Short Horror Stories

Poisoned

In Japan there lived a vicious man called Shitai, and his unfortunate wife's name was O'lwa and he murdered her because he desired another woman. His wife had barely risen from childbirth when Shitai poisoned her, which caused her hair to fall out in bloody handfuls, her eyes to bulge from their sockets, and her pretty mouth to blacken. With certain death overcoming her she realized that her husband had poisoned her. In her despair, she killed her newborn and herself. He felt no remorse, for now he could do as he wished. He soon found that his dirty deed had a terrifying price. O'lwa appeared to him everywhere as a furious spirit. Everything he looked at assumed the staring ghostly face of O'lwa mouthing curses. He would find her there wailing over the lifeless body of their child. Her bitter accusations sounded ceaselessly in his ears. Defiant and undeterred, Shitai married his young mitress thinking that O'lwa would realize the futility of further hauntings. On the day of his wedding, he lifted his lover's bridal veil only to find O'lwa's ghostly image looking back at him in ghoulish disgust. Instantly, Shitai drew his sword and beheaded the terrifying specter. Silence fell on the gathering as to everyone's dismay he had murdered his bride, not the ghost.