Scary stories I wrote

Awake Under the Knife

Mia had always been afraid of hospitals. The sterile smell of antiseptic, the dim, humming lights, and the cold, unwelcoming feel of the place made her skin crawl. But the headaches had gotten worse-so unbearable that she could no longer sleep, eat, or even think. The doctors said surgery was her only option, that something was pressing against her brain. They assured her it would be routine, nothing to worry about.

The day of the surgery came, and Mia found herself lying on the operating table, surrounded by masked faces. The anesthesiologist counted down, her vision blurred, and before long, she drifted into unconsciousness.

But then, something happened.

Mia opened her eyes, blinking against the bright lights overhead. She could hear voices-muffled, distant, but clear enough to recognize as the surgeons speaking. The problem was, she couldn't move. She couldn't speak. Her body lay motionless on the table as if still under anesthesia, but her mind was wide awake. Panic gripped her, and she tried to scream, but no sound came out.

She was trapped inside her own body.

The surgeons began their work. Mia could feel the scalpel slice through her skin, feel the pressure as they cut deeper. Pain, sharp and excruciating, shot through her skull, but she was helpless to stop it. She couldn't flinch, couldn't cry out. All she could do was endure it.

As they worked, something strange began to happen. The voices of the surgeons seemed to change-deepen, distort, as if spoken by something inhuman. The lights overhead flickered, and Mia could swear she saw shadows moving along the edges of the room. Whispers, soft at first, then louder, filled her mind, voices that were not her own.

"She's awake," one of them said, though none of the surgeons reacted. "She can feel everything."

Mia's heart pounded. Could they hear it? Could they see her panic? But no-if they did, they gave no sign. Their hands moved mechanically, methodically, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

But something was out of the ordinary.

The whispers grew louder, more insistent. "Let us in," they chanted, over and over. "Let us in!"

Then, the pain vanished. Just like that, as if a switch had been flipped. Mia felt...nothing. Not her body, not the operating room-just a chilling numbness. The voices had stopped. The operating room fell silent, too silent.

And then, a voice-clearer than the rest-spoke inside her head.

"You're not coming back."

Mia wanted to scream, to fight, but something cold and heavy gripped her consciousness. It was pulling her down, down into a place where she could no longer feel her own thoughts. Darkness swirled around her, swallowing her whole, and she realized with mounting horror that the surgery hadn't just opened her body.

It had opened her mind.

When Mia finally woke up in the recovery room, the nurses smiled and congratulated her on a successful surgery. She should have felt relief, but she didn't. Something was wrong. There were new voices in her head, whispering, laughing, like they belonged there now. She tried to shake them off, tried to convince herself it was just a side effect of the anesthesia.

But deep down, Mia knew.

The surgery had let something in. Something that wasn't going to leave.

And every time she looked in the mirror, she could see them-tiny, flickering shadows just behind her eyes, watching her every move, waiting for their chance to take over completely.

Word count, not including this: 585