Horror Stories • Volume 1 •

Just Tales

They sat on the ground, curled up into a tight ball as they held a dirt-crusted shard of glass in their hand. Tears stained their face, their eyes glossed over and filled with sorrow. They rambled to themselves, their voice echoing around them. Surrounding their broken shell of a body were corpses, all scattered about in an ungodly manner. It had taken them, stripped them from their breath.

They felt like they were nearing the egde of their sanity. All it was supposed to be was a harmless expedition. After all, this unmarked and dead place seemed like the perfect spot for their interests. With this in their mind, they glanced over at the broken cameras on the floor, or at least what was left of them in a mangled pile.

Luckily, a small fire lit up an area around them. This seemed to calm them slightly, returning some normal pacing to their heart. They questioned how everything went wrong. As they stated to themselves before, it was only supposed to be a fun exploration in a place that many of the locals passed stories about by word. Each story trudging more and more into the realm of make-belief. However, their curiousity spiked and they couldn't help themselves any further. After years of being an ear to these stories from relatives and family, sparking arguements with the locals on the actual believability of the tales and getting the cold treatment, they divised a plan to disprove everything that they believed.

They had some sense in their brain, as they refused to venture alone. The looming metal walls and rusted metal beams scared them too much to step one foot in there by themselves. They gathered non-believers and teens a-like, the number of the group being substancial enough. They thought that they were prepared, standing strongly next to their sound logic. Now, they were beginning to think that they were wrong, horribly wrong.

Since the attack, they didn't move an inch. They never saw it coming, there were no signs to indicate such an attack as that. What scares them the most, is that they never were able to get a good glance at what caused this. They were the first to hit the ground, unconcious. Whatever happened afterwards, they didn't know. What they knew, is that they woke up to a scene so unbelievably ghastly, it would make even the most terrifying killer shake.

Their eyes scanned their surroundings once more, but nothing seemed to be different. They knew that the emergency fire they built wouldn't last them another hour. At this point, awareness of time had completely faded, replaced by the agony of waiting for something, anything to happen. Their clothes were beginning to obtain the function of tiny rags.

Just then, a small but distinct pin-drop sound emmitted from behind them. Jerking their head to it, they saw nothing. Then, it went off again, this time coming from in front of them, the direction where the door was located. Gripping the glass tightly, causing small cuts, they slowly crawled up on their feet. They made slow and thudding steps towards it, passing by the various covered up windows and dirt covered broken mirrors on the floor. Smartphones face down on the floor, and anything remotely reflective, even slightly reflective, either covered, dirty or destroyed.

They didn't know what to expect. This was the very first sound to ever be heard by them for hours, maybe even days. Even if it was quite errie, they felt slightly at ease to still know that life is out there, that they weren't completely alone, slowly losing their mind, but the creeping feeling of dread outweighed everything else. The door was nothing but a grey, rusty and notched mass. Appearing as if even the slightest tap on its centre could send it tumbling down, but as they learned now, looks can be deciving.

The pin-drop sound filled their ears again, this time making it clear to them that it was coming from behind the door. They placed their palm on the handle and tugged, the door becoming ajar. They tugged again, seeing shadows of people flooding in, the light of the moon making them clear. Their heart pounded as they thought that this could possibly be the end of the torment. Maybe these people were here to rescue them, maybe they weren't completely forgotten. Only final tug was all it took to open up the door completely. Their face lit up as they saw some of the locals standing there. However, the relief was quickly snuffed out when they noticed the grins they had plastered on their face.

One of them raised their arms and set down a normal sized mirror. Due to their instinct, their eyes set themselves on the mirror, to which the locals responded by swiftly shutting the door. In their reflection, they saw it behind them, only inches away from their back. However, as the figure pulled them by the hair, they smiled to themselves and closed their eyes solmenly. They had themselves proven right, when they saw exposed tanned skin.