Sweat was running down his face as he sat in front of huge pendulum clock in a dark living room of the mansion. The time was five until midnight. The boy shivered as the clock counted down the last seconds of his life.  The clock stroke twelve with a loud bang , that echoed  in the empty house.  Then the door opened with a loud creak. A dark silhouette  entered the room and Jack knew it was his death. 

It was a warm summer evening: the sun  was setting far beyond the horizon coloring the sky  a bright red color. The day had been hot and the heat could still be felt . Jack stood  in front of the old rotten wood door that lead into the deserted mansion.  he had been standing there for a while, unable to force himself to enter. He was frozen in fear; a fear that he could not understand. What was before him seemed like and ordinary old house, but Jack knew better. 

Mary Rose was the name of the old mansion on the hill overlooking the town. Nobody had lived for decades and it just stood there abandoned. Some people believed that the place was haunted, that some time ago something happened there, something not very nice. However to most people it was just an old house falling apart from age. But not to Jack.

Two weeks ago his brother had gone into the house and no one had seen him ever since.  To Jack it felt as if the house was responsible for it, he had always felt there was something strange about the place and he wanted to know what it was. Standing there in front of the house he got a terrible feeling that if he entered it he would never leave. 

Finally he moved towards the old door, he turned back to glance at the setting sun then stepped into the shadows of the house. As the door shut behind him the boy found himself in front of a giant stair case leading up. The dark hall split going left and right both sides covered by thick darkness. He didn't like the dark so he went up the stairs towards the fading light of day.  Once upstairs he opened the first door he came across. It was a bathroom, neglected and filthy. The bath tub had chains attached to it and seemed to be rusted and covered in dry blood and on the floor next to it was a bloody sneaker.  Jack ran out of the room, his brother used to wear sneaker like that.

As he searched the rooms of the manor for traces of his brother Jack came cross the most disturbing thing. Placed under a glass case on red pillow was a human head- his brothers head.  Jack was too horrified to do anything, tears rolled down his face as he shouted:

"Who did this to you?"

Suddenly orbs of light appeared  in the room and they surrounded the head. It's eyes opened and it spoke.

""You must hurry. He awakens at midnight. You must find the devils beast ant kill it while it sleeps. Only then the souls he keeps here will be freed. Hurry there isn't much time" 

It closed it's eyes and the lights vanished. 

This what happened that day.  But now Jack was out of time, he had failed and now his soul will be trapped here  forever just like many others.  He had searched the house for the beast of the devil but found only blood and darkness, no other living thing .  

"Forgive me, brother, I have failed you and our parents and everyone else."  were his last thoughts before he left this world forever. 

 

 

2: In The Evening Mist

n the summer I always went to my relatives in Scotland. They lived in a small town near the sea. It was my favorite place to go on holiday. Until…

On those warm evenings between twilight and the fall of total darkness a mist would rise from the sea. On one of those evenings I was playing in the meadow with my uncle's dog. But suddenly I lost sight of him. I looked around. It was a big black dog so I was very surprised when I didn't see him anywhere. Looking around in the big green meadow I stood alone. There was nowhere to hide ,nothing but short grass. I called the dog's name few times but there was no answer. I got worried. It will be dark in over an hour and it was my uncle's best sheep dog that went missing. I began to search.

Soon after the sky was covered in dark clouds and heavy rain began to fall. And the mist rose from the coast. My clothes were not suitable for this weather. So when I saw a wooden cabin I was more than happy. The door wasn't locked. I sat down on the dusty bed hoping to rest for a while. But I must have fallen asleep because when I awoke it was completely dark outside, quite cold inside. Good thing there was some wood in the fire place. I found a lighter and lit the wood. I sat as close to the fire as possible because it got even colder inside the cabin.

After sitting like that for an hour I noticed that the windows of the cabin were starting to freeze over. I was terrified. It was midsummer after all. This kind of cold is impossible for this time of year. But as the hours passed the cold got worse. I thought I was going to die in there. But then a strange thought crossed my mind. I stood up and quickly ran outside in to the night. You can imagine my surprise when I saw the meadow lit brightly by the sun. It was day. But when I looked out the window of the cabin just moments ago it was dark.

When I returned home I was shocked by what I heard. I had been gone for two days. When I told everyone my story they looked at me strangely. Then my aunt told me a scary story. There is no cabin in the meadow now , one had stood there long ago. The cabin belonged to farmer who had lots of sheep. Normally all farmers led their herds to the highlands where it was warmer for the winter. But one farmer had stayed. People of the town had found him frozen to death just few days later.

After hearing this I went back to the meadow and tried to find the cabin. Unable to believe what had happened to me I tried to find some proof of what happened. I searched but found nothing. It's true what they had said – there is no cabin in the meadow.

One evening , a week after. I was once again playing with the dog. The dog had returned the same evening when I went "missing". When I turned towards the town the mist was rising again. And then in the distance I saw it. The cabin. It was there just as before. But this time I did not got near it.

As I thought more of what had happened to me back there. I made a shocking theory. The cabin was only there whenever there was mist. So where was the cabin and where was I in those sunny hours? I can't be sure whether I was in the meadow all this time. Maybe I was there, wherever the cabin comes from. Maybe even in another world….

3: Fear Of the Dark

“If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you”­­- Friedrich  Nietzsche

 

John was a  seemingly fearless man , healthy, strong , tall and capable to knock out other men with a single punch.  It came as no surprise considering his profession- a lumberjack.

 However, what his friends didn’t know was that ever since he was a boy he feared the dark. It was not the darkness of the night itself that scare him, but rather the feeling that something was watching him from the darkness. Whenever he was alone at night on in a dark place that felling would come over him- something was watching him, he wasn’t sure why but it filled him with dread inside.

 

The truck stopped near the tall block of flats. John thanked his colleague for the ride home and shoved his hands into his pockets, looking for his keys. He took the stairs up to his flat on the ninth floor. He turned the key in the lock, then opened the door but did not go in. he stared into the darkness that had settled into his apartment. It felt strange , it felt like somebody was in his apartment, hiding in the darkness and staring at him. He shut the door and locked it then made his way to the bar across the street, hoping that when he got back whatever it was will be gone.

Leaving the bar at quarter passed midnight the crossed  the empty street and stumbled up the steps to find the front door locked, he remembered it being past midnight and cursed  under his breath for taking too long to get back. The front door was always locked by the care taker to prevent vandalism and the homeless or drug addicts sneaking in and sleeping under the stair case on cold nights.  Each resident had a back door key.

The narrow street that led to the back door was dark. The only light was a dim exit sign above the entrance door. John walked up to the white, metallic fence that separated him from the  entrance and tried to unlock the padlock on the gate.  As he was fumbling with the small key in the dark, he heard footsteps behind him.  He thought it was another resident returning and turned around to ask for help with the lock.

The small street between two houses was empty. Yet he unmistakably head footsteps coming his way. The only thing between John and the street lamp was just a two-step wide area  of darkness. With the speed  unimaginable for a drunken man he  unlocked the gate and shut it behind him, ran up to the back door and entered the entered the well-lit hallway.  He entered his apartment and turned on the light in the hall before shutting the door. “ Good” he thought to himself.  The strange feeling was gone, his home felt like his own again. The lights in every room were turned on, except for the living room. The light switch  was on the far wall of the room close to the bedroom entrance but far away from the kitchen entrance where he now stood. Staring into the dark room . “ it will be fine” he told himself.

He had strange feeling whenever darkness was around . he thought back to the footsteps he hear in the alley. Feeling that something is near and hearing disembodied footsteps were very different things, but right now he was tired and slightly drunk, even he had trouble believing his own credibility on anything.  Slowly, careful to not trip on something he made it to the switch and flipped it. In that part of the second after the switch is flipped and before the light floods the room, he felt it clear as day. Something was in the room with him, something was behind him. Something put a hand on his shoulder.

The light was on. John stood there paralyzed, cold sweat running down his back. Without looking  back he darted into his bedroom, turned on the light and  jumped under covers . “ it’s gonna be fine” he told himself.

 

 

Larry lit a cigarette , it had been a long day of searching. Three days ago his colleague John didn’t turn up for work.  He didn’t pick up his phone,  he didn’t answer his door.  When the caretaker opened the apartment with a spare key it was empty. No one had seen or heard anything  about the man that lived there.   There were n living relatives  to contact, no one  he could have gone to. Larry and many others helped out with the search but they found nothing. Now it was getting dark.

He blew out a cloud of smoke into the darkness. Suddenly a chill ran through his body, something was watching him. The man looked around but all he saw were the dark silhouettes of trees and lights of the lampposts in the distance. Something touched his shoulder and Larry jumped. He turned around. Standing behind him was none other than John, he looked different, more pale and had dark shades under his eyes, his dark clothing seemed to blend in with the darkness.

“Where have you been?” He asked “ Everybody is out looking for you”

“I’ve always been right here” here said “tell them not to worry. “

There was something strange in his voice, it almost didn’t sound like John.

“Are you alright?” he asked

“Never been better” John said.” You know the strangest thing happened, I was terrified of the dark, ever since I was kid. My dad was  a drunk and he lock me up in a dark storage room while he beat my mother. One day he beat her so hard she died. “

“That’s terrible”

“I’ve never told anyone of this before.” He said” so the next day while he was passed out I tied him up and put him the same closet and then I ran as fast and as far as I could afraid of that would happen if he woke up and got out of it. But he never did, had a heart attack in his sleep, no one could hear him scream in the closet, no one could help him, he died tied up in a dark place. Dark place I put him in.”

Larry wasn’t sure what to say.

“The dark is not so bad once you get used to it.” John said.

He was walking away. Then he paused

“Tell them I did it to myself, will you tell them that?

“Sure” Larry said not sure what he meant by that

“Don’t worry, I’ll stick around here for a bit,. Take care now”

“You too.” Larry said.

 

The next day they found John. His body floated up on the small river outside of town, he was tied with ropes and Larry remembered the story John had told him in the park and then the realization hit him. According to the police reports John had been dead for four day when they found him. Larry turned his eyes away from the article and looked into the shadowy hallway leading out of his kitchen and a feeling came over him that someone was there, someone was looking at him from the darkness.  Never before he had felt any kind of fear towards the darkness but at that moment he felt cold ant mortified and he recalled the conversation he had with John at the park and he could almost see him in the shadows of the hall. But as soon as it came the feeling passed but Larry never the same about dark places again. 

4: Night at the Mountains

 Night at the Mountains

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown" ― H.P. Lovecraft

When i was sixteen my school organized a trip to the alps, not just any trip – a mountain hiking trip. I have never been to the mountains before i was excited to go, only the best behaving students were allowed to come. It wasn't for free either, we were required to pay for the bus, the gas, the climbing instructors that will come with us and the gear. I begged my parents, made various promises and eventually they agreed.

It was supposed to be a three day journey: one day we start on the designated path, we hike to a camping spot and spend the night there, on the second day we star climbing up and camp on the mountain, on the third day we arrive at the destination at the foot of the mountain and the bus takes to a hostel, then on the next day we go home. The whole thing sounded physically demanding, but it didn't bother me, it was quite fit.

When the day came i was exited, i read about the mountains, their height, their age , things like that. I had seen mountains in pictures and on television but never up close. The feeling was overwhelming, when the bus stopped and we got out one by one. There seemed to be no end to, all that existed inf ront of me was the mountain, stretching up and left and to the right like an infinite wall of stone.

I don't know why but i began to question myself, not my physical capabilities to be sure. I stared at the mountain losing all sense of time and i could swear i saw it move, slowly, as if it was breathing, barely visible, as if it was sleeping. I didn't mention this to anyone,who in the right mind would?

We put on our hiking bags with water supplies, food rations, climbing equipment and sleeping bags, following the two instructors who accompanied us we began to walk up the mountain road. Soon my jacket was stuck to me with sweat, but i paid it no mind, the view was beautiful already, thou we were not all that high up. Trees of the forests and some lakes in the distance, truly lovely. We took photos of the sight more than once when we stopped for breaks. The instructors kept reminding us to ration our water and food, we will not be able to refill until we get down from the mountain- the supplies we have must last each one of us three days.

I was not worried about it, i always ate little, but the walking in the warmth of the sun on the rocky and uneven path was making me thirsty. I did my best to hold on and only drank when the instructors said we could. Some others took sips while walking, i felt how dry my mouth was, i have been thinking about it for a while. Just one sip of water, it'll last three days i will be careful. I was pulled out of mu thoughts when the road made a sharp turn and the scenary changed.

The forest was no longer what we saw, it was blocked by the stone wall that was the mountain. The mountains stretched far and wide, like a stone serpent, it was coiled and twisted. Now we could only see one of its many coils obscuring all other things from sight. I looked down, slowly, my eyes just followed the side of the mountain down. There were trees down bellow, but just barely visible, not green but almost black because the mountain cast it's shadow upon them. That small line of black between the walls of rock and stone, almost like a mouth, open- waiting for some one to slip and fall into its jaws so it could eat the up.

I suddenly felt trapped, a wall to my left, a wall to my right, the open jaws waiting to swallow me up. My head was spinning slightly as it became hard to breath. Someone asked me if i was alright, i don't remember who or what i said but i remember the answer they gave: we will be reaching camp soon. That was when i remembered- we will be spending the night here on the mountain. I had forgotten about it until now. With each step i noticed how the darkness was setting in. The thin black line of trees was not so thin anymore, the shadow had began to expand- the mouth was opening wider and wider, and from it like a thousand tongues the darkness crawled up the sides.

It was not a campsite we stayed in, there were no such things on the mountain. The road was still wide, wide enough to sleep on it. Campfires were lit, small ones to be sure but nights in the mountains were cold, extremely cold, even on warm spring. We slept in groups of four, each group around a small campfire . We ate our rationed meals and went to sleep, fully clothed. Before sleep we all had to hammer small metal stakes into the side of the mountain, ones with loops in the ends and tie our sleeping bags and ourselves with rope so none rolled off to their death in their sleep. Each one was checked by the instructors and only then allowed to sleep.

Physically tired i fell asleep fast, i do not think i had dreams but sullenly i awoke, only to finds myself in darkness. It took me time to remember where i was and when i did i felt terrified. I could not go back to sleep for a long time, i closed my eyes but i could still hear. Was it the wind? It's not like any wind I've ever heard, it sounds like a voice, a rumbling echo of a voice, speaking in a language i cannot understand. As if the mountain was speaking to us, to me. I opened my eyes again, not sure why. As i looked up i saw a bit of sky, hopping to see the stars, a glimmer of light in this darkness, but instead i saw something else. I saw the mountain, it's dark form against the sky, it was terrifying, it moved, it twisted and changed in front of my eyes, the mountain was breathing just like before but it was not the shallow breaths of a sleeper, not anymore, the mountain was awake. I closed my eyes again ad covered my ears and tried to block out the booming voice that seemed to be coming from beneath me. Eventual i fall asleep.

Morning came and we set out after a small breakfast. While physically i was rested inside i felt tired, a nagging fear has settled inside me. Most of the day was spent walking and then we climbed up to the highest point of this route. Climbing was much harder, especially after a day of hiking but for a moment i forgot my fears. It was no longer a path but a much more spacious plateau, from witch we could see above and beyond the stone coils of the mountain, the forests in the light of the setting sun were amazing and i forgot my fears for this brief moment. I felt safer up there, closer to the sky further away from the jaws of the mountain. It was our final night in the mountains, soon i will be back home, this thought was soothing and all the kept me going forward.

I awoke again abruptly, all the others were asleep, the fires from the evening were out. I felt cold but was already dressed in the warmest clothes i had brought so i tried to focus in the stars. They were so close it seemed like i can touch them with my hand.

Something caught my attention, out of the corned of my eye i caught movement it the sky. A bird? A bat? Then i heard it, the mountain was echoing wit that rumbling voice again, it was distant but still heard. The peaks of the mountain opposite of the one we were on breathed , the shadowy shape of the mountain was changing, and between the two peaks was nothing but blackness, an abyss, a mouth waiting to swallow. A thought occurred to me and it scared me, was the mountain trying to devour the sky? Eclipse all stars and cast an endless shadow on to the world, until all of it is inside of it's mouth, swallowed up and all you can see is darkness and all you can hear it the rumbling voice. Looking from the top, down to the world around one could easily believe that the mountain had indeed devoured the world for all around was black and only the ever changing from of the mountains rose above it.

I felt as if i was the only human left in the world, all others have been devoured, staring into the dark valley i was staring into the mouth of the beast, into what might as well be the gates of death itself. In that moment all felt real, all my seances seemed to become heightened and i could almost see the bottom of the valley again, see the trees moving the wind, the trees at the very bottom of the valley! I realized suddenly it was impossible, we were to high, even during the day they were hard to see. What was i seeing? I looked at the abyss without blinking and the things i believed to be trees seemed all that much closer, indeed they were getting closer, no not trees, something else.

Before my eyes something shot into the sky out of the black abyss and flew over to the other side, and as briefly as i saw it, i saw it clearly. It was large, as large as a human and had wings, large wings and it was black, like a shadow and each flap of those wings echoed across the mountains like a rumbling voice. I was so terrified a dared not even scream or move. After some time as i finally lay down to sleep , pulling my sleeping bag over my head i put my head on the my pillow and i head the echo coming from the ground only this time i clearly understood what it was saying: there is no escape, we have been here long before, we will be here long since, deep deep under, we silently devour.

 

In high altitudes there is less oxygen in the air, this lack of oxygen may sometimes cause hallucinations.

5: Echoes

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here “ W. Shakespeare

Echoes

When I was a child the world was a wondrous place. Life was an adventure full of colour and the future was full of friends I just I haven’t found yet. When did it all change?

I sit alone in my room, yet I do not feel alone. The dark feels heavy, air dense, the silence is deafening. I wait holding my breath, listen to every sound. Oh, where have the happy days gone? Now my every waking moment is haunted by a horrible beast.  I listen for its footsteps, the faint sound of its breath.  Never , not even in my vivid nightmares have imagined such a monster could possibly exist.  Why does it stalk me?

It feels as if the beast has always been there, I can hardly remember the happy times. But I’m sure that there was a time in my life when I was free of it.  When? When did it first appear? It must have been when I was still a child.  When I think back on the first time I became aware of it, I recall  a particular summers night. 

The sun had set and under the willows it was already dark. I, a child, was much too young to be out this late on my own but I was alone. I searched for mother , I was afraid that she had gone home without me. Then I thought I heard her, it was a distant sound , like an echo. I ran searching for her, searching for the sound. It got closer but I could not see into to the pitch black darkness, was my mother truly there? I heard her voice so close and I tried to see into the dark as I called for her. But all I saw was something twisting, moving, not human like. Like a monster, it’s shape changing every moment. The voice of mother had disappeared and all I heard was the growling and roaring of a beast. I ran as fast as I could. Never looking back. Since then I became scared of the dark. In every shadow I would see it again.  But I was still unaware of the horror it would bring into my life. After that night things were never the same. 

Sometime later as I was covering in my bed, dreading to sleep in fear of the monster lurking in the dark I heard a scream. It had gotten to my mother I thought, and all fear forgotten I ran to rescue her from the thing. The lights were of in the hall, somehow I ran in the dark without stumbling. But right before I opened the door, I froze in fear realizing I would see it for the first time in the light. For there was light coming under the door. Just a small crack, I opened, curious. The light was dim and the shadows something moved, open it just a little more. I see father, he raises his hand, it touches the shadows just a bit and then he hits mother across the face. I gasp, he turns to the door but his face is not father’s face it is dark and it twists and turns like the shadows, like the monster.  My father was kind man, this I knew. It was the monster; somehow it has taken over him. 

Ever since then I was weary of anyone. At any time the monster could rear its ugly head, take the familiar and beloved friends and transform them into something of nightmares. I have seen it more then I care to remember.  Father left and never came back.  Time and time again during my life I stared into the ugly thing that seemed to follow me everywhere I went, but I seemed like I was then only one who noticed it. Whenever I brought it to anyone they would look at as if I was not right in the head. I learned to say nothing and spend my days pondering: where such an ugly thing came from?

Perhaps it was a demon, like those mentioned in the bible. I could not say I believed in god. I have never seen god, but I have seen the monster with my own eyes.  I’ve seen it devour people and replace them, no one could tell the difference, no one except me.  When will this end? I would ask myself.

I hold my breath and listen. Silence. No , there is a sound, almost like an echo long past. It’s coming for me. Silence again. Then I hear it again. Every time it came it brought horrible things with it. I wondered what horror it shall make me witness this time. All it silent again, but I learned long ago that silence is deceptive.  There is a gust of wind from outside and the window flies open. The cover flies of the mirror and I gaze into my own reflection with shock and horror.  It is behind me, the twisting shadow with infinite faces. No, I realize after a longer glance. It is coming from inside me, in my eyes I see the same darkness, it has been there all along, I have looked into my own eyes so many times I was used to seeing it so I never noticed. The realization came like an echo, like a memory of something I had known but forgotten- the demon was always inside me.

 

6: Queen of Spades

There was a rumor going around when we were children, a rumor that turned into a game of sorts. You take the card from a deck of cards, the queen of spades, and then draw a spade on a mirror in a pitch black room. Press the card on the symbol so that the queen is facing the mirror. Say three times “Queen of Spades please appears”, then light a candle and say it three more times. If she appears she will blow out the candle and you will see her face in the mirror. It is a pale face with black eyes and blue hair. Of course you have to be alone when you do it.

It was something the kids liked to challenge each other to. A game of dare, and with so many kids claiming to have done it and to have actually seen it with their own eyes, thou now that I think about it, they were probably lies. When you are kid, if your friends say something to be true than it is undeniably the truth.  So of course I done it, but I admit not for the reason many would assume, I knew if I told them they wouldn’t understand. The reason why I did was not to prove I was brave or to brag to my friends or to fit in. the only thing on my mind, my only reason was that maybe I can bring something back this way, to bring someone back. Someone I cared for very much passed away and thou I did not believe in ghosts the face I wanted to see the mirror, more than anything was the face of the person I missed so much. If only, just once more.

I did what my friends told me to do. I lit the candle; I said the words. Nothing happened. I said another three times, but nothing. Maybe because it was the middle of day and there was light coming in thought the glass parts of the bathroom door. There was no way I could do this at night. I wasn’t scared but if I got caught doing something like that, I knew I would not see my friends for at least a month. In my mind I didn’t expect it to work either. Something like this can’t be true, just like Santa Clause.

I had a dream that night, a nightmare of which the details I cannot recall but a woman dressed in black with blue hair appeared in it. Of course it would make sense to have such a nightmare right after.  I told my friends about it and they fell quiet for some reason, we laughed it off as kids always do and forgot about it. Time passed and I forgot it even happened.

Ged broke his arm few days later. He told the other kids something but I notice they were leaving me out of their conversations. I heard it later from another friend that apparently it was the Queen of Spades that broke his arm by causing the shelf above his bed to collapse on him at night. The idea was scary, but somehow still unbelievable. It didn’t fit in with the game at all. It was not a face in the mirror, it was something different.  Ged had been the origin of the rumor, the origin of the game we began. He said he learned about while he away at his cousins and told us all about it.

I can’t quite recall how much time passed. Things began to feel strange around the house.  Even when I was alone I still felt like there was someone in the house.  Mother always locked her room when she left, she kept chocolate and sweets and alcohol locked in a cabinet, the good stuff that was only served for guests.  I didn’t care for the drinks, but the chocolate, no kid would say no to that.  Mother had left, soon after I heard footsteps in the hall. I thought she forgot something and came back. The door to mothers room was wide open. I saw her lock it when she left and she always took the key with her.  The lights were on. I went in- no one was there. I looked around the tiny apartment  but there was no denying I was all alone. I called mother on her mobile to ask if she had returned recently. She said she had not. I should have been more scared but I got some to eat as much as I wanted for the night. She said she had not. I should have been more scared but I got some to eat as much as I wanted for the night. 

The footsteps might have from the neighbors upstairs, and there was a chance mother forgot to lock the door, perhaps a draft when she left caused the door to open. I was all obvious in my mind at the time. Nothing to do with some Queen Spades.

Ged once again said something that confused me when we met after school to play. We played make belief, we played yu-gi-oh cards, we had a Jumanji game board we ourselves made from a cardboard box, we snuck into kindergarten and used the swings after it closed and made fun of the elderly guard who couldn’t catch us. And sometimes we just sat there talking about stuff. It was a rainy day so we sat on the stairs inside Ged’s apartment building.  That is when he said it.

She was trying to kill him, I didn’t get it. He said it was the Queen of Spades. It couldn’t be a card, this much I knew. I asked him what it was, this thing- Queen of Spades. You know what he said then? He said it was a spirit. The game we were playing all this time was not some make belief, not pretending , but an actual spell to summon  a spirit.  He said he could talk to it sometimes,  that it told him to tell us about the game or else it would hurt his family. 

Then he suddenly fell silent and turned white. He was grabbing at his throat at if trying to rip something of, but there was nothing there, yet he was starting to turn blue in the face. I realized he wasn’t breathing. Then he suddenly fell of the railing as if he had been flung with great force and lay there on the ground unconscious. We were terrified, we all just ran our separate ways. He survived as later I saw him outside but I didn’t feel like talking to him or any of the kids anymore. Still I did not want to believe it was the work of a spirit. There was no such thing right?

He had said before he could talk to his Queen of Spades somehow. If I had indeed called such a thing then I would know. But I didn’t. Spirits are like ghosts and ghosts are essentially dead people I knew that from movies. I knew some people who died but none of them ever came back, I knew this much. In my mind death was not something you can come back from. All those stories about life after death, god, angels, heaven, hell just can’t be real, if they were someone would have seen them.

I had prayed to god only once. I had never done anything wrong, I didn’t go to church much but it didn’t seem like it mattered much. I prayed for the person I cared for to wake up and be alright. The school got a call from mother, grandmother was in a coma. We were on the way to the hospital and then I prayed that she would wake up and be like before. The moment I finished my prayer the mother’s phone rang- grandmother had passed away.

I asked god one thing, only once. She died because god wasn’t real, if he was real no doubt he would have saved her. So I knew things like gods and ghosts could not possibly exist. But to this day I know how to explain what happened during that summer when we played the game of Queen of spades.

Many more strange things happened. I had a dream, a nightmare. I only ever had nightmares anymore. We were all being chased by black car. That was it, all I could remember. When we met outside, thou I began to avoid Ged I still spent time with my other friends. Greta refused to go anywhere without Ged. We sat on the sidewalk playing cards, not regular cards, after all the strange things   none of us would go near a card deck. Thou I admit I had developed a habit of taking out the particular card and stare at it from time to time. Maybe I can catch the picture on the card move, or see a glimpse of whatever this spirits thin is supposed to be. Parked behind us was a black Mercedes. Just a parked car, no driver engine off, normal everyday car. So imagine our surprise when out of the blue the engine came to life. I recalled my dream and shouted to run. We all got up and ran into the nearest building and shut the door. I told everyone I had that dream, they believed me. Even I began to believe that something was, maybe, a little bit magical in all this.

The sound of footsteps had become a common thing. Not during the day, but only at night. I could hear the sound of someone walking outside my room, in the hall between the living room and the kitchen. Of course maybe mother needed to go bathroom but none of the light ever turned on. Mother would sometimes tell me to be more silent when went to the bathroom at night. She would get mad every time I tried to tell her it wasn’t me. The door to her room had been open several more times just like before and mother would yet at me for breaking into her room, even if never set foot in it. I learned my lesson from that one time. Some important things from her room had gone missing and mother thought someone had broken in or perhaps one of my friends stole it. I was forbidden to have anyone over, I dared not tell her that I never had any friends over in the first place.

The footsteps had always wandered around the hall, since the bathroom was there and it was in there that I had performed the ritual as we now called it.  But things changed again. The wardrobe door in my room opened and closed on its own. It could not have been the cat, it slept in the living room or with mother, never with me since it made too much noise and woke me up at night.   I had believed I was safe, that whatever it was could not go into my room if the door was closed.  But now it was in here with me.  I figured if i ignore it maybe it won’t see that I’m awake.

I closed my eyes. But I could hear it. The footsteps, moving closer to my bed. I wanted to look, I wanted to know if I’ll see anything there but I didn’t.  I fell asleep. I don’t know what it did later on. The wardrobe door was left open in the morning when I woke up. It was as if it was telling me: this is really happanening, you didn’t imagine it.

One evening when I came home all the lights in the apartment were on. Since mother began to blame for leaving the lights on time and time again, I knew it did it. I didn’t leave the lights on, ever. I was getting tire of being blamed wrongly, of being called a liar when the thing that lived with us did all those things. Mother did not believe me. I realized I wanted it gone, whatever it was. I told it as much, when I was alone I yelled that I want it gone, that if I want to go back to where it came from. I took the card and ripped it to pieces.

It has been silent at night. No footsteps, nothing strange. A normal week. Then  one day the mirror in the bath room, the mirror I used to summon it, just fell of the wall and broke. According to Ged to send back you need to use the mirror and the card used to call it the do the ritual backwards and say please leave instead of please appear. He had told me all that way too late. I had ripped the card and the mirror was now gone.  But for the time I still thought it to be over, I thought it to have left because I ordered it to.

It was day time and I was in the living room, alone. Mother had taken the cat to the vet. I hear them, the footsteps. They began from the area around the bathroom and moved along the hall. There was no door into the living room. I sat there terrified when I realized it was coming here, I believed it only walked around at night, it was day time now. I stared at the dark hall, I saw nothing, no movement, no shadow nothing, but I heard it. It was walking  and then it was silent. It was here. For a moment I just sat there looking around the room I fear.  Then I felt it, the cold and the pressure. Is if someone had their ice cold hands around my throat. I could not breath properly.  I realized it was trying to kill me, I don’t know what I ever do to it, but I began to cry. I thought : this is it, I’m really going to die here, now. I got up. It was hard to move, my head was dizzy and I could feel something pulling me back by the neck. 

My grandmothers prayer book.  I grabbed if of the small table with the picture of grandmother, I had made it in my room after she died. Put her picture and all her things a could find there. I began to read the prayers. I could not speak out loud, but in my mind I spoke the words. Whenever I felt sick grandmother would sit by my bed and read prayers out loud.  I didn’t believe in god but I believed in my grandmother. And then as I read them, with each line repeated in my mind the cold icy hands began to let go. I could breathe again I read the prayers out loud still crying.  I don’t know how many times I repeated the same prayers over and over; it must have been at least an hour.

If there is no god then why did it let me go? I think maybe there might be a god, and maybe it let go because it was afraid of the holy word. Because the Queen of Spades is more than a children’s game but something dangerous. And if ghosts and god are real then perhaps the other things are too and those things fear god.

Even to this day I know now what really happened during those summer months. But sometimes at night I still wake up and listen fearing that I will hear footsteps outside my door, and at those times I pray to god, and bad things don’t happen anymore.

 

 

7: Deeper than darkness

 

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”- H.P. Lovecraft

 

 

I am not insane. I have told you all I know, all that I recall. It might seem like something made up but I swear my words are true. I am not in shock, though what I saw and experienced was absolutely shocking. I remember every detail clearly, as if I could forget events that were so bizarre and horrific.  I have been asked to retell the events of that night over and over and met with disbelief every time. Now I will tell you what happened to the four of us that night and swear on the lives of those dear to me that every word is true.

It was the Friday of March 26th. The four of us: Lisa, Mark, Thomas and I have planned a camping trip for that weekend. All of our parents were away; mine were visiting my sick aunt in another town. I was not told where we were going only that it was somewhere in the mountains. Mark was the only one of old enough to drive, so he took his brothers car and drove us there.  All four of us have left school early that day. All of us have lied to our parents. I would like to say I am sorry.  If only we had known …

It was in the middle of nowhere that Thomas told us- where it was that we were heading. I noticed we were driving farther out of town than any nearby camp site. So he told me and the rest of us about the town. The town with no people, half way up the mountain.  The thought did unsettle me a little, we would be all alone out there, or perhaps not alone. The idea of some other group much like ours showing up crosses my mind. But Thomas assured me that the place was a secret, he heard of it from a friend of his, who had gone there once and the two of them were the only ones who knew of it.

The car ride was long and the landscape was much the same. The concrete road surrounded by tall evergreen trees from both sides and the mountains in the distance. There was a fork in the road but unless one knew where it was one would miss it entirely. Covered by low branches of trees and tall bushes. It was an unpaved road clearly not used for a long time because grass was growing on it completely undisturbed.

It was still light when we arrived at the town. Never before have been in a place like this.  Doubts became even more real then. Upon seeing the empty houses lined up along the street, I looked at their windows and I saw only white curtains. It was not as desolate as I had assumed. The houses were not decrepit , though the road was clearly in a state disrepair  and the flowers were withered on the windowsills because nobody cared for them. There was no garbage because there was no one to produce any, the sidewalks were clean.

There were bigger buildings than the one story bungalows. Two story houses and a supermarket we passed. I asked Thomas how deep into the town we will go. We could just easily stay in one of the houses.  He said there was something he wanted to show us, something that his friend thought would be interesting to see.  We had reached the center of the town. There was a statue of miners, three of them, holding pickaxes and one with his foot on a pile of coal. This was a miner town.  We all had assumed that the mine ran out of coal and the people moved away. We left the car there, by the statue.  Thomas was following the instructions his friend wrote down for him to see this “something interesting”. I did not wish to be left behind so I stayed close. Mark stayed to prepare, we were camping after all.

We went into the building nearby, it was a small museum dedicated to mining. I did not expect Thomas to go into such a place.  Aside from mining equipment and ore examples there was something that I cannot fully describe. I guess interesting was the only term I can use. It was not a metal nor was it  a stone, the texture of the material like nothing I have ever seen. More like amber than anything, but its color was not that of amber but of blood.  It was quite monolithic in size, towering over us. However it was not the strange object itself. The longer I looked at it, the more details about it I began to notice. One thing in particular caught my eye. It seemed to be  face. Yes, something, I could not clearly see it, but there appeared to be something inside it.  I have seen insects trapped in amber, but this was no insect, it was human like. Perhaps a prehistoric human. It’s features were distorted, I could not clearly see it. It’s face looked frightening: stretched and somehow not human like.  This being filled me with unease. Thou without a doubt it had died eras ago and was somehow trapped in this amber like substances and discovered by the miners of this town.

I assure you that all I am telling you is of relevance for it will help you to better understand the events of that night.  After we left the museum I felt much better, a sense of relief washed over me for some reason.  We entered a café since it was slowly getting dark and the day had been cloudy with a high chance of rain. We lit candles all around the small room; we had flashlights – one each. Food came in a variety, since we planned to stay until Sunday morning. Aside from food there was also beer, we were not of drinking age, aside from Mark, and I admit to breaking the law, but it was one of the main reasons for this trip. In an abandoned town where no one could see us, no one could punish us.

How wrong we were. I don’t know the exact hour we all went to sleep but it was dark. We stayed in the small café, there was no need to hurry, so we thought, we could explore the town later tomorrow.  I was woken up by voices, there were many of them. As soon as I stood to get a better view of the room someone grabbed me from behind- it was Mark. He showed me into a closet that was there and told me to keep silent no matter what. I was peeking thought the key hole of the closet. I could see the entire room. There were lights outside, not car lights, not street lights, no they were torches. I was terrified; I covered my mouth with my hands to not scream. There were people outside in the street holding torches.  This however is not the most terrifying part.  Thomas and Lisa were sleeping in the other room of the café, closer to the entrance and I have no idea where Mark had gone. I assumed he went to wake them or hid somewhere out of sight. 

I heard heavy steps, people, I guess they were human came into the room. All wearing black robes and hoods some held torches, they went thought our things, then stood in a circle like formation and I saw it enter the room. The thing from the museum, it was no longer frozen in amber it was out and moving. The sight of it was something I cannot describe. I felt so very cold, like all the warmth had drained from my body. The thing was hideous indeed, it did not seem to posses eyes, and its face was like a skull with two other skulls cut in two and their face parts attached to the sides of its face. Looking at it made me nauseous and it took all my strength not to vomit. I don’t know how long they were in the room, I felt as if the thing could still see me even without eyes.  Right before they left the room I heard it whisper inside my head.

“ All things fall into darkness. Deep deep underground is darkness. We are deeper than darkness.”

I remained in the closet, not sure how they didn’t find me.  At some point I fall asleep. After waking up I tried to search for the others.  I ran into Mark, he told he saw them take Lisa, Thomas ran after them trying to get her back. He isn’t back, most likely dead. Mark didn’t want to stay to search for them. We got into the car that was surprisingly not damaged. We drove off and I swore would  return with help for the two we left behind. The feeling that we got off too easy settled in, it felt like they were letting us leave. And I felt that cold again like the thing was near.

 I still feel it sometimes. I wake up at night felling like I am being watched. I hear a voice in my sleep and it whispers things. Sometimes I hear Lisa screaming. I hope she is alive. The police do not believe me, no one does. I just hope they can save her.

 

8: In the Darkness of the Forest

Note: Written for Halloween 2019 . 

In the dark of the forest many things happen. Under the thick leafless branches of the damp, rotting woods. Light never shines upon dirt beneath. grassless, soft and mushy. Occasionally moss or fungus grow on the black bark and branches of the trees.

Deep in these woods sleeps a village, full of decrepit houses. Build from the dark wood of the forest. At first glance it seems empty, but once in while a light moves across the darkness or flickers in the window. Branches grow out of the logs of the houses. Chopped down, cut and polished, still they continue to grow. Branches tangle and connect with eachtoher, forming bridges between the houses. The woods are ever-growing. Even the lifeless rotting trees never stop. Once a tree is cut down, the very next day the stump will have a sprout- leafless, dark. Within a wee there will a small tree and within a year a full grown tree.  And so the woods grow, never blooming, always bare, without leaves , never giving fruit, smelling of rot and decay  but never stopping .

In the dark of the forest the trees are not the only thing that grow.  Glowing, pulsing mushrooms grow  on trees. They glow like eyes in the darkness. Spreading thought the woods with clouds of glowing spores. They grow on the bark and the branches, on the houses and the people.  The deer walk with black, branch like horns, crowned with the pulsing red lights. The animals are thin, eyes hollow with a small glowing orb glowing in the dark.

In the darkness of the forest walk many creatures stranger than deer.  A ball of black fur ruches across the darkness. Two lights – two eyes in the mass of black. But the black fur hides beneath a mouth  full of sharp teeth. It gives a sound, something like  a growl  and  vanishes in the dark.  Howls echo in the forest, but they are different from  sounds of dogs or wolves, the pith is not quite right and there is something else in it that unsettles. Furless, with sharp, bony pines  along the back,  skin stretched out  over the bones. Some have mushrooms growing along the back. The eyes are hollow and the pupils are just orbs of light. Or perhaps something else entirely. 

Wet slapping sound can be heard from the  distance. A large and scaly creature moves between the trees. Skin always wet and dripping, the size of a bear, a coat of moss and mushrooms cover it’s back. The eyes are hollow like every other creature that inhabits these woods. It buries itself in the soft muddy ground..  A dog approaches, unsuspecting and a giant gaping mouth opens to swallow it whole.  As strange as these creatures are  the are thing even stranger .

In the dark of the forest the living bury their dead. Eerie crosses with branches sprouting  to all directions, some have grown into trees. One recently dug grave slowly bubbles. The dirt  is wet from endless drop of water that keep falling form the trees. Over the days and nights  the bubbles increase and the dirt parts ever so slightly- a puff of glowing smokes comes out.  The smoke doesn’t fade, it floats, it glows and sometimes it whispers or screams. Mowing without wind, many lights float  through the woods. Changing from white to red, to grey, to blue as they float across the woods. In the dark of the forest many things happen. ..