The fallout of an inevitable encounter

Written in response to: Start your story with the words “Everything was ready for the ritual.”... view prompt

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Horror Fiction Thriller

Everything was ready for the ritual.

A true test for everyone‘s sane mind.

I’m considering myself lucky to be alive after this life changing experience. I’m lucky to be alive. 

This is a real life story.

Lucky I did not loose my mind.

My sanity, my thoughts. Everyone I told about though I have lost my mind, nevertheless the people involved were never ever seen nor heard of again.

I spent like a year and a half at a hospital with an unknown diagnosed disease. I had good days and bad days. My brother always made sure m come by before the end of the day to chat about his working day and myself to talk about my day at the hospital. We were never afraid of talking about any stuff, we laugh together, we made fun of our day’s stupidity and our boo boos.

A day that was super long for me just waiting to share with him my scary experience. 

Hey Bro - I told him. I gotta something to ask you.

Go ahead - he goes. 

What is it now?

I took a deep breath; and continue, indicating that what I saw it was real. My bro wasn’t surprised. He saw some of the people I described to him alive. Problem was that he told me they passed away a couple of days ago. We looked at each other and just sighed. We thought it was pure coincidence.

That night I had another dream - I think. I could hear in the distance the beeping of a machine that fainted after while. Perhaps the nurses attended to the urgent call. A patient was in trouble. Some medication was given to the patient- perhaps? The beeping stopped. 

As the night started, silence invaded the corridor of the hospital. 

I fell asleep. Sound asleep.

Somewhere in the middle of the night, something made my eyes to wide open. 

No sound. 


Something made myself get out of my normal sleeping pattern, I saw a black shadow crossed from one side of the door to the other side.

The shadow u saw had a black robe; with a hoodie and a scythe. He seemed to be looking towards the end of the corridor. For a moment, this figure stopped and turned it’s head towards me.

I froze

I couldn’t move

U couldn’t say a word 

Everything stopped 


I tried to vocalize a word 

I tried to scream

Even those feelings seemed to be stopped and frozen in time.


I managed to get out of bed to follow this peculiar type of creeper to see what was to be his next move. It seemed I was not his target, so it kept walking. I followed him.

The back area of this hospital lead to a beautiful lake, where many times the moon took the opportunity to show off its beauty. This lake was literally its mirror where the moon could appreciate its deadly beauty.

A long line; which was made of kids, boys and girls, women, men, moms and dads, were all walking, their heads down, no expression on their faces.

This mysterious hooded character looked at everyone and gave instruction to get on a boat waiting to depart sailing and disappearing in the middle of the lake. I recognized one of the old guys in line and ran to catch up with him.

The black hooded, wearing a scythe on hand, noticed me and stopped me. 

You are NOT joining now!

This is not your turn

Go back to where you belong!


An eerie feeling started to be felt in the atmosphere immediately after this strange figure finished his sentence.

The waters in the lake started to get agitated, and a huge whirlwind manifested in the water.

I saw the boat being eaten by the turbulent water. The people on the boat, instantly got devoured by the whirlwind.

Immediately after, once the boat was gone, the whirl calmed down, the waters came to a total quietness, and a quiet peaceful atmosphere suddenly appeared. Like nothing happened.

A strong breeze came brushing the top of some low pine trees, that made my eyes feel uncomfortable, to which I cover my eyes. It was a couple of seconds. When I felt everything was calmed, I moved my arm to take a second look.

I noticed I was still on my bed. 

Sleeping 

My bed sheets snd comforter, slightly disturbed.

The next day dawned.

The new set of questions started.

My brother was not going to come to visit until almost the end of the second turn of the nurses shift.

I counted the minutes

I counted the seconds

Every time I heard steps coming towards my room I expected my brother to show up at the door as usual, and have our usual night chat.

He came a bit over his usual time. 

My bro, my confident had to work extra time. Np he was here.

Better late than never.


He grabbed a chair and sat down besides my bed. 

We both chatted about our days and laughed and complained about our day.

There was a short quietness and peaceful moment. It felt like the world stopped. 

I told him about what I saw last night, and described him exactly how the people I saw dressed up like. My brother confirmed to me they were patients he met on the corridor across my room. He was surprised with my description.

He confirmed to me that the people I saw this dark figure welcomed to the boat and disappeared were the people I saw getting on board the boat that disappeared on the lake at the back of the hospital.


I was hoping to go and walk to where this lake is, but unfortunately my physiotherapist did not allowed me to go that far until I fell stronger enough to walk.


Problem is, my glasses for some reason got lost 1 year and a half ago. I lost my left eyesight. I suffer from NMSOD. After a year and a half was prescribed a new special eyeglasses that help me with my peripheral vision. 

I can’t see far,

I can’t see close 

October 22, 2021 23:20

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2 comments

Michael Regan
16:53 Nov 22, 2021

A nice story. A couple of typing errors 'fir' instead of 'for' and 'U' instead of 'I'. Also, you might want to put quotation marks around the dialogue - it would make it easier to read.

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Chacha Jaramillo
20:46 Nov 22, 2021

Thanks Michael! Fixing right away!

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