It’s been roughly 30 years since I read this story and it might have been written by one of the “classic” American horror writers.
It is only a few pages long, written in first person, and from hazy memory goes like this:
It is about a woman(?) who is alone in her house and getting more paranoid by the minute over noises, vague fears, whether the doors are locked, and so on.
She says things like “Maybe I better go check the locks again.”
The whole story is basically her talking to herself. The aura of suspense builds.
At the end she says something like:
“Well, I am going to go check the locks again and as I walk into the kitchen I see that the back door is wide o…”
That was the last line, end of story, leading one to believe she was got by the monster/psycho killer/whatever.
I remember the ending freaked me out at the time. I very well could be off on the basic content, but will never forget the ending. Appreciate any help.
I remember reading this story in the mid-1970s sometime. The ending really stuck in my head, too; however the title and author did not.
I had always thought the title was “Wide O-” but I suspect I’m wrong on that one. I was sure I had it here in the house in a collection of short stories, but I don’t seem to be able to find it. I’ll keep looking, though.
I too remember reading this story in the 70’s. After much Googling (I’m not very good at it) I found this link to the contents of a collection of short stories by Asimov called 100 Malicious Little Mysteries. The last story in the book is Wide O– by Elsin Ann Graffam. This isn’t the book I read the story in, but I believe this is the title & author of the story you are referring to.