SHORT HORROR STORIES

UNDYING LOVE

Once upon a time in a far away land there was a peasant village, where the people lived their lives content with what they had, nobody harboured any greed nor jealousy towards each other, they live quite a happy life. A man named Jeremiah was among them, he worked as a baker by profession and owned a bakery so thus he had a rather good livelihood.

He was known to be a good hearted person , especially to the less fortunate and was respected among other villagers. One day a young lady came to buy some bread from his bakery, he served her and became mesmerized by her beauty and fine behaviour. When she left, he was anxious to meet her again. He tried to find out more about her, her name was Maria and her parents were traders, who had just moved into the village. They had three other sons, Maria is there only daughter. As days passed Maria would come into his bakery. They would share pleasantries and it was not long before they started to meet outside as well. They were in love now, when Maria's parents started looking for a suitor for her marriage , she immediately told them that she was in love with someone else.

She introduced Jeremiah to her parents, he told them that he loved Maria with all his heart and wished to marry her. They told him that they wished to meet his parents as according to their tradition, matters of marriage are discussed among the bride and bridegroom's parents. He clearly explained that he is a orphan and has worked very hard to support himself. They found him to be an humble person and knew he had a fine character. They loved their daughter alot and trusted her decision and thus got them married.

A few months after the marriage Maria was expecting her first child, but at this time a very severe famine struck the village. It was spread across many other places to. The land became plagued and denied to supply any form of food. The village men decided it was time they moved out of the place before they died from starvation. The journey was long and dreadful, after a few weeks individuals who were weak in health, elderly and even some children passed away. As the food rations they carried started to lessen.

The men began to fight among themselves, they became jealous and greedy no one wanted to share their rations with one another one tried to save or hide their shares, many who stole food would be beaten up severely. The person they once lived with in harmony became the individual they despised. In the severe drive to satisfy their hunger they lost control of their consciousness. Most of them became critically injured or even died during such violent outburst.

They finally reached a new place, this place was rich with abundance of food and even in societal status. This was place was a vast kingdom, many more people heard of this place and began drifting here, fleeing from the famine. The residents accepted their arrival , and offered them to work in their fields, mines and houses. By God's grace Maria and Jeremiah survived the journey.Things became hard for Maria when Jeremiah contacted a terrible fever, despite her several attempts to make him better, he died.

Maria was devastated by her husband's death, she already lost her parents during the dreaded journey. It was during such a phase that she gave birth to a son. She named him Jeremiah, many years rolled by. Society situations changed, the village people now lived a more comfortable life. Maria was now a elderly woman, she had gone through alot in all this years, worked hard day and night to rear her only son.