Monday, September 23, 2013

Halloween Stories: Part VIII

We received a lot of stories for our Halloween Hunt Writing Contest, and from September 16th we're publishing one each day until October 6th - when the Winner's story opens as a hunt!

Read them all and stay curious.. whose story got turned into the hunt?

The stories released are unedited and pasted as submitted to us.
- Kiana -



Today's story is by susieQ Rang
and it is called

Death Remembered


She raised her head, her vision blurry... she felt something wet on the back of her hand where her face had rested when she became aware of her surroundings. She looked down and saw the spreading trail of blood and reached up and touched her forehead and brought her fingers away, knowing that the blood was hers. Her eyes darted left and right, trying to focus and orientate to the ashy landscape around her as she remained laying on the cold rocky ground. As the world came into focus, she sees that she is lying by an old rusted out railcar. The railcar is tilted and obviously damaged from some wreck, but the wreck appears to have happened years or perhaps decades ago. She looks to her right and sees a dark tunnel like a mouth swallowing the ancient tracks that appear to go nowhere but into the blackness.

She pushes herself up, her elbows digging into the dirt and gravel, and she sighs in desparation and the beginning of a deep pain... a pain that isnt just from the forehead or her now grimy elbows. Her mind seems fogged and blank. She uses her hands to grab the side of the railcar and pulls herself to a seated position. Her hands shake and look grayish white in the dim light coming from the evening sky. She hears nothing and sees no life in the dirt or the sky above her, her body doesnt allow her to stand on her feet so she picks out a shape in the distance and focuses on it as she crawls away from the tracks. She doesnt feel any fear, she doesnt really feel any pain. Her mind is empty and she waits.. but she knows not on what she is waiting. Her hands and knees bleed as she scurries forward .. toward the dark shadows in front of her.

After some minutes, she notes that she is on a stone or concrete path.. "ah.. " she sighs and never stops her forward movement. Looking up and to her right, tall concrete walls rise up, and the rows of barbed wire at the top, cause her to shiver and move faster. No signs of life.. no feeling of hope or rescue, she feels nothing but the cold blankness of her own thoughts. Not knowing why she moves more quickly targeting one sole light in the distance.

Suddenly, she feels the whisper of a breeze move across her skin and the sound of chimes, tinkling chimes crying out in the growing wind. The wind picks up speed and her hair whips around her face, her eyes blaze in the darkness.. and sillouetted against the sky she sees a dead tree covered with movement. Wind chimes of all types twist in the wind.. and somehow they make her feel threatened. She uses the tree to brace herself and stands, wavering in the wind. As the darkness settles around her, she is finding that there are lamps and a sidewalk in front of her.. she stumbles but is able to walk on the uneven narrow street into what appears to be a town.

Finding herself beside a low wall, she uses it to steady herself and moves forward leaning on the wall. Putting her hand out to stop herself from falling over a protruding stone, she finds herself falling through an opening in the wall. The little courtyard seems to have a platform that she can see in the shadows and there appears to be a chair on it and she feels a moment of gratitude for finding a place off the ground to sit and rest and try to figure out where she is and WHO she is.. just as she is looking to mount the steps and sit on the chair she hears the flow of water. Her throat is dry and she suddenly feels a thirst and walks toward the sound.

"ooh" she puts her hand out and feels the cool wet stream flow across her skin. Reaching out she uses both hands to splash water across her cheeks and her tongue licks out across her fingers. She cups her hands and takes a sip and spits it out. She feels so thirsty but the water that sounds so good to her ears is not quenching her thirst, sighing, she uses it to freshen up and rinse off the blood from her face and hands. She licks out again to tastes the rinse water and takes another sip. It doesnt seem as bad as the first sip.. she licks across the cut on her hand and feels better.

Still weak she stumbles over to the platform and once again pulls herself up and moves to sit in the chair, her feet hitting against something on the foot rest and bumping her head as she drops into the chair. Sighing, she relaxes into the chair resting her arms on the arms of the chair and jerking as something clamps around her ankles then her wrists. She hears a buzzzz and sees the shadowing of an arc flashing around her head. She struggles and squirms in the seat, the light suddenly enough to see faces in the night. A jolt of power runs through her as they surround her, watching.. just watching her. As she struggles and fights the restraints holding her limbs. Suddenly her strength surges and she looks wildly around at the people smelling them, almost tasting them ..hungering.

With the flash of another jolt of electricity, she remembers the town and the rumors of the danger here.. the prison.. the train that would bring the prisoners from other towns here to die for their crimes. She remembers lying on the ground after the crash when entering the tunnel and how dark it became and then the pain in her neck. such pain and weakness that she forgot everything and resigned herself to death.



But death passed her, tapped her on the shoulder laughing and shouting "Your It! It is your time... You are the hunger now!" and she saw what she was and became one with the night, breaking the chains and she surveyed the faces in the darkness.. so long they lived on the terror of those they killed in their chair and now the hunger would gobble them up.. swallow them whole.. and she did.

The girl walked through the darkness, the town silent and dead... she remembered, her eyes shining through the night, she smiles baring her fangs and remembered she was not dead.

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