There are no official opening hours.
The door sign reads (if you are able to decipher the faded words) :
The Museum Of The Mysterious will open if you need it
Lilly, in all her eighty years, has never been inside.
Nor - to her knowledge - has she met anyone who has.
…
Lilly isn't sure how she ended up here, outside the Museum.
It certainly wasn't on purpose.
She'd forgotten it even existed.
She's tired.
She only nipped out for a pint of milk.
She leans against the door.
Just for a moment.
Somewhere a gear whirrs.
Click!
The door creaks open.
…
Lilly falls through the open door, landing on something soft and warm.
She doesn't think she's broken anything.
She lies still for a moment before attempting to move.
Nothing works like it used to.
Getting up from the floor takes effort.
As she stands, the door swings shut.
She's trapped.
…
On this side, there's no handle.
She hammers on the door.
"Hello?"
The voice comes from behind.
She turns, squinting in the half-light.
A dark figure stands at the far end of the narrow corridor.
"Lilly? Is that you?"
"Gilham?"
But isn't he dead?
Lilly went to his funeral.
…
Gilham was the best reporter on the Gazette.
He was more than just an employee.
He was her friend.
"What are you doing here?" Gilham asks.
"I don't know," Lilly admits. "I'm a little lost."
Gilham chuckles.
"You're not the only one. Come on up. We have tea and cake."
…
Lilly hesitates.
It's all very odd.
She's no idea how she got here.
Now, she is being offered refreshments by a dead man.
Has she lost her mind?
She wouldn't be the first old woman to develop dementia.
Taking a breath, she takes Gilham's hand.
"Lead the way," she says.
...
These fifty-word stories were written using the six freewrite prompts
gave us this week (see her weekend freewrite single prompt post. You'll can also have fun with the weekend 3 prompt challenge
These are the 209th to 214th fifty-word stories in the Humpbuckle Tales series. You can find all the tales reblogged on the account.
These six stories are part of the Humpbuckle Tales series I am writing. Each tale is 50 words long. They can be read individually but when read together they make up a much bigger story. The 6 weekend freewrite stories are an obvious example of this because you can see that one follows on from another. The other tales might not be so obvious as they are sometimes set a few decades earlier or later than the others.
Humpbuckle Tales are always published first on Hive!
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every Monday and Friday in the Freewriters Community!