STAY AFRAID (A Horror Anthology)

#12 - Chain Letter

Dear anyone who's reading this.

Or anyone that might be interested in reading this. I am Gail. An ordinary, typical, boring high school girl who has recently received a haunting letter inside her bag. I really don't t have any idea who put it there, but when I came back from the cafeteria one hot Wednesday noon to take my lunch with Sid, my boyfriend, the letter was there, folded in half inside a seamless envelope. I asked my classmates who could have put it there, but they, too, had no idea. While waiting for Mr. Santos, our Science teacher, to arrive, I opened the letter and started reading it. It wasn't anything personal written to someone or a love letter of some sort. It was mostly random words that made no sense. But it's as if I was hearing someone's voice saying the exact words as I read them. I wasn't really sure what I was reading, but I knew it had something to do with a curse. At the bottom of the paper, it says: "P.S. Pass the word and you shall live. Failure to do so will ensure grave circumstances upon the reader."
I could almost hear my breath as I read the last sentence. Something felt really bad after reading that. But, I kept the letter anyway.

That night, I told my sister about it, and she said that someone might be pranking me or something, and that I shouldn't mind it and have a good sleep. But, sleep was scarce that night. The words kept whispering in my ear. Unfortunately, the first encounter happened that night. First, I thought it was only my imagination, but I kept hearing this clicking sound near our bedroom door. It was already past midnight and on the other side of the room where my sister was soundly sleeping on her bed, I could hear the clicking sound. Click, click, click. Then it stopped. Suddenly, it started again, but this time it was louder. You should know, our bedroom door was always never closed, so you could see what was outside. The hallway going to the living room, and on that open space between the door and on the outside, something shadowy passed, like someone crouching was running outside. This startled me and I jolted up on my bed, heart beating fast, catching my breath.

The next day, I didn't get much sleep. I kept on thinking about what happened last night, and that clicking sound and that shadowy figure who passed by our bedroom door. They gave me the chills, but I knew I had to come to my senses. Everything must have been my imagination.

The day went by quickly, and I found myself lying on my bed and thinking about what the last portion of the letter said. "Pass the word and you shall live," I whispered. But this night, the air felt more chilly and the temperature of the room suddenly dropped. I had to pull up my blanket a little bit more to keep myself warm. Sleep was again very hard to get tonight. If this would keep up, I'd get sick or something. I need to rest. And as I tried to close my eyes, the clicking sound started once more. I opened my eyes, shocked, because it was happening again. I was almost convinced earlier that everything must have been my imagination, but then, this was starting again. All of a sudden, it stopped. But, it resumed and this time it was no longer a clicking sound but a different one. It was as if someone was scratching on our door. Everything around us was dark so I could not see who or what was scratching our door, but I felt an immense fear inside me. I quickly hid under the safety of my blanket and listened to what was going to happen next. Then, everything went quiet. But not the quiet that was reassuring or comforting, it was the other way around. It was too quiet. Eerily quiet. Suddenly, the lights turned on. This surprised me that I unconsciously uncovered myself from the blanket. And what I saw in front of me brought unnerving chills all over my body.

On the wall, just beside where my sister was sleeping, were words written on what seemed to be blood.

"IT WILL TAKE YOU SOON"

I screamed and screamed in terror because of this. The next thing I heard was my sister rushing towards me, surprised of what was happening, and my parents running their way towards our room. I kept on pointing on the wall, but in a wink of the eye, the words disappeared.