So I think I should start by telling you all that I’m just a normal guy in a dead end job and no real friends or family to brag about but my whole life changed a year ago and this is what happened.
It was a normal Friday evening and I was on my way home from work when I came across some roadworks that meant I had to follow a diversion round, it was pretty dark and as I was following the road I got a flat tire which is exactly what I wanted after a stressful week at work. I got out the car and started changing my tyre when I caught a glint of something shiny in the light from my iPhone, I went and looked and saw a single key so me being me I picked it up and put it in my pocket.
The rest of that evening was uneventful as I changed the tyre and made my way home. The next morning I got up just before midday and made my coffee and sat on my table, then I remembered the key and grabbed it to have a better look and see if I could find anything that would help me locate the owner. When I took a better look I could see it was a very old looking key with no real identifying marks so set it on the table whilst finishing my coffee. Later that afternoon I grabbed the key and purely out of boredom had put it in the lock of my basement door and turned it, to my surprise I heard the locking mechanism engage so went to open the door to see if it really had unlocked the door.
As I opened the door I stood there in utter shock and amazement, on the other side of the door was a vast city landscape not unlike the city I lived in yet with subtle differences here and there. I wish I could tell you I shut the door and didn’t think of it anymore but come on what person in there right mind wouldn’t want to see what in the world was going on. So I let my curiosity win and I stepped through the door grabbing the key as I closed the door behind me.
This city was beautiful and huge and so familiar so I stopped someone and asked them where I am which got me a weird look and a brush off which only afterwards I realised was because a sane person would ask where they were, so I decided to find a ship or newspaper stand to grab a paper and find out where I was from there. I found a newspaper stand and grabbed a local paper and was shocked to see I was in my own city yet it couldn’t be as there was stuff that didn’t make sense like shops that I had never heard of or buildings that I had never noticed before.
Before I would start panicking I thought to myself if this was my city then I could make my way home as I have done thousands of times from the city. I have to say that it took me longer than I would have liked to find my way home but when you see roads that don’t exist or signs that make no sense whatsoever you have to go on instinct. That aside when I finally got to my house I realised that I did t have my door keys on me as in my stupidity because I went through the basement door my brain decided they were not needed. Now luckily for me I get on really well with my neighbour and we actually have a spare set of each other’s keys in case of emergencies.
I knocked on my neighbours door and a stranger answered so I told them who I was and if I could speak to the owner of the house as I had locked myself outside. This person looked me up and down and said if I don’t leave they will call the police, I tried to explain to them the situation again but they shouted something that made no sense “I’ve lived here for 30 years alone and the owner of the house next door is an old man who looks nothing like you so go or the police will be called”
I decided I was either going crazy or something wasn’t right about where I was, I then remembered the key and thought why don’t I just go back to that door in the city and go through that back to my home. So I made my way back to the city and what felt like forever I finally found the door I came through. I put the key in the lock and before I turned it I noticed something that knocked me clear off my feet in shock. I caught a glimpse of a TV in a shop window of the president given a speech but this wasn’t the president I knew, this wasn’t even a politician I recognised. This made no sense but I wanted to go home so I turned the key and ran through the door and slammed it shut.
I took a deep breath then looked into the room properly when I dropped to my knees in disbelief, this wasn’t my house I was now in some store with people staring at me as I brushed away a tear from my face. A nice woman came up to me and asked if I was ok to which I said I was fine just felt a bit under the weather. I got up and asked her if I could use the bathroom to which she happily agreed. Whilst in the bathroom I used the key on the door again and looked through and to my utter amazement I saw a vast landscape where the rest of the store should have been, I closed the door and took the key out to get a proper look at it but just as before it looked like a normal old key.
I put it back in the lock and opened the door again to help get my head around what I saw but noticed this time there was a living room on the other side. I closed the door again and reopened it and to my amazement a completely different landscape once again. It then hit me that each time the door opened it was to somewhere new. So I opened it one more time and walked through not knowing that this time I wasn’t alone.
This time I was in a busy shopping mall so I decided to walk around and try and make sense of what was happing when I was grabbed and dragged into an empty room by something, I was screaming for help and slowly came to realise this room had no doors and one big mirror. I was sweating and trying to rack my brain for a logical answer when suddenly a man dressed in a black suit said to me “it’s not often we come across your kind messing with things they don’t understand but I will make this as clear as possible. You will not leave this room alive before telling me everything you know!”
I felt a wave of fear envelop me as I looked at him, it was then I realised he wasn’t a man or even human but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. You see it was the same shape as a man and was wearing that suit but it’s face was all fuzzy and not the fun kind. Have you ever had your TV on a channel not picking up a signal and you get that weird black and white static well that’s the best I can describe it’s face because whatever it was my brain clearly couldn’t comprehend.
Whilst in the room with this thing I tried my best to answer any questions it posed to me all the while trying to figure a way out of this hell. One question I do remember as I found it odd yet strangely informative was. “From what we can tell you originated from dimension zeta456 and somehow have ended up in dimension Omega249, How have you managed to cross dimensional boarders without prior authorisation?” It then hit me in that question that this creature has no idea about the key so I started to answer as best I could whilst casually feeling the outside of my pocket, I was in shock the key was still there, in fact everything was still in my pockets including my very phone on which I’m writing this.
I tried not to show my excitement as I answered more questions, that was until it grabbed me and started stabbing me with what I can only describe as some sort of knife but unlike a normal knife this thing had lights and a display. The creature managed to stab me 3 times all along my left arm before I grabbed the weird knife thing and ran towards the window and thrusted the blade into the bottom left corner shattering the glass. I noticed the mall on the other side and leaped over with blood pouring down my arm and dripping on the floor.
I managed to find a door and quickly inserted the key and particularly jumped to the other side, I then continued for maybe another 20 times of opening the door jumping through, closing, reopening and then running through. In my mind I was putting as many dimensions between me and that thing as possible. I say 20 times but it could be more or less I really can’t remember as I wasn’t thinking straight from the shock of what had happened and the pain in my arm. Once I stopped walking through the last door I decided I had to try and get medical help for my arm so started to walk through the tiny village the last door had brought me to.
I managed to see a few people so asked where the nearest hospital or doctors office was to which I was fortunate enough to be directed just a couple of streets away. Once I got to the doctors office I walked in and by this time the blood had soaked through my clothes and was clearly visible, the receptionist quickly messaged the doctor who came out and rushed me into a room with a hospital looking bed and medical looking equipment. I say medical looking as this was certainly not any equipment I recognised from my dimension but regardless I needed help so thought nothing of it.
The doctor started patching me up with this strange device that stitched the wounds together with nothing but little laser lights, I was amazed but kept calm as I needed this quite badly. Once all was done the doctor asked me some basic questions like my name and address and any medical history. I lied as best I could and was desperate to find a way out as I still wanted to put more doors between me and the creature as possible. I asked the doctor if I could use the bathroom quick to which he looked at me puzzled, I rephrased my question and this time said I needed to pee so could he point me in the direction of the toilet. The doctor still confused from my question stood up and asked if I had also hit my head.
At this point I was so confused but anxious to get away that I decided to run and as I was running through the village it was then and only then after I saw the doctors face to my question that I noticed the village had no food shops anywhere. I stopped running after about 15 minutes and approached an elderly looking woman and asked where I could get something to eat and drink, but to my amazement the same look of confusion covered her face as it did the doctor. I tried to ask her how they survive without eating and how do they get energy. I wish I hadn’t asked because it was at this point the lady laughed and said “silly child trying to confuse an old woman, I will show you how we get our energy.”
The woman then looked to the sky and to my horror her face opened to reveal a huge looking flower, I gasped and looked on in disgust but also curiosity. It was when I was looking at her that I noticed something in the background something all to familiar yet more terrifying that the strange flower lady. The creature that grabbed me was watching me and slowly walking towards us, I ran but this creature kept coming and seemed to always keep up yet always walking. I quickly opened a door and ran through but this dimension held horrors to which I will never recover all whilst also running from this creature. Little did I know how drastic my life would change after our second encounter.