I look around the old, long abandoned building, the sunlight glowing in the dusty air and casting eerie shadows, its walls discoloured, cracked and pealing, cobwebs hide in the corners and shelves along the walls, the floor thick with dust, only disturb by the light draft through broken windows, and sprinkled with rubble, litter and items left behind and forgotten, like clues to who used to live here, and in some places nature has reclaimed the land, with plants climbing up the walls, bursting through floorboards or creeping through windows. I've always loved exploring abandoned buildings, they all have a hidden past and I like to try to piece together the lives of the people who once called the place home and what they were like and what they did. Sure sometimes the building is supposedly haunted or something but to me that just gives it a bit more excitement and atmosphere, but the most scary thing I ever found were some squatters, who were chill once they knew I wasn't going to call the police, which to me seemed like a needlessly cruel thing to do to them.

I pause as my torch beam catches something glinting on the floor, the shininess of the object strange in such an old building. I crouch down and pick up the curious object, a small key, the fact that it hasn't aged is fascinating, I can't help but wonder what it's for. Looking around the room I fail to find anything that the key would be for, maybe it's somewhere else in the building. I feel a strangely overwhelming desire to find what the key unlocks, more than my usual high levels of curiosity, which is already enough for me to be exploring old abandoned buildings, the strong need to discover where it belongs drives and urges me onwards through the empty corridors and ghostly rooms with oddly singular dusty and battered furniture as their centerpiece.

I come to a door and find myself drawn to it as I hold the key, pushing it open I nearly fall into the dark void before regaining my balance and shining my torch into the inky black basement, the light illuminating little except the old, well worn wooden staircase. Normally I'd avoid these parts, the stairs don't look very sound and you don't want to risk getting trapped in these places but for some reason I feel like the answers about the key are down here and the need to know persuades me forwards despite my mind trying to tell me to be more sensible. I slowly and carefully decend the creaking wooden stairs and make my way down to the hard floor below, my torch cutting through the surrounding darkness, illuminating my breath in the suddenly frigid air, as I explore the lower level, shining on several dusty boxes of old looking books, rusted cages and chains, and a creepy shelf of occult looking items covered in cobwebs, before landing on a rusty metal door, one that still looks strong and sturdy, reminding me of when I once explored an abandoned prison. I walk towards it, almost like a magnet attracted to it, my mind barely taking in the rest of the environment around me.

Reaching the door I push it open a stare in horror at the sight on the other side. Thick, heavy chains line the far wall and floor, all leading to shackles locked around a pale, naked, filthy, skeletal man, his starved body barely moving, his hands covering his eyes from my torchlight, his boney arms and neck chained to the wall of the dark windowless room and his frail looking legs secured to the floor, a floor which was horribly stained, presumably from not being able to go anywhere else and pissing and shiting where he sat, sitting in his own waste. How long has he been here? It looks like years, if not longer. How has he survived so long? I rush over, their eyes look at me in a strange mixture of hope, fear and warning, as if conflicted about something. I look down at the key, maybe this is why I was so determined to learn what this is for, maybe somehow I knew he was down here and needed saving. I crouch down and examine the shackles, as I do the smell of someone who hasn't washed in dwcades fills my senses and I almost recoil, finding a small keyhole I bring the key up to it, as I slide it in the weak prisoner shakes his head for some reason.

"It's alright, I'll get you out of here." As I turn the key a blinding bright disorientating light suddenly washes over me, the world around me spinning as if I'm moving.

I awaken sitting on the cold hard floor against the wall, as I move I hear the rattle of chains and feel cold, unmoving and heavy metal around my wrists and ankles and against my throat. What is going on? I look down to see my now naked body is shackled in the place where the man was once sitting, looking up I see a much healthier man, his skin no longer pale and his body a more healthy weight, his clothes at least two decades out of style, looking down at me with a smile.

"Wow! It feels so amazing to be able to move again! Thankyou for saving me and taking my place."

"What do you mean, taking your place? Did you lock me in here!?"

"No, that wasn't me, that was you. When you turned the key you triggered the curse and willingly swapped places with the previous victim." I pull on my restraints, I can't be trapped down here.

"Can't you unlock me?" My stomach drops as he shakes his head.

"Unfortunately it doesn't work that way, I don't have the key. Like me you'll have to wait for the next person to find it." He turns and walks towards the door.

"What! Don't leave me here!" He turns back to me with a strange mixture of fear, sadness and also behind it a bit of excitement about being free.

"I have no choice, if I stay I might get caught by the curse again and I'm not being trapped down here any longer. I'm sorry but I must go. Goodbye." With that he leaves, closing the heavy metal door as he does. Panic takes over as I scream and cry out for him to come back and rescue me, as I desperately pull on the shackles that firmly hold me to the wall, as I'm left imprisoned in the cold darkness of the abandoned building, left forgotten and alone, like the many other forgotten items within it, slowly gathering dirt and dust.

Epilogue

I walk onto the new estate, someone had finally torn down the crumbling old building and concreted over the area and built much needed housing and flats over the top. I myself brought one, finally able to move out and live on my own.

I walk into my new home, as I do I notice something gleaming in the warm sunlight. Bending down I pick up the curious item, a small key, how strange, maybe one of the builders left it here. Part of me is weirdly curious about what it unlocks though but it fits nothing in my home.

I walk around the block, part of me still wonders what the key was for, it's silly really, especially after all these years, sometimes I forget all about it, only to find myself absent mindedly holding it. At first I was almost obsessed with finding what it unlocked, I looked everywhere nearby but never found what it opens, at this point I'm certain that I never will and the question will just annoy me forever.

For some reason though a part of me thinks that the answer is buried somewhere under my house, like some sort of buried treasure, one that was lost during the development. Maybe something was still in the basement of the old building, maybe it's linked to the quiet sounds I can sometimes hear at night, the faint rattling if chains and moaning cries, that seem to come from below, like whatever is down their is haunted by a restless soul. But I have no way to get to it now, not without destroying my own home looking for something that might not even exist. Whatever is down there, if it even is, will just have to stay there, lost and buried forever.