HORROR GENRE CORNER:
I always was fascinated by the horror stories from my childhood as I used to listen to the stories that the elderly people had been narrating in the lowly-lit evening of a rainy day. There was a different feel of the environment and its relationship with the story narrative!
I wrote a trilogy of Horror fiction in the past year and tried to hook the readers. Here is an abstract from a story below for your perusal.
The Illusive Pen
As Josh and Delma ventured further into the darkness-shrouded room, the air seemed to thicken around them, heavy with an unsettling silence. Each step they took echoed ominously as if the very walls were whispering secrets they dared not understand.
“Stay close,” Delma murmured, her voice barely audible above the palpable tension. Josh nodded, his heart pounding in his chest as they navigated through the abyss that had once been Sonia’s sanctuary.
The air grew colder with each passing moment, sending shivers down their spines as they pressed on, driven by determination mingled with fear.
Suddenly, Josh halted, his breath catching in his throat. Delma turned to Josh her eyes wide with apprehension. “What is it?”
Josh pointed towards a shadowy corner of the room, where a faint glimmer of light seemed to flicker like a dying flame. “There,” he whispered, his voice trembling with dread.
With cautious steps, they approached the source of the faint glow, their hearts pounding in anticipation. As they drew nearer, the outline of a pair of blue pants came into view, lying crumpled on the floor against the wall.
Delma’s breath caught in her throat as she reached out a trembling hand, fingers brushing against the fabric. “This is it,” she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper.
But as Josh bent down to retrieve the pants, a sudden gust of wind swept through the room, extinguishing the feeble light, and plunging them into darkness once more.
Panic surged through them as they fumbled in the blackness, their fingers grasping desperately for any sign of the elusive pen. But it was as if the very fabric of reality had twisted and contorted around them, obscuring their senses, and trapping them in a nightmare from which there seemed to be no escape.
And then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the darkness lifted, leaving them standing alone in the empty room, their hearts pounding in their chests.
“We have to get out of here,” Josh said, his voice hollow with dread. But as they turned to leave, a chilling voice echoed through the silence, freezing them in their tracks.
“You can’t leave,” it whispered, sending shivers down their spines. “Not until you find what you came for.”
And with a sinking feeling in the pit of their stomachs, they realized that they were not alone in the darkness after all.
“Okay, so we have to reach the bedroom first.”
He nodded, “Let’s step in.” as soon as they entered the room, the door got locked.
“Beware,” Delma pushed Josh to the side. A chair had come flying towards him.
“This will happen. Take care.” He nodded again. The next step and the air started becoming thin. Both started coughing. Josh was staring at something. Delma noticed and turned his face in alignment with his eyes. He was looking back and forth to the window and then at Delma.
“What…are…”
“We can’t survive…window.”
“It’s jammed…nothing…to…break…”
“If…I jump…breaking it…”
“NOOOOO…we end. Together.”
“Steve said…YOU can…find it…not we.”
“Don’t… It’s the…only…way,” and with his full might, Delma rushed towards the window.
“You can…I know,” Josh smiled at him and then turned towards the window, “I love you, Sonia!” Without another word he ran into the glass, breaking it open.
Delma was standing still, one more life gone in front of his eyes. With the breaking of the window, the air became thick again and the streak of the sun entered the room. Delma controlled his emotions, and, in the sun’s, streak, quickly swept his across the room, searching for the pants. And within seconds, he was able to spot it. It was lying exactly where Josh had said, near the end of her bedroom wall.
There was a thud. He turned towards the sound and boom! The window was restored, and it became pitch dark again.
He started making his way towards the pant, and he saw her.
A slender, curvaceous girl of not over five feet with her brown straight hair wide open and wearing a red dress was standing in front of him. Her face was pale and there were several marks on it. She had deep blue eyes with dark circles beneath.
“She would have been gorgeous when she was alive!” She took a step towards him, and the room became darker. Things started flying towards him; chairs, and tables which he couldn’t even see until now, came rushing towards him. He dodged one, the second missed him narrowly, but the third one hit him. He fell to the ground with a thud and the table covered him restricting him from moving.
He was struggling to move; blood was oozing from his leg and arms. He was losing his consciousness when he heard, “You can…I know.” Josh’s smiling face came in front of his eyes, followed by Eva, Emma, and Sonia. He relaxed himself and searched for the pants. It was lying a few inches away from him. Then he saw the girl. She was slowly moving towards him. Focusing his eyes on the pants he spoke, “You might be gorgeous when alive?”
The girl stopped, “YEAH…,” her voice was heavy.
“What happened?” he started shifting in his position.
“This world is full of greedy people, love, and affection don’t matter anymore. Only money speaks, that’s what everyone is after and they will do anything for it, ANYTHING!”
“You were betrayed? Did you love someone, and he used you?” Delma’s words she heard as if coming from a distance.
Sonia didn’t utter a word. Delma realized it was his chance, and with his full strength, he rushed towards the pen. Seeing him move, she came out of his thoughts, and with a yell, she threw more chairs and tables towards him. Delma saw them coming. The chair hit him on the head, and he fell again on the ground, but this time the pant was in his hand. He fumbled for the pen and at last he found it. It was one of the pens Sonia showed in her video. Seeing the pen in Delma’s hand, the girl rushed towards him and tried grabbing his throat, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t touch him. He was standing in disbelief. She was forcing and yelling, but nothing more than that. He stood safe from her.
He quickly held the pen. It was a white capless roller pen with a groove at the bottom instead of the nib. He clicked it. The nib appeared, and a black ink was drooping through it.
“It’s the same pen and this black ink, yes this is what Emily was holding that day!” Delma thought.
He grabbed it and wrote, “May all the good be rested in this world. Evil may find its demise. Love to be the greatest virtue again,” the pen wrote seamlessly in the air and the words appeared in black ink.
Within seconds the words disappeared and with a wail the girl too. The room became normal again. The walls had a beautiful pink color with stickers of Sonia’s favorite models. The cupboard, table, and bed, looked as if someone had renovated the room and, at last, the sun rays entered the room.
Delma was looking at this magic when his phone rang.
“Hello?”
“I am speaking from the City Hospital. Is this Mr.…Johnson?”
“Yes?”
“I am delighted to inform you that your friends are out of danger. You can come and meet them.”
“What! All of three?”
“Yes, all of them. Congratulations.”
He closed his eyes and thanked God!
“I said you will be able to do it,” a deep voice fell into his ears.
“Stephen?”
And he appeared out of nowhere. “Yes!”
“You are a ghost, too?”
He laughed, “Look at you, you can ask that question so easily!”
“Yeah, I fought with one!”
He laughed again, “Yes, you have, indeed.”
Delma smiled. “I still can’t believe it. The last few days were the most hectic ones in my entire job. I have seen weird cases but this one, hoof!” he moved his hand on his forehead, “But who was she? And why?”
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- bachupch@gmail,com
- https://www.amazon.com/stores/Bikash-Paul-Choudhury/author/B0997PPVLY?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Thank you,
