One Short Story A Day

July 24, 2024

Prompt: On Halloween night, you find a box at your door that contains a strange note and a little something from each of the people who have hurt you in the past year.

It was Halloween night, and the air was thick with an eerie sense of anticipation. As I opened my front door to retrieve the candy I had left out for trick-or-treaters, I noticed a small box sitting on my doorstep. Curiosity piqued, I picked it up and brought it inside.

The box was plain, with no markings or indication of where it came from. Intrigued, I opened it to find a strange note and a collection of small items. The note simply read: "Happy Halloween. A little something from each of those who have wronged you this year."

My heart raced as I examined the contents of the box. Inside were a variety of objects, each one a reminder of the hurt and pain I had endured over the past year. There was a broken toy that symbolized the friend who had betrayed me, a wilted flower from the colleague who had stabbed me in the back, and a small piece of burnt paper from the ex-lover who had left me heartbroken.

I felt a chill run down my spine as I realized the implications of the mysterious gift. It was as if someone had been watching me, collecting evidence of my pain and suffering, and now they were sending it back to haunt me on Halloween night.

I tried to shake off the feeling of unease that gripped me and pushed the box aside. But as the night wore on, I couldn't escape the nagging sense of dread that lingered in the air. Every creak of the floorboards, every shadow in the corner of my eye, seemed to whisper of impending doom.

As the clock struck midnight, a sense of foreboding washed over me. I couldn't ignore the feeling that something sinister was about to happen. And then, it began.

A faint tapping at my window drew my attention, and I saw a ghostly figure silhouetted against the moonlit sky. It was the form of a woman, her face twisted in a mask of malice. I gasped in horror as I recognized her as the ex-lover who had broken my heart.

I tried to scream, but no sound came out. The figure beckoned to me, floating closer and closer until she was standing right in front of me. Her eyes bore into mine, filled with a hatred that chilled me to the core.

And then, she spoke. "You thought you could forget about me, erase me from your life. But I will never let you go, never forgive you for what you did to me."

I trembled in fear as she reached out a hand towards me, her touch like ice against my skin. And then, in a flash of darkness, she was gone, leaving me alone in the empty room.

I sat there, shaking with terror, unable to comprehend what had just happened. The box and its contents lay before me, a sinister reminder of the past year's pain and suffering.

But the night was far from over. As I tried to gather my wits and make sense of what had occurred, I heard a soft whispering in the shadows. It was the voice of the friend who had betrayed me, the colleague who had stabbed me in the back.

They circled around me, their voices filled with malice and anger. "You thought you could escape us, leave us behind. But we will always be with you, haunting your every step, reminding you of the pain you caused us."

I closed my eyes, praying for it all to be a terrible dream. But when I opened them again, the ghostly figures were still there, their eyes blazing with fury.

I knew then that I was trapped in a nightmare of my own making, a twisted Halloween horror brought to life by the vengeful spirits of those who had wronged me.

As the night stretched on, the whispers grew louder and the shadows darker. I was lost in a maze of fear and regret, haunted by the specters of my past.

And when the first light of dawn finally broke through the darkness, I knew that I would never be free from the ghosts of Halloween night, or the memories of the pain they brought.