Short Gothic Horror stories

The Stalker Who Kills

A shadow swept across under a streetlight, trying to stay hidden in the dark, waiting for their next victim. For the past few months, this murderer had taken the lives of 10 families in Melrose, South Australia. The shadow is a wanted murderer who never got caught and never been seen other from their victims. People call this murderer 'The Phantom Slayer' all because they're as quiet as a shadow but as fast as a phantom. Some people even think that 'The Phantom Slayer' is a vengeful spirit, taking revenge from the people that caused them pain in the past. Others think that they are a psychopath and just killing for fun. There are some truths behind both of those claims...

Earlier that day, a young women named Hailey Downs was working in her eldest cousin's coffee shop in town. Hailey had been working there since she was 15 and still works there in her early 20's, she's the most respected worker in the coffee shop to the point where everyone knew her name. She loves working in the shop but feels uneasy when this one particular customer comes in, he goes by the name Clay. Hailey always feels like he's watching her whenever she works during his stay, he always arrived between 11-12am and always leaves around 3pm. As usual, Hailey is taking people's orders when Clay came in, Hailey finished taking the order of her favourite customer and friend, Ashley who this time is with her boyfriend, Alex, she told them that their order will be out soon and went into the back where the kitchen is. Hailey asked if her best work friend, Liam can take Clay's order. It was quite normal for her to ask Liam to take Clay's order, it was also quite normal for Liam to take Clay's order for Hailey's sake. Hailey started making Ashley and Alex's order while Liam goes and takes Clay's order.

After a few hours later, Hailey's shift ended. She packed up her stuff and clocks out for the day. She went out of the shop and walked home, when she got home, she unlocked the door and locked it when she got inside. She watched/listened to her favourite show on tv and read a book she recently bought. When the time hit 5pm, she got up and started making her dinner which took 30 minutes to make and 5-10 minutes to cook. At around 6pm, she ate her dinner and went back to watch/listen to something on tv while still reading her book. What she didn't know was that 'The Phantom Slayer' was watching her outside her loungeroom window that was behind her. 'The Phantom Slayer' left after an hour to continue their murder spree before it becomes midnight since the police are starting to patrol at midnight. The police had no idea that 'The Phantom Slayer' already knew of their plan because the said person actually is one of people that's supposed to be patrolling at midnight that night.

At midnight, Clay and his colleagues patrolled the area to see if they see 'The Phantom Slayer' or anything that looked out of place. Nothing was out of place, which would make sense since most people would be at home sleeping, 'wanting' to see if 'The Phantom Slayer' was around, the patrolling officers waited a few hours until 4am. The left to go back to the station to tell them about their report on the area and went home to either get some sleep or stayed up watching something. At 5am, Hailey got up and got changed into casual clothes since today is her day off from work, she walked out of her room to the kitchen to make some coffee to get rid of her sleepiness and to make some breakfast too. After making the coffee and her breakfast, she walked to her loungeroom to watch something on the tv while starting to eat her breakfast. After finishing her breakfast and coffee, Hailey realised she got a message from an unknown number... The message said a poem, the poem goes something like this, 'Your heart is red, my heart is black, you'll be mine when you least suspect, there is no running from me you see, you can't escape my love'. This poem made Hailey's blood go cold, she was thinking a million thoughts per second, but the main ones were 'who was this?', 'why did they send me this?' and 'why did they choose me?'. Hailey called Ashley and told her about the poem, Ashley told her to go to the police to talk to them about it, Hailey didn't want to go alone so Ashley decided to go with her.

Ashley arrived at her house 10 minutes after the phone call and they both went to the police station together. After being at the police station for an hour, the two ladies decided to go shopping to get Hailey's mind of the poem, Ashley told Hailey that she would pay for everything, Ashley works as the CEO of this well-known company, she only became the CEO because her father was the one who founded the company. After the shopping trip, they didn't buy much, only just few new clothes, some of the clothes were matching to show Hailey and Ashley's friendship while other clothes didn't, the both of them decided to split up when walking past the police station since their houses aren't in the same directing at that point. When Hailey was walking home by herself, she felt like she was being watched, she looked around to see no one was looking at her considering it was just other people just living their lives. She continued walking home, still feeling like she's been watched, when she reached home, she quickly unlocks the door, rushing inside and locking the door behind her. She quickly put the shopping bags down and started closing all the curtains in her house to stop anyone from looking inside her house.

Later that night, Hailey ate dinner later than usual. She went to bed a few hours later, hoping she is safe in her own house but hoping for it won't stop her stalker...

'The Phantom Slayer' thought that Hailey was at someone else's house because her car wasn't parked on her driveway. The reason why her car wasn't there was because her younger cousin was borrowed the car. 'The Phantom Slayer' locked pick a window and enters through the window, what he didn't know that Hailey had her parents dog staying with her while her parents were out of town on vacation. The said dog is called Peanut, Peanut ran to outside of Hailey's room and started barking and scratching the door to get her up, so she knows about the intruder. Hailey did wake up to the sound of Peanut's attempts to get her up, she quietly opens the door and peeked her head out to see the intruder down the hall, their back facing her. Once she looked at them, she recognised the intruder, he was the creepy guy, Clay, who kept watching her at her work. She quickly let Peanut in and locked the door to her room, quietly calling 000, thankful she got someone as soon as she called, she quietly told them of Clay breaking into her house. They were confused considering that Clay was one of the most friendly and sweetest people they know. They told Hailey while thinking she's mistaken the intruder as Clay, to grab something sharp or something that can be used as a weapon if he gets into her room and to stay quiet. Hailey quietly told them her address hoping they come quickly to her house, she quickly grabbed her pocketknife from her nightstand for protecting and quietly hid under her bed with Peanut, she put her phone faced down and on silent, so Clay doesn't know where she is if he breaks into her room. To make sure that Peanut doesn't make any noise, she let him bite her hand.

After a few minutes of silence in the air, her bedroom doorknob started jiggling making Hailey know that Clay knows that she's in there. In less than a minute, Clay got into her room and started looking around to find her, the first place he looked was her closet, before he can check under her bed, police sirens were heard, making Clay start running to the open door where he broke in. Running out the house, trying to run away but Peanut jumped on him and kept him from going anywhere. The police finally got to where Peanut and Clay were, they got Peanut off him and arrested Clay for breaking in. Hailey got out from under the bed when she knew she was safe and went out to the police officers and explained about when Clay first showed up to her work and up to the present. They told her that they will need to her testimony in court, which she agreed to.

A few years later, Hailey, got a job as a story/script writer for films, television series, advertainments and plays and she even created her own book based on the event that happened to her, Hailey's friend Ashley got married to Alex, Liam moved in with Hailey and Clay got sentenced to life in prison after discovering that he was behind all the killings. Hailey's fans wonder what the next chapter to Hailey's life will be...