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Jack woke up in his childhood home. For the first few seconds, everything felt normal, the dim glow of morning pressing through the blinds, the faint scent of old summer afternoons lingering in the air, but something was immediately off. He could hear a faint buzzing in his ears, enough to drive him insane. His room was exactly as he remembered it, the creaky dresser, the faded posters, even the slight dip in the mattress where he used to sit cross-legged and read late into the night. That's when he realized, something more noticeable was off. The light outside wasn’t shifting; the clock on the wall ticked, but the second hand never moved.
Then he noticed something, a hallway that wasn’t there when he was growing up. His house wasn’t big enough for extra hallways, but this one stretched longer than the length of the residence. The wallpaper matched the same floral pattern as the rest of the room, but the photographs along the walls weren’t quite right. They showed birthday parties he didn't remember having and trips to places he didn’t recognize. Inside some of them were people he didn’t know, but looked familiar. As he walked past the abnormal amount of pictures, a door came into view at the end of the hallway. Jack shivered at the sight of it. Stepping closer and closer to it, he realized that it was slightly open. He felt a strange presence and looked behind him, expecting something or maybe even someone . . . but there was nothing there.
The floor beneath him groaned with every step, like he was stepping on people. The photographs lining the hallway were framed in gold, each spaced perfectly between the others. He had never seen these frames before either, they were too nice for his middle-class family. He looked at another picture that showed a birthday party with streamers twisted in bright spirals. A cake sat on the table with the candles frozen mid-flicker. Everyone in the picture was smiling except for the boy in the center. Jack leaned closer, squinting at the image. The boy had the same dark hair and nervous posture as himself. No matter how hard he tried though, he couldn't remember that party. He moved to the next frame to see a family vacation. The setting took place on a beach with dark waves stretching into the unkown, being reflected off a sky drained of color. The same boy stood there, arms crossed as strangers crowded around him. A woman’s hand rested on his shoulder, but he didn’t recognize her face. He swallowed as he moved along the hallway. The next picture showed the boy sitting at a dinner table, surrounded by uncanny faces. His mother’s eyes were too wide, his father’s smile too sharp.
The last photograph before reaching the door made his breath hitch. It showed the boy standing exactly where Jack was now. A perfect replica of this hallway, but in the photo the door at the end was fully open and something was standing inside. Jack moved closer to what seemed like maybe the exit, his pulse beating hard against his ribs. When he looked back, the hallway looked to stretch farther than it did before. Terror shook him as the though of something waiting for him behind the door racked his brain. His hand trembled even harder as he reached for the doorknob. It was colder than he thought it should be, the metal almost freezing beneath his pale fingers. The air in the hallway felt heavier than before, pressing against his skin like a huge, damp fabric. He took a deep breath and turned the knob, flinging the door open.
Beyond it was nothing. Not an empty room, not a hallway, not even the familiar glow of a lightbulb; Just darkness stretching in every direction. Suddenly he saw movement. It was small, but noticeable. He was too frightened to move. Slowly, a large figure stepped forward, its bright, white skin lighting up the dark void. Its shape was human-like, but something was very wrong. Its skin was too smooth and its limbs were permanently bent in excruciating positions. He stepped back, caught off guard by the creature’s terrifying face. The door behind him slammed closed, but opened by itself a couple seconds later revealing a hallway. However, it wasn’t the one he had just walked through. This one stretched out into nothingness, floating in the void. The walls in the hallway were faintly lit, but beyond them was nothing. It was just an extension of the void he was already trapped inside. Jack hesitated, wondering what he should do. Then behind him came a truly disturbing sound. It sounded like wet, slimy shuffling. He turned to see the creature closer now, its features becoming more prominent. It seemed to have no eyes or nose, just a long, twisted smile curving across its odd face. It took another slow step forward. His eyes opened wide, feeling his heart stop for a brief second.
Before he could even think about what he should do, he instinctively ran for the door, hoping for a way out of the null void. The dark hallway blurred past him as the walls seemed to stretch longer and longer. When he glanced behind him, the thing was still there, but he stopped. The thing was just walking. It wasn’t running, not even trying to catch up to him. That’s when he realized, the floor beneath his feet was pulling him in circles, dragging him back even as he pushed forward. If there even was an exit somewhere, it wouldn't let him get there. The floor of the void was keeping him in place. As he tried to run again, his body slowed, becoming overcome with fatigue. His limbs felt heavy and he stumbled, barely catching himself as he fell onto the surprisingly cold darkness. It almost felt exactly like the doorknob. He looked into the hallway, no hope of escape in sight. As he looked back towards the creature he noticed how close it was, every step bringing him closer to what he could only assume is death.
Jack’s chest heaved as his hands shook, his pulse pounding in his ears as he felt the weight of its eyeless gaze. As it took its final step, it leaned down towards Jack saying only two words that were enough to shake him to his core. "Time's up," it said, the smile on its frightening face elongating. The words didn't sound spoken, they almost felt as if placed directly into his thoughts, stitched into his mind like an unavoidable truth. Everything in his vision faded as white swallowed the never-ending black void, the world around him going dead silent.