{"sf1_id":851070,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Don't Keep the Light On","author":"Jemoth-Skarii","words":580,"posted_at":"2015-04-22T05:48:00.000Z","tags":["Melancholy","Sentimental","Short Story"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/851070-don-t-keep-the-light-on","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/851070","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=851070\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"\nA/N: This had come to me the other night while trying to fall asleep. Guess I'm still a bit too sentimental. It's nothing really in particular, just thoughts put down on a page.I opened a door the\nother day.\nIt was a place that\nI'd wanted to forget about. Tried to at any rate. But there was\nalways the image of that door in the back of my mind.\nIt was dark out,\nalways was. Would always tell the other person to leave the light on\nout front if we went out. Could always find your way home.\nIt was a solid door,\none I'd closed many years ago. There was a faint light in the window.\nI'd had hope, a slight flicker inside.\nThat was the day I\nunlocked it. Though that's not entirely true. I slid a letter under\nthe door and it's owner opened it for me.\nIt had barely\nchanged. They had barely changed. Rather that's what it looked like\nfrom the steps outside. I was welcomed back inside like a long lost\nfriend. In a way I was a long lost friend.Though stepping\ninside there had indeed been changes. Scuffs on the floor from moved\nfurniture, the walls showed signs of being painted over and over.\nYet somehow despite\nall of this there was a gentle happiness.\nWe sat down and\nchatted, discussed our lives. So many memories in that house but we\nnever touched on any of them.\n\nThe house brought\nback memories of a wolf and a dragon.\n\nThe meeting was\nshort but meaningful. Somehow inside there was that feeling of fulfillment. So I left once more and they had kept the light on.\n\nOver the next few\ndays I would return, again we would discuss, we would laugh. It\nalmost felt like time had rewound itself.\nBut that was the\ntrouble with memories; you never remember what you need to remember.\nThrough all the\ninnocence and joy was a pervading sense of fear and panic. Knowledge\nthat under all those coats of paint and before all the scuff on the\nfloor, I had indeed lived here though there was reason to my leaving.\nIt was a dangerous\nhouse if anything else. No longer mine and yet it was so intoxicating\nthat I'd wished to stay with them again. It was a place I'd abandoned\nyears ago, yet coming back I'd begun to wish I'd never left.\nBut I had my\nreasons. I could never stay there again. Who knows when the furniture\nwould be moved again? When the walls were repainted as another person\ncame to live in the house?\nIt was then that I'd\ndecided to take my leave. Said I'd be willing to come back if they'd\nwant to talk again.\nAhh, what a cruel\nold fool that I am.\nI walked out that\ndoor again and closed it. Tried to ignore that smile on there face.\nTruth is it wasn't for me. They just liked the company.The door\nwould lock with a click.\nDespite my words I\nwould not be returning to that house. The chance to stay there had\nlong since passed. I had no longer need the light on out front.\nI closed a door\nthe other day.It was a place I still wanted to forget about.\n\nNot because I didn't\nwant to be there.\n\nBut because I don't\nwant to be lost in there again and be forgotten under another layer\nof paint on the walls."}