What locks the door?

What locks the door?
To a place forbidden
Forlorn
Forgotten
Full of rattling shadows
and creaking stairs
A place that lies 
behind a locked door
or so we are told
since we were young
it is a nowhere
nothing
neverending
twist of hallways
turning
timelessly
down dusted floorboards
burning a hole
in the surrounding forest
a world of wonder
or of woe
hidden behind crisscrossed
arms
it seems
human
or maybe
almost human
a being with folded limbs
crouching in the clearing
locked
or so you're told
but you do not dare
walk the path 
of doom
of dark
of demons
to the house itself
sending spiders
of fear down your back
and snakes of sweat down your forehead
the house is locked for a 
reason
a reason that 
distresses
not to so much as
touch the door handle
fearing the house will sink into your skin
or rather
you will sink into it
consumed
by the flame
of foes
of fear
maybe 
the house locked itself
knowing
the human temptation would be 
too great
knowing that we would long to venture
up into the jaws of the house
standing on the porch
to touch the locked door
maybe to find that it is
not locked
that in our mind
we have locked the door
hidden away in the deepest cranny of our memory
but the door never leaves 
nor the chills
nor the things inside the 
waiting house