Stuff of Nightmares: A Collection of Short Horror Stories

A World of Blood

Cold. Cold.

The sky turns a sickening blood red and mauve as I race inside. The birds stop singing. The wind stops blowing life. I watch the thermometer fall to zero, fall past zero. My breath makes little pale spirits, dancing in front of me, fading as the sun is swallowed by the clouds. Almost like the demons have finally risen and overthrown the God of life.

Movement upstairs. I start, dragged back to the hellish reality from my reverie. I snatch a candle and light it. Relief floods through me. The imaginary monsters melt away into the shadows, frightened by the light.

"Mum?" I call, my voice thin and high, barely audible. The candle's flickering light throws the sofa into sharp relief, but its shadow lurks menacingly behind it. I gulp.

Up above, something creaks again.

I creep across the carpet, shoes squeaking loudly in the semi-darkness. My breath comes in quick, painful pants and my heart pumps thunderously. Shadows hover around, hiding just out of sight whenever I turn around. I can never catch a glimpse of them, except out of the corner of my eye.

"Mum?" I repeat, the fear prominent now. Darkness pours into the spaces that my light leaves as I step onto the bottom of the staircase. The silence is suffocating me. I begin to ascend, each step making the wood beneath me groan and my heart to miss a beat. I dare not call again - my heart has lodged in my throat. I can barely breathe.

Halfway up. Each step is cautious and careful. I look up anxiously. There is a part where the ceiling suddenly rises up, and in those deep, unpredictable corners I can swear a shadow monster crouches there. My neck tingles as the beast stares at me, almost as though it is deciding whether or not to spring.

Almost there. My heart squeezes in, a cold fist gripping the pumping muscle. The candle is like a constant comfort, reassuring me, rooting me to sanity.

My left foot reaches the top step. Where was everyone? Mum? I can't shout for her, for, deep down, I know that any slight sound I make will cause all the nightmarish creatures to materialise. My parents' room is at the end of the corridor. I know that they are in there, with my brother. I can feel it.

All the doors along the corridor are shut, unimaginable horrors promised inside. My lifesaving ball of light throws the creatures aside, but they creep back again once the light passes. Their silent snarls send shivers all around my body.

My hand hovers above the doorknob. Heat and cold radiate simultaneously from the door. Shadows push their fingers around the edges of the doors, hissing at me.

I can't turn around. The monsters of darkness are right behind me, their freezing breath feeling like knives pushing into my neck. Open, I will myself, open.

The tension is unbearable. I shut my eyes, clamp my hand on the doorknob, twist it and push it away with all my might. I instantly feel the creatures spring away.

"Mum!" I cry, love and relief and reassurance all in one word. Knowledge of safety, security and happiness fill my heart and I open my eyes, beaming.

Hell is unleashed.

***

Blood red chamber. Dark pools of blood collect at the base of the walls from where they drip from the ceiling, as though the room itself is injured. The walls, no longer cadmium yellow and jolly, is cracked and streaked with thick, scarlet goo.

In the centre of the room lies a female figure. Her usually soft brown curls are matted and bloodied, her face turned away from me, her body collapsed and bent at sickening angles.

I stand rooted to the spot, staring in petrified horror at the corpse of my mother. She twitches and makes growling noises. A small shape emerges from her other side, teeth clamped around her neck and tearing left and right viciously.