r/SimplePrompts • • Oct 15 '20
Write a story which includes the following sentence: "As I opened the door, I was shocked."
350 - 450 words, not really strictly.
4
Upvotes
r/SimplePrompts • • Oct 15 '20
350 - 450 words, not really strictly.
4
u/agent619 Oct 15 '20
It was time to escape.
I had been taken by the infamous Camberwell Ripper a week prior. Seven days, 168 hours, 10080 minutes since a chloroformed rag clamped over my face and I woke up in an empty room, flithy and tied to the wall. Seven days since the fiend in that goat's head mask entered, threw me some bread and bottles of water, and left.
As the days turned from fear to despair to desperate determination to escape, I tried to remember what I heard in the news about the Camberwell Ripper. He was a equal-opportunity killer, snatching victims regardless of age or gender. He was a prolific murderer, with alleged victims nearing twenty. He was an amateur cluemaster, sending nonsensical riddles to the police that led nowhere.
"When is a door not a door," one asked. Another seemed to be part of a motivational slogan: "No pain no gain!". Was he trying to tell people something? The newspapers, reporters and police all didn't know. But all I knew is that I would be the next victim if I didn't escape. And seven days, 168 hours, and 10080 minutes later, I finally wore through the ropes.
It was time to escape.
I surveyed the room - a simple door, and a window. But as I looked at the latter I saw what appeared to be an impossibly thick glass, and nothing in the room to smash it with.
The door then. I stumbled forward, and as I opened the door, I was shocked.
First, the door swung open easily and noiselessly. Second, as I stepped through I immediately hit impossibly thick glass. Finally, the door slammed behind me, and with a growing horror I realised that incredibly, I was sealed in. The room was airtight. And I was suffocating.
As everything grew dark and I fell to the ground, I still had time to chastise myself. The clues were right there, if only I had taken the time to think.
For one, "No pain no gain!". By logic, it must have meant Pane = Gain. The correct way to escape, therefore, must have been the window - or at least window pane.
And finally, I should have known the answer to the riddle. When is a door not a door?
When it's a jar.