The Keyhole Mysteries #2: The Keyhole Journalist
A Story from the Heart.
Some stories are written only by the heart.
🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️
Jun Park's world was made of words---his apartment was plastered from floor to ceiling with old newspaper clippings. No one could ignore the musty scent of ink and yellowed paper when they stepped in—it clung to the air, heavy with stories long out of mind.
There were so many articles that he could no longer read them all.
But they were his muse.
The need sparked a little spontaneity.
He remembered a ladder he stored in a seldom-used room--one that he had subletted for ready cash, until work took the tenant to another city.
As he approached, a faint, bluish hue caught his eye--it leaked under the door, like a crooked finger, drawing him to his next write.
🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️
The key to the room, coated in rust, no longer turned.
But curiosity piqued, he gazed through the keyhole in its door--
A girl run over by a truck.
He himself, taking photographs for an article, among a crowd of curious onlookers.
On another night, a man, grasping his heart, collapsed on the ground.
Again himself. His camera, furiously clicking.
🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️
One evening, he glimpsed a figure he knew too well--his younger self, standing over a table of articles.
He met his own eyes, across the line of time.
Beckoning him.
He paused--then knew.
🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️
His articles had never left him--only waited for him to write--
Anew.
With more heart.
He threw the door open. The room was empty except for one finished article, freshly written, in a typewriter on an old desk.
"Begin again."
Jun knew that his writing would come to life with a clear, throbbing heartbeat.
That some articles were finished with spirit.
What faded from the eyes came to life--
With soul.
🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️
Original Keyhole Mystery by Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin. AI tags are coincidental.
About the Creator
Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin
Hi, i am an English Language teacher cum freelance writer with a taste for pets, prose and poetry. When I'm not writing my heart out, I'm playing with my three dogs, Zorra, Cloudy and Snowball.
Enjoyed the story? Support the Creator.
Subscribe for free to receive all their stories in your feed. You could also become a paid subscriber, letting them know you appreciate their work.
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.