SHORT HORROR STORIES

WITHIN

This story is set in the interior region of Gujarat, India.

Mohan is a poor farmer, he labour's hard for hours in the extreme heat during the day, this is not the type of heat which makes a person sweat profusely but specifically the extreme heat that burns and tears the skin making it hard and brittle. He works hard from morning till evening barefoot and yet finds it difficult to even accommodate one meal a day for his family. When the time comes to harvest the crops the landowner would gather it as a rent from the poor family accommodating their land. Such fate was faced by many poor farmers who were unable to pay for their rent, so they continued living in poverty and starvation.

Mohan and his wife Savitri, are expecting their first child, their family was soon going to expand, how was he going to fend for three people now, this thought tormented him day and night. When the child was born it was a girl, they couldn't afford to go to the village hospital so the village woman helped in the delivery. After hours of struggle a sharp crying of the child filled in the air. This was not much considered of a happy news to the villagers as they consider birth of a girl as a bad news this would mean that the parents will be burdened with the worries of dowry ( certain amount of money,furniture etc the bride's parents pay to the bridegroom's family).

But despite all this Mohan and Savitri loved their little bundle of joy and nurtured her with great care even with whatever little they had. But as the child grew up, they realized she was not well, her stomach was bloated in a rather abnormal way. This seemed to be a hindrance in her health. The parents took her to the village witch doctor, she took one glance at the child and screamed and began chanting prayers while pushing them out of her house and asking them to never come again. Devastated the parents left, the child seemed to become weak day by day, Mohan gathered whatever saving he had and decides to take his daughter to the hospital. A CT scan was done which revealed a large mass growing inside the child, the doctor examined her and said that for further medical checkup they must go to the hospital in the city for further examining.

Mohan was overcome with worries as he did not have money to go to the city, he decided to work double time to gather enough money, this would definitely take days or even weeks. A few days later the doctor came to his house and asked him why he did not go to the city, he clearly explained that he could not afford to go. The doctor understood his plight and decided to take them there himself. They left the following day.

Numerous medical tests were done by a group of doctors and they determined that the mass was infact a parasitic twin. It was living off the child that's why she was feeling weak, they decided to perform a surgery immediately. After the surgery the child became normal, as her twin was removed from her. The surgeons studied the mass closely, it was a mould of flesh and had what appeared to be tiny thin hands attached to the mould, it also had strands of hair and even teeth, all clustered together. This was the first case of parasitic twin surgery in the nation. Mohan returned to his village with his family happily. They had named their daughter Lata and as years rolled by they prospered , Mohan bought his own land and had employed servants. Savitri had two more children a son and a girl. Lata was now grown up and had been residing in the city for further studies.

One evening when Mohan was chopping wood with Axe outside his house, thought he saw someone standing at the gate and watching him, at a second glance the person was gone. This happened for the next few days, his wife also confessed one day that she kept seeing someone standing by the gate at times.

One particular night when they were asleep, he was awaken by a strange noise it seemed to be coming from the living room , it sounded like something heavy was being dragged across the floor. He walked out of his bedroom and turned the light on in the hallway , this casted some light into the living room. His eyes widened, his face cringed in disgust as he witnessed the cause of the sound. There was a large mould of flesh with hands attached to it, it dragged the mould across the floor and left a red stain on the floor. He recognized the mass, it continued to drag itself towards him. Suddenly it stopped, it started to change its shape after a few minutes it took a human form and stood up. He saw it's grisly​ face it looked exactly like Lata but he knew it wasn't her. It stood quietly in its place and then finally spoke in a raspy voice. "Why did you get rid of me?" , It asked sadly. "Don't you love me?", It said half sobbingly. Then it became quiet again and it chuckled evilly "It doesn't matter I am back now", it whispered. Suddenly his head turned all the way back, breaking his neck ,he fell down dead. Hearing the sound of him falling Savitri comes out of the room and finds him lying alone on the floor.

After the furneral, the family was grief stricken , Savitri instantly decided it would be for the best for the family to move to the city. In the evening one of the villagers came to see them but they were missing but they couldn't have moved out of the house because their furniture was still there. He assumed they must have gone someplace and came back the next day, but they were still gone. A search was done, their disappearance was reported to the police but even after numerous search the family was never found. Nobody knew what happened to them and never saw them again. The villagers tried to demolish their house at numerous times but they were unsuccessful at it, the house was also rented out but anyone who stayed in the house died. Throughout the years the place was considered to be cursed and people avoided going there. Children who are brave enough to go near the house and peek inside through the window claimed they saw the mould of flesh with arms dragging itself across the floor.