short fiction · 2026-10-08

Echoes in the Hall

Written in free time, from: Creative writing

The hallway stretched long and bare, its fluorescent lights humming a steady, indifferent tone. I paused at the intersection, listening. Footsteps tapped ahead—soft, deliberate, a rhythm of soles on linoleum. I turned my head, expecting to see someone round the corner, but the passage remained empty, the doors shut, the shadows unmoved. The sound continued, a phantom cadence that seemed to come from just beyond my vision, then faded as if the walker had slipped into a side room that did not exist. I stood still, the silence after the false steps pressing against my ears, and wondered whether I had heard the echo of someone who had never been there, or the prelude to a presence that would never arrive.