Dave and Bryan were cousins who went to the same class. They lived in the same neighbourhood and also went to school together. The cousins were very excited because they had just graduated from high school and the best part was that both of them had managed to get into the same college. The only problem was that their college was in a big city far from their small town. One day, Dave’s father suggested, “Why don’t you both rent out an apartment in the city near your college?” The cousins were thrilled. So, the next day, the cousins set off with their parents to look for an apartment in the city. They finally found one very close to their college. The apartment was comprised of two rooms, a neat little kitchen and a storeroom. The only thing they noticed was that the door of the storeroom would not close. However, they were not too bothered about it and moved in.
Bryan Tries to Shut the Door
After the cousins had moved into the apartment, they started decorating and cleaning it. One day, Bryan was fixing a sandwich for himself in the kitchen when he heard the creaking of a door. He realised it was coming from the storeroom and went to investigate it. Then he remembered that this was the door that would not close. He decided to give it a try again. Bryan tried a number of ways to shut the door. He even tried to wedge it shut but nothing worked. The door would just open again. Soon he was tired and decided to check out what was in the storeroom. He entered the storeroom and switched on the light. It was full of dust and cobwebs. ‘Gosh, this place requires a fair bit of cleaning!’ he thought. So, he decided to come back with Dave another day and clean up the entire place.
The Boys Find a Diary
That day at night, Bryan told Dave all about the storeroom. Dave was curious, so they decided to clean the place the next day itself. The next evening, the boys entered the storeroom again. It was so dusty that Dave could not stop sneezing for some time! Finally, the boys started exploring the storeroom. The things in the room looked really old and the boys were reluctant to touch them first. However, they started cleaning up. While cleaning, Dave found a little wooden box. Curious, he opened it and found many things stuffed in it. He began to pick them out one by one. Out came books, old photographs, some pictures and an interesting looking diary. He opened it and flipped through the pages. Strangely, only one sentence was written on all the pages in the diary. ‘If you close the door, you will disappear!’ Stunned Dave and Bryan checked all the other papers. The same sentence appeared everywhere.
Trapped In
They now looked at the photographs they had found in the box. They were in for a shock. All the photographs showed the open door of the storeroom. Just as they were wondering what to do, they heard the creaking of the door. “Let’s get out of this place,” said Bryan. So, both the boys ran towards the door to get out of the storeroom. The door that would not shut all along suddenly banged shut! The boys tried hard to open it, but it would not budge. The boys flung themselves against the door, banged on it, but no help came. After two days, when there was no phone calls from the boys their parents came looking for them to the apartment. They came to the storeroom and found that the door was slightly ajar. They entered and found that it was very dirty and dusty. There was no sign of the boys anywhere.
