walking toward the front door.

*****

Gabby could not believe her eyes. She slowly took a couple of steps into the room, not knowing what to look at first.

There in front of her were five TV monitors. She touched the mouse on the computer, controlling them. They shot into action. One monitor showed the bathroom, one her room, one what she assumed was Briley’s room, and a fourth of a vacant bedroom. The fifth monitor showed the hallway.

Cory had been watching her the whole time. She felt sick. It took all her energy not to throw up, to scream with rage, or to cry. She didn’t know what to do.

She changed her focus to the most disturbing part of the room. In a corner near the blackout window, sitting in a chair was the skeleton of a lady in a bridal gown and veil.

Who was this? She had been dead for some time; there was no smell of rotting flesh, and the corpse was almost prettified.

She saw movement on one of the monitors out of the corner of her eye.

“Hell, no, no!” Cory was walking down the hallway to the room.

She turned and raced for the doorway. As she reached the door, Cory was just turning in. His eyes were fiery with rage. He went to speak, but no words came out.

She brushed past him with such force that she knocked him off his feet and ran for the open front door.

As she reached the front door, she heard Cory's yell behind her, “I t—oll---d y—ou—to -n—eve---r o—p—en- -th--a-t—t –doo—r.”

She stumbled down the front step and almost lost her footing.

“Help, help me!” she yelled, dashing down the driveway.

Just as she reached the end of the driveway, she heard a voice to her left.

“Gabby, Gabby, what’s wrong?"

It was Damien.

“Damien, it's Cory; he is after me. He has this room with a dead body in it.”

By this stage, Cory had reached the front step. Seeing Damien with Gabby, he turned quickly back into the house and slammed the front door shut.

“Leave this to me,” said Damien. “You go and sit in the car. Call that number I gave you and get the police here pronto. I’m going after Cory.”

Gabby’s heart was pounding as she called the number. Reassured that help was on its way, she tried to relax.

What now, she thought, where do I go?

[Author’s note: This is the final part of the story. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, let me know, as it represents the longest piece of fiction I have written for Vocal.

If you have suggestions, I would love to hear them so I can do better next time.

If you’re interested, a prologue will be available in a few days. If you haven’t done so already, it will help you connect the dots.]

Till next time,

Calvin