Fear of the Uninvited

Jake would not listen to him, he never believed in ghosts or creatures of the night.

  “Walking to death itself? This is a mine! You’ve been in one before! What’s the chance that this is the ‘death mine’ you’re talking about?”

  “It’s already 6:00! I want to get back home in time for dinner.”

  “Oh don’t be such a coward! Nothing will happen.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “That is because there is no such thing as ‘walking to my death’ leave alone dead creatures!”

  “You don’t even know what life is itself! How would you know about death?”

  Jake paused. He could tell in Andy’s voice that he was frightened and really didn’t want to go inside. “Fine, then I will go by myself, you go back home. See you tomorrow!”

  “Alright, see you then.” Andy felt annoyed and let go of Jake. He started to walk away from the mine; but then he stopped and looked back at Jake.

  “What?” Jake asked, still watching Andy leave. “Changed your mind?”

  “Don’t die.”

  Jake ignored Andy’s remark and continued walking into the mine. He had to bend down a little because the ceiling was getting lower and the sides were narrowing. As he walked deeper into the mine he heard faint noises; were that footsteps? Yes, definitely footsteps, they were slow and sounded sloppy. Another footstep sounded like clicks. “Hello? Anyone there?” No response. He kept going.

  “That Jake! I can’t believe it!” Andy was outside of the mine pacing and muttering. “Just who does he think he is? He’s not even that strong! All of that was just talk! He’s definitely scared.” Andy stopped. Did he hear something? “What was that?” He heard it again. That was Jake screaming! “Jake? What’s going on?” Andy heard the screams again. He gathered all his courage and rushed into the mine to see what was going on.

  Andy ran as fast as he could. “Jake?” The mine got narrower, “Jake? Where are you?” Andy listened, but the screaming had stopped. “Jake?” He said again but this time quieter. Andy stopped walking. He heard footsteps. It sounded like someone was running towards him.

  “Andy, get out of here!” He felt Jake squeezing past him, he was clutching his right arm. “Come on!” Andy tried to look deeper into the mine as he heard more footsteps from behind. And that’s when he saw it, a skeleton walked out of the darkness, next to it was a zombie with one eye gouged out, and one arm was clean off. Andy gasped.

  “Woah! What?” Andy freaked out and ran after Jake. When Andy was outside of the mine, he saw that Jake was waiting for him. “What I saw…was it real?”

  “Keep running! Don’t look back!” Jake pulled Andy; they ran back into the forest and when they were sure they were far away from the mine, they climbed into a tree.

  “Jake, are you alright? Your arm looks horrible. Why do we have to climb a tree anyway?” Andy saw blood rolling down Jake’s arm.

  “Just to make sure those creatures don’t see us. Jake looked down from the tree then back at Andy. “I need to ask you a favor.” Jake said and hesitated. “I know this will sound selfish but it’s for your own good.”

  “What is it? It better not be something crazy again.” Andy said and took out a bandage. Jake refused it.

  “That’s not going to work, silly. Look, I got bitten by that creature.”

  “No way! Does that mean you’re going to become one of them?” Andy hoped Jake would say no.

  “Yes I will. That’s why I need to ask you something.”

  “What is it?”

  “Kill me.”

  “What?”

  “Kill me!”

  “No!” Andy refused and realized that he was crying. “Why would you ask me that? That’s absurd!” Jake pulled out a knife.

  “Use this.”

  “Did you hear me? I said no!” Andy was sad and furious at the same time. “You really expect ME to kill YOU?”

  “If you're my friend then you would do it. If I turn into one of those creatures then I will kill you.” Jake said calmly, which made Andy filled with fury.

  “You’re not scared, huh?”

  “Maybe a bit.” Jake sighed. “But if I die here then no one will get hurt.”

  “You think I wouldn’t be hurt? Or your family?”

  “Just do it! I’m feeling really numb now, hurry!” Jakes voice was getting weaker. “A river can’t flow backwards, even if you try.” It took Andy a while to understand what he was saying.

  “Thank you for everything, Jake.” Andy paused while wiping the tears from his eyes. “What do you want me to do?” Jake smiled and held out a knife.

  “Take it, wait till I have changed, then use it.”

  “Got it.”

  The moment came quickly; Andy raised the knife. Just when it hit his friend, he realized that the one who was killed in his nightmare was Jake. And he was the one who killed him.

  The Haunted Book

  “See you tomorrow, Kyle.”

  “Goodbye.”

  It was 11:30p.m. Kyle was on his way home from his friend’s graduation party. It reminded him of his own graduation party just a year ago. It was ruined because food and drinks kept disappearing and no one could figure out how it happened. Kyle was the only one who thought he saw the thief; he had white hair so probably was old. The rest was covered in darkness. He was almost like a ghost lurking in the night.

  Kyle walked past a 24-hour bookshop. It looked small from the outside but was huge when he made his way in. The bookshop was dusty and the air smelled like burning wood. The books looked old and were covered in dust, as if nobody had touched them for ages. Kyle glanced around and saw that he was the only customer. He wasn’t surprised. It was late after all. Behind the counter was an old man who was very skinny and had a wrinkly face. He looked up and stared at him with lifeless eyes. Kyle felt like he had seen him before.

  “Welcome!” The old man said slowly. His dry, wrinkly lips curved into a smile. Kyle smiled back and looked around, he decided to have a look in the non-fiction section. Without moving his head, the old man’s eyes followed him until he disappeared behind the shelves.

  Kyle’s eyes ran past the titles of a number of books on the shelves and stopped at one of them, ‘The Haunted House’. Kyle looked confused at first. ‘Why is this in the non-fiction side? Maybe someone accidentally put it there…’ Kyle thought and took the book from the shelf. It looked torn and dented as if someone had thrown it off the roof of a building. This could be an interesting book to read. He went up to the counter, the old man’s eyes looked from the book to Kyle and smiled.

  “Beware, this book was in the non-fiction side for a reason.” The old man claimed. “That will be $49.95, please.” Kyle just stared into the man’s eyes. ‘What does he mean by for a reason?’ He thought. He took out his wallet, paid for the book and quickly made his way of the bookstore. He looked at his watch, 11:50.

  Kyle opened the door to his house, locked it behind him and went upstairs holding the book under his arm. He kept on thinking about the old man’s words when he was buying the book. ‘Could this be a true story?’ Kyle thought. He sat down on a comfy chair in his bedroom, opened the book and read out loud: “There was a loud explosion and the lights flickered off.” Kyle stopped reading when he heard a rumbling sound from below, followed by a loud explosion outside. He ran to the window, that’s when suddenly the lights went out. Kyle looked out of the window and saw that his car was blown to pieces and on fire.

  “What! How could this have happened…?” Kyle said in disbelief. He flicked the light switch but the lights didn't respond. He grabbed his phone and called the fire brigade.

  “995, what’s the emergency?”

  “My car exploded, it’s on fire!”

  “Calm down, sir. Where is the car now?”

  “Number 5 Meruth Lane.”

  “Is anyone hurt or still in the car?”

  “Nobody.”

  “The Police are on their way. They will be there in three
minutes; the fire brigade is on the way too. Don’t go near the fire.”

  “Okay.” Kyle hung up the phone and looked out of his window. He watched outside until he saw Police motorcycles arrive. They looked at the scene. A minute later the fire brigade arrived. They immediately took out the fire hose and extinguished the fire. Kyle saw his neighbors look out of their doors and windows to see what was going on. Once the fire was out, he sighed in relief.

  That night, Kyle lay on his bed trying to sleep, but couldn’t. The incident played in his head again. Something felt suspicious about that book; the old man’s words ran through his head. Then he realized what he meant. The book was in the non-fiction section because it was a true story; ‘Could it be that whatever you read becomes reality?’ Kyle thought. He sat up and looked at the book that was lying on the table. ‘I’m going to see if that book is the real problem.’ He walked over to the table and picked up the book. He continued reading where he had left off. “There was a knock on the door…He went to open it, no one. He felt a tap on his shoulders…” Kyle closed his eyes instantly; he didn’t want to read anymore. He waited for the worst. Then there it was, the knock on the door. He wanted to ignore it and tried not to make a sound, but the pounding on the door got louder. Kyle wondered what he was going to do. He ran downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed two knives just in case.

  He made his way to the door then stopped. He remembered the sentence. ‘If there is no one at the door then I will have to look behind.’ Kyle got nervous and a bit scared. He didn’t know what would be behind