The Portal

Posted on June 10, 2019 by

47 Comments

Lizzie has walked by this gallery forever and it has never been open, but today it is.
‘Must be my lucky day.’ The moment she walks through the door, her hair rises on her neck. The atmosphere changes; the air damper, cooler and misty.
“Hello, anyone here?”

A voice answers, “Be with you in a minute. Take a look around.”

The lighting is in various shades of green which gives the room an ethereal quality. Shadows dance on the shiny concrete floor. The room narrows, and draws her to a solitary painting, which encompasses an entire wall. She’s in a spell; as if she has entered another time, another dimension.

Lizzie is shaken to her core when far away an interrupted cry echoes in the empty room. She turns around, realizes the cry is hers. She is now a prisoner, trapped forever.

©2021 Linda Lee Lyberg

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Category: ProseTags: , ,

47 Comments on “The Portal”

  5. I love so many things about this. The door that has always been closed. The painting as a portal. The strange lighting, the ethereal greens. First walking by the gallery “forever” and now trapped “forever.” Beautifully done!

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  7. Love this Linda! The painting grabbed me right from the start. Then your story wound deeper and deeper. A real Hotel California for sure. Great work.

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  10. I wouldn’t normally go into an unexplored gallery on my own – now I don’t think I ever will! There’s something Hitchcockian about your story, Linda, and the painting has touches of M.R.James. I love the twist.

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  17. So many comments about first marriages – took me 17 terrifying years to get out but I knew it was doomed at the honeymoon. Great work on the flash (for some of us not so much) fiction :).

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