Come to My Room…

That’s what the note sitting on the wall says. I walk around the blood, careful not to sully my shoes with it. It’s odd… The walls around this place do not move on to new rooms, however if I go back, there are no other doors that lead off from the entrance hallway.

Where do I go?

I shrug, gingerly stepping around the puddle of blood once again. I glance around as I shut the door behind me.

“Yo.”

I jump, squeaking loudly as the cat seems to laugh at me from its spot on the ground.

“You almost gave me a heart attack,” I tell it. The cat chuckles. A cat. Chuckling. How is that even possible? Once its laughter subsides, it glances at me with its yellow eyes playfully.

“I decided to follow you for laughs,” it tells me with a smile.

“However, where exactly did you come from?” I furrow my brow.

“I just came from the door behind-” I stop talking as my eyes run across the wall behind me. There’s no door. Instead, where I think the door must have been, there is little more than worn grey brick.

“There… there was a door right here?”

The cat flicks its black tail to and fro, watching me intently.

“Well there’s no door now,” it says, sitting up, resting its paws in between my toes.

“But you could try either of those two doors.”

As he says this, he flicks his tail to the left, and then to the right. Surely enough, there are somehow new doors, somehow new ways to traverse this strange house. I notice that also, two vases filled with black roses have seemingly sprouted out of nowhere.

“I… I’ll try the left,” I tell the cat.

“OK. Do whatever you want,” It tells me.

I give it a searching glance, my eyes wide. My friends have often teased me about my face, how I am able to express emotions through my eyes. I press my palm to the door and push it forward, and the cat gives me a mewl of approval.

“What’s your name?” it asks.

“Kyungsoo. Do Kyungsoo,” I respond.

“What’s yours?”

The cat sits back down, its paws. It curls its tail around itself, purring calmly. It closes its eyes, and I sigh. It seems the cat doesn’t want to speak with me anymore.



The new room I enter is strangely modern, with a wire mesh grating for a floor, a heavy-looking surgical bench to the side of the room. There’s a cupboard as well, but it seems to be mostly empty, its drawers hanging wide open.

There’s a pair of scissors on the bench, however I can’t remove them. Somehow, for some reason, they’re chained to the bench. I spot another door, and I walk across to it.

It’s locked…

I return to the previous room. The cat is still asleep, so I make my way across to the door on the right.

“How strange…” I whisper.

There’s a small corridor, with a pot plant sitting in a crevice that juts out in the wall. There’s a door to the right just beyond that, but I ignore it, instead glancing up at a corridor that seems to stretch on, the walls of which seem to press in and constrict my movement.

I follow the corridor, raising an eyebrow as I spot a large, wooden grandfather clock sitting at the end of it. The hands seem to be moving at a peculiarly fast speed, letting a resounding ‘tick’ noise reverberate down the corridor.  I see another door next to this, and I enter it.

It looks like an office of some sort. The floor is carpeted a deep crimson colour, the walls similarly painted. There’s a large, mahogany desk at the centre of the room, and old-fashioned lamp sitting above it. I see a book lying open on the desk, and I pick it up, taking the worn pages into my hands.

Wizard’s Diary

I was sick, so no one played with me.
My father and mother didn’t ever love me.

The rest of the pages are blank.

I return the book to its spot, taking a more thorough look at my surroundings. I spot a pile of wrapped boxes to the corner, and I walk across to it.

There’s a teddy bear sitting on the top of the pile, and I take it, running my fingers through its fur. I glance across to the other side of the room, seeing a small cupboard with a note on it.

Opens when the house returns to normal.

So the house isn’t normal?

I feel my inquisitiveness get the better of me as I wonder what could possibly be inside such a small cupboard, and why it seems so hidden, almost blended in with the wall behind it.

I return to the corridor, finding myself in front of the first door that I had failed to open before. It’s not locked, so I push it open.

There’s a box in the room. Just a box, a cardboard box, with a giant-looking teddy bear in it. I notice that there seems to be a gap right in front of the bear, almost big enough to sit the smaller teddy bear in it that I am still carrying. Almost, but not big enough.

“Perhaps…?”

I back off, returning to the room with the scissors on the bench. There’s enough room for the smaller bear’s torso and head, if I cut off the arms and legs…

I gasp.

Blood, everywhere. Blood on the bench before me, blood covering the scissors. I hold my hands before my face, wondering if I may have cut myself by accident, but there is not even a scratch on my open palms. Not on my arms, either.

“Strange.”

I leave the arms and legs of the stuffed bear on the table, returning to the room with the bear in the box. I carefully push the smaller bear inside, jumping a little as I hear a strange ‘click’ sound reverberate through the whole house.

It sounds almost like a door opening.

I know there is only one door that was locked, so I make my way back across to the other side of the house. I think I see the box shuffle out of the corner of my eye, but I close the door behind me before I fully realise… things are happening.

I am about to pass the cat in the other room when I scream. The vase next to me falls off its tabletop, smashing into a pile of dirt and trampled roses on the ground. I take a small step forward…

“Ack!” I shriek.

A giant stuffed bear comes hurdling out the door, hurdling towards me! I run to the front door, screaming as I fumble at the lock. It won’t budge…

The bear moves fast, and I gasp as I realise it’s almost upon me. The only way I can go is back, so I run to the door I just came out of, hoping that it won’t follow. I sweat profusely, rubbing a hand over my forehead.

I pant loudly.

As I find myself in the corridor with the grandfather clock, I notice strange marks have appeared on the wall, in what could be either more blood, or simply red paint. The marks, I realise with a gasp, are in the form of bear footprints.

I wait exactly half an hour before I return to the other door, breath calmed. There seems to be no giant teddy bear anymore, so I press on.

There is blood still on the table, and a bear print seems to appear on the wall in this room as well. I let out a shriek as a pool of blood drips from the ceiling, shivering when one of the smaller bear’s stuffed arms drops with a loud thud mere centimetres from my nose.

I lean down, noticing it has taken on a red tinge. I shake my head, picking it up against my better judgment. What if I still need it? What if I can return it, and the bear won’t come for me once again?

I press my hand to the door that, once locked, now appears to be open, heaving a heavy sigh.

This room is just as odd as the last…