Horror Flash Fiction | The Key

Shen Jing moved into a new place. The landlord gave him three keys: one for the main door, one for his room, and a small, silver, slightly old one. "What's this one for?" he asked. The landlord replied, "The storage room at the end of the hall. There's nothing inside, you don't need to worry about it." Shen Jing nodded and put the three keys on a keyring together. The first night, he was falling asleep when he heard a noise in the hallway, like someone turning a doorknob. He thought it was another neighbor and didn't think much of it. The next morning, he found the key to his room had fallen off the keyring and was under his bed. He picked it up and reattached it. The second night, he heard footsteps in the hallway again, stopping at his door. He looked through the peephole, but the hallway was empty. The doorknob turned halfway, as if someone tried to open the door, realized it was locked, and let go. He looked down at his keyring. The main door key was gone. He searched the floor for a long time and finally found it under the doormat outside his door. The third night, he decided not to sleep and sat in the living room, staring at the door. At two in the morning, the doorknob turned again. This time, he rushed over and pulled the door open— The hallway was empty, except for the storage room door at the end, which was ajar. He walked over and pushed the storage room door open. It was dark inside, with only an old wooden chest. On top of the chest was a set of keys, identical to the ones he had. But this set had three keys. His set only had one left. He picked up the keys from the chest and found a line of text engraved on the small key: "The storage room door is locked from the inside." He froze and turned to look at the storage room door. It was slowly closing, and a key was inserted into the doorknob. It was his main door key.