Metaphors-one thing as another

Eternal Damnation
(Opportunity is always knocking)

I couldn’t tell for sure where I was. I knew two things though: 1-the last memory I had was the flashing red lights of the ambulance and 2- I couldn’t feel my own heartbeat. I looked around, trying to figure out just where the hell I was. I looked up, there were cobwebs hiding in the corners with spiders dancing in their strands, there was bits of ceiling missing from years of termite abuse and the sky light, that was missing its glass, poured in the translucent light of the moon. I looked down at myself, wearing only a paper-thin gown, my arms were covered in bruises alongside the pinpricks of the now absent needles; I had one single key next to me.
Dead ahead of me, a single door jammed shut with a pad lock attached to it. There were three knocks that came from the old, rusted door. I looked through the peephole and standing before my eyes was the man of my dreams. He was the clichéd type, tall, dark and handsome and he was holding a single red rose. The rose was mesmerizing the way the water droplets balled up and one by one dribbled off towards the floor. I reached for the knob to meet this mystery man but it was nowhere to be found. I searched around the room but all that remained on the floor was the old Victorian key with no purpose in sight. I tried screaming for him to stay but only moths escaped my mouth; it was an eerie silence. I looked through the peephole once again, watched him glance at his watch and turn away. I tried yelling again and this time a small whimper came out followed by a single tear that made a cool path down my cheek. I walked to the middle of the room once again to sit and sulk in my own sorrow and confusion, but alas, another knock from that single door. Could it really be him again!
I sprinted to see my man but only laid eyes on a letter floating in midair with a “Congratulations you have been accepted” written across the top. I looked closer at it and realized it was the college letter I had ignored so many years ago. I watched the left corner begin to smoke and then the entire paper disinegrated before my eyes. From the ashes of the paper on the floor rose my two beautiful children now fully grown. I looked into their eyes but they were nothing more than deep, hallow pits. “You were never there for us mother, never, never, never…” This continued as their bodies began to crumble and wither away to nothing. I couldn’t bear to watch any more. I ran to the center of my windowless room, curled in the fetal position and thought what had I ever done to deserve this?
I rocked back and forth just staring at the bruises on my forearms, at the key to my left and at the empty room just waiting to take my soul. As my mind began to wander to all that I had seen, a tremendously loud knock came from behind me. I whirled around to find myself staring at a second rusting door, but one with a knob and lock this time. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and picked up the key; there was no peephole this time. The key slid in with ease, turned to the right and slowly opened. A white light flashed before me, blinding my vision.
When I regained sight, I was left staring at myself in a mirror. The dark circles under my eyes matched the color of the bruises and my weight was clearly in better shape than my skin tone, a pasty white. Above the mirror was a heart monitor completely flat-lined. A deep feeling of sorrow arose in my body as I realized this was heaven, hell or somewhere in the middle. I walked through the mirror and on the other side was an identical windowless room, like the one I had just escaped from, with a single key laying in the middle of the wooden floor. Three knocks could be heard from the door dead ahead of me. It was at this moment that the revelation hit me like a ton of bricks and the tears began to pour out from my eyes…everything I had missed.