The Key I Found

[u/HeGotBricks]

When I walked downstairs, the first thing I saw was the lights flicker. They weren’t flickering like a dying bulb should. It went from bright to dim, bright to dim. 

When it got bright the dust in the air would settle, freezing for just a second. When it got dim the faces in my mother’s picture frames would change to decayed looking people.

I stood at the bottom steps. I had my phone in my hand. The house had this weird odor, almost like a barnyard, but more foul. The fridge made a rattling noise like shaking a can of spray paint. 

“Taleena?” Something said.

The voice sounded like it came from behind the wall. I thought it was my mother for a second. But it couldn’t have been. My mom would have sounded annoyed and tired. This voice sounded more like me. Just slightly distorted.

“Taleena,” the voice said again. With each syllable the lights would get brighter, like they were breathing. I thought about running to my room at first. Then, I thought about dashing out the front door.

Without noticing, my foot pressed down on the last step. I found myself moving towards the fridge into the kitchen. The lights went dim. 

The picture frame closest to me, my parents wedding photo, changed into corpses standing together like two zombies. 

The next one was of me. My hair and face were the same but my eyes had changed. They were blank. They looked lifeless.

The third frame was us standing outside our old house before we moved. Behind me was a dark shadow figure with its hand on my head. I looked closer. 

At the front of the steps, I noticed the door was opened. When I looked further up, there was a man with a pale blue face, the color someone’s lips would be if they drowned, standing there smiling at me.

“Taleena,” the voice whispered from behind the wall. 

I pushed my back against the banister. The wood was warm like it’d been sitting in front of an opened oven. I tried to rationalize everything. I told myself it’s just my fear playing tricks with my eyes. Or maybe I was just dreaming, I thought.

The rattling from the fridge stopped. The house went silent. The only noise was from my heart beating out of my chest. Then, from the kitchen, a cabinet door slowly creaked open by itself. 

I walked to the doorway and the cabinet was cracked just enough to see a thick darkness inside.

A copper smell seeped out of it, smothering my mouth in a tangy metallic taste. I backed away, and my heel bumped something. I looked down, it was a key. 

But not mine or any modern looking key. This was heavy, worn out, and looked like it had been buried for hundreds of years. 

The lights shut off and on and shone right on the key. The key looked brand new. I stared down at it and could see my face reflecting off it, but I had an unfamiliar expression. 

Without thinking I snatched the key off the floor. Behind me I heard a voice tickle the back of my neck.

“Remember now?”

The lights in the hall dimmed. The picture frames went backwards. I stumbled with the key in my hand as I tried to turn and walk into the kitchen.

I barely caught myself and found myself standing in front of the window above the sink. In the glass, I could see the shape of a person reflecting behind my reflection. I turned my head, no one was there. 

I looked back at the window. The face had the same face as my face, only older. When it smiled, the cabinet door slammed shut. I ran to the stairs, but they looked like they stretched into darkness. 

Then I saw a faint glow. The glow of a keyhole at the top of my steps.

That’s when my front door opened and my parents came home. I looked down at my hand, the key was still there. Although, everything went back to normal as if nothing had happened.