A few months ago I downloaded one called The Door Across the Hall. It was pretty cheap, and the screenshots looked terrible, which honestly made me want to try it.
The game started in an apartment building. My character had just moved into an apartment on the fourth floor. There were only two apartments on that floor, mine and one across the hall.
The door across from me was locked.
There wasn’t much else to do, so I walked around my apartment. There was a kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom and a television that didn’t work.
On the kitchen table there was a note.
It said, “The neighbor doesn’t like visitors.”
That’s it.
I remember thinking that was kind of lazy.
I played for another ten minutes and found a key in the bathroom cabinet. It opened the door across the hall.
I probably shouldn’t have opened it, but it’s a game, so obviously I did.
The apartment looked almost empty. There was a chair, a mattress on the floor and a small television.
The television was playing an old program about ghost stories horror and haunted buildings. The sound kept cutting out, so I couldn’t understand most of it.
I walked into the bedroom.
Someone had written something on the wall.
“STOP USING THE TELEVISION.”
I thought that was funny because I hadn’t used it.
Then the television turned itself off.
I waited for something to happen.
Nothing did.
So I left the apartment.
When I went back into mine, the television was on.
I didn’t remember turning it on.
The screen was just gray, and there was a small black dot in the middle.
I clicked it.
The game froze.
I waited a few seconds, then closed it.
That was the first time I stopped playing.
I opened it again the next day because I was curious.
The game loaded in my apartment.
Everything looked normal except the door across the hall was open.
I walked over and looked inside.
The apartment was empty.
No chair.
No mattress.
Nothing.
I checked the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.
Still nothing.
Then I noticed there was another door inside the apartment that hadn’t been there before.
It was at the back of the kitchen.
I opened it.
There was a hallway behind it.
That made no sense because the building in the game wasn’t that big.
I walked down the hallway anyway.
After maybe twenty seconds I reached another door.
I opened it and found my apartment.
Not an apartment that looked like mine.
My apartment.
Same couch. Same kitchen. Same television.
Even the little pile of clothes I had left on the floor was there.
I remember getting annoyed more than scared.
I thought the game had somehow copied my computer files or something, although I have no idea if a game can actually do that.
I walked toward the bedroom.
My character stopped moving.
I clicked the keyboard a few times.
Nothing.
Then the television in my apartment turned on.
The screen showed the apartment I was currently standing in.
I could see my character standing in the bedroom.
But there was someone else sitting on the couch.
I couldn’t see their face.
I closed the game.
I haven’t opened it since.
The strange thing is that I never deleted it.
I checked my computer yesterday because I was cleaning some old files.
The game is still there.
The folder is empty except for the original game file.
I almost deleted it, but I didn’t.
I don’t know why.
Maybe because part of me still thinks there was some normal explanation for it. Bad programming, maybe. Some trick the developer put in that I didn’t understand.
Or maybe I just don’t want to find out what happens if I open it again.
Anyway, I don’t play spooky story games much anymore.
They’re probably fine.
I just don’t like games where the apartment across the hall looks too much like my own.
