Tales of Horror

Balloons

Zee was waiting for his friend outside the school on his bicycle. Meanwhile, he observes a man standing across the street with many balloons in his hand but hiding his face behind a weird mask. From his actions, it was clear that he was trying to sell his balloons to the school kids. However, his colorful balloons were not enough to turn a blind eye to his creepy look. His friend came out and they both too passed near by him and that man tried to sell his balloons to them as well but they kept pedaling to ignore him and went ahead. Like this, Zee would observe that masked man everyday at the same place but his balloon's number and color never seems to change as no one bothers to buy a single balloon from him, instead they would make fun of him and some bullies would even throw stones at him but he never raised his hand against them and it made zee feel sorry for the mask man. After finishing his school, Zee again passes near him but this time he stopped his bicycle and extended his hand to buy a balloon. At last, some one was willing to buy his balloon, this thought made him very happy which was visible in his actions. and It encouraged the boy to buy balloons from him everyday. and soon, a bond established between these two. But his friend doesn't like this and warns him to stay away if he doesn't want to be chopped into tiny pieces and another reason behind him hiding his face is that when he strangles his victims, they leaves some scratch marks on his face before losing their last breath. Zee wanted this to confirm from the masked man but from that day, he stopped coming with his balloons. One evening, on his way to home, the boy accidentally met with the masked man who was dumping a huge plastic bag near the garbage site with something leaking out of it and falling on his shoe- DRIP ! DROP !! DRIP ! DROP !!. He invited Zee to his home as it was nearby. While they were going forward, Boy turned back and saw some wild dogs dragging that plastic bag hovering with flies, inside the woods. At reaching his home, Masked man goes to prepare tea for him and Zee went on to look around the house. The masked man came back with tea and Zee decided to inquire him about the rumors. The masked man had wrote everything in his old diary like how his father was an animal who would beat his wife and child mercilessly until he wouldn't get tired. and this cruelty left marks on his face and made him lost his voice too. The boy felt empathy for him and as it was getting late, the masked man sent him off. Next day came, and school finished on time. But when boy came out, he notices that a newspaper cutting under his foot about another finding of a dead man who have been accused of being an abusive father to his children and this number is increasing day by day. With this, an image flashes out in front of Zee's eyes of last night when he saw a man being tied in ropes in one room of masked man's house. He picks it up but when he sees masked man across the road waving his hand to him, he lets it go. Zee waves back with a smile as "He wants the cause of his bruises to go missing too." 

End.....