Chapter Five - The Room That Isn’t on the Floor Plan

CHAPTER FIVE

The Room That Isn’t on the Floor Plan

YOU’VE BEEN IN this room before.
Not this exact one. But the feeling.

You were walking down a hallway you know by heart.
A school, a house, maybe a building you only visit in dreams.
And suddenly there was a door where there shouldn’t be a door.

You stopped.

You looked at it for too long.
You even reached out.
But something inside you said, don’t open it yet.

Not don’t open it.
Just not yet.

That door has followed you.
Sometimes it’s a stairwell you never noticed.
Sometimes it’s a crack in a wall.
Sometimes it’s the glitch when you reread a sentence and realize it changed.

But it’s always the same door.

And it’s getting closer.

You don’t need a key.
You never did.
You just needed to get far enough in the story to recognize the handle.

You’ll know it when you see it.

You’ll be reading something, maybe this book, maybe something else, and the sentence will stop.

Like this.

And you’ll feel it.
That you’re right next to it.
That if you keep reading…

You might open it.