The Last Door on Carrow Lane

It was a lazy July afternoon in 2005 when Mara and her best friend, Josie, decided to search for Josie’s older brother, Evan, and his friend, Leo. The two boys had been gone for hours, and Josie was starting to get annoyed. They had checked the backyard, the garage, even the creepy attic that Evan swore was haunted. Nothing. As they stood in the hallway of Josie’s two-story farmhouse, a strange feeling crept over them. Both girls felt an inexplicable pull toward the master bedroom at the end of the hall, a room Josie’s parents rarely used. ‘Let’s check in there,’ Josie said, her voice low. Mara nodded, her skin prickling with unease.

The door was slightly ajar, which was odd because Josie’s mother was a stickler for keeping doors shut. Josie pushed it open, and they stepped inside. The room was tidy, with pale blue wallpaper and heavy curtains that blocked most of the light. Instantly, the door slammed shut behind them, making them jump. They spun around, but the door was firmly closed. Josie grabbed the handle and twisted, but it wouldn’t budge. ‘What the hell?’ she muttered, rattling the knob. Mara tried pushing, but the door might as well have been a wall. They pounded on it, shouting for Evan and Leo, but only silence answered. Then, as quickly as it had locked, the door swung open on its own. The girls stumbled out, gasping. They peered back inside, but the room was empty. They searched every corner, under the bed, inside the closet, behind the curtains, but there was no sign of the boys. The window was shut and locked from the inside, with cobwebs on the frame, showing it hadn’t been opened in years. It was impossible for Evan and Leo to have escaped that way.

Frightened, they raced downstairs and found Evan and Leo in the kitchen, laughing over glasses of lemonade. ‘Where were you two?’ Josie demanded, her voice shaking. Evan looked confused. ‘We’ve been here the whole time. We came in through the front door about five minutes ago.’ Josie and Mara exchanged glances. ‘You have to come upstairs,’ Mara said, her hands trembling. ‘We saw you disappear into the bedroom. It’s impossible.’ The boys scoffed, but the girls were so insistent that they agreed to check it out. They tromped upstairs, the old wooden stairs creaking under their feet. Evan made jokes about ghosts and secret passages, but his smile faded when they reached the master bedroom. The door was now wide open, revealing an empty room. ‘I swear, they were in here,’ Josie said. Evan rolled his eyes. ‘You two are insane, maybe you saw a ghost,’ he said, snickering. He walked into the room, and as he did, the door slammed shut in his face. ‘Hey! Not funny,’ Evan yelled. He tried the handle, but it was locked. The girls heard him yelp, then a thud, then silence. Leo rushed to the door, pounding on it. ‘Evan? Evan, open up!’ He rattled the knob, but it held. Then, just as before, the door swung open. Evan was gone.

A cold dread settled over the house. The parents would be home in an hour, but that felt like a lifetime. The three remaining friends searched the house frantically, calling Evan’s name, but there was no trace. When the sun dipped below the horizon, they heard a faint, rhythmic knocking coming from behind the walls—as if someone was moving inside them, following them as they moved from room to room. Leo’s face went pale. ‘We need to get out of here,’ he whispered.

They gathered in the living room, whispering, jumping at every creak. Josie’s hands were clammy. She looked at the doorway leading to the upstairs hallway. ‘It’s the last door,’ she said. ‘The one at the end of the hall. It’s not a door. It’s a mouth.’ Leo shook his head in disbelief. ‘We have to go look again,’ he insisted. ‘We can’t just leave him.’

Summoning their courage, they climbed the stairs one more time. The master bedroom door was closed. They pushed it open, and the room was exactly as before—empty, with the window locked and the curtains still. ‘This is wrong,’ Mara whispered. ‘This whole house is wrong.’

Just then, Evan’s voice came from behind them, from inside the room. ‘You shouldn’t have opened the door,’ it said, but it wasn’t Evan’s voice. It was deeper, older, and it slither through the air like oil. The door slammed shut, but this time, it was the three of them standing inside. They were trapped. They pounded on the door, screaming, but it was no use. The door would open again, but only when something else stepped out, and they would no longer be the ones looking in from the outside. They were the missing ones now, and the last door on Carrow Lane had claimed its new residents.