The Magic Hallway

The Magic Hallway

Jack had always hated moving into new houses. He hated the long drive, the unpacking, and the fact that he had to start over, to make new friends. 

“Are we almost there, mom?” Jack said.

“Not yet,” said his mom.

“We aren’t going to get there for another hour,” chuckled his dad.

“Yeah, be patient, Jack,” Brayden said.

Jack groaned. This time, he wanted to move into this house. The reason was, it was a giant house, and according to his mom, it was really cheap for a house as big as it was. 

Jack finally fell into a light sleep, and it seemed a few seconds after that his mom was waking him up, And when he looked up, he saw his new house. It was enormous, bigger than his mom and dad had described. It was an interesting beige sort of color, with four floors including the attic. It was fairly clean, and it was really bright inside. Jack walked around, and as he explored each and every room, he saw that they all had a strange mark on one wall. It was a square with an arrow pointing up inside of it, and it was really vivid and bright, it was the first thing he saw in each room. He tried touching one, and the wall felt almost soft, or squishy.

“Mom! Come see this!” called Jack.

“Okay! Coming,” His mom hollered back.

His mom came into the room.

“What did you want to show me?” she asked.

“Look,” said Jack as he pointed to the symbol.

“Yes, it’s a very nice colored wall,” his mom said.

“No not the wall, this!” as he pointed to it again.

“I don't see anything,” sighed his mom.

“You mean you really don’t see it?” exclaimed Jack.

“No, I don't see anything.” his mom said as she walked out of the room, “You kids and your active imaginations.”

Jack thought this over a while. “If my mom can't see it, what about my dad?” 

So, the next day, he called for his dad.

“What did you want, Jack?” his dad asked.

“Look,” Jack said as he pointed to the symbol.

“Okay, I give up. What am I supposed to be looking at?” his dad asked.

The symbol! Right here!” exclaimed Jack, sounding exasperated.

“Right. Umm, no, sorry Jack. What does it look like?” asked his dad, feeling slightly confused.

“Oh, forget it,” Jack said as he walked out of the room.

That night, when he was lying in bed, he looked over at the symbol by his bedside. He stared at it really closely, and he noticed that a big section of the wall around the symbol was colored slightly different than the rest of the wall. His brother interrupted his thoughts by knocking on the door and walking in. 

“Hey, Jack...Oh no! You have one in your room too!” Brayden exclaimed.

“You mean you see them too?” Jack asked.

“The arrow box things? Yeah I see them! As far as I know, mom and dad can’t see them,” Brayden said. 

“Yeah, I asked dad about it yesterday, and mom about it the day before, and they couldn’t see them,” said Jack.

“I searched every room, and every single room has one!” Brayden said.

“Brayden, we have to make a deal. We tell no one about this, and never talk about it unless there's nobody around. Deal?” Jack whispered.

“Deal,” whispered Brayden as they shook hands.

As he started to fall asleep, he thought about why they might be there.

“What if they lead into a secret storage room that was boarded up? What if they lead into a room that no one knows about?” Jack wondered. 

The next day, he decided he would find out about these symbols. He and Brayden searched on the internet for a box with an arrow inside of it. The search returned no results, except for completely unrelated things. They searched every single page, and there was nothing about it.

“Darn it!” yelled Jack.

“It’s like it doesn't even exist,” Brayden said.

Jack observed the wall in the dining room where it was. Like in his room, a large section of the wall around it was a different color than the rest of the wall. 

Jack reached toward the wall.

“Don’t touch it!” said Brayden.

“I already have, a few days ago. It was soft, almost like wet cement,” Jack whispered.

Brayden groaned. “You shouldn't have. What if something happened to you?” he asked.

Jack reached toward the wall again. He felt it, and it felt the same as it had when he first touched it. But as he got closer, the wall got softer and softer.

“Umm, Brayden. The wall is getting squishier,” Jack gulped.

“No! I said don’t touch it!” Brayden screamed.

All of a sudden the wall around Jack’s hand became solid as their mom peeked into the room.

“You two need to stop fighting!” she said, popping back out of the room.

As soon as their mom had left, the wall softened again. Jack hadn’t realized he was leaning on the wall, and he didn’t expect the wall to become soft again.

“Aaaaagh!” Jack screamed as he fell into the wall. He passed right through and into a sort of hallway, and it was pitch black. When he looked both ways, there was nothing there.

“Brayden? Brayden! Where are you?” he screamed.

Suddenly, he was back in the room and he saw Brayden wide eyed.

“What the heck? You just like...teleported!” Brayden exclaimed.

Jack tried to calm Brayden down as he explained what had happened when he fell through the wall.

“But...but… you hit the wall and then all of a sudden you were standing a foot away from where you hit the wall!” Brayden said.

That night, lying in bed, he thought about it. 

“We have to test it tomorrow. Apparently, time passes differently in that hallway. I was in there for ten seconds and no time passed for him. It’s so strange! It has something to do with the symbols. It has to.”

The next morning he woke up early, so he woke up Brayden and ate breakfast as fast as he could.

“We’re testing out the walls today, Brayden!” he said cheerfully.

“Okay, but why did you wake me up?” Brayden mumbled sleepily.

Later, Jack and Brayden were standing in front of one of the walls. Brayden was going in this time. He had a rope tied around his waist and Jack was holding the end of the rope.

Jack made a thumbs up and Brayden stepped cautiously into the wall, hands first.

Not even a second had passed when the rope fell to the floor, sliced cleanly in half and he heard a shout of triumph from upstairs, and heard thumping coming down the stairs.

“It worked! It worked! You have to try it, Jack!” Brayden yelled excitedly, pumping his fist.

“Okay, okay. But just saying, the rope was cut right when you stepped into the wall,” Jack said.

As they prepared for Jack to go into the wall, they decided that they would both carry a walkie talkie, and Jack would speak through it to see whether it worked in there.

Jack stepped in and he felt a strange sensation, almost like when he rubbed balloons in his hair, except this was all around his body. It started from his waist, and it spread up and down.

*Scccch* “Jack to Brayden. Jack to Brayden. Do you hear me?” Jack whispered into the walkie talkie.

There was no reply, so Jack pictured his room upstairs, closed his eyes, and started walking down the hallway. He felt the strange sensation again, except it started at his head and toes and spread to his waist. When he opened his eyes, he was in his room upstairs. He ran as fast as he could down the stairs and explained about the weird feeling and how the walkie talkie didn’t work.

Over the next few days he and Brayden tested out the walls in every way possible. They tried going to different rooms than just their bedrooms upstairs, and they tried bringing their phones in. It seemed that electronics didn’t work inside the hallway, and no time passed in the real world when they went into the hallway. One time, Jack took food in there and he stayed in there for a few hours, but still no time had passed for Brayden, who was waiting outside.

Seven months later, Jack tried going in there, with no destination in mind. He stepped in and started walking, trying to keep his mind completely blank, thinking of nothing. 

All of a sudden, he felt heat on his face, and he opened his eyes. He hadn't even realized that they were closed.

Jack was shocked when he opened his eyes. He looked around, and he saw that he wasn’t in his house anymore. He saw empty desert around him, and when he turned around, the wall which he should have come through wasn’t there!

“Oh, no.”