White Hell

Do you remember?

I hope you all had a great christmas!!

Here is another short horror story I wrote recently, that I thought to be fitting:)

Word count: 362

TW: horror

Do you remember?

The falling snow?

The warmth of the fire?

The kind smile on your mother's face?

That day we met... do you remember?

That day, many, many years ago.

When you came by and we became fast friends.

You were so kind.

I didn't have any friends, but you wanted to be mine.

I have always really appreciated that from you...

Your kindness.

Your openness to whomever, whatever...

Remember when we first played outside together?

The crunching of freshly fallen snow underneath our feet.

The woods surrounding your house, slowly getting darker and darker.

That day we completely lost track of time.

That day was truly amazing.

Remember that day when there was a snowstorm outside?

We couldn't play outside, so we sat by the warm fire in the living room.

We played with your toys and told each other stories.

I still remember all of them.

Do you?

Do you remember our first sleepover?

We talked and talked, until your mother came to your room, telling us to be quiet.

At night it would start storming and you tried to keep me from getting scared.

So warm, so gentle.

But now... you've changed.

You've... gone cold in a way.

Still breathing, yes, but you feel like a colder person now.

Do you even remember who you used to be? What you used to be like?

Has it really been that long?

Is there something I should remember?

When you just looked at me, you made a face like you were looking at vermin.

Remember the crunching of snow, remember the crackling of the fire, remember our laughter from those many, many days gone by.

I guess it's time.

Nothing else to be done other than this.

If I leave you like this...

You're going to be wasting away.

You're going to rot.

You're going bad.

You'll be spoiled before long.

I guess to you I might not even be vermin, I honestly think more that you might see me as a monster.

I'm different from you.

I scare you.

I scared your family.

Well I might be truly a monster to your kind.

Hiding in the shadows.

Eating creatures that are still alive.

Drinking their blood.

Most of your kind don't do that... right?

Or perhaps they do in some other way?

Do you remember?

Because I don't.

My head is too busy thinking.

Thinking about how I will stop playing with my food.

Yes, you guessed right.

You are.

Because if I don't... you'll expire.

in the rain

A short horror story I wrote last year, I'm surprised to find out I hadn't posted it here before.

Word count: 1848

TW: psychological horror

The sound of the gentle tapping of the rain on my window awakens me.

Just by glancing over at the window I can see the dark autumn sky even though it must still be around noon.

Slowly I get up from the couch, I must have dozed off for a minute or so.

I walk over to my kitchen to see if there is anything to eat.

Opening all the cabinets and finally the freezer, I discover that I'm all out of food.

Damn, I forgot, it's grocery day today... and I still have to go out with this shitty weather.

Still I ready myself to go outside, I take my dark green raincoat and a bag.

I put on my shoes and finally leave, locking the door behind me, walking towards the nearest bus stop.

I know I'm being lazy, walking that distance can be done in about half an hour, but still this weather seems to only be getting worse.

As I turn around to face the weather I feel the cool breeze going through my coat and the water gliding off my face.

A greeting from the outside, a cold and wet greeting.

Quickly I make a run for the bus stop.

Each time one of my feet hit the middle of a puddle, the water flies around me, making me feel like a little kid playing in the rain.

It takes a couple of minutes for me to reach the small square hut, known locally as the bus stop.

I live in the middle of nowhere anyway.

As I finally lay eyes on it I almost dive for cover under the roof.

I know it doesn't really matter, I'm already soaked, but still, it brings me comfort.

Immediately I notice that I'm not alone.

Someone else is standing beside me.

Most likely also waiting for the bus to come.

Their face is obscured by their coat... Their dark green coat.

Did he get it at the same store as me?

For a while we awkwardly stand next to each other, not speaking a word, or perhaps letting the rain itself do the talking.

Cold seconds pass slowly and eventually I can't take it anymore.

"So... uhh... the weather is pretty bad, éh?"

I know the question is bad, small talk is not everyone's favorite, but worse than that, I don't get a response at all.

And we are back at listening to the rain and just standing next to one another, but this one more awkwardly than before.

The person next to me didn't show any sign of even hearing me.

Finally the bus arrives and I get on.

I look back, but the person behind me doesn't seem to be moving in the slightest.

Does he even breathe? I really can't tell.

"Hey man? Didn't you need to take the bus too?" I call over to him, gesturing that he can go in, but again he doesn't move at all.

I shake my head and then turn it towards the bus driver.

Unlike the usual uniform, they seem to be wearing another dark green raincoat. Almost exactly like mine, or perhaps it's completely the same...

I show the chauffeur my ticket, but he doesn't move a muscle.

Quietly I turn around to look further inside the vehicle.

It's almost completely empty, except for a few strangers dressed with the same dark green jacket.

For a moment I hesitate.

Do I really want to be on this bus?

But then the squeaking doors behind me close, cutting off my only escape route.

Obediently I take a seat, trying not to look around me and just stare out of the window.

When the bus finally comes to a halt at my stop I get out as fast as I can.

Strangely enough this is the first stop it made, no one got on and no one got off.

As I step outside, I am greeted by more rain, falling down even heavier than before.

Quickly I race towards the store and feel a sense of relief wash over me as I finally reach the entrance and hear the familiar chime.

The bright light hurts my eyes, it's a lot brighter than outside after all.

I let out a shivering sigh from the cold. It might be less warm here than outside, or perhaps it's because of how wet my clothes have gotten.

The water has gone right through my coat after all.

I notice my breath leaving my mouth in small clouds and rub my hands together for some warmth.

I guess it must be cold here after all.

Carefully I look around, it seems that I'm the only customer inside the store.

I should probably hurry up, I'm not sure if there will be many buses leaving after I'm done with shopping.

I take a shopping cart and start to move around the store.

Taking with me things for breakfast, things for lunch, things for dinner and of course some snacks.

Eventually I find myself next to an aisle that's entirely empty.

"How strange..." I mutter to myself: "I was sure these were filled just last week..."

I take a few steps back, towards the fridges where they keep milk and stuff.

Something about it seems off.

Carefully I take a closer look.

It looks like all the cartons of milk from the highest shelf to the lowest have all been cut in half in a straight row.

No, cut isn't the word.

More like half of it has been melted off.

The contents are spilled all over the floor.

As I inspect the next row, I see that these all have half-faded packaging.

I look up to find a huge dark stain on the ceiling above it, water is slowly dripping down onto those products and the floor.

It's almost as if the rain is washing it all away.

Quickly I leave for the check-out and find another one behind the counter.

A person, dressed with the same raincoat as mine, somehow still with a faded nametag on their chest, too faded to read.

Honestly it looks a bit silly.

Their hood is up and they look down, causing me to be unable to see their face just like with the others before.

I greet the 'worker' like normal even though he doesn't move at all and I hand them the money, which they don't take either, so I place it before them.

"Keep the change." I say, trying to joke away the fear I feel inside.

That is the truth after all.

I'm scared.

I'm terrified.

I'm terrified, but I don't want to let it show.

Everything about this day has been strange.

Normally I don't fall asleep during the day, normally I don't take the bus to the store, normally I don't stand waiting for a bus with a stranger...

Then there's the fact I haven't seen a single familiar face since I woke up. Why isn't anyone here when usually this store is filled with people I know?

I pick up the pace, too scared to look behind me.

What if they did move?

What if they did move, but only if I wasn't facing them.

What if they were right behind me, staring at me from underneath those hoods?

What if they wanted to do something to me?

I shake my head and enter the rainy and windy outside world again.

The rainfall has gotten even heavier.

I can barely keep my eyes open from all the water pouring down, only able to open them again as I blindly enter the bus stop.

This time I'm alone.

Though I doubt if that really is the case.

I mean, what if they're watching?

While waiting for the bus to come I look at my sleeve.

The dark green fabric has been completely soaked.

Why is it that we all wear the same? I think to myself.

Where and when did I even buy such an ugly thing?

I have another one, a blue one... right?

No, now that I think about it I'm not so sure.

This rain... it's making it difficult to remember.

The bus finally arrives for me to go home again.

Trying to avoid the spats coming from the sky, but failing, I enter the vehicle.

It's cold here too.

Like in the store small clouds leave my shivering mouth.

I look at the driver.

It's one of them again.

Or am I supposed to be one of them?

My coat shows our resemblance.

My hood is still up too.

I take it off and smile at the driver.

"Good afternoon sir, bad weather we're having, don't we?"

Suddenly I hear something moving in the back of the bus.

Multiple people dressed like me are sitting there, more than before.

All of them seem to stare at me from underneath their dark hoods.

I smile at them too, but now that I'm looking at them too they have stopped moving again completely.

The door behind me closes and I take a seat.

Everything feels so unwelcoming, it makes me feel a bit sad.

Looking outside of the window I appreciate the beautifully dreary scenery from my home.

It looks like the water levels have been rising far.

Much further than it normally would.

Almost like the water is trying to swallow it all up.

I'm glad I live up high.

We drive past a small cliff.

I look down at the water through the window.

The rain is still relentlessly hitting the windows, coming down unforgivingly at the windows, making me scared that it could shatter them any moment.

It has become a droning noise overtaking any thought I might have had as suddenly, I feel light.

Everything starts feels like going in hyper speed.

The bus has made a turn.

A turn off the cliff.

And we hit the water before I even realized what was going on.

It's all going so fast and yet, none of them moved even an inch.

All of the other 'passengers' keep sitting the way they sat before, not even trembling because of the fall. Making it look like they were plastic figures glued to their respective benches.

Windows break and water starts to pour in even faster than the rain.

Loudly I curse and get up from my seat in a daze.

My head is pounding terribly, did I hit something?

I'm not sure.

It just hurts.

The vehicle starts to sink and I start to panic.

A heavy tree branch falls through one of the small windows in the ceiling.

I jump back, but then see that it has shattered the entire window and created a way for me to get out.

The water is rising higher and higher and I reach for the window.

Now the people in the bus do start to move.

In a strange and shocking way.

Moving like they have never used a limb before.

Crawling around, stumbling around, a strange form of swimming.

Shit!

They're coming for me!

They're coming for me!!

They get closer and closer with their strange movements.

Trying to wrap their arms around me.

As I feel their freezing cold fingers touch me I kick around me as hard as I can.

"Stay away!" I yell: "Stay the Hell away!!"

Desperately I hold on to the branch.

The first few already have their hands wrapped around my ankles.

"Let me go!!!" I yell, kicking and screaming.

More hands.

And then they start to grip and pull.

The gray light from the sky starts to grow distant, my head is getting closer to the water.

The heavy rain has started pushing me down now too.

Pushing back my hands, letting me slide back down.

I've never seen or even felt a rain storm this heavy, it feels like it's trying to get rid of me.

Trying to clean this place by getting rid of me.

Like a ghost town being washed away by the rain...

The machine that brought the dead back to life

The continueation and final part of a story I wrote.

Word count: 2151

TW: Death and cursing

A sudden shock awakens Drew and he opens his eyes, only to find himself inside some sort of machine.

The space is small and he almost can't move anything, turning around is out of the question.

Luckily since he's used to working in cramped spaces, he's able to keep himself calm.

His head seems to be in a fog, he doesn't remember what happened to get him inside the big object.

Carefully he tries to move his arms, but not much happens, he is completely confined within the machine.

After a while of trying not to panic Drew hears a strange mechanical hissing sound.

It's the door.

The door is opening.

In the opening stands a man in rags with a zombie-like look on his face, suddenly he grabs Drew by his arm and hisses in his ear: "Act like the rest or you'll be dead."

At first Drew doesn't understand at all, but as he looks around he sees in the dark many people moving around almost robotically.

All of the people are working.

Drew quickly looks back at the machine he came from.

It takes a second, but then it dawns at him...

He had been revived.

Trying to remain calm he follows the man before him, trying to take the same slow dead steps.

He thinks of Clara, who must be grieving terribly right now. The reason for him being here must be because she wasn't able to pay for the revival fee.

The day or perhaps the night, there's really no way to know, starts horribly.

People looking like old corpses are walking like slaves with other machines keeping watch if they're working good enough.

Drew is forced to work on broken machinery without break, being monitored almost non-stop.

Thankfully he does quite well, since he has been chosen to do a job he had done last he had been awake.

As the moment finally arrives that the security weakens and no camera's look at Drew, he is completely exhausted.

He feels a hand on his shoulder, it's the man that had warned him before.

"Hey buddy, you gotta keep going, if you don't want to die that is."

"What is this? Why are they doing this?" Drew almost begs the man to answer his questions.

"Once pronounced dead, your rights as a human being are lost. You will be nothing more than an object, a slave. We are supposed to come in here as mindless, but some of us, like you and me, come with one still intact."

"This is a different machine than the one used on the commercials, right?"

The strange man laughs: "Of course, you think people would write a good review if they were to wake up in a dump like this? This place is for those that are too poor or have relatives that don't want them anymore, but the people here are chosen because of having certain skills."

"Skills? Do the mindless even possess those?"

"Bare fractions, but that's all they need. A person's build can also go a long way."

As the monitors return they quickly get back to their work again and after a while Drew learns that the dead down here really don't get any rest.

Still he tries his best, causing him to almost faint.

Slowly it gets even darker before his eyes and he feels himself stagger and the ground seems to be dragging him closer.

Just in time, the strange man pulls him up and hands him something.

"Get up buddy, if you fall now, we're both fucked."

Drew takes the object closer to his face and recognizes it as old bread.

He takes a bite and swallows.

It's absolutely disgusting, but it helps him to continue again.

"How long have you been here?" Drew asks as they have a moment to talk.

"Not so long either."

"Then do you know how you died?"

"Not sure..." The man hesitates for a moment: "But from what I heard, this damned company sometimes picks people and sends others after them to kill them. I believe that at least happened to you."

"What, why?"

"You can't see it right now, but you had a really big scar on your back. They don't patch us up as good as the people who pay for it."

Drew doesn't remember what happened, one moment he had been working and the other he had woken up inside the machine. This information of him possibly being murdered strikes him hard.

"I need to get out of here." He mumbles.

"Don't we all?"

"If I don't they might kill her too."

"You got someone, buddy?"

"My wife, she works here."

"On the bottom I presume?"

"Yeah..."

"Well that explains it then."

"What do you mean?"

"Why were you picked?"

"Do you mean to say that they screened everything about her? And all the people in her life?"

"Yeah..."

Drew firmly places a hand on the man's shoulder: "Just how do you know all this information?"

"Buddy, let go."

"I want to know!"

"Buddy, you're hurting me."

"Just answer me, please!"

The man sighs: "I used to work at the top. I was one of those fuckers at the top. One that could see the sun rise, one that could see above the smog."

"Then why are you here?"

"You really want to know everything, don't you?"

Drew grips the strangers shoulder even harder.

"Ouch! Damnit, I fucked up you know! I didn't agree to their shit!"

Drew lets the man go.

"Thank you." He says annoyed.

"I'm going to get out of here." Drew says while picking up something he things that might be useful as a weapon.

"You're going to get yourself killed going like that."

"Better than dying here. If you want me to survive, maybe you could help."

Defeated, the man sighs: "Fine, then I will."

"So what are we going to do?" Drew asks, some of his old energy returning.

"We have to carefully follow the red lights."

Both drop their work and start their plan to escape.

It doesn't take long for an alarm to sound, the camera's must have noticed that they've left.

Thus the two start running.

As strange looking robots get closer and closer the two men finally reach a door, the strange man opens it and pushes Drew through it.

"You better get her to safety, buddy." The man says and closes the door immediately.

For a moment Drew stands unable to do anything, he had no time to thank the man before and now it was too late.

As his mind finally starts to process everything he decides that he can't do it all alone.

When he rushes outside the building, he notices that it is morning.

But even though the sun is out, seeing it through the thick smog is difficult.

People rush past him to go to work, like none know of what takes place beneath the big company that grants wishes.

Drew hurries home, but as he arrives, notices that Clara has already left for work. He stops for a moment to see hate mail on the floor.

The mail must have been sent by those that knew about his passing.

Drew picks them up and throws them in the trash, might be nice for starting a fire later.

Maybe he can get help at the workshop?

He runs to the place he worked just before he died.

The door is closed and gravity has been sprayed all over the walls.

Vile words are written on the walls, did the boss take Clara's side?

Drew tries to open the door, but it seems to be locked.

He knocks.

No answer.

He knocks again, this time louder.

Then the door finally opens, the boss appears, at first he doesn't notice and wants to ask if he came to harass him, but then he looks up and recognizes Drew.

He takes his arm and almost drags him inside.

"Drew? How can that be you? You look horrible."

Drew starts to explain everything that he knows.

It takes a while, making Drew tumble over his words, trying to get it all out at the same time.

When he finally finishes he says: "So I have to go get her now!"

"Drew, you just came back to life. Please, be careful."

"I'm sorry sir, but I can't, they probably already know that I was the one who left after all. I can't stay here too long. They might even come after you if they know that you kept me here for a while. You sided with Clara, didn't you?"

The older man on the other side of the table sighs in despair and old grief: "Don't let yourself get killed again, son."

The boss turns around to see if he can find Drew something to use as a weapon, but as he hears the front door open and close again, he knows that it is too late.

Drew finally reaches the building again, trying to rush and hide at the same time to get inside quickly and efficiently.

People do tend to stare at him, probably because of old clothes and the fact that even though he's been revived, he still doesn't look much different from a corpse. Possibly a side-effect by the machine at the bottom.

Drew opens door after door to find the room in which his beloved should be working.

A lady walks up to him, asking: "Sir can I help you?" She looks like a normal employee.

"Clara, have you seen her?"

She shakes her head: "Not since she was sent downstairs."

Drew glances at an old staircase that is mostly dark, too dark to see the floor below it.

"Thanks." He mumbles and continues down further.

He rips open a door not knowing if it's the right one.

It shows a big grey room, lighted by white ceiling lights and the many blue screens on the many desks.

At a glance some of the people here look close to dying themselves.

But something else is wrong with the room.

Something very wrong.

Perhaps it looks too clean?

Drew starts to look around, looking for Clara.

The illusion gets shattered the moment Drew accidently pushes a button.

A short glitch appears, like a flash all disappears.

The room is not clean at all, there is even a small layer of water covering the ground.

Drew can see something that looks like a bridge without handrails and on it he sees her.

"Clara!!" He yells at his beloved: "Clara, get away from there!" Blindly he rushes towards her, but it is too late.

She falls, plunging into the murky water that embraces her with its cold deepness.

Without a second of hesitation Drew jumps after her, uncaring of the coldness of the water.

He sinks after her, but loses sight of her quickly.

As he finally reaches what he believes to be the bottom, he frantically searches for her.

With his hands he feels around, but feels a strange object lying underneath his feet.

Unable to hold his breath any longer he swims to the surface and climbs onto the platform.

Even though the illusion is gone, there are still people typing away at the computers, still working even though they should be able to see the real working conditions.

Drew runs up to one of them and pulls them close: "Where are the lights?! Any lights, flashlights, I don't care!"

Panic has wrapped its claws around the desperate man's throat, almost choking him, as is to kill him again.

Unfortunately the yelling doesn't help getting the worker out of his state, only staring blankly at Drew or perhaps through him, unable to see him at all.

Angry Drew tosses the worker aside and starts searching on his own again, quickly opening random drawers without closing them.

As he wants to kick something a hand gets placed on his shoulder: "Here son, use this."

It's the boss of the workshop, handing him an old flashlight, he must have come after him.

Drew takes it saying a quick thanks and uses a useless fire-extinguisher to sink faster to the bottom.

The old flashlight luckily seems to work underwater, it doesn't show much, but it does so for the bare minimum.

As Drew reaches what he believes to be the bottom, he quickly puts his hand before his mouth to stop himself from choking on the water trying to invade his lungs.

This is not the bottom at all.

As Drew slowly moves the flashlight to look around he slowly shines it on many corpses that lie around.

Some new, some almost entirely bones.

It's a pile.

So many people.

And if Drew isn't fast enough, Clara will join them forever.

Slower than he wants to he swims closely to the bodies, trying his best to find his beloved, made worse by the look of all the dead down there.

The water is still murky, but Drew has an idea of where Clara could be.

Soon he finds himself at a deeper hole, one with less bodies.

Using the fire-extinguisher he tries to get to the botom quicker.

.

.

.

Then he finally finds her.

She seems almost deadly pale, almost like she has already joined those deep down.

Swiftly he takes her in his arms and lets go of the heavy object, causing them to slowly rise up again.

As they finally reach the surface, Drew's boss is already awaiting them helping them up.

"Son, what took you so long?"

Drew, completely out of breath, tries to explain: "All... are... all are dead... down there..."

"What do you mean?"

Drew shakes his head: "Please... please, save her."

Clara has gone awfully cold and doesn't seem to be breathing anymore.

Both men feel at a loss, until at the same time they know one way to get her back again.

Cursed town

I've been pretty busy lately, so here a post showing that I'm still alive:)

It's a story I wrote a while back, but I hope it's still enjoyable.

Word count: 1745

TW: zombies

Am I cursed or did I become the curse?

I do not know the answer to that question that has been lingering in my mind, keeping me awake during my darkest moments.

Why did it even happen? Why me?

I probably don't make any sense to you, but I will try to help you understand.

Where do I begin?

Hmmmm....

Probably at the beginning, but where is it...

Ah, I will tell you about my village's famous cave.

The cave that gives this small town most of its money, by being a tourist spot.

It is not that well known, but for the real seekers it is here.

And it so happens that there are still quite a lot of those real seekers.

During summer almost everyone you will see here is a tourist, well also because there aren't that many locals.

I can't really call myself a local either, I moved here when I had just finished school.

I actually come from a city about 2 hours away by car.

I really miss that time, the time when I still had my freedom and strong will.

When I still had the feeling of adventure in me.

I'm not sure when it all started to change, but if I had to guess just the moving part was already a grave mistake.

I regret it, I really do.

Every night I keep wondering 'What if...', but that is even more useless.

Well continuing with my story, the cave is most famous for its beautiful system and mystic history.

It is said that it used to be home to a sorcerer. One very powerful and whom met an unfortunate end.

He was said to have been killed in his own home in a very strange manner.

No one knows why or how, but it certainly did happen.

Not just the archaeological findings show it, but I know it.

I have in fact seen him and have had a conversation with him.

Now I do have a clue about what happened.

J-just stop it and listen, for now this is what it is.

I'm telling you all this for a reason, so please just bear with me.

Okay, so when I moved here, not everything was this bad yet.

When I moved here, with my naivete, I thought it would be the place of my dreams.

That is what it was in the beginning, but after a while it became a living nightmare.

I bought my first house here.

I learned how to drive here.

There are just so many memories here.

I befriended the locals rather quickly, thanks to my appreciation of culture and history.

It was of course an old town and most of the people who live... sorry I mean lived here where the elderly.

I always loved to listen to their stories.

But unfortunately,

that is all lost now.

Again I really don't know everything that happened, but from what I gathered: People have been getting more and more annoyed about me. For my city attitude, like locking my doors in a safe town or my friends from out of town staying over.

At least, thats what I think happened...

All this they never told me, building up their irritation. Making it way worse than everything actually was.

Then one day they decided that it was enough, and basically went on a manhunt for me.

All of this was rather bizarre, I did not expect it at all. It was almost like they were possessed, like they thought I was the devil himself.

Their anger poured down on me like a heavy storm.

There was more anger, that didn't all have to do with me. They seemed to have combined everything and pushed it onto me.

I had to flee.

I ran for my life and tried to leave town.

I couldn't get through any of the entrances of the town, there were people looking for me everywhere.

So I hid in the caves, in the hope that they would stop their searching.

I locked myself into what used to be the sorcerer's home and hid in a dark corner.

After just a few minutes they found out where I was and were trying to break down the door.

Panicking, I looked around the room to find a better hiding spot.

Then through the banging of the door I heard a voice behind me.

"Here... over here... You can hide... You can be save."

At first I didn't see it, the sound came from a small butterfly sitting on the carpet.

Without thinking I removed the old carpet to find a secret well-hidden hatch.

Quickly I went in making sure they couldn't see that the carpet had been moved.

As I went into the dark and dusty room, I could hear some of my former friends and neighbors burst into the room.

I could hear them stomp on the floor, looking frantically for me. Breaking part of their precious museum.

Were they still them? I wondered leaning against the cold wall's and unknown objects that filled the room.

The air in that room was different, how long had it been since someone last had been there?

Could it have been years or even centuries?

But how? This room wasn't even so hard to find?

I sat down when I heard them leave the room upstairs. Quietly, so I wouldn't alert them.

After a while I suddenly heard the voice again, speaking softly: "Are you okay?" asking with the much needed kindness in his voice.

I shook my head and buried it in my hands.

"We are alike." It continued.

I whispered a thank you, feeling warm tears gently roll down my face.

All of the things that happened have just been too much for one day.

We remained silent for a while, until I felt a little better: "Are you the sorcerer?"

A cold breeze blew in my face.

"I have never been a sorcerer." The voice answered.

"Sorry, that is the only thing I ever hear about this place. If I may, why are you still here?"

"I can't leave until my job here is done, until I have helped someone like me... I have waited for so long."

Unsure of what to say I decided to remain quiet.

"The villagers can make you disappear, you know. They do that to most outsiders that end up staying too long."

I just nod.

"Do you want to end up like that?"

"No, preferably not."

"All right, then I will help you."

I could feel a cold hand touch mine and then I never heard the voice again.

Softly I called out for him, but he never answered again.

By the time that I decided to leave, it had gotten so cold and quiet. I couldn't hear anything from outside anymore.

The commotion outside had completely stopped, but it got strange when I finally got outside I couldn't even hear the birds.

So carefully I went and as quiet as a mouse I slipped out of the cave.

It had already gotten dark outside.

The wind blew in my face, still a bit warm for the beginning of autumn.

For the first time that day I felt pretty good, now I can finally leave this terrible place.

But of course all that hope was short lived.

I couldn't leave town.

No matter how hard I dried.

It was as if someone had built an invisible wall around the whole thing.

And since then... I am still stuck here.

After a while of trying until I was too tired I gave up.

But the weird thing was, that no one tried to hunt me down again.

Had they given up too?

When I had gathered up some energy, I decided to see what was going on.

I was even more surprised when I finally noticed that no one moved anymore.

All of them just stood, like they were frozen in time.

Like a bunch of dolls left after a child had to do something else or got bored.

On closer inspection, I found out that they did all still breathe, but there was something strange with their eyes.

All of them had these strange green-colored eyes.

Since I wasn't sure if they could wake up I hid myself in the library until the morning came.

I woke up the next morning from the sun, there still wasn't any noise outside and when I checked all the townspeople all still stood where I had left them the previous night.

I have never been more confused and it was worrying me, I was not like them and did not wish for them to die. Even if they did want me to.

Worried I went by them all, they were all covered in morning dew and ice cold, but still breathing and their hearts still beat.

The first thing I did after was to return to the library, but the search was fruitless. There aren't many books about the history of the town nor this thing I decided to call a curse.

Not only did the library's books have little to say, the internet was down too.

So I am stuck with no way of contacting the outside world.

Outside I tried to talk to one of them.

I asked what he was doing.

No answer.

I asked if this was some kind of joke.

No answer.

I asked if I could do something for him.

Again no answer.

Stressed out and angry at the man ignoring me I yelled at him.

I begged him to please just do something, to show that he was still alive.

He moved his head.

That's all.

He had moved it to look in my direction.

Nothing more, nothing less.

I wasn't sure if I had imagined it so I asked him if he could point to the nearest building.

He did.

Although it was a bit robotic and obviously lacking humanity and individuality.

Then I asked him to go back to his house.

And again he did, meanwhile I followed him.

When we arrived he just stood in front of the door.

It was like one of those old zombie stories, they did nothing if I didn't tell me to do something.

All of this was very shocking to me.

Suddenly I had all this responsibility.

Suddenly I had to care for an entire town in which I actually really didn't want to be.

Stuck with them.

Stuck with a bunch of brain dead corpses.

I used to have hope for them, but little by little I lost that.

Days went by, where I tried to keep them all alive and well. Telling them everything they needed to do in order to stay alive.

But today someone still died.

I wonder if there will be a day when I have to bury more than one.

When I have to bury the rest of town, while I will be left all alone.

I guess that when you curse someone, you mostly have to live with the pain yourself of having done something as terrible as that.

Now, have you written it all down? All that I have told you? Then people might find this message and know what happened.

Just nod if you did.

The book

A short horror story I wrote.

Word count: 1504

TW: blood & grief

I look up from my phone as I hear the noise of falling books.

It seems that Camilla has pushed Emily again.

My shy classmate is lying on the floor with eyes red from crying, though she certainly isn't the only one.

It's the funeral of another classmate after all, Jane, now the dead girl, used to be quite popular at school.

Always running around and helping others in need, even with her status, she never forgot about others.

Yes, she did break the rules more times than anyone could count, yelled back at teachers and was overall never afraid to speak her mind.

She was hard to dislike and everyone seemed to want to be close to her.

Unfortunately this means she had few 'real' friends, very few, but I digress.

The once so joyful girl, now lays weirdly calm and quiet in the open coffin.

I can't stop myself to wonder if underneath that layer of make-up our friend really is.

Would her lips be blue?

Would her skin be cold?

I too have bawled my eyes out when I got the news, Jane was dead and yet no one seemed to know or care what had caused it.

Like it was some kind of secret, would it be bad if it came out?

As her class, we were taken to be at her wake to show our respects, but I'm pretty sure the teachers would want to hang another lesson on this.

Perhaps they might have us write an essay on death or learn from our former friend to not become like her.

It sucks.

They suck.

But from all the people here, I hate myself the most.

The last time I spoke to Jane was last week, the day before she had passed.

If I had said something different, if I could go back, if I had known.... Would I have been able to change the outcome?

Would we be in school? Would she pass me by with a smile? Would she talk back to another teacher again?

But there won't be anything like that again and honestly it is difficult to believe.

I just... I can't accept it... not yet.

As the other girls leave I walk over to Emily: "Hey, are you okay?" I ask her, while helping her gather the books.

She responds in a sad nod, though in my heart I know she's not okay.

She looked up to Jane as an older sister, the two had always been close even before high school.

I look at one of the books I help her stack up and notice how well-made they are.

"T-these are pretty." I say, my head starts hurting again from the amount I've cried, I don't think there are any more tears left.

"Thanks" Emily sniffles and then she takes one from the pile: "Here, take one... you were one of her real friends too, I can tell." A sad smile crosses her face.

"Thank you."

I carefully take the book from her hand and help her back onto her feet, after that we quickly part ways again.

I look at my phone, it seems that I still have some time before my dad comes to pick me up.

I don't feel like talking to anyone and on my phone there only seem to be posts about Jane, so I don't really feel like being on it either.

I walk to a corner where I can be alone and take a seat on the couch.

I tuck my phone in one of my pockets and open the book.

I'm pretty sure Emily has made this herself, she's very creative and this looks like her style.

Like usual she has turned it into a sort of scrapbook with fitting pictures.

When I first held it I had already noticed it being pretty heavy.

It seems to be filled with pictures.

On the first page it says: 'Goodbye Jane, our dear friend, our dear daughter', with a recent picture from the girl in question smiling brightly, the birth- and death dates are noted underneath.

She didn't get much older than sixteen.

Did her parents commission Emily to make this?

I turn the page.

So... so this is what she looked like as a baby, huh...

I wonder... are all her pictures here?

I flip through it and it seems like that might be the case, though mostly the good ones.

There are some bad ones, but even so they are more light-hearted and funny, showing all her sides.

"Only Emily could have made something like this." I mumble to myself, she was probably the closest friend after all.

I stop at a random page, here the pictures seem more recent. They are from one of her social media accounts.

Jane had always wanted to be a photographer, so there are really a ton of them. Mostly herself though, with a few pictures of scenery in between.

I flip to the next page.

Is it just my imagination... or did she just move?

I look closely at the picture.

I'm... right?

It's a picture from about four years ago, taken in a theme park.

Both Emily and Jane are in this picture.

The Ferris wheel behind them, it seems to glow... like really glow!

I hold my hand slightly above it only to see the light reflecting back at my hand.

Suddenly the sweet scents of popcorn and cotton candy enter my nose just as the sound of cheerful music enters my ears.

From the page, Jane looks at me, turning her head and smiling at me.

Quickly I slam the book shut.

I'm just imagining things right?

Weary, I look around, but it seems like no one has noticed me at all.

So, too curious, I open the book again on a random page.

This time it's a picture from four months ago.

Jane seems to be alone in a garden filled with butterflies, not only in the picture itself, but also in the scrapbook around her.

Though this time nothing seems to move.

I sigh, a bit disappointed and look up from the heavy book watching the world outside the window.

Unlike what I expected, it suddenly seemed to have turned into the butterfly garden.

I can even see Jane standing by the plants with a camera in her hands.

Without thinking I walk towards the window, still no one seemed to have noticed me, neither me nor her.

I can see some of the butterflies walking on the glass and with each breeze the dark green plants sway gently.

I place my hand on the glass and Jane notices me.

With a familiar laugh she turns to me and waves.

Then she slowly raises her camera and takes a picture of me.

As the flash ends, I'm back on the couch.

Did I not move?

Not at all?

The book is still on my lap, I haven't even closed it.

I look down at the garden picture again, but it doesn't move.

I look out of the window and am only greeted by the parking lot. Yeah, there are a few plants, but not as many as in the garden.

Jane is also nowhere to be seen.

I turn back to the book and flip it to another random page.

This time it's from four weeks ago.

Jane is standing outside, watching the sun go down on the beach.

Only her dark outline is visible at the center of the slowly darkening sky.

Still, it's a good picture.

It feels mystical and mysterious.

As nothing happens I start looking around again.

Then I notice a white wall slowly turning yellow and shortly after purple.

The lights in the room turn into stars and if I listen closely, I swear I can hear the sea.

I can smell the salt water and feel the warm sand underneath my feet.

Jane's silhouette seems to welcome me, inviting me to join her.

Suddenly a loud noise or at least louder than my thoughts, takes me out of it.

It's her family, her parents are crying.

I feel horrible and I can't even bring myself to go up to them, to tell them about how wonderful their daughter was.

How she took me, as many others, out of the darkness and back into the light.

That it's okay to make mistakes, that it's okay to cry.

But I can do nothing.

I can only go back to the book, pretending I didn't notice a thing.

I open the book again, this time on the final page.

The last picture.

It's not a picture of Jane.

It's a picture of the city at night.

Is this the final picture she made?

I look at the date.

Four days ago...

That's the last day she's been alive.

Was this the night in which she had passed?

It had to be.

The picture starts to move again.

Jane seems to be holding whatever took the photo.

She is walking, from the way she takes each step, I notice that she's anxious about something.

There aren't many lights on.

Just a single street lantern, casting shadows around itself.

Suddenly she stops.

Something is moving close to the lantern.

"W-who's there?" I hear Jane say, fear clear in her voice.

No answer.

Something is moving closer.

And then it moves faster.

Jane drops the camera, or perhaps she fell.

A loud slashing noise can be heard, followed by a couple of horrid screams.

I can't move my eyes away from it.

Blood enters the picture.

But it won't stop at the picture.

It starts to consume the book.

And it doesn't stop.

Floods and floods of blood leave the pages.

I drop it, but my hands are already stained.

It just won't stop flooding. 

Book of the apocalypse - chapter 2

Chapter 2 - A place to rest

TW: Gore, psycological horror, spiders, depressing theme's

Word count: 801

Previous chapter:

"C'ome on! I even checked it for you, it should be safe enough."

"How can I... be sure of what... lies beyond if you... are... imaginary?"

Defeated, he sighs.

We have been arguing for a while now and the rain outside hasn't stopped at all.

"I'm going to...one of the stores... usually they have a room... in the back that can be... locked." Old words slowly enter my mind. I guess I didn't forget everything.

"But the clock tower has a better view, you can be certain of your surroundings and make better plans for when the rain stops!"

"Quiller... I am not going in there-!"

Quickly I place my hand in front of my mouth and stop talking.

I must have yelled too loud, because I hear something approaching us.

Something dragging.

Another walking faster.

Shit!

Taking out just one is already quite the feat, two might be impossible, especially in such a confined space.

I've lived like this for years, but only thanks to knowing when to run and when to fight.

After all... they aren't a lot like zombies from old moving pictures.

And it certainly wasn't a virus that caught them.

Not a virus any human or animal could have gotten.

Quickly and quietly I hide behind a corner.

I see the two- no... four!

There's four of them!

Goddammit!

They're still scanning their surroundings.

I just hope they don't-

The one that seems to be the leader looks straight at me, making a strange noise.

Quiller is standing by the door to the tower: "I think this really is our safest bet."

"You... you asshole, you knew didn't you?! You planned for this to happen!"

I don't look at his face, I don't want to look at it.

Wow, betrayed even by an imaginary fiend.

I hold my spear in a way to protect myself as one of them lunges at me.

Before I know it I'm surrounded.

Their half decaying flesh, half robotic faces look hungry at me.

"You assholes fight like... like bitches!" I yell at them, knowing full well the futility of it. The same strange words I recognize as curses leave my mouth one after another.

How strange... but it feels right.

Trying to give myself an escape route I slice off an arm from one of the creatures.

With a sloshy thud it falls onto the floor and rolls away.

Almost immediately a new arm starts to grow, one not made of flesh... but of some kind of metal.

A dark liquid spills onto the floor, smelling like a combination of something rotting and machine oil.

As I try to slice the new one off, I'm only able to dent it a little bit.

I feel my hope sink.

"I guess I have no choice but to use 'that'..."

I take a small machine from one of the pockets in my belt.

It's still a work in progress, but this is better than nothing.

Do I really have to use my piece of hard-work here?

Well... I guess it beats dying.

In a swift movement I press a button and make it stick to one of my attackers' heads.

I'm sorry...

The creature starts to scream.

A scream sounding more and more like that of a human it once was.

I'm sorry...

The others get alerted by the sound and start attacking their once fellow creature.

I hate to do this, but a better decoy doesn't exist.

Even if the creature had become fully human again, it would have died in an instant.

I haven't found anything against that yet.

Quickly and quietly I rush to Quiller.

I give him a glare, saying: 'Fine... I will do it your way asshole!' and get myself through the small door in the ceiling.

He seems to be slightly frightened by my cursing.

It's a good thing I've gotten used to doing parkour.

Jumping from one wall to the other and climbing up is nothing.

I breathe a sigh of relief as I notice that it doesn't end in a small space to crawl through.

I might have gone right back out if that was the case.

It's open.

I close the small door behind me, I really don't want those creatures getting up here and then I turn my flashlight on to look around.

The room is mostly empty, except for the layer of dust and an old couch.

The clock is the window, but it has gotten so dirty thanks to the dust, seeing through it is nearly impossible.

I scan through the room with the light in my hand, I really hope there is nothing up here.

There is a dusty, old couch in the middle and the only source of light is coming from the dirty clock, that's also somewhat of a window.

Luckily there is no one here.

"Hey, are you okay?" Quiller asks, looking rather worried: "You didn't get bit, right?"

I shake my head, I better not answer him right now.

Those creatures one floor below us, worry me.

I carefully walk over to the couch.

Maybe now is the best time to start reading that book.

I take the old object out of my bag and open it.

Book of the apocalypse

I've recently started posting a new book I'm writing on wattpad and I was wondering if there are people who might be interested in me posting it here on tumblr.

The story is about someone trying to survive on their own in a zombie apocalypse and ends up finding themself drawn to a book they find.

Anyway here are the prologue and the first chapter, please let me know what you think:

TW: Gore, psycological horror, spiders, depressing theme's

Word count: 673(prologue)+1800(Chapter 1)

It's dark.

An oppressive silence prevails.

Only to those who live close to the ground, a loud rhythmic noise can be heard.

This is of course exclusive for those like mice and creatures much smaller.

Creatures with a good sense of hearing.

To a cat or a dog it might still be audible, though they would probably only hear a soft tapping.

Something tapping across the floor at an almost unearthly speed.

Driven by something unknown to any breathing kind.

Yet somehow able to scare away those creatures with incredible hearing.

The tapping is the true sound of doom.

The ticking across the floor clearly means nothing less than death.

The tapping is that of many small insects.

Insects moving strangely in unison.

Insects all move in the same manner, as if not multiple but just one creature.

The ticking races onto a metal shelf and stops there for about a second.

To those with the good ears, they might catch something sounding closely like something's scraping the metal.

Or better... something eating the cold metal.

If you were to hold a light there and perhaps something like a microscope, you might spot some of the small scratches made on the metallic surface. Since they are so difficult to spot.

As the second passed the small insects continue their journey once more.

A loud noise can be registered by them, vibrations can be felt and they immediately stop in their tracks.

A person, a human, has come into the room.

Loudly to the insects, quietly to the human.

His heart makes the loudest, yet calmest noise.

A noise of comfort.

The man does not care or know that he's being watched.

He turns on a light and the insects start sprinting towards him.

The light shows what they are.

Their truest nature.

Small spiders, about half an inch per length, excluding their many thin legs.

The legs that made the tapping noise.

Small red eyes, seemingly scanning their surroundings effortlessly in high speed.

But the light shows something else about them.

Something else that is wrong.

They are in fact not any natural kind of spiders.

They're mechanical.

The light turns them into small flashes of silver.

If you were to inspect them up close with a magnifying glass, you might even spot very tiny screws and threads across their bodies.

The spiders leap and like some of the kind they're meant to represent, they almost seem to be able to fly.

The man has noticed them now too, but far too late.

The small man-made insects have already landed on his bare forearms.

He quickly tries to remove them with his big hands, which he is successful with only a few.

About two thirds are still on him and have decided to dig themselves into the skin of their prey.

The man yells for help and another one comes, just in time for those who had fallen back on the floor.

For some strange reason, there seem to be more of them now, it's like the spiders have copied themselves many times over. Perhaps with the help of the metal they had been 'eating' before.

The first man can feel the spiders move underneath his skin, climbing and digging their way further up his body.

Looking closer you should be able to see them move as little lumps through his flesh, they don't go too deep, well not at first at least.

Further and further they go.

They have a mission.

At least if you could call it that.

Crawling further without a moment of rest, almost oblivious to the panicking man trying to stab them with the help of a knife.

An ambulance has already been called and is on its way.

Too late, too late.

The small spiders make their way into his neck.

Mercilessly they continue.

As they finally reach their goal.

The head.

The brain.

Now they do dig deeper and deeper.

All the small spiders secretly and silently communicate to one another strange messages, such as: 'OUT OF CONTROL HUMAN' and 'ERROR'.

They had been made in order to help human beings, but ended up being the defining factor of their decline and deaths.

The spiders all drugged and changed people so much that they turned into nothing more than zombies.

Devouring the flesh of others without a hint of sadness.

The minds of these people were lost completely.

Chapter 1:

Grass.

Buildings.

Cars.

More grass.

Plants.

Metal.

What are these called again?

It's morning.

I'm thinking about words.

Thinking in words... it's been getting more and more difficult.

Am I going to lose them?

Train racks...?

No, train tracks! Those are train tracks!

It's morning and I'm living.

I'm alive... I think.

I'm alone.

There was something about mornings... right?

People counted them?

Back in the old times... I think.

Now mankind has long stopped counting the years.

If there even is something I can call mankind.

For all I know they have all but me died out, leaving me alone in this dark and dangerous world. The only one who can protect me is myself.

The only reliable one in this world is myself.

The only one making sure I don't end up like one of the monsters, is again myself.

Even with the fact that the world has practically ended for my kind, the sun still rises and after a while, it goes down again.

If you want to know how this all started, you're asking the wrong person.

Because I don't care.

Surviving till the next day is the only thing left on my agenda.

Even though dying might seem nice, becoming one of those things would be horrible.

I glance out of the window from the old train, watching the rising sun, all the while clutching the handle of my spear.

I made the thing myself so it's pretty shabby looking, but at least it does the job right and keeps the monsters at a distance.

Quietly and swiftly I leave the dark, abandoned vehicle.

If I stay here any longer they might find out after all.

Vigilantly I follow the tracks to the station, ready to fight or flight at any moment.

Those hungry bastards aren't getting me for dinner!

I won't be their prize nor the one they might see as a hero.

Though I highly doubt that they are able to either 'see' or 'think'.

As I walk into the broken down, but still dark train station I notice that even though it's in a bad shape. It still has some beauty in it.

It's an old train station, most of the part that has collapsed is the newer, later build-on part.

The old part is still standing strong.

Yes, most of the stained glass is broken, but the ornamented walls are still clearly visible.

Somehow giving me this really nostalgic feeling, to a time unknown to me.

I shake my head, It's not the time to be in awe with old junk, it's all useless now after all.

Making sure that nothing is around, I climb onto one of the platforms.

As I wander around I suddenly notice a strange object on one of the still intact benches.

Somehow it draws my complete attention, I cannot help myself but to investigate it.

I hold my spear before me, so if it moves, I can kill it immediately.

Step by step I get closer.

Is it dangerous?

Is it edible?

A million wordless questions race around in my mind, but none of them ask the right one.

Carefully I take the object in hand.

It's a book, my inner voice tells me.

It's a leather bound book.

Old, but still intact.

Without thinking I open it.

Not even the spiders have taken it, that's weird.

As I see the first page, something is hand-written on the bottom. It takes a moment to understand what it says: 'EX Libris: Q. F. Shannon'

This must have been the name of the previous owner.

I wonder what happened to them.

Though that is completely unimportant.

I turn a couple of pages and find more small black words scribbled on them in a strange form of...writing.

They make me feel... lightheaded... that's the word... right?

Suddenly I sense a presence behind me.

I take out my weapon and attack whatever is standing there.

Somehow it goes right through...

I can feel my heart pumping quickly.

Cold sweat slowly makes its way down my neck and back.

"Good morning." A strange voice out of nowhere says to me.

It's... speaking... human speech...

It's speaking to me.

Shocked by the sound, the voice of another human being, for the first time in a long, very long while, I turn around and point at them with my spear.

It's a strange person, wearing some kind of old and strange costume. One from the lost time.

Without speaking I threaten them with my weapon.

They are unlike me.

My spear should have hurt them... but it went right through!

I can't trust them!

I can't trust them!!

Distrust washes over me.

How could someone still be alive?

And be dressed like that?!

"Please, I mean no harm." The person says while holding up their arms

I don't answer and only stare at them with contempt.

Only now I've noticed that I've dropped the book as the person is looking at it.

Have the spiders evolved this much? Or have I finally lost my mind?

I swallow, scared of what to do next.

The thing before me tries to comfort me: "I'm not real."

"What... does that... mean?" I ask, having difficulty speaking, hurting my throat in the process of creating words.

The creature nods: "I'm imaginary. I'm simply something you made up. An Imaginary friend if you will."

Friend...?

What did that mean again?

Something about that word makes me agitated.

Something about that word makes me angry.

Something about that word makes me want to cry.

Something about that word makes me want to scream...

"Don't... You aren't that... I don't think..." I mumble.

They smile at me: "Well then, I'm Quiller. You may call me that or just mister or... something else, if my name is too difficult."

He looks at me as if waiting for an answer, but I don't.

"So what is your name?"

I think.

I think deeply.

At first I'm not sure what he means by the word 'name'.

Then a bad memory fills my head and just in time I'm able to shake it away.

It's been a long time since I had something of a name.

I remember that I was called something too, it was normal back in the day.

Back when there were still other people in the world.

I press my hand against my chest "...Don." I whisper: "I was called... that... I think."

Quiller gives me another smile: "That's a wonderful name, nice to make your acquaintance." He stretches out a hand and I stare at it.

"You... are supposed to shake it..." He says as he scratches the back of his neck with his other hand.

"Shake? But won't... it go through?"

His expression turns to one of pain: "Yeah, sorry. You're right." He takes back his hand.

I take the book from the ground.

"That looks interesting." He sounds surprised.

"I found it, it's mine." For some reason I'm clutching the heavy object against my chest as if it's my long lost treasure. Honestly I don't know why. But it feels like... I have to keep it with me.

"So you're going to read it?"

I skim through the pages, they're made of paper.

"It...would make for a good fire-starter."

Quiller's expression turns horrified: "Wait, no! You can't do that!"

"Why?"

"It holds someone's memory!"

"Memory?"

"Yes, every book is written by someone. They write it with their love, their hate, their life, their passion, their dreams. Never take another person's work too light."

Gibberish he seems to speak.

"Are you... one of them?" I ask nudging back somewhere.

He sighs: "No, of course not. Have I been trying to eat you since I met you?"

I just stare at him confused.

He takes another look at the book: "I... think I know that book."

I look at him questioningly.

"Maybe you should try to read it, it has a pretty good story. You can read, yes?"

"I'm able to read ingredients from food."

He laughs awkwardly: "Well that's a start..."

Without much care I put the book in my backpack and I continue my search.

It feels strange to have someone that at least seems to be real and walking close by, especially since he doesn't seem to be hostile in any way shape or form. What most things are.

I will keep a close eye on him, I don't really understand why I'm seeing him and I don't have another person like me here to check if I'm really making it all up in my mind.

It really does seem like the most reality-based explanation right now, I've been alone for a long time now.

I vaguely remember a story about someone befriending an object to stay sane after being alone for a very long time. It is said to be normal when someone is lonely.

But even so, is that really the case right now?

While scouting out the area, it suddenly starts to rain outside.

I guess I have no other choice but to stay the night.

As we walk into the inside part of the station I suddenly notice a couple of them, standing closely to the rooms that once had probably been stores.

Their bodies made of a combination of rotting flesh, metal wiring and some of them have something like mos growing over their heads and shoulders. Water slowly dripping from their horrible monsterous bodies.

Luckily they're standing far away, staring into space and not having noticed me yet.

Sometimes they shake in the strange way they usually do and return to staring.

It reminds me a bit of how they used to be when all of this started, back then they were out to kill every last human. Back then they rarely stood this still.

I guess since most people have died, they don't have much to do anymore, so staring is probably the only thing they can do.

Staring and standing.

It makes me wonder if they think...

No, that can't be true.

Monsters like that must be unable to think, if they do it must be about devouring the innocent and weak.

"Hey."Quiller whispers: "You should probably head the other way, they don't look very nice."

They don't look very nice? Is he oblivious to what happened? Does he not know?

Didn't he mention knowing of it before though? Well I should ask him later.

Now is not the time.

I tiptoe away from the creatures, making sure not to make a single sound.

When it all went down, I taught myself a new way of walking which was a lot quieter than how I used to.

Now it's second nature to me, I don't walk any other way now.

Well, okay, if I have to run, I run and sound doesn't really matter if there is something out there that wants to rip you apart.

I take the stairs to the second floor, scanning my surroundings thoroughly.

More old, empty shops and a lookout onto the platforms and surrounding area.

"Do you think I could go further up?" I ask the strangely clothed man.

"Well yeah, this building is old and even has a clock-tower. Maybe we should try getting in there?"

I nod approving, maybe he might be useful after all.

It doesn't take long for us to find a small hidden passageway.

"It should be through here." Quiller says to me.

I look at the narrow door in the ceiling and shake my head.

I hate small spaces, I would rather get there by climbing from the outside.

I look outside but am only greeted by the heavy rainfall, it's almost like the clouds are laughing at me.

Laughing at the fact that I'm scared.

And I hate them for it.

Next chapter:

The doppelganger

Here is the most recent (short horror) story I wrote:)

Word count: 2825

TW: Blood & gore

Vigilantly I take one last look around the house.

Making sure again not to miss any little sound or the movement of someone or something, making sure that there really is only me.

My mother should be at work and my sister at school, double checking really won't hurt me.

If I want to do this ritual, I need to be all alone, or at least I don't want anyone to find out or intrude.

Right... the ritual... I hope it works.

I recently found a strange ritual while surfing around on the internet. Well there are many of those to be found, but this one stuck out to me.

It's a ritual to summon a doppelganger.

I know the dangers that come with it, I know that I probably shouldn't, but in a way I can also not, not do it.

I'm tired, school and work are a pain, all those birthdays of family and family friends have been taking more from me than I'm able to eat cake. So I could definitely use some assistance.

I know that there's a high chance of this ritual being one big hoax, that it won't work at all, but I have to at least give it a try.

If my mom found out she would probably be mad at me, saying things like: "Luna, you're sixteen. You're too old to be believing such nonsense!"

And she's probably right.

As I've finally concluded that I really am alone, I let out a sigh of relief and close my bedroom door.

Quietly I take out the stuff that I have to use from underneath my bed. Thank god no one noticed, I should find better hiding spots for things like this.

It takes me longer than I hoped to set everything in place.

A mirror in the middle huh...

I let the darkness swallow my room, and slowly light every candle.

Yesterday I had already drawn the circle that was meant to be around the mirror and me and it seems to still be there underneath my carpet, still intact luckily.

I'm going to have to clean this before my mom decides to snoop around.

Meaning, ASAP after this ritual is finished.

As I finally finish my preparations I take my place in the circle right before the mirror and say the spell I memorised.

I'm glad I prepared everything far in advance.

After having finished speaking I quietly stare into the dark mirror.

The whole house is silent, but not even that, it's almost as if everyone in this town has decided to hold their breath.

Even the wind has decided to remain silent.

Is it because of what I'm doing right now?

I can't help but secretly smirk.

The dark mirror seems to reflect only the candles back at me, but then it gets strangely dark.

Even so the candles still remain as bright as ever.

I see, so it's time...

I take another step forward and slowly reach for the cold object.

Well, it's not the only freezing object right now, it's as if my entire room is in an ice age right now.

I spot little clouds leaving my mouth every time I breathe out.

The tiny flames of the candles flicker as a cold gust of wind leaves the mirror.

Though the flames quickly fight against the wind and become bigger than before.

I can finally see something inside the mirror.

Something is moving.

I feel a sense of dread, but I try my hardest not to show it outward.

If something goes wrong now, it could be disastrous.

Suddenly something shoots out of the mirror, grabbing at whatever it can hold onto.

Right, if this happens....

I hold the cold and slimy hand coming out of the mirror.

"Good morning." I say, making sure not to let it know my fear: "I'm Luna, you will be my assistant from now on."

The hand is still far from human as it clasps onto me with fingers far too long and thin.

I can't help but shiver from its coldness.

"L-lu...N-na." It says in a voice no human ever would.

I nod slowly: "Yes, that's me... but soon also you."

"Luna." It's voice is mimicking my own, slowly sounding more like mine.

So creepy...

Its monstrous face slowly comes out of my mirror, looking at me with still empty eye-sockets.

I want to scream, but keep myself from doing so.

So close, so close, so close....

By the light of the candles I can see how the monster slowly takes on my form.

It's truly a horrifying thing to witness.

Something taking your form, taking your identity, something that has never been human before.

Still, I feel glad that it works.

I have tasks for this future doppelganger.

A couple of hours later, the thing in my room still isn't really me completely, but the resemblance grows closer by the minute.

I try to teach it my manner of speech and my manner of movement, something it seems to have difficulty with.

Slowly I teach it how to help with the cleaning up of my room as well. I mean, it's part of the reason for summoning it in the first-place.

"Luna, are you home?" I hear my mother call from downstairs.

"Be quiet...!" I hush the monster, hiding it in my closet: "Yes, mom, I'm coming!" I call to my mother.

I rush downstairs to greet her.

She smiles at me.

"I don't feel like cooking tonight, so we're going to order pizza. You wouldn't mind that, right?"

I smile back: "Of course not. I do have a lot of homework though, do you mind if I eat upstairs?"

"Hard at work I see, well then, it's okay. But take it easy, alright?"

I nod and head back upstairs.

Back to my doppelganger.

I try to teach it as much as possible and as the pizza arrives we eat mine together.

After finishing it I go downstairs to bring the empty box.

My mom is sitting in front of the tv with my sister, she turns to me.

"Hey Luna, how's your homework going?"

I smile: "Pretty good, I think I'm almost finished."

I see her face suddenly turning grave: "Luna dear, please be careful whenever you're going out with friends."

I wonder why she's saying something like that: "What do you mean?"

"There's been a murderer going around, that's what the news has been telling just a couple of minutes ago."

"I see., I'll be careful."

"Thank you." My mom smiles and turns back to the TV to continue watching the show they were watching.

The next morning my doppelganger looks the exact same as me and I decide to send it to school. It shouldn't hurt too much, it's a short day, perfect for training to be me. Meanwhile I can do the things I want to do.

Side doppelganger:

On the second day of my existence I'm sent to a place human beings call 'school'. Supposedly it's a place where older humans send their young ones to learn about the world and working in it.

To be honest I seem to be feeling the emotion humans call 'anxiousness', supposedly it's normal for doing something for the first time. Or at least that is what my master has told me.

I've been given a 'phone', a device meant to 'call' other humans and I'm also able to use it to find 'the way' with the help of a 'map'.

How peculiar.

I've memorised all the 'students' Luna has told me about and has shown the pictures of.

Supposedly she doesn't talk that often with others, so I shouldn't try too hard to befriend everyone.

I take the bag given to me with me and make my way towards the building called 'school'.

It doesn't take me long to find it, many people from around my masters age are walking inside one-by-one like ants.

When entering the room I'm supposed to be I'm greeted by her classmates and I greet them back in the way that was taught to me.

After about four hours it's time to go 'home' again, Luna told me that four hours was a short day and 'home' is the place where you live.

I enter the house with the help of a 'key', a small object that can open 'locks'.

"Hi Luna, how was school today?" A lady Luna calls 'mom' greets me.

"Hi mom, it was nice."

She looks up a bit surprised: "Not just okay?"

Was this not what my master normally responds with?

I hesitate for a moment, I have to make it look natural... Yet I wasn't informed how to handle this situation.

"It was nice, I had English literature." When I was summoned yesterday I learned that Luna likes to read, so she probably does not dislike that class too much.

'Mom' laughs: "You look so shocked, I'm just glad to hear that you had a nice day. Did you read something nice?"

I nod and quickly think back to the book we read: "William Wilson." I answer honestly.

"Ah, I didn't know you enjoyed such classics."

"I didn't know either."

She smiles at me, I guess this is a sign that I have to ask something back.

"How was your day?"

'Mom' smiles and tells me about it. Supposedly it's normal for humans to complain about their days, I do not understand why, but I will remember it for future reference.

A couple of days end up going by, almost each one I'm going to school or visiting my masters family.

I feel like I'm doing something wrong, my classmates seem to be getting closer to me. Luna always says that they don't care about her, but it seems like she has been mistaken. I remember their likes and dislikes and talk about it with them, causing me to learn a great deal about them. Something which they seem to appreciate.

Honestly I might even be able to call them what humans call 'nice' or 'kind' even. They show a great deal of care after all.

Luna decided to remain in her room, going out unseen from time to time. Though there are also times when it is my turn to hide and for her to fulfil the role as herself.

I wonder what she does whenever I'm at school or working at her job or even when I'm visiting her family.

I'm able to fool every one of them almost perfectly. Though I do have to be careful, I'm not fully human yet after all. My blood still has to gain the right colour and I have the ability to go through mirrors, but I know I will soon lose it.

One of the longer days at school I talk with some of Luna's... no... I guess it would be better to say 'my' friends. They didn't seem to have spent time with the real Luna after all.

"Luna, what do you think about it?" One of my friends asks.

"What do you mean?" I didn't really follow everything.

"Well y'know. The recent murders."

I look at her: "They do scare me a little."

My friend smiles back at me in a slightly concerned manner: "Me too girl, me too."

"If you want to, I don't mind walking together, we do need to go the same way for a bit after all."

A brighter smile appears on her face: "That would be great!"

In the back of the class I can hear some people whispering about me or about Luna.

"Luna has gotten very sociable recently, hasn't she?"

"Yeah, it's almost as if she's been replaced with a completely different person."

"Well she changed for the better if you ask me. She always seemed way too proud of herself and her little bubble."

I can feel my stomach turn as I hear the word 'replace' leave their lips.

I know I shouldn't let it get to me, but I also need to convince everyone that I'm really Luna.

My friends seem to have noticed the whispering too and that it makes me uncomfortable, so they make their way to those to have a 'stern-talking to' with them. Truly just telling them to shut 'the hell' up and mind their own business.

After school I walk with my friends until our ways split.

When I'm on my own again I suddenly walk into my master.

Shocked, I look at her, she looks angry and starts walking towards me rapidly.

"I told you...!" She whispers threateningly: "We should not be seen together!"

I nod.

"You enter the house first, I will take the window." Luna hisses to me as she finds herself a place to hide.

Obediently I enter the house first, I'm greeted by Luna's sister.

"Hey sis..." She greets me with a sombre look.

"Hey, is something wrong?" I ask in a kind tone I was taught by my friends.

The girl gives me another sad smile: "Yeah, have you seen Nibbles anywhere?" Nibbles is her hamster, or so was I told.

"No I haven't" I shake my head while answering.

"I see... He's still missing, if you find him, please bring him to me."

"I will." I answer, for some reason the look on her face makes me 'sad' too.

The first time I felt that.

Something about this whole thing is wrong.

It's like a little voice in the back of mind is constantly 'nagging' in the back of my mind. Telling me that something is very, very wrong.

I decide to go against my master's wishes and do my research on the ritual that summoned me.

I need to do it in secret, so as not to let her know.

Back at school I start searching on one of the computers about the ritual.

After school, I walk back with my friends again. I begin to fear for their safety, but I try to keep it to myself.

It's getting dark outside and Luna has yet to return.

Against her wishes I use with great difficulty a little of the power left in me to see around what part of this town she could be and sneak out of the house.

It's really dark now, even the moon seems to have hidden itself behind a cloud, fearing for the worst.

Within about half an hour I find myself at the abandoned warehouse.

She really is here... isn't it?

Quietly I slip inside, making sure not to make a peep.

As my eyes get used to the even darker inside of the building, I see something that scares me.

A shadow, my height, my body type, standing above a smaller shadow, someone that seems to be lying down.

The shadow that looks like me, plunges a knife into the body beneath her.

"What the hell?!" I can't help it, I've given away my location.

The shadow turns to me.

There's no mistaking it.

That's Luna.

That's my master, the one who summoned me into this world.

I'm her alibi.

My hunch was right and the horrible memories of my research come back fresh into my mind.

"What did you sacrifice?!" I start yelling, unable to control my own emotions any longer.

Luna just smiles at me, somehow in a way I never believe I myself could. Crooked, horrid. Are some of the words that come to mind.

"It is said that a sacrifice has to be done to complete the ritual! So who or what did you kill?!" I continue my rant.

The shadow lying on the floor has long stopped moving.

I have to let someone know what's going on! But how?!

Without putting any real thought into it, I decide to throw the object known as 'phone' towards the shadow that I look like.

Luna avoids it without problem.

"That, dear doppelganger, was the last thing you should have thrown away in this situation."

Just what does she mean with that?

Luna continues: "And they said that you would be the 'perfect' doppelganger. Bullshit. You are just getting in my way. You were summoned to serve me and only me. How come that you decided to make your own decisions?"

Her speech is quiet, yet threatening, somehow making my body turn cold.

Right, if I were to find a mirror... I look around, scanning my surroundings quickly.

As if reading my mind, Luna laughs: "There are no mirrors in this building."

She's almost within arm's reach, so I swiftly take a couple of steps back, bumping with my back into a wall I didn't know was there.

Suddenly her face changes from smiling to one of hatred and she slashes her knife into my shoulder.

I scream in pain, but am able to get further away from her.

I press my hand against my wound.

Running for my life, I find myself cornered again.

"I know this place better than you." Luna says in her threatening tone.

She pushes me down without problem.

She's clearly used to killing people for a long time now, yet I've never even come close to learning about it. Not that I would want to.

I look at my hand that was pressing the wound.

My blood slowly starts to turn red.

I've lost my powers.

I'm now completely human.

There couldn't be a worse time.

The one whose likeness I am to represent bows down before me: "Don't worry, to summon you I didn't kill a human. Animals work pretty well too, they leave less of a mess."

Her bloodstained blade glittering in the little light entering the building.

My body has started trembling uncontrollably.

What was this emotion again?

Fear?

My master readies herself and then slashes me one last time.

The last thing I say is something I don't have any control over.

"Please..." I mutter: "I don't want to die..."

And then the blade plunges itself into my body, spraying red all over the room.

It hurts and yet I don't feel anything.

It's all going too fast.

Finally the place turns dark.

Book of the Apocalypse - Chapter 4 Nightmare

TW: Gore, blood

Word count: 778

First chapter:

I look up from the book, this wasn't really the kind of story I was suspecting.

"How far did you get?" Quiller asks me not hiding his interest at all.

"I finished... the first."

He sighs: "Not the fastest reader, are you?"

I look at him, annoyed: "I read at my own speed.... reading just like eating? The slower you read, the more you... enjoy it."

"Alright, alright. So, did you-?"

"Nah."

"What?"

"I thought... it was going to be cooler, maybe something with heroes. Even a book about a ghost might... be interesting."

Utter defeat is written all over the 'imaginary' guys face, making me chuckle.

"You're mean."

"Kind people in an apocalypse are useless."

He looks at me for a moment and then asks: "So, you're going to throw it out now?"

I look at him: "Nah. It might become more... entertwini- entertaining later on." Speaking is still difficult, especially when I try to speak without mistakes.

He gives me a sad smile.

"Why do you care?"

He hesitates for a moment to answer.

"Well, like I said, It's a pretty good book."

I nod: "Yeah, you really aren't the... writer, right?"

He looks at me in shock: "N-no... I mean..."

"Just kidding, It just said Ex Libra's Q.F. Shannon. But that might mean it used to be yours." I'm not sure, but believe I might have used a wrong word there.

"I've never owned anything." Quiller protests: "I've always been imaginary."

If I were to throw away this book right now, I would probably lose my imaginary friend with it. Or at least that is my theory. I only met him after opening this thing after all.

Yeah, it might be strange for an adult to have one. But if this keeps me from going insane, then so be it.

I will be the most childish adult in this entire apocalypse.

Even if I'm all alone in it now.

I get up from the couch and start placing traps around.

"What are you doing?"

"Making sure I won't get... my sleep disturbed... by one of those... those half-dead jerks."

"I see." Quiller mutters, slightly hesitant probably due to me cursing again.

I lie down on the old couch.

Even though it's all dusty, I haven't had such a nice bed in ages.

I've gotten used to my jacket on the floor for a while now and it doesn't take long for me to fall asleep.

I'm sitting in something I recognize as a car.

I seem to be sitting here with a bunch of people with wiped out faces.

Even though that is the case I feel strangely at ease with them.

One of them turns to me and calls me by my name.

"Yes?" I ask and the other shows me a toy, a toy car? If I'm correct.

I look outside the windows and notice that we're driving.

We move around the corner and I see strange people standing outside.

Their eyes glow strangely blue.

The car crashes into something and the strange people outside start running towards us, their mouths covered in blood.

From one moment to the next, I notice that I'm standing outside and it's dark.

It's raining outside.

I hold up my hand to the rain.

It drips onto it and then a flickering streetlight shows me that there is something wrong with the rain.

It's red.

It's thick and red.

Falling out if the heavens like rain, blood keeps pouring down.

It starts to stick to the streetlight, making the only light in my world slowly disappear.

I run towards it for rescue, but it all turns dark just before I can reach it.

In the distance I hear growling...

My eyes flash open and I quickly sit up, completely out of breath.

What a horrible nightmare.

I guess even though I have a decent place to sleep, the nightmares are something I will never be able to get away from.

I look at the light entering the room via the clock.

I guess it's morning already.

This must be a good place to stay then.

I sit up and silently take out the old, worn map from it.

With a pen I mark the spot and write 'Clock/Attic' next to it, while using the book as support for the paper.

"Good morning." Quiller says, seeming a bit down.

"'Morning." I whisper, while looking at him questioningly.

"Don't worry, nothing happened while you were asleep. You did seem to be having a nightmare."

I shake my head: "What did you expect?" I nudge my head a little towards the window: "Be happy for the strength we gained from... a little shut-eye."

Unfortunately he doesn't seem to want to take the joke as a joke. Perhaps he didn't even notice.

"Life shouldn't be like this." He mumbles more to himself than to me.

I look at him with a sudden question burning in my mind: "Did you sleep on the floor? Or float?"

"Float? I'm not a ghost you know."

"Oh really?"

"I'm just a figment of your imagination."

"You keep that up, but really... it's getting harder to believe every time."

The diver

Another short horror story I wrote.

Word count: 2339

"Are you ready?" Bob asks us in an excited tone.

I nod anxiously, but in truth that simple action is an enormous lie.

We have never been this deep before, no one has and the things we might come across at the bottom is a mystery to us.

Still, we have been training for this for months now. I should stop worrying and just dive down with my team.

Our heavy diving equipment gets their finishing touches and we are ready to go.

"Alright, you guys know what to do if something goes wrong, right?" James asks us.

"Yes." I answer, just nodding won't do it now. They won't be able to notice it with my helmet on.

The others let him know they know as well, it's just pressing the red button after all. Then James and the rest of the crew, still above water, will get us out.

If something does go wrong however, it will take a while for us to get back.

But I don't want to think too much about it.

With a loud splash my group and I jump into the water, slowly they let us down with the ropes attached to us.

I peer out of the small window in my helmet, watching everything slowly growing darker and darker the deeper I go.

Fishes rush away from me, while the seemingly unending plant greets me to come further down.

"Liam, You good?" Bob asks me.

"Yes, I'm okay. You?"

"That's good to hear. I really wonder what we will find down there." Bob still sounds as excited as before. Really that man knows no fear.

As it gets darker, we turn on our lights. But even so, there isn't much we can see except for each other.

Finally my feet touch the ground and we decide to look around to put everything we see on film.

We fasten the ropes to some rocks that seem sturdy enough, our suits are made especially for us to spend longer underwater.

Not only has it gotten darker, it has gotten much colder as well.

"Guys, you should come see this." I hear Kimberly say through the radio.

"What is it?" Asks Kyle, while walking towards her. I carefully follow them.

Finally I see what Kimberly wanted to show us.

It's a building.

A building made of old bricks, taken over by nature, but still standing in great condition.

A building underwater.

Unfortunately it's too dark to make out what kind of building it might have been.

"This is so strange, the robots we sent before didn't show anything like this." Kimberly says, astonished.

"They could have missed it, but I guess we have to call for archeologists now before we can continue." Kyle sighs.

"It shouldn't be a problem as long as we don't enter it." Bob suggests.

As we make our way around it, I take notice of the fact that there seems to be no fishes down here. Only plants.

"Hey, did you hear that?" Kyle suddenly asks, clearly afraid of something.

Bob looks around: "No, I didn't hear anything." If it wasn't for his heavy suit he would have probably visibly shrugged.

Quietly we move our flashlights around to see whatever Kyle could have heard.

"Where did it come from?" Kimberly asks.

"I-I think it might have come from the building."

"Ah, not used to the sounds of old buildings underwater yet?" Bob shares, but gets no answer except an annoyed silence from Kyle.

I look around further, letting the light of my flashlight slowly pass over all my surroundings.

There are more buildings.

A lot more.

And on the ground.... This almost looks like an asphalt road... like one used nowadays.

I call the others over to inspect it.

"Creepy... it looks just like above.... But wrong." Kimberly says reluctantly to go further.

"Yeah, I think we should go back." Kyle agrees, not trying to hide his fear anymore.

Something is wrong.

Not just this place.

But where the hell did Bob go?!

I look around.

The other two seem to have noticed as well: "Did you think he went inside one of the buildings?"

"Goddammit! We can't just leave without him. If he is just pranking us, I will-"

"He is not that kind of person." I answer quickly, I've known Bob for a while now. He might like to joke around sometimes, but this is beyond him. Something must have happened!

We search for our lost friend and call out to him, but no matter how well we look, he just doesn't seem to be around.

"Alright, I'm pressing the button." Kyle says, already holding the thing in his hand.

Kimberly agrees: "Yes, I will try to get in touch with the ship."

Then I can suddenly hear Kimberly saying in a panicking tone: "Guys... I can't contact them."

Kyle starts to panic as well: "FUCK, I knew this was a bad idea!"

I would be lying if I said that I didn't feel it as well, but there was something else that took my attention from the two.

I think I know this place...

These buildings... They are so familiar.

Carefully I walk towards one, the one that gives me this feeling the most and shine my flashlight just above the doors.

It's in a language I can read.

And it clearly reads 'Hospital'.

"Guys." I mumble to them, but they are too busy arguing.

A sudden idea enters my mind.

What if I enter? And go to the highest spot I can get... will I be able to get into contact with the others on the boat again?

I walk towards them: "Hey, I think we can still get help."

I explain my plan to them and at first they think it's ridiculous, but there isn't really any other option.

We have to enter.

The doors to the hospital are open, so getting in isn't difficult.

An eerie feeling creeps over me as I see the interior.

It looks just like the hospital I know, one I would rather not remember though.

"I think I know this place." I mumble to the others.

"You know this place? There is no way. This has been down here for god knows how long." Kyle answers me.

I turn towards him: "Couldn't you read the text above the door? Or really any of these nameplates?"

He looks at me confused: "Man, is your oxygen tank already malfunctioning?"

So they don't see it? But I can see it all so clearly.

"Liam, are you okay?" Kimberly asks.

"Yes, I'm fine."

I hate that they doubt me so much, but if I think about it, I would probably doubt me too.

Even so, I take the lead and thanks to me seeing the things they don't, find the stairs without problem.

It doesn't take long for us to reach the second floor.

"Bob?" Kyle suddenly asks.

"Wait, did you hear him?" Kimberly looks around.

"I'm sure of it. I heard him over there!"

Before we can stop him he walks towards where only he heard it come from.

"Kyle, did you hear his radio? Or his voice?" I ask, but receive no answer in return.

We follow him quickly.

Kimberly stops for a second to check if she can contact James again, but seemingly to no avail, as she continues on soon after.

As I turn back to look where Kyle went, I don't see him anymore.

"Kyle?" I call out to him.

"Shit, did he leave without us?"

We run towards the place we had last seen him, but it doesn't matter how many doors we open.

He is not there.

"Bob! Kyle! Where are you two?!" Kimberly yells.

"I think we should go further to let the others know." I tell her as we have searched the entire floor.

She sighs, but follows me back up the stairs.

We skip the next floor, since this door does seem to be locked.

I wonder how many floors this building has...

"Hey, Liam... I think I smell something..."

"What?"

"It smells like blood."

"We are really deep underwater right now... how come? Did you get wounded somehow?"

"No, I'm fine." She mumbles as I check for blood.

This is so strange... Kimberly smells things here, Kyle heard things here and I see everything different from them... just why? Are we all going crazy?

"Let's skip this floor then... it might be something dangerous."

"No, Kyle and Ben might be in danger! We have to find them." Before she can run ahead of me I stop her.

"Alright, but I will go first. Otherwise we will lose each other as well."

Luckily she seems to agree and we walk to the place where she smells blood.

"It's here." She whispers as we stand by the door.

"Alright."

Carefully I open the door and shine my light inside the dark room.

"Bob? I-Is that you?" I ask the man sitting slumped over on a chair, wearing a familiar diving suit.

"Liam..." Kimberly tries, but I ignore her and step into the room.

"Hey, wake up. We gotta go!"

I place my hand on his shoulder and give it a hard shake.

His head slowly rolls off and falls onto the ground, leaving me in a dark cloud of red mist.

"Liam!" Kimberly yells, but I can't locate her.

Blindly I stumble around, until I can clearly hear something break from beneath me.

I curse loudly, as I can feel something stab me and fall down.

I fall pretty fast, but water is still water, so it's at least a little bit slower. Yet not slow enough to fall multiple floors down.

As I finally stop falling, I open my eyes, cursing the fact that I'm still alive and that this isn't some terrible nightmare.

This place is awfully dark, just like the rest of the bottom.

It luckily doesn't take long for me to find my flashlight.

"Hey Kimberly! I'm okay!" I yell at what I think is above.

I shine my flashlight around me, is this... a morgue?

It sure looks like one.

Did I fall into the basement?

And are the floors that weak?

Then I hear a noise.

Something behind the table.

For a moment I hold my breath, something is there. I know it and it might be dangerous.

In the dark I hear the moving of a creature.

Quickly I shine my flashlight towards it.

It feels long that I'm standing here, it's slowly getting colder.

The creature seems to have stood still for a while, but then it moves into the light.

Out of the darkness appears a young boy, about ten years or so, teddy bear in his arms.

No diving suit, nothing that could help him breathe. He slowly walks towards me, not even swimming as if there is no water here at all.

But even stranger than all that is... I know him.

I know him.

Why? From all the people that it could have been... Why does it have to be him?

Carefully I take a step back.

"But... you're not here anymore..." I utter.

The child before me takes another step closer to me and I another back.

"Are you scared of me?" He asks in a rather sad tone, somehow also sounding as if we are above water. The expression on his face is one of deep sorrow.

"Y-yes." I answer honestly, but my answer makes me feel guilty immediately.

I can't think straight anymore, am I really underwater? Or was that a dream?

Is that child before me really...?

No that can't be...

Ronan has died long ago, I know it, I was there when it happened.

I wonder what would have come from him had he survived.

Would he have been taller than me?

Would he have become the person he wanted to be?

"Is something wrong?" He asks, this time without getting closer.

Suddenly I feel a burning sensation on my lip, I must have been biting it and causing it to bleed.

Without thinking my hand goes up to my helmet, I want to loosen it.

"DON'T!" Ronan suddenly yells at me while rushing to me, trying to pull my hand down: "If you do that, you will certainly die!"

I push him away.

"Don't you even remember me?" He asks in tears.

"Of course I do, I'm sorry... just how...?"

"I can't answer everything, there is something here. A monster. And I need to save you." Ronan puts on a brave face.

I shake my head: "Why? Just why? How can I be certain that you will? For all I know, you might be the monster."

For a moment he looks down, but quickly he turns his face back to me again: "Because I promised I would protect you."

"When?"

"Always! Since you were a baby. I always said that I would protect my little brother!"

"But now you're-"

"Yes, I know! No need to remind me. I'm sorry I left so early, but even so, I never stopped caring for you or watching over you! You don't deserve to die down here!"

Before I know it my vision gets all blurry from my tears.

It's really him.

How could I forget that determination from him?

But with the good, the bad memories return too.

The reason why he went to this hospital.

"Liam, we need to hurry." Ronan pulls me back to the present.

"You're right."

"Please take this." He says as he hands me his teddy bear.

"Thanks... but why?"

"It was meant to be given by me on your birthday, but you know I couldn't."

I don't answer, I just can't.

"So... will you trust me now?"

"Yes." I whisper as he takes my hand.

.

.

.

A search has started for the missing group.

Even the police and the army have gotten involved now, searching desperately.

As the sky slowly turns dark, there is still no sign of the divers.

Despairingly James helps with the search, checking every second for one of the missing to send an SOS. But even the location sharing that should have worked just fine has stopped functioning.

Adding insult to injury, there even seems to be a storm approaching.

"Goddammit." James curses quietly, frantically looking for another way to be useful in helping.

As the first few drops of rain come down, they are still searching.

"You still haven't heard anything?" One of the officers asks James.

"No, I haven't. I just hope those guys down there are okay."

"They have been down there for more than six hours, right?" He asks: "Sorry to say this, but it would be a miracle-"

A loud beeping suddenly interrupts the officer.

James rushes towards the machine.

"We found them! Or at least one of them."

An hour later they pull out one of the men of the group.

They remove his helmet to see that even though he is wounded, he is still breathing.

Though there is something strange about him.

He is holding an old teddy bear in his arms.