As a homeowner, I always thought I was safe in my own house. But everything changed when the keys started showing up. It was always at 1am, every night without fail. Three loud knocks on the door would wake me up from my deep slumber, and when I’d go to check, no one would be there. Instead, I’d find a key, left on the doorstep.
At first, I thought it was just some harmless prankster, trying to scare me. But the keys kept coming, each one different from the last. Some were old and rusty, while others looked brand new. It was like whoever was leaving them had an endless supply.
I tried ignoring it, but it was impossible. The sound of those three knocks would jolt me awake every night, filling me with an overwhelming sense of dread. I became obsessed with the keys, trying to find some meaning in them. But each time I picked one up, I was left with more questions than answers.
It wasn’t until the third week that things started to get really strange. I woke up to the sound of whispers, coming from just outside my front door. I got out of bed, and peered through the peephole, but there was no one there. I opened the door, and again, found a key on the doorstep.
I thought about calling the police, but what could I tell them? That an entity was leaving keys on my doorstep at 1am every night? They’d think I was crazy.
As the days went on, the whispers grew louder, more insistent. It was like they were trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t make out what. It was almost as if they were coming from the keys themselves.
I started having nightmares, terrible visions of a dark figure lurking just outside my window, watching me as I slept. I could feel its presence, like a cold hand gripping my heart. But every time I woke up, there was nothing there.
My mind started to unravel, and I began to lose track of time. Days blurred into nights, and I stopped leaving my house altogether. The only thing that remained constant was the sound of those three knocks, always at 1am.
Then, one night, as I was lying in bed, I heard a sound that chilled me to the bone. It was the sound of a key turning in the lock, followed by the creak of the door opening. I sat up, heart racing, and saw a dark figure standing in the doorway.
It was like nothing I had ever seen before. Its skin was a sickly pale, stretched tightly over its skeletal frame. Its eyes were black pits, devoid of any emotion or humanity. It held out a key, and beckoned me with a bony finger.
I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. All I could do was stare in horror as the entity stepped closer, its breath hot on my face. It leaned in, and whispered something in my ear.
I don’t remember what it said, but I do remember the feeling of pure terror that washed over me. And then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the entity was gone, leaving me alone in the darkness.
I never saw it again, but the keys kept coming. Every night, at 1am, the same three knocks would wake me up, and I would find a new key on my doorstep. I tried moving, but it followed me. I tried throwing away the keys, but they would always find their way back to me.
Now, I know the truth. The entity that leaves the keys is something beyond our understanding, something that exists in the space between worlds. It wants something from me, something that I can’t give. And until I figure out what that is, it will never leave me alone.
But then, one night, something strange happened. I woke up to the sound of the three knocks, but this time, when I opened the door, there was something different. Instead of a key, there was a note.
I picked it up and read it. It was written in the same language that the whispers had been speaking, but this time, I could understand it. It said:
“We do not mean to harm you. We are searching for the key that unlocks the door to the realm of the living. We thought it was in your possession, but we were mistaken. Please forgive us for our intrusion. We will leave you in peace.”
And just like that, the keys stopped coming. The whispers faded away, and I was left alone in my house once again.
But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something had changed. That night, I had a dream. In my dream, I was standing in a dark room, surrounded by countless keys. And in the center of the room, there was a door.
I walked towards the door, and as I got closer, I saw that it was made of solid gold. And on the door, there was a keyhole. The keyhole was shaped like a skull, and in the eye sockets, there were two rubies.
Suddenly, I woke up. I knew what I had to do. I got dressed and headed out into the night. I walked for hours, until I finally found what I was looking for.
It was an old antique shop, tucked away in a forgotten corner of the city. I walked inside, and there it was. The key. The one that fit the skull-shaped keyhole on the golden door in my dream.
I bought it, and that night, I went back to my house. I stood in front of the door, holding the key in my hand. And then, I did something crazy. I turned the key in the lock.
The door opened, and I stepped through. What I saw on the other side was beyond anything I could have imagined. It was a world of pure darkness, filled with creatures that defied description.
But there was something else there, too. Something that I had been searching for my whole life. I stepped forward, into the darkness, and I knew that I had finally found what I had been looking for.
And that’s when I woke up. It was morning, and the sun was shining through the window. I looked around, and everything was just as it had been before. But I knew that something had changed.
I got out of bed, and walked over to the door. There was no key, no note, nothing. But I knew that it didn’t matter. I had found what I was looking for, and I had unlocked the door to a new world.