The House Of No End

This short story is about a house that messes with the main character's mental stability

Let me start by saying that Sia Thompson was addicted to cocaine and heroin.

We were friends in our sorority house in college, and we continued to be after I graduated. Notice that I said “I”. She dropped out after two years of barely cutting it. After I moved out of the house and into a small apartment, I didn’t see much of Sia. We would call and facetime every once in awhile, but there was a period of time that she wasn’t able to get a hold of. This lasted maybe a month or so. I wasn’t worried much. She was notorious for flaking, as most addicts are. I assume she had  just stopped caring. Then, one night I saw that she had left a message and before I could pick up my phone, it started ringing.

“Kara, we need to talk.”

That was when she told me about the House of no end. It got that name because no one had ever reached the final exit. The rules were simple but cliche: reach the final room of the house and you win $5,000. There are nine rooms in all. This house was located outside of the city, roughly ten miles from my apartment complex. Apparently, Sia had tried and failed. I figured the drugs had got the best of her and she had wigged out at a paper ghost or something. She told me it would be too much for anyone. That it was unreal. I don't believe her. I told her I would check it out the next night and no matter how hard she tried to convince me otherwise, $5,000 sounded too good to be true. I had to go and set out the following night.

When I arrived, I immediately noticed something strange about the building. Have you ever seen or read something that shouldn't be scary but for some reason a chill crawls up your spine? I walked towards the building and the feeling of uneasiness only intensified as I moved closer the front door. Reaching my hand out, I knocked on the door once and no one answered. I knocked a second time and the door slowly creaked open, inch by inch. My heart skipped as I watched the doors open. I waited a minute before entering, when I did the room looked like a normal hotel lobby decorated for Halloween. A sign was posted in place of a worker. It read, “Room one this way, eight more follow, reach the end and you win!”. I chuckled and made my way to the first door.

The first area was almost laughable. The decor resembled a Halloween aisle of a K-mart, complete with sheet ghosts and animatronic zombies that gave a static growl when you pass by. At the far end was the exit; it was the only door besides the one I entered through. I brushed through the fake spider webs that stretched from wall to wall. I headed to the second room.

I was greeted by fog as I open the door to room two. The room was definitely up ante in terms of technology. Not only was there a fog machine but a bat hung from the ceiling and flew in circles. SCARY. They seem to have a Halloween soundtrack, the one would find in a 99 cent store, on loop somewhere in the room. I didn't see a stereo, but I guess they must have used a PA system. I stepped over a few toy rats that wheeled around and walked with a puffed chest across to the next area.

My hand reached for the doorknob and my heart sank to my knees. I did not want to open that door. A feeling of dread hit me so hard I could barely even think. Logic overtook me after a few terrified moments, I shook it off and enter the next room. Room three is where things began to change. On the surface it looks like a normal room. There was a chair in the middle of a wood panel floor, a single lamp in the corner that did a poor job of lighting the area casted a few shadows across the floor and walls. That was the problem. Shadows; plural.

With the exception of the chairs there were others. I barely walked into the door and I had already been terrified. It was that moment that I knew something wasn't right. I didn't even think as I automatically tried to open the door came through it was locked from the other side. That set me off. Was someone locking the doors as I progressed? There's no way. I would have heard them. Was it a mechanical lock that set on automatically? Maybe. However; I was too scared to really think I turned to the room in the shadows were gone the chairs shadow remained but the others were gone. I wrote off the shadows as a figment of my imagination. I began to feel better. As I made it halfway through the room, I looked down. That's when I saw it, or didn't see it. My shadow wasn't there. I didn't have time to scream. I ran as fast as I could to the other door, falling into it without thinking what was waiting for me in the next room.

The fourth room was probably the most disturbing. As I close the door all light seem to be sucked out and put back into the previous room. I stood there surrounded by darkness, not able to move. I'm not afraid of the dark and never have been but I was absolutely terrified. All site had left me. I held my hand in front of my face, as if I didn't know what I was doing. I would have never been able to tell. Darkness doesn't describe it. I couldn't hear anything, it was dead silence. When you're in a soundproof room, you can still hear yourself breathing, you can hear yourself being alive, I couldn't. I began to stumble forward after a few moments. My rapid beating heart, flying out of my chest, was the only thing I could feel. There was no door insight. I wasn't even sure there was one this time, the silence was then broken by a low hum.

I felt something behind me. I spun around wildly, but could hardly even see my nose. I knew it was there though. Regardless of how dark it was, I knew something was there. The hum grew louder and closer. It seem to surround me like dogs do when you’re eating food. I knew whatever it was causing the noise was in front of me. I took a step back. I never felt that kind of fear. I can't really describe true fear. I wasn't even scared I was going to die, I was scared of what the alternative was. I was afraid of what this thing had in store for me, then the lights flash for a second and I saw it.

Nothing. I saw nothing, and I know I saw nothing there. The room was again plunged into a deep darkness and the hum turned into a wild screech. I screamed in protest. I couldn't hear this goddamn sound for another minute. I ran backwards away from the noise and fumbled for the door handle. I turned the knob and fell into room five.

Before I describe room five, you have to understand something. I am not a drug addict. I have had no history of drug abuse or any sort of psychosis sort of childhood hallucinations I mentioned earlier, and those were only when I was really tired or just waking up. I entered the House of No End with a clear mind and head. After falling into the previous room, my view of room five was from my back looking up at the ceiling. What I saw didn't scare me, it's simply surprised me. Trees had grown into the room. The ceilings in this room were taller than the others, which made me think that I was in the center of the house. I got up off the floor and dust myself off. I took a look around and it was definitely the biggest room of all of them. I couldn't even see the door from where I was. Various large bushes and tall ginormous trees blocked my line of sight of the exit. Up to this point, I figured the rooms were going to get scarier, but this was paradise. I also assumed whatever was in room four, stayed back there. But I was incredibly wrong.

As I made my way deeper into the room, I began to hear what one would hear if they were in a forest. Chirping bugs and the occasional flap of birds seem to be my only company in this room. that was the thing that bothered me the most I heard the bugs and other animals but I didn't see any of them. I began to wonder how big this house was. From the outside when I first walked in it looked like a regular house. I couldn't see any walls either, the only way I knew I was still inside was the format of the other rooms, the standard dark wood paneling.

I kept walking, hoping the next tree I pass would reveal the door. After a few moments, I felt a mosquito flying onto my arm. I shook to get it off and kept going. A second later, I felt about ten more land on my skin at different places. I felt them crawl up and down on my arms and legs and they made their way across my face. I flailed wildly to get them off but they just kept crawling. I look down and let out a muffled scream; more of a whimper to be honest. I didn't see a single bug. Not one was on me but I could feel them crawl. I heard them fly by my face and sting my skin, but I couldn't see a single one. I dropped to the ground and began to roll wildly. I was desperate. I hated bugs, especially ones I couldn't see or touch, but these bugs could touch me and they were everywhere.

I began to crawl, I had no idea where I was going. The entrance was nowhere in sight, and I still hadn’t found the exit. I crawled, my skin wriggling with the presence of those phantom bugs. After what seems like hours, I found the door. I grabbed the nearest tree and propped myself up. line mindlessly slapping my arms and legs to no avail. I tried to run, but I couldn't; my body was exhausted from crawling and dealing with whatever it was that was on me. I took a few shaky steps to the door, grabbing onto trees the way to support myself.

It was only a few feet away when I heard it. The low hum from before. It was coming from the next room and it was deeper. I could almost felt it inside my body, like when you stand next to an amp at a concert. The feeling of bugs on me lessened as the hum grew louder. As I placed my hand on the doorknob, the bugs were completely gone, but I couldn't bring myself to turn the knob. I knew that if I let go the bugs would return and there was no way to make it back to the room four. I just stood there, my head pressed against the door marked six, and my hand shakily grasping the knob. The hum was so loud I couldn't even hear myself pretend to think. There was nothing I could do but to move on. Room six was next, and room six with hell.

I close the door behind me, my eyes shut and my ears ringing. The hum was surrounding me. As the door clicked into place, the hum was gone. I open my eyes in surprise in the door I had shut was gone. It was a wall now. I looked around in shock. The room was identical to room three. The same chair,  the same lamp, but with a correct amount of shadows this time. The only real difference was that there was no exit door and the one I came in through was gone. As I said before, I had no previous issues in terms of mental instability, but at this moment I fell into what I know was Insanity. I didn't scream. I didn’t make a sound.

At first I scratched softly. The wall was tough, but I knew the door was there somewhere. I just knew it. The doorknob was. I clawed at the wall frantically with both hands. My nails being filed down to the skin against the wood. I fell silently to my knees, and the only sound in the room was me scratching the wall. I knew it was there the door was there, I knew it was just there. I knew if I just get past this wall-

“Are you okay?”

I jumped off the ground and spun and one motion. I leaned against the wall behind me and I saw what it was that spoke to me; to this day I regret ever turning around.

There was a little girl. She had long brown hair and piercing blue eyes, she was very skinny, wearing a soft white dress down to her ankles. She was the most frightening thing I've ever seen in my life. While I was looking at her, I saw something else where she stood. I saw what looks like a man's body only larger-than-normal and covered in hair. He was naked from head to toe, but his head was not human and his toes were hooves. The form had the head of a ram and the snout of a wolf. It was horrifying and it was synonymous with the little girl in front of me, they were the same form. I can't really describe it but I saw them at the same time. They shared the same spot in that room, but it was like looking at the two separate dimensions. When I saw the girl, I saw the form and when I saw the form I saw the girl. I couldn't speak. I could barely even see. My mind was revolting against what it was trying to process. I've been scared before in my life and I have never been more scared than when I was trapped in the fourth room, but that was before room six. I just stood there staring at whatever spoke to me. There was no exit. I was trapped here with it. Then it spoke again.

“Kara, you should have listened.”

When it spoke, I heard the words of a little girl, but the other form spoke through my mind in a voice I won't attempt to describe. There was no other sound. The voice just kept repeating that sentence over and over in my mind and I agreed. I didn't know what to do. I was slipping into madness, and yet I couldn't take my eyes off of what was in front of me. I dropped to the floor. I thought I had passed out, but the room wouldn't let me. I just wanted it to end. I was on my side, my eyes wide open and the form staring down at me. Scurrying across the floor in front of me was a battery powered rat from the second room.  

The house was toying with me, but for some reason ,seeing that rat pull my mind back from whatever depths it was headed and I looked around the room. I was getting out of there. I was determined to get out of that house and live and never think about this place again. I knew this room was hell and I wasn't ready to take up residency. At first, it was just my eyes that moved. I searched the walls for any kind of opening. The room wasn't that big so it didn't take long to soak up the entire layout. The demon still taunted me, the voice growing louder as the form stayed routed where it stood. I place my hand on the floor lifting myself up on all fours and turning to scan the wall behind me.

Then I saw something that couldn't believe. The form was now right at my back, whispering into my mind how I shouldn't have come. I felt its breath on the back of my neck, but I've refused to turn around. A large rectangle was scratched into the wood, with a small dent chipped away in the center of it. I knew what it was. Room seven was just beyond that wall where Room 5 was moments ago.

I don't know how I done it- maybe it was just my state of mind at the time- but I had created the door. I knew I had. In my madness, I had scratched into that wall what I needed most: an exit to the next room. Room seven was close. I knew the demon was right behind me, but for some reason it couldn't touch me. I close my eyes and place both hands on a large seven in front of me. I pushed it. I pushed it as hard as I could, The demon was now screaming in my ear. It told me I was never leaving. It told me that this was the end but I wasn't going to die; I was going to live there in room six with it. I pushed and screamed at the top of my lungs. I knew I was going to push through that wall eventually. I clench my eyes shut and screamed, and the demon was gone. I was left in silence. I turned around and was greeted by the room as it was when I entered; just a chair and the lamp. I couldn't believe it, but I didn't have time to. I turned it back to the seven and jumped back slightly. I saw was a door. It wasn't the one I had just scratched in, but a regular door with a large seven on it. My whole body was shaking. It took me awhile to turn the knob. I just stood there for a while, staring at the door. I couldn't stay in room six. I couldn't. But if this was only room six, I couldn't imagine what seven had in store. I must have stood there for an hour, staring at the seven. Finally, with a deep breath, and opened the door to room seven.

I stumbled through the door mentally exhausted and physically weak. The door behind me closed and I realize where I was. I was outside. Not outside like room five, but actually outside. My eyes stung. I wanted to cry. I fell of my knees and tried but couldn't. I finally was out of that hell. I didn't care about the price that was promised. I turned and saw that the door I went through was the entrance. I walked to my car and drove home thinking of how nice a shower sounded.

As I pulled up to my house, I felt uneasy. The joy of leaving the house of no end had faded and dread was slowly building in my stomach. I shook it off as residual from the house and made my way to the front door. I entered and immediately went up to my room. There on my bed was my cat, Sanders. He was the first living thing I've seen all night and I reach to pet him. He hissed and swiped at my hand. I recoiled in shock, as he had never acted like that I thought, “Whatever he's an old cat.” I jumped in the shower and got ready for what I was expecting to be a sleepless night.

After the shower, I went to the kitchen to make something to eat. I descended the stairs and turned into my family room; and what I saw would forever be burned in the back of my mind.  My parents were lying on the ground, naked and covered in blood. They were mutilated to near  unidentifiable states. The limbs were removed and placed next to their bodies, their heads were placed on their chest facinging me. The most unsettling part was their expressions. They were smiling, as though they were happy to see me. I vomited and sobbed there in the family room. I didn't know what had happened. They didn't even live with me at the time. I was a mess. Then I saw it: a door that was never there before. A door with a large eight sprawled on it in blood.

I was still in that house. I was standing in my family room but I was in room seven. The faces of my parents smiled wider as I realize this. They weren't my parents; they couldn't be, but they looked exactly like them. The door marked with eight was across the room behind the mutilated bodies in front of me. I knew I had to move on, but at that moment I gave up. Smiling faces tore into my mind; they grounded me where I stood. I vomited again and nearly collapsed. Then the hum returned. It was a lot of than ever and it filled the house and shook the walls. The hum compelled me to walk.

I began to walk, slowly making my way closer to the door and the bodies. I could barely stand, let alone walk, and the closer I got to my parents the closer I came to suicide. The walls were now shaking so hard it seemed as though they were going to crumble, but still the faces smiled as me. As I inched closer, their eyes followed me. I was now between the two bodies, a few feet away from the door. The dismembered hands clawed their way across the carpet towards me, all while the faces continued to stare. New terror washed over me and I walked faster. I did not want to hear them speak. I didn't want the voices to match those of my parents. They began to open their mouths and the hands were inches from my feet. In a dash of desperation, I lunged towards the door, through it open, and slammed it behind me. Room eight.

I was done. After what I just experienced, I knew there was nothing else this damn house could throw at me that I couldn't live through. There was nothing short of the fires of hell that I wasn't ready for. Unfortunately, I underestimated the abilities of the house of no end. Things were more disturbing, more terrifying, and more unspeakable in room eight.  

I still have trouble believing what I saw in room eight. Again, the room was a carbon copy of rooms three and six, but sitting in the usually empty chair was a girl. After a few seconds of disbelief, my mind finally accepted the fact that there was a girl sitting in the chair and that that girl was me. Not someone who looked like me; it was Kara Stoneway. I walked closer. I had to get a better look even though I was sure of it. She looked up at me and I noticed tears in her eyes.

“Please... please don't... please don't hurt me”

“What?” I asked,  “Who are you? I'm not going to hurt you.”

“Yes you are…” She was sobbing now. “ You're going to hurt me and I don't want you to.” she sat in the chair with her legs up and began to rock back and forth it was actually pretty pathetic looking especially since she was me identical in every way.

“Listen, who are you?” I was down only a few feet from my doppelganger. It was the weirdest experience yet, standing there talking to myself I wasn't scared but I would be soon.

“Why are you -”

“You're going to hurt me, you're going to hurt me. If you want to leave, you're going to hurt me.”

“Why are you saying this? Just calm down, alright? Let's try to figure this-” And that's when I noticed the Kara sitting down was wearing the same clothes as me, except for a small red patch on her shirt and bordered with the number nine.

“You're going to hurt me. You're going to hurt me. Don't, please, you're going to hurt me…”

My eyes didn’t leave that small number on her chest. I knew exactly what this was. The first few doors were plain and simple, but after a while, they got a little more ambiguous. Seven was scratched into the wall by my own hands. It was marked in blood above the bodies of my parents, but this number was on a person. A living person. The best part was that it was on a person that looked exactly like me.

“Kara?”  I had asked.

“ Yes…You're going to hurt me, you're going to hurt me…”  she continued to sob and rock.

She answered to Kara. She was me, right down to the voice, but that nine…  I paced around for a few minutes while she sobbed in her chair. The room had no door and similarly to room six. The door I came through was gone. For some reason, I assumed that scratching would get me nowhere this time. I studied the walls and the floors. I looked under the chair sticking, my head underneath and seeing if anything below, unfortunately there was. Below the chair was a knife and attached was a tag that read, “To Kara - From Management.”

The feeling in my stomach as I read that tag was something sinister. I wanted to throw up. The last thing I wanted to do was remove that knife from under that chair. The other Kara was still sobbing uncontrollably. My mind spinning into an attic of unanswerable questions. “Who put this here and how did they get my name?”. Not to mention the fact as I knelt on the cold wood floor, I also sat in that chair, sobbing in process of being hurt by myself. It was all too much for me to process. The house and the management have been playing with me this whole time. My thoughts for some reason turn to Sia and whether or not she got this far. If she did if she met a  Sia Thompson sobbing in this very chair rocking back and forth. I shook those thoughts out of my head; they didn't matter. I took the knife from under the chair and immediately the other Kara went quiet.

“Kara,” she said in my voice, “What do you think you're going to do?”

I left in myself from the ground and clench the knife in my hand.

“ I'm going to get out of here.” I yelled.

Kara was still sitting in the chair, though she was very calm now. She looked up at me with a slight grin. I couldn't tell if she was going to laugh or strangle me. Slowly, she got up from the chair and stood facing me. It was uncanny. Her height and even the way she stood matched me. I felt the rubber hilt of the knife in my hand and gripped it tighter. I don't know what I was planning on doing with it but I had a feeling I was going to need it.

“Now,” her voice was slightly deeper than my own now. “ I'm going to hurt you. I'm going to hurt you, and I'm going to keep you here.” I didn't respond, I just lunged and tackled her to the ground. I have mounted her and looked down. Knife poised and ready. she looked up at me terrified and it was like looking in a mirror. The hum returned, low and distant, though I still feel it deep in my body. Kara looked up at me as I looked down at myself. The hum was getting closer and louder and I felt something inside me snap. With one motion, I slammed the knife into the patch on her chest and ripped down. Blackness fell in the room and I was falling.

The darkness around me was like nothing I had experienced up to that point. Room four was dark but I didn't come close to what I was being completely engulfed by right now. I wasn't even sure if I was falling after a while. I felt weightless, covered in dark. Then a deep sadness came over me. I felt lost depressed and suicidal. The thought of my parents entered my mind I knew it wasn't real, but I had seen it in the mind has trouble differentiating between what is real and what isn't. The sadness only deepened. I was in room nine for what seemed like days. The final room. and that's exactly what it was: The end. The house of No End had an end and I had reached it. At that moment I gave up. I knew I would be in that between state forever accompanied by nothing but darkness. Not even the hum was there to keep me sane.

I lost all senses. I couldn't feel myself; I couldn't hear anything. Sight was completely useless here. I searched for a taste in my mouth and found nothing. I felt disembodied and completely lost. I knew where I was. This was hell. Room nine was hell. Then it happened. A light. One of those stereotypical lights at the end of the tunnel. I felt ground come up from below me and I was standing. After a moment or two of gathering my thoughts and sense, I slowly walked towards the light.

As I approach the light, it took form. It was a vertical slit down the side of an unmarked door. I slowly walked through the door and found myself back where I started. The lobby of The House of No End. It was exactly how I left it, till empty still decorated with childish Halloween decorations. After everything that happened that night, I was still wary of where I was. After a few moments of normalcy, I looked around the place trying to find anything different. On the desk was a plain white envelope with my name hand written on it. Immensely curious, yet still cautious, I mustered up the courage to open the envelope inside was a letter again handwritten.

“Kara Stoneway.

Congratulations! You have made it to the end of The House of No End! Please accept this prize as a token of your great achievement.

Yours forever,

Management.”

With the letter there was $5,000.

I couldn't stop laughing. I laughed for what seemed like hours. I laughed as I walked out to my car I laughed as I drove home. I laugh as I pulled into the driveway. I laughed as I went to open the front door of my house and I laughed as I saw the small ten edged into the wood.