Author’s note: This piece is a response for Prompt # 2 for Sarah Faxon’s latest Flash Friday post: your main character hears a knock at the door.
The hour is late - and with it the prospect of escape from my pending doom.
They will see to that.
Dear God, is there no balm in Gilead for a wretched fool?!
I dared to open doors no mere mortal had any business entering. But the damnable desire to know threw precaution to the wind, sending me headlong into mansions of madness, home to unnameable presences…
Including them…
There! Harken! The promised rapping upon the hour! Surely it is too soon!
“Lord, have mercy on me!”
The rapping only grows louder over my shrieks.
“Let us in.”
The knob turns.
© Conor MacCormack, 2026. All rights reserved.
Would love a longer version of this! Has a very Poe atmosphere that's awesome
I love that you're letting our imagination do the work here. Great job!