Short Stories

- Where The Living Die

A/N: So, this is yet another English narrative task that I handed up a while ago, and needless to say...I got an A; WOO!!! :D This is a spooky horror story (I'm not very good at horror xD), but I hope you enjoy it...and don't have any nightmares! O.o

Sometimes life sucked. Sometimes I wish I was dead! My best friend, Craig, had noticed that my emotions had suddenly been locked away and I just wasn’t myself. So he had decided that during the school holidays, we’d chill out by travelling to a nice, small town. We’d been driving for 3 hours now, and we’d just arrived at our location; Red Devil, Alaska. 

“Finally…we’re here.”

“Don’t sound so negative, Ayla! Lighten up and enjoy the serenity.” Craig lifted his arms above his head and inhaled deeply, his broad chest expanding. I glanced around and just continued chewing the bubble-gum in my mouth.

“Can we just get checked into the hotel now? I want to sleep.”

“Sleep!” Craig shrieked, his arms still above his head. “You want to sleep, yet we have arrived at a new location where we can go exploring to our hearts content? Are you crazy?” His eyes were wide with disbelief. He slowly pushed his glasses back up the ridge of his nose, sounding thoughtful. “We’re checking into the hotel, and then we’re doing something fun.”

“ ’Kay.” I responded monotonously. Craig just sighed and picked up his bag; tossing it over his shoulder and I began following him. Craig stepped into the hotel, and disappeared behind the smoggy glass windows on the door. I reached out to push the door open, but then I stopped. Something about this hotel didn’t feel right. I felt like I was being…watched.

I furtively looked over my shoulder, but all that greeted me was an empty street; the sound of barking dogs resonating in the distance. The troubled feeling still remained in the pit of my stomach; why were the streets so dead? There were no cars on the road at all; only in the driveways of the small, ancient looking houses nearby. With a shudder, I hesitantly stepped into the hotel.

Craig was at the front desk, ringing the bell like mad; the ding-ding-ding rung out into the silent hotel, and slowly seeped into the bland, white walls. “Hello? I’ve been ringing this bell for ages! We’re wondering if we could stay here for a week.” He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted hello once more, but no one came.

“Let’s just go. It looks like no one’s here anyways…”

“No way, Ayla; we drove three hours to get here! There is no way that I’m getting into that car and driving back!” Craig was now red in the face, clearly frustrated by the lack of service. I sighed as he raced up the stairs nearby, but I followed him. As we went up the stairs, the light began to dim until it was pitch black.

As Craig turned the flashlight app on, the hallway in front of us lit up, and there hanging from the ceiling was a man. A rope was tied around his neck; the skin bruised. His eyes were wide; an eternal scream imprinted on his face. Blood was still pouring down his arms and legs. There was an echoing drip of his blood as the droplets fell into buckets below. Craig jumped back; fear flashing across his face, while I stood staring at the man. We slowly moved around him, trying not to knock him or the blood-filled buckets. A rough hand grasped onto my shoulder and I spun around; the dead man was now facing in our direction.

I shuddered violently and began to follow Craig down the hallway, placing my hand on the surface of the wall; it felt damp like there was still blood left on the torn wallpaper. The hallway felt enclosed, the walls felt like they were crushing me, I could hear my heart beat; the sound of it was almost deafening in the silence of the hallway. There was a horrendous smell wafting from somewhere in the hall.

We came to a room right at the end of the hallway. Craig reached out with a clammy hand, wrapping his fingers around the knob stiffly. He turned the knob slowly and pushed the door open, letting it swing with a loud creak. We glanced inside and there before us was a pile of rotting carcasses. I stood staring at them; my heart rate running wild, the beating was now a roar in my ears. We looked at their faces; their eyes were still open like the man hanging in the hallway. But they were completely lifeless; it still looked like they were watching our every move. Their screams were unheard, yet at the same time, they seemed to resonate off the walls of the room.

I began backing away; I couldn’t take it anymore. The eyes watching me, the silent screams… I turned and I ran. It was all I could think of. I ran into the darkness, and hit a huge mass. I splayed my hands out and felt around. “This wasn’t here before..” I whispered.

My ears pricked up as I heard the slightest creak behind me. I turned and the lights above me flickered. I slowly brought myself to look down the hallway. There was a figure at the end. And with every flicker of the light, it got closer…and closer. It was Craig; his eyes with the same lifeless look in them, that same scream planted on his face. He looked like he’d been dead for years. An unnatural voice came from inside my head. “No one will hear your screams…except for us.”

The lights flickered off for no more than 5 seconds, but when they flashed back on, hundreds of lifeless screaming people had surrounded me. They had their dead eyes on me. The voice was now no more than a whisper. “You’ll feel our pain forever. You’ll scream forever. This is where the living come to die…”

~~~~~~~~~~

From outside the hotel, no screaming could be heard. But it’s only until more ignorant people enter the hotel and walk up those stairs do they hear the overpowering screams of the lifeless. And once they hear those screams…they can never leave. 

Be careful what you wish for.