40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsx5K3T1IJMChapter 5
Don’t Open the door 🚪
I am thirty-two years old, and I live alone in the Appalachian Mountains. Out here, people follow rules. Not written ones. Not laws.
The kind you grow up hearing in whispers. The kind outsiders laugh at calling them folklore, superstition, nonsense. But I follow them. Every single one. Because once you’ve lived here long enough… you learn they exist for a reason. And sometimes They save your life. A few months before that night, my life had already fallen apart. The divorce was ugly. Bitter. Final. No kids. No shared responsibilities. Just silence where a life used to be. Now it was just me…
…and my two animals. Tom, my cat is lazy, observant, always watching. And Jerry, my dog. Loyal. Restless. Protective. Too protective, sometimes. That evening started like any other. It was around 5 p.m. when I got home. The sky was already dimming, that dull golden light slipping behind the mountains faster than it should. Fall had settled in, and the air carried that dry, restless chill. I clipped Jerry’s leash on and stepped outside. “Go on,” I muttered, tired, rubbing the back of my neck. He trotted ahead, sniffing the ground, tail swaying lazily. Normal.
Everything was normal. Until later.
By the time the night fell, the wind had picked up. Not a gentle breeze. A howl.
It rushed through the trees like something alive something moving through the forest instead of around it. I took Jerry out one last time before bed. The porch light flickered weakly behind us, barely touching the darkness. Beyond that small circle of yellow glow… there was nothing.
Just black. Endless, swallowing black.
Jerry stepped off the porch and began sniffing around. Then He froze. His entire body went rigid. Slowly, his head snapped toward the tree line. My stomach tightened.
“Jerry…?” I called softly. He didn’t move.
Didn’t blink. Then suddenly, he started pulling hard. Toward the woods. His leash jerked in my hand, his claws scraping against the ground as he tried to drag me forward.
“No.” My voice came out sharper this time. “We’re not going over there.”40Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡplJNWdWpHT
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