Grey Doors

“I can still smell her scent,” John said to his coworker, Nina, who sat patiently by his side, gently rubbing and patting his back. Red firing sunbeams entered the room and illuminated its greyness but didn’t manage to reflect any color, only swallowed in its shades.

John sulked in his chair, with his palm covering half of his aloof expression.

Sunk in his chair, shoulders crouch inwards, head weighing down to his chest and eyes drop down to his chin, completely unaware of the office phone ringing beside him, rather, he wasn’t going to pick it up.

It was the time of day workers finish their shift and go on to their lives, and the state of John's fragility didn't bother any of them. Some asked Nina, the coworker, what's been going on, but solely for the purpose of cheap gossip.

And as if it only dawned on him the occasions of the night before, the words fled from his mouth: “I can’t believe it’s over.”

An hour had passed and all workers, along with Nina who cared enough to stay a bit longer but had to get back to her life as well, had left. John found himself all alone at the restroom splashing cool water to eliminate the dark shaped circles that were painted under his eyes. I’ve lived a quiet peaceful life, he thought to himself, why must this happen to me?

When he came back to the office, it was time to head back to his life as well, but something inside him repelled leaving the office’s boundaries, so he stayed all by himself, observing carefully studying each and every section of the room.

The desks of his coworkers seemed the same. All carbon copies of the same person, all are grey and lifeless. Notes organized in a similar fashion, squared pictures are hung in unoriginal locations, nothing unique that would distinguish anyone from each other.

His eyes shifted and his gaze locked on his desk, and when he took a good look at it, it seemed the same. His stomach twirled as if collapsing inwards, and his head began to weigh down to his chest. The four grey walls that surrounded him appeared as if shrinking to the size of his figure.

In those few moments, a small lightbulb at the end of the room began flickering nonstop, and a few moments later, the windows that entered firing sunlight beams, clustered with opaque clouds.

John finally lifted his head up to the striking sight of an ongoing blizzard outside the office building. He rushed to the window, with his face stuck to the glass began switching aimlessly left to right to check if it is actually a blizzard. Snow falling from the sky in a velocity of metal chunks began covering in haste everything that laid on the ground. The cars, the streetlamps, and the road were all covered to the brim with snow.

And then, the lights turned off. Heck. Now everything is in the dark, and but a flickering light bulb at the back of the room and the bits of the sun still left in the sky, nothing could help John see through this darkness.

He took a deep breath and sat in his chair for a while before deciding to check for the alarm lights downstairs. The entrance room was completely vacant with no evidence there ever were people. John wandered around the room, hoping to find in the utter darkness that surrounded him where the electric cabinet was hiding. When he found it, all switches were in place, a circuit must have gone wrong he thought, but it wasn’t in his knowledge to fix it.

He arrived at the hallway leading to his office and began walking. Passing one door, two doors, three, but hasn’t reached yet his office. All glass doors and behind them are just regular offices with a similar grey decor, but none were John’s. He walked forward glancing left and right to locate his own workplace, and the feeling he’d been walking for ages clung in his mind.

But one room seemed different. It wasn't his office, but a replica and the only difference was that all items in the room were stored in cardboard boxes on the floor.

He observed through the glass door, but the occurrence wasn't much of a surprise. Maybe they've sold the office space to a new company he thought, maybe they're rebuilding the room. He turned to lead forward, but a scent of lilac coming from the room had him standing in his place without a move. He opened the door, and as it flung gently a strong scent of lilac stench the hallway. Through the fog of lilac, he marched in. Indeed, it was his office. The windows were observing the same street, a blizzard still appearing outside the building, and snow still covers the world outside. But the office is completely vacant. John couldn't distinguish his cubicle at first, and when he did, a small cardboard box gently put on the floor had his stuff. Notebook, ball pen, some papers, and a happy couple framed in a picture. They seemed happy he thought as he lifts the picture up to take a closer look. What is this place? He thought deeply for a moment searching in his mind for a reasonable answer. There was a blizzard, the building was evacuated completely, yet somehow, after I disappear for no longer than twenty minutes, the office is completely vacant. Somebody has been here, must be. But no matter how deeply and for how long he had thought about it, it just didn't make any sense to him. And the scent of lilac appearing from nowhere bubbled in his mind. I might be dreaming, or I might have died in the blizzard, he thought. But yet again, the thought of external events didn't make sense. This is reality, it feels real, he finally came to a conclusion.

At the end of the long-vacant office, the lightbulb flickered all the same, red flashy light on and off, and underneath it was a door John hadn't seen before. A grey door without a clear sign to where it's leading. Without thinking much, he approached the door. After studying the door's details and assessing that in fact, he has never seen this door, he tried turning the knob but it wouldn't open. Not much to worry, he thought, it must be the storage room and because the grey aesthetic blends so well with the rest of the scenery it makes sense he never noticed it.

John passed the next hour and a half spinning on the office chair left and right with his expression aloof, glancing at the window every once in a while to confirm a blizzard is still occurring. He tried checking his phone every now and then, but it ceased to have a signal. An unknown amount of time had passed since he last checked his phone and John sank in his chair, slowly shutting the eyes then re-opening them vaguely, and when he opened them again...

"Come with me," Stands above him, her figure real as can be, reaching her hand towards him before running through the grey door and disappearing.

He opened his eyes once again to a trail of lilac candle scent lingering in the space between him and the door. The knob turned without a need for force.

The door opened and a long dark void appeared to John's pair of dark eyes. The blackness of the hallway was deep and thick and appeared dense as a swamp. As if the moment he'd step into it, he'd be swallowed whole. He entered the hallway hoping at some end it will be illuminated. The only thing leading him through the clogged darkness was the lilac candle scent coming from the other side.

Time passed differently in this hallway. It was a mixture of feeling as if time didn't pass at all or it passed so much, but no matter how much time actually passed, the hallway didn't seem to come to an end. Yet again, for some reason, John obeyed the reality in front of him, forgetting the office and the blizzard that remained behind. The feeling that there are two walls on his sides began to deteriorate into a collective idea that he might be walking on the disappearing road in wonderland. He was only waiting for the dog with the broomstick end to wipe away what’s left behind him. He heard her laughter from a distance, giggling adding more echo to space, and fading. John began running towards her laughter, and when he had, the echo became louder and louder but never reached a certain summit. He kept running straight, or in any direction, lights appeared on both sides of the hallway, red flickering bulbs like the one hung above the grey door, they were all in a long endless row revealing just a tinge of the space. It was a hallway, a long and endless hallway. The lights flickered, flashy neon reds and the laughter lingered in the echo. The scent of lilac shows again. He ran faster, and in a cluster of all senses coming together, he reached a grey door at the end of the hallway.

The door flung open as if there weren’t a door and a small room appeared behind it. A living room, and two people standing in front of each other. The room illuminated lightly, just a few lilac candles omitting soft light and warmth, the rest of the room stayed in the gloomy dark. The living room seemed like it would’ve been a happy place, but now, the colors and the pictures that gave it life are in cardboard boxes on the floor. John watched the two walk around the room back and forth, completely not noticing his presence. Their lips moved as if words were supposed to leave their mouths, but he didn’t hear a single thing in the air. A strong persistent pitch, similar to when a phone is hung up, lingered. He watched them as the conversation became heated, he watched as the guy turning aggressive, slapping her in the face. He watched her crying, packing her stuff, and leaving the front door. Then, he saw the guy sitting in despair on the couch and grabbing drink after drink until forgetfulness. John stepped closer to the happening to get a better look at his face.

“What’re you doing?” The guy saw him.

“Go after her.” The guy said and switched his look to the door. It was a grey door, with a small sticker that says, “Happy family”. A shiver fled through his entire body as he ran through the door to reach her. He took one good glance at the room he left behind.

“Don’t wait for me.” The guy on the couch said before a long and thoughtless bender.

He passed through the same door, and the hallway was dark again, this time he was sure she’ll appear on the other side. No matter how far he walked, the horizon seems farther away from him, as if the hallway was continuously stretching and two points are just getting more and more distant. His mind blanked but only one picture appeared, holding him hostage and unable to see or think about anything else. It was the framed picture, the happy couple, that now crashed in the room back there. He wondered when they took the picture, and what had happened to them since.

“Do you want to watch movies with me?” She says.

Suddenly, without realizing exactly how, John was back in his office, standing in front of the grey door. The red flickering light hung above it stopped flickering, and when he turned his head around, the blizzard had stopped. It was sunny outside, snow still covered the streets, but the strong beams of sunlight melted everything away. The beams illuminated the office, which stood grey as before. The cardboard boxes were still there, he wasn’t dreaming, but all packed at the end of the office, empty when all the items they filled were back in place. Whisperings began coming from downstairs spiraling up until reaching the office floor, and with them came a group of suited men and women, among them were Nina and the rescue group. Nina rushed to John’s aid, telling him all about the strange blizzard that occupied the streets, but it didn’t seem to bother him any much. Apparently, he’s been at the office for a few days, but it only seemed like a few hours have passed. A group of medics approached him but John was fine. A bit lightheaded, he said. He didn’t really care about that but only one thing still lingered in his mind. For the lilac scent had left his senses, something else remained. The poor guy buried under the covers on the couch, sulking in an endless bender of pity, and like a broken record playing the same track in a loop, John played this scene in his mind. “What’re you doing?” The guy says, “Go after her.”

He rose, left the group of medics and Nina by themselves, and went to his desk. On his desk, a happy couple framed in a picture, behind them is a couch, a kitchen area, and a grey door showing. There’s not much to do with it now, he thought. They’re no longer there.