The Last Door Bell

Part Two: The Thing Outside

Chapter Five: The Rules of the House

The screaming continued long after the third ring.

It came from somewhere inside the house, rising and falling in frantic bursts. Sometimes it sounded like a child. Sometimes it sounded like an old woman. Once, it sounded exactly like Ivy.

She clapped her hands over her ears.

"Make it stop!"

June caught her wrist.

"Don't cover your ears."

Ivy stared at her. "Are you serious?"

"The house listens through more than your ears. Covering them won't help."

"Then what will?"

"Knowing the rules."

June turned towards the garden wall. The carved names glimmered faintly beneath the moonlight.

"Rule one: never answer the doorbell after midnight."

"But it's not midnight," Ivy protested, holding up her phone.

June gave her a look.

"Your clock is lying to you."

Ivy glanced at the screen again.

11:59 p.m.

The time hadn't changed.

"Rule two," June continued, "never look through the peephole once the first bell has rung."

"I already did."

"I know."

"Then why am I still alive?"

June hesitated.

"Because it hasn't finished with you."

A cold silence settled between them.

Leo paced beside the locked gate, rubbing his hands over his face.

"June, we need to leave. Now."

"We can't leave until the fourth bell."

Ivy stared at her.

"Didn't you just tell us not to let it ring again?"

"I said we couldn't let it ring again. I didn't say we could stop it."

"That's the same thing!"

"No, Ivy. It isn't."

June crouched beside the garden wall and brushed away the moss beneath the three names.

There was something written underneath them.

A sentence carved so deeply into the stone that the letters had split the surface.

THREE MUST ENTER. TWO MAY LEAVE. ONE MUST ANSWER.

Ivy read it twice.

Then a third time.

"What does that mean?"

June stood.

"It means the house wants a sacrifice."

Leo went completely still.

Ivy looked between them.

"One of you knows what this means. I can see it on your faces."

Neither answered.

She stepped towards Leo.

"What happened three years ago?"

His eyes filled with something she couldn't identify.

Regret, perhaps.

Or fear.

"I told you," he said quietly. "I opened the door."

"That's not enough."

"I know."

"Then tell me everything!"

Leo opened his mouth.

A loud crash came from inside the house.

The back door flew open.

The kitchen beyond it was completely dark.

Something stood in the doorway.

A tall figure wearing an old-fashioned black dress.

Ivy couldn't see its face.

The figure lifted its arm and pointed towards Leo.

Then it spoke in their mother's voice.

"Bring my son home."

Leo stumbled backwards.

June grabbed Ivy's hand.

"Don't listen to it!"

The figure took one step into the garden.

Its feet made no sound against the wet grass.

"Leo," it called gently. "I've been waiting for you."

Leo began to cry.

Ivy had seen her brother frightened before. She had seen him angry, heartbroken, and stubborn enough to argue with an entire room of people.

She had never seen him look at anything the way he looked at that figure.

Like a boy who had been waiting years to see his mother again.

He took a step forward.

Ivy seized his arm.

"That's not Mum."

He looked at her.

"But what if it is?"

She had no answer.

The figure held out its hand.

"Come home, sweetheart."

Leo pulled free.

And walked towards it.

Chapter Six: Leo's Secret

"Leo!"

Ivy lunged after her brother.

June caught her around the waist.

"Let him go!"

"Are you insane? That's my brother!"

"And if you follow him, you'll give the house exactly what it wants!"

Leo stopped at the threshold.

The figure in the black dress reached towards him.

Its fingers were pale and impossibly long.

For a moment, the garden seemed to disappear around them. Ivy could no longer hear the wind or the distant rustling of leaves.

All she could hear was her mother's voice.

"Come here, my boy."

Leo lifted his hand.

Then he froze.

His expression changed.

The figure's head tilted.

"What is it, sweetheart?"

Leo stared at its face.

"You're not her."

The figure remained motionless.

Leo's voice trembled.

"My mother used to call me her little lion."

Silence.

"She never called me sweetheart."

The figure's fingers twitched.

Leo backed away.

The thing in the doorway began to laugh.

Its laughter sounded like several people speaking at once, their voices overlapping until the noise became unbearable.

Then its face changed.

The black dress remained, but beneath the collar appeared a neck covered in dark, branching marks. Its head stretched upwards, and its jaw opened wider than any human jaw should.

A second mouth appeared inside the first.

"YOU OPENED THE DOOR," it shrieked.

Leo fell to his knees.

Ivy struggled against June.

"Let me go!"

June released her.

Ivy ran to her brother and dragged him backwards.

The creature lunged.

Its fingers scraped across the grass, stopping inches from Leo's shoes.

Then the kitchen door slammed shut.

The screaming stopped.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Ivy helped Leo stand.

His face was wet with tears.

"Tell me what happened," she whispered.

He shook his head.

"Leo."

"I was fifteen."

"I know."

"It was Halloween. I was at my friend's house, and we found this old door in the basement."

June turned sharply.

"What did you say?"

Leo looked at her.

"There was a door in the basement. It had a brass bell on it. My friend said the previous owners had bricked up that part of the house, but somehow the door was still there."

June's expression hardened.

"What was your friend's name?"

"Daniel."

She closed her eyes.

"Oh, God."

"You knew him?"

June didn't answer.

Leo continued.

"We thought it was a prank. Daniel rang the bell, and nothing happened. Then I rang it."

He looked towards the house.

"Someone knocked from the other side."

Ivy felt her stomach tighten.

"Who?"

"Mum."

The word came out barely louder than a breath.

Leo wiped his face.

"I heard her voice. I hadn't heard it in months, Ivy. I thought I was losing my mind."

He swallowed.

"Then the door opened."

June whispered something under her breath.

"What?" Ivy demanded.

"The fourth rule," June said. "Never open a door for someone who knows what you miss most."

Leo looked at her.

"How do you know these rules?"

June's eyes met his.

"Because I was there."

Ivy stared at her.

"What?"

June looked towards the house.

"I was Daniel's sister."

Leo's face drained of colour.

"Daniel had a sister?"

"Yes."

"But he told me he was an only child."

"He told you a lot of things."

June's voice was bitter.

"Daniel disappeared that night. The police searched the house, the garden, and the surrounding streets. They never found him."

She paused.

"I knew he hadn't run away. I heard the doorbell that night, too."

Ivy looked at the three names carved into the wall.

"Then why is your name here?"

June slowly pulled back the sleeve of her coat.

A black mark circled her wrist.

It looked like a bruise in the shape of a tiny hand.

"Because the house has been waiting for me to come back."

From inside Ivy's pocket, her phone began to ring.

The screen displayed an incoming call.

MUM.

Ivy stared at it.

Their mother had been dead for four years.

The call continued.

Leo whispered, "Don't answer."

Ivy pressed the decline button.

The phone stopped ringing.

A message appeared.

MUM: You have until midnight, darling.

Then another.

MUM: After that, I won't be your mother anymore.

June grabbed the phone and threw it onto the grass.

The screen shattered.

But the message remained illuminated beneath the broken glass.

And a new line appeared.

MUM: I can see you, June.

June stopped breathing.

From the upstairs window, a pale face stared down at them.

A face with no eyes.

And a smile that stretched from ear to ear.

Chapter Seven: The Girl in the Photograph

They barricaded themselves inside the garden shed.

It was the only place June claimed the house couldn't see directly.

Ivy wasn't convinced.

The shed smelled of damp wood and old soil. Rusted gardening tools hung from the walls, and a broken lawn mower sat beneath a dusty sheet. Rain tapped against the roof.

Leo sat on an overturned bucket, staring at the ground.

June stood beside the door, listening.

Ivy paced between them.

"I want answers."

June didn't turn around.

"You've had answers."

"No. I've had mysterious warnings, creepy rules, and half a dozen people refusing to explain anything properly."

She pointed at Leo.

"My brother has been hiding something for three years."

Then she pointed at June.

"And you apparently know a great deal about a haunted door that shouldn't exist."

She folded her arms.

"Start talking."

June sighed.

"There's a reason the house chose tonight."

"Because it's Halloween?"

"Because tonight marks the anniversary of the first disappearance."

"Daniel?"

June nodded.

"Daniel wasn't the first."

Ivy stopped pacing.

"What do you mean?"

June reached into her coat and produced a folded photograph.

It was old, its edges yellowed and brittle.

She handed it to Ivy.

The photograph showed a house surrounded by dead trees. It was unmistakably Ivy's house, although the garden looked different and the windows were smaller.

Three children stood on the porch.

One was a little girl with dark hair.

Another was a boy wearing a striped sweater.

The third child stood slightly apart from the others, wrapped in a white sheet.

Ivy felt a chill travel down her back.

"Who are they?"

"The girl is my grandmother, Evelyn. The boy is her younger brother, Thomas."

June tapped the third figure.

"Nobody knows who this child was."

Ivy studied the photograph.

Something about it felt wrong.

The child in the white sheet had its face turned towards the camera, but the photograph showed only a dark, featureless patch where its face should have been.

"When was this taken?"

"October 31, 1949."

Ivy looked up.

"That's more than seventy years ago."

"Yes."

"And this child was already wearing that costume?"

June nodded.

"My grandmother told me a story when I was little. She said a child came to their house every Halloween, always at 11:59 p.m. It rang the bell and asked for a treat."

"What happened if they gave it one?"

"Nothing."

"What if they didn't?"

June looked towards the shed door.

"It asked to come inside."

Ivy stared at her.

"And if they let it in?"

"Someone disappeared."

The wind rattled the shed.

Leo finally spoke.

"How many?"

"Seven that we know of."

June took the photograph back.

"My grandmother spent her entire life trying to understand what happened. Before she died, she told me that the child wasn't a ghost."

"What was it, then?"

June hesitated.

"A door."

Ivy frowned.

"That doesn't make any sense."

"The child is a doorway between our world and something else. The costume is just a shape it wears so people will trust it."

Ivy remembered the motionless black eyes.

The impossible door in her living room.

Her mother's voice coming from the kitchen.

She didn't want to believe June.

Unfortunately, the night had stopped offering reasonable explanations several hours ago.

"Why does it need us?"

June looked at the photograph.

"Because the door cannot stay open forever. It needs someone to take its place."

"Take its place where?"

"On the other side."

Leo's hands began to shake.

June looked at him.

"Tell her the rest."

He shook his head.

"Leo."

"I can't."

"You have to."

Ivy stepped towards him.

"What aren't you telling me?"

Leo looked up at her.

Three years of fear seemed to sit behind his eyes.

"When I opened the door, I didn't just hear Mum."

He swallowed.

"I saw her."

Ivy's chest tightened.

"Leo..."

"She was standing on the other side. She looked exactly the way she did before she died."

He covered his face.

"And behind her, there were hundreds of children."

Ivy felt sick.

"They were all wearing white sheets. They were crying, Ivy. Every single one of them."

His voice cracked.

"Mum told me she could come home if I let her through."

A long silence followed.

"Then what happened?" Ivy whispered.

Leo lowered his hands.

"I closed the door."

June looked away.

"And Daniel?"

Leo's eyes filled with tears.

"He was still standing inside when I closed it."

Nobody spoke.

Outside, the rain stopped.

Then a tiny voice came from the other side of the shed door.

"June?"

June went rigid.

The voice was a boy's.

"June, it's me."

She slowly backed away from the door.

Ivy looked at her.

"Who is it?"

June's lips trembled.

"My brother."

The voice came again.

"I've been waiting for you."

June pressed a hand against her mouth.

Then the door handle began to turn.

Chapter Eight: The Fourth Bell

June didn't move.

The handle turned slowly, accompanied by a faint metallic squeal.

"June?" the boy called.

His voice was gentle.

Familiar.

"I'm cold."

June's eyes filled with tears.

Ivy grabbed her arm.

"Don't listen to it."

June shook her head.

"He was twelve when he disappeared."

"That isn't your brother."

"You don't know that."

"Neither do you!"

The handle stopped turning.

For a moment, the shed was silent.

Then the boy began to hum.

Three soft notes.

A pause.

Then three more.

June made a strangled sound.

Ivy looked at her.

"What is that?"

June's voice was barely audible.

"A song our mother used to sing to us."

The humming stopped.

A small hand tapped against the door.

"Please, June. I'm scared."

June took one step forward.

Leo rose from the bucket.

"Don't."

She ignored him.

"I waited for you," the boy whispered. "You promised you'd find me."

June reached for the handle.

Ivy seized her wrist.

"Stop!"

June turned on her.

"You don't understand what it's like to lose someone!"

"I lost Mum, too!"

The words burst out of Ivy before she could stop them.

June froze.

Ivy's voice trembled.

"I know what it's like to want someone back so badly that you'd believe anything. But that thing knows exactly what to say to you."

The boy outside began to cry.

"June?"

June squeezed her eyes shut.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

The crying stopped.

Then the voice changed.

It became deep, distorted, and furious.

"OPEN THE DOOR!"

The shed shook violently.

A crack split the wood beside the handle.

Leo grabbed Ivy and pulled her towards the back wall.

"Get down!"

The door buckled inwards.

A long, pale finger slipped through the crack.

Then another.

The fingers curled around the edge of the wood.

Something began forcing its way inside.

June stumbled backwards.

"It's not supposed to be able to do that!"

Leo looked at her in horror.

"What do you mean?"

"The shed is supposed to be safe!"

The door split down the middle.

A face appeared through the opening.

Daniel's face.

His skin was grey, his eyes were sunken, and his mouth hung open as though he had been screaming for years.

June whispered his name.

Daniel smiled.

"Found you."

The shed door exploded inwards.

Ivy screamed.

Leo dragged her through a narrow gap behind a stack of old wooden boards. June followed, pulling the boards back into place just as the creature lunged into the shed.

Its hands scraped across the wood.

Its breathing sounded wet and laboured.

Then, abruptly, it stopped.

A bell rang somewhere in the distance.

Once.

The creature turned its head towards the house.

A second bell rang.

Its body began to tremble.

June grabbed Ivy's hand.

"Run!"

They burst out of the shed and raced towards the garden gate.

This time, the gate stood open.

Beyond it lay the street, empty beneath the orange glow of the streetlights.

Ivy ran through.

Leo followed.

June was the last to cross.

Behind them, the creature emerged from the shed.

It didn't chase them.

It simply stood in the garden, watching.

A third bell rang.

The creature lifted its head.

Then the front door of Ivy's house swung open by itself.

A small figure stepped onto the porch.

The child in the white sheet.

It carried its plastic pumpkin in one hand.

With the other, it raised a finger and pointed at Ivy.

Then it spoke in a voice that echoed across the entire street.

"One more bell."

Ivy's phone vibrated.

Despite the shattered screen, it lit up in her hand.

A countdown appeared.

00:00:10

00:00:09

00:00:08

June stared at the screen.

"No. No, that's impossible."

Leo grabbed Ivy's shoulders.

"What happens when it reaches zero?"

June looked at them both.

Her face had gone completely pale.

"The fourth bell."

00:00:03

00:00:02

00:00:01

Ding-dong.

The sound came from directly behind Ivy.

She turned.

At the end of the street stood a tall, narrow door, freestanding beneath the streetlight.

There was no wall around it.

No house.

Just a black wooden door with a brass bell fixed to its centre.

It swung open.

On the other side stood a little boy wearing a striped sweater.

He looked directly at June.

Then he smiled.

"Your turn."

June began screaming.

End of Part Two: The Thing Outside.