The Shadows - Short Story

The Shadows

Here's a short story i wrote, based on the techniques used in Gothic Literature.

Enjoy!

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It was a cold and dreary Friday night and the snow; pushed by ferocious winds whipped my hair and stung my legs as I slowly made my way into the isolated town of Valancourt. The bus I was travelling on was empty besides me and the driver and it had broken down just up the road, probably due to the below freezing temperatures.

The bus driver said he would spend the night on the bus, which I was glad for because he was a bit weird. He didn’t say anything, just carried by bags on and off, but while I was sleeping out the long trip, I would awake to find him staring at me through the mirror.

The reason I was headed to this dingy town was to spend a week with my cousin, whom I haven’t seen since I was 7. Mum and dad wanted some time to sort out their ‘marriage’ issues and my aunty was the only one who could take me on such short notice. There is only 1 girl, Elizabeth, who has lived alone with my aunty Agatha since their dad/husband mysteriously disappeared 8 years ago.

I plunged through the snow, my shoes filling up with watery ice with each step. Straining my eyes, I squinted into the blackness that was all around me. I could make out shapes of fences and shrubs by the small light the moon offered from behind a layer of clouds. Snowflakes gently fell around my body, some sticking to my thin jacket. The wind was icy, making me shiver so much it made my muscles ache. As my feet crunched through the snow, I heard a faint whispery noise, so quiet, but all through my head. I flicked my head around, scanning the area around me. The whispery noise filled my ears and gradually became louder, but still not something that I could comprehend.

Feeling my heart thud roughly in my chest, I called out into the night. “Hello… who’s there?” My voice cut the air like a knife, but not stopping the noise. It kept growing louder, coming from every direction. It was loud enough that I could hear that it was a song, a gentle lullaby for a child. Suddenly the song changed pitch, the gentle whisper becoming a coarse, rough voice, filled with anger. The voice staggered along the words, spitting them out in disgust. The joyous melody had now turned into a fire. The voice was shouting at me, its hoarse voice filling my mind. I pulled my hands to my ears, covering them roughly. “No! Stop…Just stop! Please… stop!” I cried out, falling to my knees.

Suddenly with a faint whoosh, everything stopped. My ears echoed from the anger but the singing had stopped. Everything was back to the quiet, but eerie silence. I let out a sigh of relief, my heartbeat slowly settling. I cautiously stood up, dusting the snow off my knees. I was stunned, but my legs seemed to push me along, while my mind dragged far, far behind.

After half an hour I made it to the first light, a large streetlamp that flickered with different shades of yellow, gradually getting darker, as if it was slowly dying. Under the slight light the streetlamp offered, I pulled out the map mum gave me. My numb fingers slowly and painfully unravelled the paper. Studying the map, I figured out that my cousin’s house was on a side road, on the opposite end of this street. The hand drawn map suggested that this street was the main road, but all I could see in the distance was a few feeble houses, that looked miles apart.

I started up the road, heading out of the little light and back into the darkness. The light slowly disappeared behind me, I turned to watch it slowly disintegrate, leaving me in the blackness once again.

The street light wasn’t empty as it was just a few seconds ago. There was a car, parked idled right behind the light, but it made no noise. Then the shadows around the light moved, all the shadows moved. I jumped back, tripping over my foot and sliding on the ice into the gutter. I sat up dazed, feeling a slight pain all over. I tried to stand up but I couldn’t, my head spinning uncontrollably. Now the pain had settled into little spots, a great big one behind my head and little spots down my hips and legs. I opened my eyes again, the car still idling in the dull light, not making a sound. I felt a trickle down the back of my head, so I gingerly reached behind my head. My hair had clung in masses to my head and I cringed as I reached a blood filled spot on the back of my head, probably caused by the curb. I put my glove back on, using my elbows to help me up into a sitting position. In a daze, I rolled onto my side, curling into a foetal position, the cold road numbing my already pained body, seeing a figure walk silently up to me.