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Short Story

Short Story 
By, Ruth Anna Powell 

I listened carefully as my kids ran around the bathroom door, making sure they didn't fall. I poured shampoo into my hand, measuring out a small pile in the middle of my palm. I massaged it into my hair, making sure to scrub it into the ends. My kid's laughter rang through the house and I smiled at how cute they were. I started to wash the shampoo out of my hair. I put too much in and had to scrub. Man, I was tired...

Bang! The room goes quiet. Something rang in my ears and I ran for the bathroom door, almost tripping over the bathtub ledge. I couldn't hear my kids. I started to think of all sorts of horrible things happening to them. I grabbed the doorknob, trying to get out. The knob stuck and I couldn't get through. I screamed at my kids, telling them I was coming. I rattled the doorknob but it felt like it was glued shut. I started to hear people talking on the other side of the door, screaming. I rammed my elbow against the door, again and again, trying to get out. Then something hissed at the top of the door and I looked up. The door was fusing together. I shrieked and tore at the crack with my fingernails, trying to tear it back open. I scrambled around the door as it closed, screaming my kid's names. The door sealed shut and I was stuck in a room with no doors, just a doorknob sticking out of a wall.

The lights started to flash white and then blue and I couldn't see. I stumbled around the room, my hands running over smooth walls, then the bathtub and the sink, and then nothing. I fell forward into the hole just created and hit the ground. My hands sunk into the ground and stuck there. I screamed for help and pulled my hands. With every pull, the ground held tighter but I couldn't stop. I screamed and tugged until I felt something under the ground touch my hand. I felt fingers crawling up my hand and then wrapped around my hands and pulled me down, down, down through the floor. The world around me turned purple and something started beeping in my head. I pulled at the other hands and kicked them but they didn't move. The fall continued as colors flashed around me.

…..................................................................................................................................................................

Donald Roswell held his unconscious wife's hand as the hospital machines beeped around them. He

 looked up as the doctor walked in. The doctor nodded to him and sat down, clipboard in hand.

“What's your wife's name?”

“Carla Roswell.”

“And what happened?”

“She fell in the shower and hit her head on the corner of the bathtub.”

“How long after she fell did you find her?”

“ We ran in as soon as we heard the bang.”

The doctor nodded again and stood up to leave the room. Donald stopped him.

“Any idea when she will wake up?”

The doctor shrugged.

“ No idea. Let's pray it's soon.”

Donald smiled at his wife.

“I wonder what she's dreaming about.”

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