title: Haunted Hallways: 16 Sinister Stories
author:  Lenore Lost 
description: Lenore Lost has had many stories published and is the winner of several writing contests. A native of Los Angeles, California, she is a full time writer as well as an accomplished artist and musician. Her constant companions are her three dogs.
zlib_text: [previous](slide27.html) | [Table of Contents](toc.html) |
  [next](slide29.html)
  
  * * *
  
  ## IX
  
  It was oddly still. Charis sat up on the cot, pulled her coverall into place.
  Coverall? Something buried deep inside her questioned, and a seed of doubt
  plagued her. Yes, the post was very still. She went to the door, set her hands
  on either side of the sealed slit. Was she locked in? But when she applied
  pressure, the portal opened and she was able to look out into the corridor.
  
  The doors along it gaped open as she slipped into freedom. Listening brought
  no trace of sound, no murmur of voices or the heavy breathing of a sleeper.
  She went on down the hall, the floor chill to her bare feet.
  
  But this--all of this, whispered that rebellious voice deep within her, she
  had done before. Yet on the surface, this was the here and now. The rooms were
  empty; she paused at each to make sure of that. Then the fourth room: a com
  screen against its wall, chairs and piles of record tapes. The com--she cou