You Won’t Make It Through The Night

The storm was fierce and dark clouds cast a shadow over the small town. Romeo had to take shelter somewhere. He was returning home from school, and, as usual, took the shortcut through the pine forest. His friends never dared to accompany him on this route, especially in the evening, when the wind made the leaves rustle and the trees cast long crooked shadows. But Romeo was not an imaginative person, and fear was somewhat alien to him. But today, the weather was merciless, the sky was raven black, and he was a long way from home. He hurried down the path, a little lost, looking for some kind of shelter, for he knew he would be caught up in the storm within a few moments. And it was then, he suddenly noticed a small bungalow. He knew he would have to take shelter there for the night.

He approached the bungalow hurriedly. It was in a decrepit state, he observed. It looked abandoned. The wooden door appeared to open by itself as he was about to enter the house. “Must be the wind”, he thought. He stepped into a large living room. It was very dark inside. Romeo found a candle lying on the windowsill of the living room. He dug out a lighter from his pocket, and lighted the candle. A half-broken mirror, a steel almirah, a torn carpet and shattered windows were all that remained of the living room. But the bed was perfect with pillows arranged, a folded blanket, clean bedsheets, as though someone was expected. He looked at the half-broken mirror on the wall, took the comb lying beside it and tried to comb his unruly hair…

…but he saw no image of himself in the mirror!

 He tried to look at the mirror from all angles, but his reflection was still missing. He was not a curious or intelligent boy, if he were, then he would have had the sense to run away right then, but he just shrugged and put it out of his mind. The house was full of shadows, shadows with odd shapes, shadows that were just pretending to be still, camouflaged among the other shadows of the furniture.

Romeo kept the candle burning and slipped into sleep. As he slept, he heard whispers. He thought he was dreaming and let the whispers continue.

“What's going on?”

“This boy has come. He is lost! Ha! ha! ha!”

“Let's devour him! I'll have the legs!”

“No, first we are going to decide how to kill him”?

“Let's strangle him!”

“I say we bite his throat”.

“No, let's kill him with a knife”.

“Yesssss!”

The last word sounded remarkably real to Romeo as he woke up, startled! He looked around the room but there were no signs of movement. The candle had burnt out. As he was about to get out of bed to light the candle, a knife landed on the floor right in front of his feet, missing his toes by an inch. He picked up the knife and then looked above him, but there was nothing unusual to be seen. “It must have been on the bed and fell while I got up,” he convinced himself. He threw the knife outside the window and went to light the candle again. As soon as he lit the candle, he felt something move behind him. He turned around swiftly, only to see his shadow cast on the wall by the yellow gleam of the candlelight. But was it really his shadow? ...was his shadow really that crooked…maybe yes…maybe no…but Romeo did not care, he was tired and wanted to sleep. He threw himself back to the bed and closed his eyes…and the shadows moved.

Romeo tried to sleep again with disturbed thoughts which had started to bother him. He fell asleep much quicker than he had expected, and the whispers started again in his dream…or in the very room he was sleeping!

“You missed him!”

“Only by an inch.”

“I knew a knife would never work!”

“How are we going to eat him, anyway?”

“We will put some salt on him and boil him”.

“How about roasting him whole and making a curry with his brain!”

“Brain curry sounds good!”

“I can't wait anymore, let's kill him fast”.

“This time I will decide how.”

“Let’s suffocate him!”

“Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!”

The evil laughter still echoed in Romeo’s ears as he tried to get up and breathe, but his breathing was stopped by something. Desperate for breath, he moved the pillow which was pressed tightly on his face. He flung the pillow, got up from the bed, fetched his things to leave from this cursed house. He had had enough!  Just as he was about to leave, the wind blew the candle out. He stood still in the dark, feeling vulnerable to some unknown predator. His blood froze. Suddenly there was an uncanny laughter behind him, and he waited no more…he ran straight for the door, flung the door with all his might, and ran for his life out into the stormy night, as a shrill scream rung throughout the forest in disappointment, in anger, that its prey had escaped. It was a scream that was just evil, just dreadful, a scream that bypassed the ears to bring a chill right to the heart.

Romeo did not stop running till he reached home. His trousers were covered in thorns, his face had injuries from being hit by tree branches, his shoes were wet with mud, but he thanked god for being able to reach home alive. He congratulated himself on finding his way home even in the dark stormy night…where anything was hardly visible. Laughing to himself, he sat down his bed and wiped his sweaty face with his shirt. It was too dark, so he took grabbed the lighter from his pocket and lighted the candle, which he found on the windowsill. Yellowish light filled his room…wait a second…his room? Did his room have shattered windows? Did his room have a steel almirah? Did his room have a half-broken mirror? Romeo stood still, trying to process his thoughts…he sensed movement behind him. Just as he turned around a gust of cold wind blew in from the window and blew the candle out.