chapter 2: No way out

Chapter Two: No Way Out

The door wouldn’t hold much longer.

Alex and Ethan stood frozen as the wood splintered, revealing gray, rotting fingers clawing their way through the cracks. The guttural growls grew louder, accompanied by the sickening sound of something wet and hungry smacking against the door.

“We need to block it!” Ethan shouted.

Alex snapped out of his shock. He grabbed the desk chair and rammed it against the door, but the force on the other side was too strong. The door hinges groaned, barely holding under the relentless attack.

Then Ethan did something desperate—he grabbed the mini-fridge and shoved it in front of the door. The heavy thud of the appliance slamming into place gave them a few extra seconds. But it wouldn’t last.

“What the hell is going on?” Ethan gasped, backing away. “This is—this isn’t real, right? It’s gotta be a prank. Some sick—”

Alex cut him off. “No prank has zombies, Ethan!”

The word felt strange on his tongue. Zombies. As if saying it out loud made it more real.

And then they remembered the other problem.

The wardrobe.

That eerie glow still seeped from within, its door barely open. Alex’s skin prickled as he felt something watching him from the swirling void. The red eyes from before were gone, but he knew the thing inside hadn’t left.

“This is a joke,” Ethan muttered again, pacing. “A dream, a nightmare, a—”

A sudden crash from the hallway made both of them jump. More screams. Heavy footsteps running past their door. Then a different sound—a deep, guttural voice, speaking words that didn’t sound human.

Alex’s stomach twisted. He could barely make out what it was saying, but it wasn’t a language he knew. And yet… he understood.

Run. Hide. Or become one of them.

The announcement hadn’t been a lie. This was a game. And they were its players.

Something slammed against the door again, and a new crack splintered through the wood. The mini-fridge shifted. They were running out of time.

Alex’s mind raced. The window? No, they were on the third floor. Jumping would break their legs at best, kill them at worst. The bathroom? A dead end. The wardrobe—

He turned back toward it, dread pooling in his stomach. It was a gamble. But whatever was in there… was probably better than what was outside.

“Ethan,” he said, voice tight. “We have two choices. Either we stay here and let that thing break in, or we go in there.” He pointed at the swirling void in the wardrobe.

Ethan’s face twisted with panic. “You’re saying we just—what? Step into a freaking portal?”

The door gave another lurch. The mini-fridge scraped an inch forward.

Alex made his decision.

“Better than dying here.”

And before Ethan could argue, Alex grabbed his arm and dragged him into the wardrobe.

The second they crossed the threshold, everything changed.

The air turned thick, almost liquid. Colors warped around them—deep purples, electric blues, shifting in patterns Alex couldn’t understand. His body felt weightless, like he was falling and floating at the same time.

Then, just as quickly as it began, it was over.

They landed hard on solid ground, the air knocked from their lungs. Alex coughed, trying to get his bearings. The wardrobe was gone. The dorm room was gone.

And around them… was something else entirely.

A vast, open space stretched before them—an endless forest of black, twisted trees under a dark red sky. In the distance, massive structures loomed—castles? Towers? But they weren’t normal. Their shapes shifted constantly, defying logic.

Something was waiting here.

Something worse than the zombies.

Alex turned to Ethan, who was pale and shaking.

“We’re not in the dorm anymore,” Ethan whispered.

Alex swallowed hard. “No. We’re not.”

And then the ground trembled, and the first creature stepped out of the trees.

The game wasn’t over. It had only just begun.

Let's meet in next chapter.

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