Short stories

In the Shadows

"Have I ever told you the story of 'bloody Mary' Chlo?" My oldest sister Olivia, 20, asks me. Tessa, 18, merely glances at us over the top of her phone pretending to not care much.

The three of us were on my bed sitting in a circle with Tess at the head of the bed, Liv at the foot and me in the middle, sitting rigidly with a torch clutched in my hand, nervously awaiting the horror story my sister is about to relay. I didn't show it of course – as a 15 year old horror stories shouldn't be all that scary to you – but I was terrified of ghosts and everything related to the paranormal world. To make it worse, it was raining cats and dogs outside with thunder sounding like the bang of angry drums and occasional lightning flashes sometimes brightening up the room for a split second before returning it back to its normal dim glare.

I shook my head mutely in answer and Liv smiles naughtily. We don't hang out much due to Liv almost always being busy with college or her part time job and Tess with – well, actually I don't really know about Tess, and me with high school obviously. A thunderstorm or when we're home by ourselves is about the only time we do hang out, for the sole purpose of narrating scary stories, and luckily for us today was both a thunderstorm and we were home alone, our parents having left for some party at a friend's.

Liv reaches for a torch in the pile in between us – there was one more for Tess – and switches it on before pointing it upwards on her face. The effect was less spine chilling than if the room lights had been off but still a bit spine chilling. Lightning flashes again, distorting Liv's features even more.

"Well then you're going to love this," she says, still smiling creepily, "There was once a man who was jailed on false charges and the night after he was set free he went off in search of the person who had accused him of the charges. He entered the house and found the person in the bath tub and murdered her in the most gruesome manner possible. But, alas, it was a mistake and he had entered the wrong house and killed the wrong person. Now, it is said that Bloody Mary, who was murdered wrongly seeks her revenge on all souls. They say that if you were to go into the bathroom at 12 midnight and look into the mirror while saying 'Bloody Ma--"

Liv stopped suddenly at an extra loud crash of thunder. Lightning flashed once more too and suddenly it went dark all around us.

Thunder soon followed and we all screamed and in the small light of our torches I saw Liv jump across to the head of the bed and soon we were all frozen together, hugging each other till our heart beats steadied again. We started laughing but stayed at the head of the bed each of us gripping our torches tightly. Even Tess looked pretty startled.

Liv pushed us away and shone her torch on our faces playfully, "What a bunch of scaredy cats," she teased. I gave her a light push and Tess rolled her eyes as we all giggled lightly, already feeling stupid.

Then I heard something that made me freeze all over again.

"What was that?" I question in a whisper. Liv listens intently, knowing by the look on my face that I'm being serious. Tess hears it immediately though and her face pales,

"It's...it's coming from down the stairs."

Liv lifts a brow, "I don't hear anything."

Right as she says that we hear it again. It sounds like some sort of mini thunder, but it's from inside the house. Liv always the sharp, observant one, immediately goes in a whisper, "It's from the kitchen. Sounds like two pans hitting against each other."

"But... wh– who's hitting them?" I stutter softly, my blood running colder than ice in my veins. Tess looks blank, her skin's still pale but she doesn't look terrified, just disconcerted. Liv looks concerned and fearful. Her gaze rests on the bedroom door.