0 comments

Contemporary Fiction Horror

This story contains themes or mentions of physical violence, gore, or abuse.

My coat was wet because of the soft rain coming from the sky above. The city was asleep and I was the only one awake on the streets of Edinburgh. The beautiful and the royal Edinburgh but, underlying its beauty there were some very mysterious and questionable memories that everybody wants to hide. I was walking the streets of the old Edinburgh, the Edinburgh that you should stay far away from. People said that the small streets, paved with old grey stones were made with dead rats and poisons. There was no light on those streets which symbolized walking in the darkness, unable to reach the destination without being killed by the ghosts of the ancient witches.  

With my sweaty hands in my wet coat, I was heading home on those mysterious streets with my gut feeling yelling at me to change my route. In the back of my mind, I knew there were only old myths made by people who didn't have enough things to do. Each house on that street had a balcony where they would make poisons in the moon's light.  

"Aryna, Nozela, Fancitta, where have you disappeared?" I looked over my shoulder, taken aback by the person talking. Who were these girls? I asked myself. I stopped for a moment to find who was talking until I finally spot someone standing on the balcony. There was an old woman, dressed in some kind of gypsy clothes and a pair of long golden earrings, holding a lit candle. She doesn't see me until she does and starts talking to me. 

"Don't worry, little man, I am not going to do anything to you. However, I want you to do something for me." I didn't know if I should run but what I did know was that I was a polite person often enough to help that woman too.  

"How may I help you with?" She didn't look at me once, she was staring endlessly at the dark sky. The woman dropped an old piece of paper that was mainly torn apart, written with a typewriter for me to catch.  

"Go find the girls and my death will bring someone who has been hanging by life for as long as they can remember then pull all the broken pieces back together." Then, she disappeared into the darkness of her apartment. I was standing on that street calling her name but she never returned to talk to me. 

Afterward, I went home to my old wooden desk to read the piece of paper that the woman gave me. I light my lamp and put my dirty glasses on. The crumpled piece of paper was very thin and I was afraid not to tear it apart. Once I was all set up, I began reading... 

"From the moment I gave birth to my girls, I knew they were little monsters. I tried to keep them under my wing but their curiosity to find out more and more about the world ended up with them going missing. It has been 20 years since I lost them, and I know the person I gave this paper to is going to kill them and put their remaining souls into a small jar, then bury it under the ground. Your curiosity could give life to someone who doesn't own it or take your own life 

Pick closely" 

I finished reading the letter and I knew what I was going to do. I had to find her girls even if every decision I was going to take from that point forward was a game with my life, easy to lose. The entire night I spent reading and re-reading the crumbled piece of paper over and over again. I couldn't find the answers anywhere, not in old newspapers, not on the internet. It felt like those girls had never existed. 

The next day, I headed to my local library. It wasn't very big or known, however, it owned some very old books about almost everything. The library was in an old woman's house who was collecting books from over two hundred years ago. 

"May I help you with something, son?" I shacked my head in response and headed and headed right between the walls full of books. The books' covers were all old and brown, some of them didn't even have a cover on. I didn't even know what to look for exactly, so I decided that maybe the category "Witchcraft" was going to be somewhat helpful. I picked a dark purple book that was huge with more than one thousand pages stuck to it and began reading the table of contents. After passing page by page and reading how witches connect to the power of Satan and how rituals are made, I heard somebody talking. 

"What are you looking for, son?" Mrs.Wabbster said while slowly getting up from her armchair. She got closer to me, easily acknowledging the book I had in both of my hands. She takes the book from my hands and waits for me to answer. 

"I-i was wondering if I could get any information about these sisters, I have just found out about-" She then calmly interrupted me. 

"Aryna, Nozela and Fancitta sisters?" I was shocked that she had even heard about them. Well, considering her age, it wasn't that unbelievable. Once I shook my head as a response, she led me to another room behind the library's walls. The lighting in that room was almost inexistent but the mystery that room owned hooked me up within seconds. There were even more books and two old chairs in front of a fireplace. She let me sit on one of these chairs while she was wandering through the books in front of the chairs 

"The story with those three girls starts a thousand years ago. It was known that they were Satan's girls and every thirty years they would reborn into other families causing chaos and problems but they would die very easily and incorporate their souls into other young children." She continued walking with her fingers bleeding while looking at the floor. Silence fell between the two of us when I broke the ice with one question. 

"Where can I find them?" She looked at me like I was a crazy man who didn't know into what trap he was getting in. She shook her head a couple of times without saying a word and answered my question. 

"I don't know why you would want to do that. They usually live in forests, in small caves that lead under the ground. They are usually invisible but once in thirty years when the red moon arrives, their caves become visible." And, it hits me. Earlier that morning, I heard on the radio that the red moon was supposed to arrive! I didn't spend a second after that revelation hit me and I left the library.

Before the nightfall, I packed my bag and got into the car to drive to the nearest forest. I couldn't memorize its name but something deep down in me knew I was going to find them. I knew I wasn't a killer but I had to do that for my girl, Alexia. She had been suffering from a health problem that doesn't let her move an inch and a cardiac problem. Maybe, she would get a chance to live after I would have taken those girls' lives. 

The red moon's light poured onto the entire forest. The moon looked like it was bleeding. I took my flashlight and went deep into the forest until I spotted exactly what I was looking for- a cave. I ran to the cave. It was blocked with stones at the entrance; however, I was able to take each stone out so I could enter the cave. Taking my knife out, I finally saw the girls. They were staying in a circle at a small fireplace. I was an inch further to the girls when I stab the first one in the back with my knife, Aryna. Afterward, the two other girls were too taken aback to grab their weapons and kill me. Once I was finished, I took the sticky jar from my backpack and insert a few drops from each other's blood. Then, I buried the jar deep into the ground full of grass and leaves. 

That night, I left the forest with a piece of myself missing. The missing piece was my daughter's, and I was going straight to the hospital she was hospitalized in. When I arrived in her room, my beautiful five-year-old was laying down on her hospital bed. She was a true beauty; her hair was long and she had the most angelic face I had ever seen. 

"What's my little beautiful girl doing?" She turned her head to see me. Everything appeared to be normal until she faced me. Her face was red and her nose was bigger than before. Her eyes were so small and her hair color was brunette instead of blonde. I looked into her eyes but all my thoughts were erased when she began talking and blood started coming from my fingers. What was happening?

"I am what is going to kill you." 

My throat locked and my lungs were out of oxygen until I fell on the floor gaging to open my throat again. Suffocating on the floor, with blood coming from my mouth, my fingers, my eyes, I see my daughter leaving the room... 

April 19, 2022 16:38

You must sign up or log in to submit a comment.

0 comments

Reedsy | Default — Editors with Marker | 2024-05

Bring your publishing dreams to life

The world's best editors, designers, and marketers are on Reedsy. Come meet them.