Paint and Corners

Last week’s writing prompt from over at Writing Excuses was:

You have, with actual paint, painted yourself into an actual corner. But the paint and the corner are in a world in which there is magic, and “you painted yourself into a corner” may very well be some sort of a spell.

Now, let’s see what we can do with that . . .

Roger diligently applied the second coat of the foul-smelling black paint to the walls of the walk-in closet to the tune of the single humming incandescent light bulb overhead. His previous attempts to draw the doorway to Carcosa had proven fruitless, but he felt certain it would work this time. The mixture of bodily humors in the paint would provide a superior thaumaturgical conductor. One last thing to do though. Before he could paint the magical portal itself, he had to seal the room. He used the last of his enchanted paint to paint over the wood door as he recited the brief sealing incantation. He grinned with satisfaction as the door disappeared, becoming flush with the walls, sealing the closet off from the outside. Not even the cracks were visible.

“Excellent”, he said aloud to himself. “Now all that’s left to do is . . .” He trailed off as a sobering realization dawned on him. He had nothing to draw the inter-dimensional portal  with, except for the dregs of the same black paint that was already covering the walls.

Then, the single incandescent light bulb in the closet’s ceiling chose that moment to burn out.