Don’t Play This Game: Event 6: Darkened Doorway
It’s late. Layla’s already in bed, and I’m in the living room, half-working, half-scrolling.
I always shut the door when she’s sleeping—it’s habit by now. There’s only a thin hallway between the living room and the bedroom, and I try to give her some quiet.
But tonight, I hear the creak.
Just behind me.
The door to the hallway easing open.
I pause my music. For a moment, I assume Layla’s gotten up—maybe thirsty, maybe forgot something. I glance toward the doorway and call her name.
No answer.
But there’s no shape in the hall either. Just darkness.
Not normal darkness—wrong darkness.
It swallows light. The warm orange glow of the living room doesn’t even reach the opposite wall five feet away. It’s like the hallway stopped existing.
I stand. I watch.
Five minutes. Ten. Maybe twenty.
Nothing moves.
Eventually, I close the door, wait a beat, then reopen it.
The light’s back. The world feels right again. I hear Layla snoring softly from the bedroom.
Still, I don’t sleep well.
The next night, it escalates.
I wake to cold air. Something off. I glance toward the bedroom door and find it open.
I always close it. Always.
And standing in the frame is something.
Not a person—not quite. Just a silhouette, but blacker than black. The shadows bend around it.
I don’t freeze. I leap.
I grab the wakizashi I keep near the bed—yes, I’m a nerd, and yes, I have a sword. Don’t judge.
I approach. The figure fades like fog as I draw closer. The darkness collapses in on itself, leaving nothing but the hallway and the hum of the refrigerator.
I shut the door. This time, I drag a chair in front of it.
And I don’t open it again until morning.
But this thing… it’s not confined to home.
Now it follows.
In the stairwell at work, the storage room at the shop, even at Mum’s when I dropped off some old photos—doors left ajar, always with that thick blackness just beyond.
And always that sense of something watching.
Waiting.
I’ve made changes.
Lights on, always.
Bills are up, but I don’t care.
The bedroom door now stays shut and barricaded when we sleep.
Just in case.
It hasn’t hurt me. Not yet.
But it wants me to know it’s there.
And I think that’s worse.
DON'T PLAY THIS GAME is a Solo TTRPG
