Chapter-1

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DATE-3.11.16

"Hello?Anybody there?"

Called out Erica as she slowly opened the door of the antiquated house after knocking at it quite a few times.

"Hey , anyone here?"

She cried again as she slowly walked from room to room.

She stood at the middle of the apartment, wondering if to climb up the stairs or not. But then she proceeded and walked on to the next floor.

It was a very old house with dusty , floors and wooden doors which made creaky noises if swung open or closed. They were indeed so old that it seemed like if slammed too hard, the glass would break and fall off the window panes .

Erica searched all the rooms in that floor too. But nobody was there either. So she just threw off her luggage at a corner of one of the rooms and sat down on the floor ,resting her head against the wall.

"Seems like nobody is there. I should spend the night here maybe. Besides, I feel too tired to walk any further and this house looks alright to spend the night at least."

Erica got up and walked downstairs again. She closed the door and then walked back to the room where she was. She took out her stuffs from her bag and then changed her clothes. All she had was instant noodles with her, so she just took out a spoon and ate that. It was getting pretty cold . Erica came downstairs where she had previously spotted some logs by the fireplace. She lighted them to warm herself. Darkness was gathering and stormy winds suddenly began to whistle outside the house. Erica hurried up to get a torch before the winds blew the fire out through the crack in one of the windows in that floor . It was dying out fast as the storm grew stronger with time. She switched on her torch and its light fell on a shadowy face which appeared to be peeping from behind the door of one of the rooms. She felt startled for a moment and shook her head in disbelief thinking that maybe she was hallucinating. She switched the torch off again. Her phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket. It was her friend calling to see where she was.

"Hello?" Erica said answering her call.

"Hey, where are you now?"asked her friend.

"Can I talk to you later, it's too stormy here right now."said Erica

"Stormy? Really? But we decided to join you on your tour so we are in the town too right now and the forecast is showing that the weather is going to be dry for the next few days. Where the hell are you?" asked her friend.

"I am in some old apartment alone. It was empty so I decided to spend the night here. It is raining quite heavily over here , the forecast was definitely wrong."Erica said.

"We are staying in a hotel, shall I text you the address ?"

"Sure." said Erica as the thunder stuck really loud outside and the blinking light from the lightning fell on the same hazy face peeping from behind one of the rooms that Erica had noticed before. But soon as the light was out, the face was gone.

Erica felt really startled now and sat quite for a moment.

"Erica...?Hello?You still there?" asked her friend on the phone.

"Yah I am "said Erica ,returning to the call"Sorry, can I call you back?"

"Alright , take care. Hope to meet you soon."said her friend as Erica hung up real quick.

Her phone then flickered and she checked it. It was a text from an unknown contact and it read-"Save Conor."

"Who are you?" Erica texted back and soon the wind blew the fire out in the room.

"Damn it!" She exclaimed switching her torch on. She pointed it at the place where she had noticed the blurred face before. But nobody was there anymore. She slowly got up and advanced towards the room.

"Anybody there?" She called out as she walked.

"SAVE CONOR......."

Her blood ran cold as Erica clearly heard a whisper from behind herself. She turned around to see who it was. But there was nobody again.

"Who is it?"Yelled Erica.

"S......A.....V.....E..... H...I....M....." replied the same hissing voice out of nowhere.

Erica stood motionless for a moment not knowing what to do. 

"WHO ARE YOU?WHERE ARE YOU TALKING FROM?"Erica shouted.

The phone beeped again in her pocket and she took it out.

"Keep walking." read a message from the same contact.

"Who the heck are you?!" Erica sent a reply.

She felt too perplexed to walk any further but then the torch fell off from her hand and rolled down to the door of the room which she was walking to. She began breathing fast as her heart raced.She slowly walked to where the torch was and bent to pick it up. But again it rolled away  further inside the room.

"SAVE CONOR."

Erica heard the whisper again and it was closer this time. She stood straight up and turned around to look at it but again, nothing. 

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!WHO ARE YOU? IF YOU HAVE GUTS FACE ME!"Erica shouted in disgust.

Her phone flashed again and there was a text from the same number which said-

"YOU GOTTA SAVE CONOR."

"WHO IS CONOR?" she texted back.

The lightning stuck outside again and a mouse ran through the floor making Erica jump and run into the darkened room where her torch was.

She now bent to pick the torch up but it went off.

"NO WAY!" Said Erica picking it up. She was about to leave when again there was the mumble from behind-

"SAVE.......CONOR....!" and now it sounded like the one whispering was standing right behind Erica. She turned back again and spotted a mirrored cupboard beside the door. She now looked at it.

"S...........A....V.....E.....HIM!" Yelled an old lady with wrinkled face ,sunken cheeks and pupil-less eyes into Erica's ears and disappeared at once. Erica cupped her hands over her ears screaming in fright and soon she spotted in the mirror a young boy hanging by a rope from the ceiling behind her. She turned to look at it and the storm broke the windows at once and glass scattered all over the floor. The cold, bloodless torso of the young boy, hung from the roof as the door banged close from outside and the room began to echo with Erica's yelp for help followed the same murmur -

"S....A.....V....E.....C...O....N.....O....R.....!!!"

Erica's phone flashed again and the text read-

"Save him or you are dead."

Erica smacked recklessly at the closed door trying to escape but then the door broke and fell on her, pushing her down to the floor and then the whole cupboard with the mirror fell on that followed by the collapsing of all the other old furniture in the room over it all in a heap. A piece of an old newspaper settled over the whole pile  whose headline spelled-

"Yet another teenager hangs himself ,DATE-3.11.14-

Conor Roberts, age 19, a resident of a house at 33 Newland Street, killed himself due to lack of help reaching out to him."

Another piece of newspaper flew and settled itself on the previous one with the picture of the same old lady as the one Erica had spotted and the header read-

"66 year old woman found dead under a heap of furniture at  a house at 33 Newland Street. DATE:3.11.15"





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