One-shot Tragedies

Believe Me

“She went inside the pitch black room, and as her hands searched the walls for the light switch, the door suddenly closed. When she rushed for the door knob, she happened to touch something cold and soft. She was skeptical at first, but she couldn’t fool herself. It definitely felt like human flesh. She immediately pulled her hand back, fighting a scream from coming out...”

            “Okay! Enough! I don’t want to hear any more,” Anna pleaded as she squeezed her pink duffel bag closer to her. Her short brown-dyed hair hid her face, but I could vividly imagine her expression. She curled herself like a ball beside me. I simply laughed at her silly reaction, but decided to drop the subject.

            “You’re such a scaredy-cat,” I teased while rolling my eyes. She caught me doing that, and angrily threw an empty plastic bottle of Coke to me.

            “It’s totally freaky!”

            “You said you wanted me to tell you horror stories.”

            “I did, but not real stories!”

            I laughed again, “Who knows? Maybe my mom was just joking around.”

            Although I really enjoyed picking on her, I couldn’t deny that I was terrified too. I never had the thing for the occult, but as I retold this particular story, I felt an unnatural wind blow on my nape. It was nearly impossible, given the situation. The windows were tightly shut; it was never opened in the first place. The air conditioner was also facing the wrong direction, so it was clearly not the culprit.

            I wanted to ask Anna her opinion, but was afraid that she might freak out. Telling her sounded like a bad idea, so I shrugged the uneasiness off my head. It would be better to keep this little secret for now or I might end up rattling her nerves.

            Maybe I am just tired, I told myself. It was probably my imagination running wild.

I eyed my best friend, and it seemed that she had fallen asleep. I smiled at her as I placed her lilac jacket over her shoulders. I looked around, and found all our classmates also out of action. Only I, our teacher and the driver were left awake.

With a sigh, I inclined my head towards the tinted glass windows and stared blankly at the blurred images of the houses and trees outside. I squinted, trying to figure out our current location from the signposts nearby. It was so dark. I couldn’t see anything beyond a meter from my seat. The moist clouding my vision wasn’t helping either.

I gasped when I saw a pale figure of a lady in white. A chill ran down my spine as the pits of my stomach revolted at the sight. She was unnervingly beautiful, with pitch black hair flowing beyond her shoulders. She stared at me in a horrified expression, which I thought was strange. I laughed humourlessly at myself when I realized it was just my reflection.

“You’re getting paranoid,” I whispered to myself.

I groped the pockets of my tight blue jeans, but found it empty. My phone was missing. I was on the verge of panicking when I found it inside my backpack. I flipped it open, and scowled to discover the screen black. I forgot to charge it this morning.

“What’s wrong?”

I turned around and saw Anna with a confused expression.

“Could you tell me what time is it?”

“Sorry. I don’t have a watch, and the battery of my phone was drained,” she replied with a yawn.

“I see. My parents must be worried by now." I wished they were, but I shouldn't delude myself. Reality was too hard to ignore. I knew that when I got home, no one would welcome me. "Do you have any idea where are we?”