You work the night shift at a 24 hour laundromat. The job seems normal until someone crawls out of one of the washers and tells you that after dark, every machine leads to a different world. Via Writing Prompt Subreddit
Hi, everyone, it’s me, James. I know I haven’t posted anything for almost a month but I had to write about what happened to me at work.
I’ve been working at this Wash Mart in my home town for about a week now, and let me tell you it’s not very exciting. Once in a while we’ll get some poor guy who looks like he doesn’t have a home trying to wash the only other set of clothes he has. If I can I’ll slip him a few coins and a bottle of water but Big Earl usually chases them out. Most other times there will be college students who don’t live in the dorms or women in brightly colored track suits asking if Earl is around.
This, of course, was after last night.
Usually I have someone other than Earl with me in the building. This girl Stephanie, young girl, just out of high school, mostly does the morning to afternoon shifts but once every her shift will overlap with mine. Conveniently on the days when those track suited women come in asking for our boss. However, the other day Stephanie asked me if I could cover for her so she could take her brother to his soccer game in the next town over. I obliged and she offered to assist night shift when Earl has gone home.
I had prepared myself with a surplus of 5-Hour Energy drinks from the 7-11 across the street.
It was just after midnight, I was reading a sci-fi novel when one of the doors to the washing machine flew open. Out of the machine crawled a man straight out of a steam punk themed rock opera. His hair was matted and greasy and I couldn’t tell if it was brown or if it was really that dirty. He brushed off his coat and lifted his goggles to the top of his head revealing two bulging brown eyes.
“My, my, this place doesn’t seem to ever change…or is it that the worlds in there are changing…”
I couldn’t process what I was seeing, I just automatically asked, “Sir, do you need some help?”
The stout man stared at me for a solid minute before roaring into laugher, “Oh no, my boy, I think it is you who could use some help here. You must be new.”
I nodded silently staring at this character. At this point it thought that this was a joke or this guy just needed somewhere to sleep.
“What’s your name?” He asked, squinting.
“James Rigby,” I blurted.
The man smiled a toothy smile and gestured at the wall of washing machines behind him, “James Rigby, would you believe me if I told you that behind me, these ordinary appliances lead to another dimension?”
I shook my head, and he laughed loudly again.
“Of course you wouldn’t, because you’ve never tried yourself!”
He waved for me to come to him, and pointed a small fob to a washing machine. There was a flash of purple light and peering through the window I could see a morning sky, green hills, and a golden pathway leading towards a city made of emeralds. I blinked in disbelief, inside this washing machine was the city of Oz.
“They are only active at night. Why, you might ask, I don’t know so don’t ask me.”
He chortled pulling me by the arm to another one and pointing his fob at the window. A flash of green and I was viewing an underwater space habitat where colorful fish like creatures swam about.
“However getting back can be tricky since sometimes the journey home can be longer than the traveling to that world.”
He pointed a fob at a machine and there was a flash and then a bang when thick black smoke came sweeping through the cracks of the door. The future-man suddenly stopped chuckling.
He started to mash the fob several times until the smoke cleared away.
“I may have been too reckless in my travels.”
He brushed some sweat onto his coat sleeve and leaning forward, “Listen to me James, if anyone crawls into this machine or crawls out for that matter, you need to run.”
He reached into his coat and pulled out a pen and paper and slapped an out of order sign on the door of the washer.
He shivered, “Nothing nice will come out of there.”
He opened the door to the machine he came from.
Before he left he said, “Whatever you do, if something comes out, do not try to escape into one of these portals. I will have the power to destroy that world and that’s my job to prevent.”
He tossed a coin to me that said “World Keeper”.
“Before I go, one last thing, James. If you hear the door to your washing machine at home open, leave. As fast as you can because he will know that I have talked with you and he has been after me for quite some time.”
He sighed heavily, “Good luck, James.”
I had ample time to think about what he said and when I got home the first thing I did was lock my laundry door.
