The secrets of the dark

 It was a very joyful Saturday evening and anxious footsteps could be heard approaching towards the city library. The librarian immediately recognised who it was; she knew if there was someone who was interested in walking to the library at a day like this then it had to be Laura.

“Good evening Miss. Stewarts.” The librarian wished with the beautiful smile only to receive a very awkward and a shy smile in return.

  Laura Stewart would be best described as an anxious, shy and a sweet girl. She was university student currently sharing a flat with her fellow batch met Mia. Mia was a pretty kind girl but due to Laura being an introvert and giving of the aura that she is not interested in friends, Mia had gradually drifted afar.

       Since Laura didn’t have any friends she started spending time in the library. After her college she would go to the library and return at sharp 9.o clock at night. Then she would talk to her parents a little and then go to bed.

        So this evening was no different, Laura searched through the various shelves of books deciding on which one to read but as she was searching she found a book lying on top of the shelf. Laura stretched her hand out and pulled the book. It was a pretty thick book but it looked rather old and crumpled. The cover of the book was plain black without even a single word return on it. All that was there was a huge white circle with the drop of red splattered in the middle of it.

        Laura opened the book and on the first page it was written. “SECRETS OF THE DARK.” Below which it was written “Read at your own risk”.

     Laura had read several books like these where the author tells the readers not read it and hence putting a pinch of excitement in their minds. So she began reading the book.

The first chapter was named as “The annoying neighbour.” 

     The story felt as if it was a dairy of some girl who had a really annoying neighbour who happens to be an old man in his 60s that torments everyone living in the society. This story was extremely relatable to Laura since there was an old man in his 60s who made everybody feels as if they were leaving in pure hell. His name was Thomas. She started reading the story and it was written that the girl got fed up with the old man and one night sneaks to his house and kills him with his garden shear. Each and every detail of the murder was explained in such detail and gruesomeness Laura could feel that this event just took place in front of her eyes.

     Laura could not stop reading even though her brain was screaming at her to throw the book aside but she kept reading until it was finally 9 when she set the book aside. To her surprise even after reading for hours together she could only finish reading one chapter that was the story of the annoying neighbour.

      She left the library telling herself that she is never going to read something that disturbing ever again in her life. When she arrived to the flat there was no one there. It was no big surprise that Mia was out with her friends. Laura had some food that was there in the fridge, did her assignment and after taking her sleeping pills drifted off to sleep.

     Next day when the sun raised everything started going back to normal. Laura got dressed and was ready to college when she heard a scream outside. Uncle Thomas’s maid was screaming to the point where it felt as if she had lost all her remaining brain cells. Just after that a large group was gathered around his house. When Laura reached there she could not help but stumble back when she saw the sight in front of her.

   Uncle Thomas was lying there on his garden in the middle of a pool of blood with a huge garden shear inserted into his stomach. But more than the scene what made Laura more scared was the White circle with a tiny drop of blood marked on Uncle Thomas’s forehead. Laura could not process anything she just left the site as fast as she could.

After sometime the police had already arrived. And the entire day was gone with chaos.

     Laura had decided not to continue reading that book but after arriving to the library she could not help but read it again thinking of what would happen next and as she had expected it was a second murder story.

        The title was “You deserved it.” It was a story about how the protagonist gets cheated on by her boyfriend and then she sets on to take revenge.

     This story also turned out to be way too relatable. When Laura initially joined college she had a crush on a guy named Jordan who was her senior. So after gathering a lot of confidence she finally proposed him. And to her absolute surprise he also agreed to date her. The only sad part was that he wanted the relationship to be a secret since he didn’t want to pull a lot of attention. But only after several months did she realised he already had a girlfriend and Laura was nothing but a plaything for him.

She hated him but could not do anything about it. So she decided to act as if it never happened and even he acted like nothing had ever taken place.

    The story in the book was also a similar one. The protagonist on one fine night reaches to his house and when he lets her in she hits him on the head with the vase she had planned to give him on his birthday. As Laura read this beads of sweet started appearing on her forehead and her face had gone pale because she too had planned on giving Jordan a vase and after knowing that she was being cheated on she had thrown it somewhere in her room.

    That night Laura was awake up to mid night even after taking the sleeping tablets.

   The next day Laura reached to college and was saw police vans crowded in the campus. Jordon’s girlfriend was crying and as Laura heard it all the blood in her face was drained out.

Jordon was died.

And it looked like a he was hit with a glass item on his head but the weapon was no where seen. There was no sign of broken door or window glasses found either. So it was clear that the murderer was someone that Jordan knew.

The police found the same mark that was on Uncle Thomas’s forehead even on Jordon’s forehead.

The entire city was filled with chaos it was clear by now that a serial killer was roaming in the city. Looking at the seriousness of the case it was handed over to Inspector Mike.

Mike had solved some really difficult cases so it was natural that he was selected for this job.

But even after an entire day of investigation they had reached on nothing. He could not find anything common between Mr. Thomas and Jordon. Nor could he figure out the motive for the murder.

On the other hand Laura again stepped into the library looking as horrible as ever. Even after being absolutely terrified she could not stop herself from reading further.

And then as it was expected a series of murders started to follow as days passed.

The other chapters were-

Chapter.3: The bad teacher.

The next day as explained in the book the teacher that Laura hated the most was found hanged on a tree close by his house.

Chapter.4: The perverted shopkeeper.

And then not to her surprise the shopkeeper that ran a stationery shop near her school (who had misbehaved with Laura) was found hanging naked with his neck slit and both his arms chopped.)

Chapter .5: If you bully then that’s what you get.

The very next day as Laura expected the school’s bully, Peter was found dead due to being hit multiple times with his hockey stick.

After all these murders the city was completely terrified. People didn’t dare to get out of their homes after sunset. Mike had been working day and night to solve the murder but he hadn’t even reached the even the first step yet. And Laura had become more anxious as day passed.

  She almost looked like a mad woman. She was deprived of sleep. Three times the dose of sleeping tablets where needed to put her to sleep. Her addiction to the book also started growing. Even after wanting to stop read the book she could not. She was terrified initially but became more excited as days passed. It almost felt as if Laura was going to lose her mind.

She was in a situation where she didn’t know what was happening but she was the only person in the city who knew what was going on. She felt a weird feeling; it wasn’t fear, neither excitement. It was rather absolutely terrifying and satisfying at the same time.

Every time she reads the book the excitement of who would be next would give her Goosebumps. She felt as if she possessed some sort of power to control over things.

At night the shear fear and excitement of what would happen once the sun rises would not allow her to sleep. Slowly it seemed as if Laura’s mood became much better than her older days.

As usual one day when she went to the library to read the forbidden book she was startled to realize it was the last chapter. She felt a sudden feeling of emptiness surrounding her. She wanted more. She wanted the feeling of excitement to last forever. But then she continued to read it anyways

Chapter .6: THE END.

“I killed every one of them, every one of them whom I hate. They anyways deserved it. I know that I should be happy. I should be Happy that they are all dead. It was satisfying to see them crying and pleading to me when I killed them. It was nice to see them make the ugliest faces ever possible. But now I have killed all the people that I hate but still I feel sad. I don’t want to end it here. I want to see more of their horrified faces; faces that are struggling to stay alive when I kill them. Then I realised that not all of them are dead there is still one person remaining. I go home take a mirror hang it on the wall. Take a chair and stand on it. I see myself on the mirror as I take a rope and tie it around my neck and then tie the other end to the fan and finally kick the chair. I carefully see myself choking, struggling to breathe and feel the utmost satisfaction possible. Since more than all those people whom I hate the person in this mirror is the one who comes on the top most list.”  

The next day Inspector Mike reached an apartment to find a girl in her Pyjamas crying. He goes into the room to find a body of a girl hanging on the fan with the same symbol of a white circle with a red dot in the centre but this time on arms it was carved “THE END”.

He asked the other girl about it but all she managed to tell was, “Laura and I shared this flat. We go to the same college.” Mike further asked” Is there something else you know about her?”

To which Mia only replied by saying, “Even though we share the same flat we never talk to each other much. The only thing I know is she spends almost half of her time at the City Library.

To gather further evidence he went to the Library and after inquiring the librarian who pointed him to the seat where Laura usually sits he started to search for evidence.

As he was searching he saw the same symbol of a white circle with the red drop on the centre on one of the books that was well hidden between some books.

The more Mike read the titles of each chapter the more his face lost colour.

Just by reading a few lines in every chapter he knew that what each story was about.

But after reading the last chapter it seems as if there was another page left.

It was written,

“I know that you are not the person who was regularly reading this. Your reading this book is an indication that the murderer is already dead. I’m extremely happy to know it.”

Mike took the book along with him and as he was driving back to station he realized that his car stopped in middle on the road. He had to call the mechanic.

In the mean time to find some more evidence and started check for the author’s name but then he realized that there is no author mentioned anywhere. And as he was flipping the pages he saw in the last page below the note that wrote,

“I know that you are not the person who was regularly reading this. Your reading this book is an indication that the murder is already dead. I’m extremely happy by it.”

It was written in the corner. “But sorry even you need to die.” That was all he knew when he saw a truck approaching near him in its maximum speed.

By the look on the drivers face it was clear that he had lost control of the vehical.