I. Happy Birthday! ... Or not!

 

Andy, almost 30 years old, had moved to Silent Hill Village. Finally he had enough money, thanks to his dead uncle, to move far away from his parents.
  For as long as he remembers, his parents were very rude to him. When he was a child, he wasn’t allowed to play with the other kids in the neighborhood. After college, he got a job at the local post office, and after his favorite uncle died, he became rich. So he quit his job and used his uncle’s money to start a new life elsewhere.
  He bought a small house with an empty swimming pool in the back yard. The house looked old. There was a big living room and a kitchen on the ground floor. Upstairs was a bedroom, a bathroom, and a wooden door leading to the attic.
  At eight p.m. Andy was sitting in the living room watching T.V. Now that he had enough money to have a two years-long vacation, he had no worries.
  -Finally, I can do whatever I want! Maybe I’ll throw a huge party on my birthday. I can have a lot of beautiful girls, get drunk ...
  Then he looked at the mirror on his right side. A handsome man with brown hair and blue eyes smiled at him: HAPPY B-DAY, ANDY! Man, I must be tired if I’m talking to my reflection. Maybe I’ll get some sleep.
  Andy turned off the T.V. and went up to his bedroom. After he got in bed, his eyes closed heavily. But the minute he went asleep, someone grabbed his arms and threw Andy beside the bed.
  -What the hell?! He asked scared and pissed at the same time. Oh, man! I must have felt out of the bed. Come Andy, get your lazy butt in bed.
  Five minutes later, Andy falls off again. This time he started laughing, thinking that the bed doesn’t like him. The third fall was however the last straw.
  -OK, who’s the jerk that came into my house and treats me like a toy?
  Andy took a flashlight and went out of his room. He saw that the attic door was wide opened and thought the “intruder” might be hiding in there.
  -Where are you, you coward? He shouted as soon as he was in the attic full of old dusty boxes.
  No one answered him, the door shut with a noise and a box was thrown at Andy’s head. After he got up from the floor, he felt something warm streaming from his forehead. It was blood. Now Andy got really angry.
  -You wanna fight, huh? Come out so I can see your face!
  No answer. A large box, behind Andy began to glow. When he approached it, a strange human figure appeared, looking like a thick fog. Was it a ghost? No. Ghosts can’t pick up material things or living beings.
  -Who ... Who are you? What are you? Andy asked terrified.
  He could feel his feet getting cold. He wanted to run, but the strange looking creature made his body freeze.
  Three days later, Andy’s parents came to his house to ask him for some money. It was his 30th birthday so they hopped to bury the hatchet of war. When they opened the front door, a blood line was leading upstairs, to the attic. When they reached the end of it, Andy was laying there with his eyes wide open and blood all over his chest. His body was leaning against a dirty wall which had a “HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!” written on it with his blood.

II. The Revenge

  It was a beautiful warm summer night. A young lady was walking home from work. Although she wasn’t married nor had any children, her pet dog Kiki, always welcomed her home after a busy day at the office. She had to cross one more road to get to her house.
  The light turned green and she began to cross. When she was almost to the other side, a black car appeared suddenly and hit her. The car had high speed, it was impossible to stop in time, to avoid hitting the innocent young lady.
  But the terrible thing was that after it hit her, the driver continued to drive like nothing happened, leaving his victim in a puddle of blood in the middle of the road.
  The victim’s body was soon surrounded by a thick fog. When the fog disappeared, near the dead body stood a transparent figure. The strange figure had the same appearance as the dead body and it looked somehow hurt and her eyes were glowing with anger.
  The female figure began to fly as light as a fog in the dark blue sky full of stars. It stopped only when the black car was spotted. She flew right through the car’s roof and landed on the seat next the driver. She saw that he had a red nose and smelled like alcohol.
  Her guessing was that the driver that had hit her was too drunk to realize what he had done. She was about to leave and forgive him, blaming all this on the alcohol, but when the car stopped she decided to stay a little longer.
  The driver got out and went into a forest, where four more men were drinking and laughing around a fire. The female ghost approached them to hear their conversation.
  -I didn’t had any luck today. I hit only a blond bitch who was crossing the road. The driver said unhappy.
  -You’re a wimp. I hit a tall guy and his chick when they were kissing in a bus station. A short guy with a red cap said looking very proud.
  -Only two? I hit with my BMW some brats this morning. I did them a favor, if they’re dead now, they can’t go to school anymore. Another one with bald head said, drinking beer from a can and throwing it at the female ghost that was floating, without being seen.
  She was speechless hearing the men praising, as if hitting innocent people with their cars was a fun thing to do. After a while, she heard some noises coming from behind some trees. She went to see who it was and to her surprise she saw those men’s victims. They were all transparent as the young dead woman.
  The ghosts told one another their stories and then they began to think of a way to teach those jerks a lesson. They weren’t aloud to get away unpunished, especially after they killed many people with their cars, just because they thought it was funny.
  When the fog appeared again, the drunk drivers were about to leave when they saw that their cars had the doors locked and the lights on. The cars engines began to make loud noises and drove away by themselves.
  The drivers tried to run away, but the cars were faster than them. They had no idea that the cars were manipulated by their victims, so they kept running and stopped only when they saw a police car. After they told the policemen that their cars are trying to hit them, they noticed that the cars were already in a near by parking space.
  The policemen thought that being drunk, the five guys had hallucinations, so they arrested them immediately.
  In the spot, where the police car was once parked, all the dead victim’s ghosts appeared and they all looked happy.
  Now their souls could rest in peace, because their murderers were arrested and their deaths have been retaliated.
  All you drivers, be careful on the road, do not drive if you’re drunk, because you might hit somebody and believe me ... you don’t want to be haunted by your victims!

III. Ember

Ember McLain, a sixteen year old high school girl is about to departure from this world, leaving behind a sad story about her first love. She isn’t popular, she isn’t a nerd either, just an ordinary teenage girl who daydreams that one day she will be a rock star.
  Her parents bought her a guitar when she was six years old and now she was in the high school music club.
On a September Friday, when yellow and red dead leaves began to fall, a boy asked Ember on a date. They talked to meet in front of the cinema at seven p.m. sharp.
  Ember was very happy. It was her first date and she dressed beautifully for this occasion. She arrived five minutes early at the cinema.
  The hours began to fly as quicker as the dead autumn leaves. Now it was almost midnight and Ember’s date didn’t show up. At first, she thought that he was late, but now, it was clear that he broke the promise and broke her heart as well.
  Poor Ember! Her first date was a fail and her first love story that began so wonderful, ended with a painful heart break.
  She returned home, tired and sad. Her cell phone blinked twice because the battery was almost empty.
  Ember went to bed after she put her cell phone to charge near her bed. While she was in a deep sleep, something went wrong with her phone’s charging and it produced some sparks, that landed on Ember’s bed. Soon Ember got caught in the flames and died quickly. She didn’t feel the flames burning her flesh because she was too tired.
  The next morning, Ember’s house was nothing more than a pile of ash. The firemen found what was left of Ember’s body and it was buried in the town’s cemetery. On her grave stone it was written: “R.I.P. Ember McLain, who died at the age of sixteen and didn’t get to realize her dreams of becoming a rock star!”.
  Night came quickly and in front of Ember’s stone a strange female was standing. She was a hard rocking siren-like ghost girl, with long flaming blue hair put into a ponytail at the top of her head held back, she had two locks of hair framing her face which looked like a sharp-angled ‘M’ and purple lipstick. Her clothing was sexually attractive and appealing in nature, consisting of a black choker around her neck, a black one-shouldered tank-top exposing her midriff, one long glove that covered most of her right arm, and one black bracelet on her left arm. She also wore a pair of what appeared to be leather pants with a silver belt and skull boots.
  This strange female ghost set on the grave stone and began to sing a sad tune on her purple electric guitar with flame pattern that had the same color as her hair. At the sound of the guitar, her ponytail became a big blue burning flame.
  With a sad and in the same time angry face, the female ghost started to sing, looking at the name written on the stone:

”Yeah! Oohh!
It was, it was September
Wind blows, the dead leaves fall
To you, I did surrender
Two weeks, you didn’t call ...

Your life goes on without me
My life, a losing game
But you should, you should not doubt me
You will remember my name.

Oh, Ember, you will remember
Ember, one thing remains
Oh, Ember, so warm and tender
You will remember my name!

Your heart, your heart abandoned
You’re wrong, now bear the shame
Like dead trees, in cold December
Nothing but ashes remain ...

Oh, Ember, you will remember
Ember, one thing remains
Ember, so warm and tender
You will remember my name!

Oh ohh!
Ember, you will remember
Ember, one thing remains
Ember, so warm and tender
You will remember my name
Yeah! You will remember my name!”

 

 R.I.P. Ember McLain, you will never be forgotten. Not by me or the Danny Phantom cartoon fans. You rock girl! ... Even if you’re dead!

IV. My husband’s ex-wife

-Get ... out! Get ... out! GEET ... OUUT!
  -Who is there? Nadia asked terrified, with her forehead covered in sweat and her arms shaking nervously. She was sleeping, dreaming about her husband who was on a police patrol that night, when suddenly a whisper was telling her to get out. By the sound of it, it was a woman’s voice, almost Nadia’s age.
  Nadia and her husband, Robert or Rob for short, were married for almost half a year. After their wedding, they were living in Rob’s house. Nadia wasn’t Rob’s first wife, as he confessed before their wedding.
  He was married to a beautiful woman, who was his best friend in his childhood, but six months later she disappeared. Being a police officer, Rob and his coworkers, looked for her everywhere. Although the village was small, there was no sign or clue that could lead to the missing wife.
  After another six months of search, Rob and his coworkers declared Nina, the missing wife, deceased.
  Now Rob seemed happy again with his new wife, Nadia. But when she moved in Rob’s house, she had no idea what will happen to her.
  Every night, at midnight to be precise, she could hear a woman’s voice. Sometimes the voice sounded sad, sometimes sounded scared, but this time the voice became more demanding, as if the voice wanted Nadia to leave the house.
  Of course Nadia told Rob uncountable times about the mysterious voice, but he said that it was just in her head. The voice disappeared when Rob returned tired from work and saw his wife awake.
  -Why aren’t you sleeping? Rob asked Nadia, getting in bed, next to her.
  -I heard that voice again. It told me to get out! Said Nadia looking as if she was about to cry.
  -Nadia, I’ve told you, you must have been dreaming. I didn’t heard a thing.
  -But it is not all right! I hear this voice every night!
  Tired, Rob told Nadia to get some sleep and that they will talk about this in the morning. That night Nadia had a nightmare: she was making coffee, when Rob appeared suddenly and with an angry face, stabbed her with a knife in the stomach.
  Morning came quickly and Nadia was in the kitchen, trembling while looking at her cup of tea. She told Rob her nightmare and he made some tea for her to calm down, then he went to work.
  Nadia wasn’t feeling like herself. When she stood up, she saw in the mirror in front of her, a strange figure. When she approached the mirror, she only saw her reflection. The voice spoke again:
  -Get ... out ... Nadia!
  Gathering all her courage, Nadia decided to face the voice:
  -Who are you? Why do you want me to leave?
  -Tonight ... your dream ... you will ... see his real ... face! The whispers said before they disappeared.
  This time Nadia didn’t said anything to Rob. When they were sleeping, Nadia dreamed about her husband’s ex-wife. She saw Rob and Nina’s wedding photo, when Rob told her about his first marriage, so she knew Nina’s figure.
  Nina and Nadia seemed to be in the kitchen. Nadia was watching Nina making some coffee, then she saw horrified how Rob stabbed her in the stomach with a knife. After Nina died, Rob covered her with a sheet and took her into the back yard, where he buried her.
  When the dream ended, Nadia heard Nina saying, this time with a soft whisper, to get out before it is too late. Nadia went out of the house without a sound and went to the police station. The policemen were surprised to see Rob’s second wife at their station in the middle of the night.
  An hour later, the policemen were digging in the back yard. To their surprise, they found a dead body covered in a white sheet. Rob was arrested and when he was questioned about the dead body he confessed, in front of everyone, that Nina was the dead body. He killed her, because during their marriage he couldn’t get her pregnant and he was afraid that she might leave him for another man.
  Nadia was shocked to find out this terrible story. She demanded to end her marriage with Rob as quick as possible.
  After she became a free woman and her husband was send to jail for life, Nadia gave Nina a wonderful funeral ceremony.
  Nadia was placing some flowers on Nina’s crave, when Nina’s blurry figure appeared and smiled at her. Her lips moved so slowly that Nadia could easily understand what she tried to say: “Thank you!”
  With these words being said, Nina’s figure disappeared, leaving Nadia with a smile on her face. She was happy now because she found out the truth before her husband would have killed her as well.
  Nadia became more cautious with the men she dated and in the end she found her prince charming and her life was once again a fairy tale.
  What do we learn from this story? Be careful who you are getting married with, you may never know if your future wife or husband is what she or he pretends to be!

V. The Gray Hotel

“-Now look where you brought us! I told you to go right, not left!
  -Leave me alone, woman. You were the one holding the map upside down. It is your fault too.
  For almost an hour the retired couple had been wandering around a dark forest. They wanted to go on a camping trip, but somehow ended getting lost and it was getting dark outside. Soon night came and the couple was tired, hungry, but most of all, scared.
  The husband was driving slowly through the tall dark trees and the thick fog. The car’s headlights were doing their best. Just when the wife spotted a wide road, the car mysteriously stopped.
  -What are you doing, man?! I saw a road ahead of us and you stopped the car?
  -We ran out of gas. Her husband said as if this was his wife’s fault as well.
  He wanted to say more when someone knocked at the driver’s window.
  -Are you lost? The mysterious man behind a long black hooded coat asked curious and somehow ... pleasantly surprised.
  The wife wanted to refuse because she didn’t know the person and she wanted to get out of there. Her husband, unfortunately, accepted the stranger’s help without hesitation. Therefore, the retired couple were taken to an old hotel nearby the place where their car broke down.
  -Welcome to The Gray Hotel! I am sorry for its bad standing, but I assure you that this place is as comfy as it was in its glory days.
  -May I ask why it looks deserted?! The wife asked.
  -Few kilometers far from here it is a modern hotel that stole all our guests. Nobody wants to stay at an old-fashion hotel any more. The stranger said trying to be sad.
  -It’s their loss, the old-fashion places are more durable in the bad weather. The grumpy husband added. I don’t want to sound like a demanding guest sir, but we are hungry and tired.
  Indeed the place was in a terrible condition. The floors looked like they haven’t been vacuumed for years, the walls were dirty and had holes full of bugs and other parasites, the windows were so dirty you couldn’t see anything through them, from either sides. In a few words, the hotel was old, abandoned and despicable.
  The guests were hungry and tired, therefore the place didn’t seem to bother them. After they had some soup and mash potatoes for dinner, the guests were then lead to a small bedroom. It had two separated beds, a desk and a chair, all neglected for years.
  -You and your passion for old-fashioned things and places. Do you enjoy this place?! It's worse than a pig dump.
  -Calm down, woman. We’re going to spend only a night here. Her husband said while he got into one of the beds and turn off the light.
  Sleeping in such a place wasn’t going to be a pleasant experience. During the night the old couple heard loud noises coming from every where, they felt small movements through their beds that shook them and when they wanted to leave from there, the door was locked.
  -Hurry, grab that chair and try to break the door!
  -I am the one doing the hard work.
  -Stop complaining, man. Do you want to get out of this creepy place or not?!
  The man didn’t said anything in return and did as his wife ordered him. He managed to break the door easily, he grabbed his wife by the hand and out they went.”
                                                                               *
  -What happened, did they managed to get out?!
  -This is the weird part, child. Although the story says that the old couple ran away from that abandoned hotel, nobody ever saw them again.
  -But why grandpa? And what about the stranger with the black hood?
  -Some say that when the couple tried to run, the stranger killed them or that he took them somewhere else, because they vanished completely. But if you think about it, who wears a black hood to cover its face?
  -I don’t know grandpa!
  -My child, the answer is The Grim Ripper!
  With these being said the old man pointed with his index finger The Gray Hotel to his grandson. It was the last time someone will ever see this dumpy hotel because some bulldozers began to bring the old building down to build instead a new modern hotel.
  -Grandpa, is your story true or you just invented it to make me feel relieved that it is going to be demolished?
  His grandfather was looking at the gray hotel and said to his grandson with a smile:
  -What do you think?!
  After this given answer, the two of them left, avoiding any accident that could happen because of the falling pieces from the old gray hotel, which brought nothing but bad luck for the last years. Since it went bankrupt, many cases of disappearances, murders and terrible rumors about a fake Grim Ripper made The Gray Hotel famous.
  For this reason the local mayor decided to demolish it and build a new modern hotel to reassure the locals and tourists as well.
  But ... it will work? Or the so called Grim Ripper persona will strike again?
  We shall wait until the new hotel is done and see what will happen next!

VI. No Name Game

It was a cold autumn evening with rain and sad looking gray sky. The streets of a small neighborhood were deserted. Everybody stayed home, where it was warm and comfortable, ignoring the bad weather from outside. Only two children were staring at their bedroom’s window, looking with fascination at the rain drops hitting the window pain and streaming down very fast, like tears on a cheek.
  -Is the rain going to stop soon? The little boy asked his older sister.
  -I don’t know. Why don’t you bring one of your board games to make time go faster?! His sister tried to cheer him up.
  -We played every board game that we have at least five times. Can’t we do something else?
  So the girl went downstairs, followed by her younger brother, where their parents were discussing how to pay the bills for that month. After the two children done explaining the reason for their state of boredom, their father went to the kitchen and brought from there a rusty key.
  -See this key? He asked his children as if it was the key to a lost treasure. This key is for the attic door. Go there and you will find in a large box labeled “Dad’s toys”, my old toys from my childhood. Maybe you will get a clue about how I used to play when I was your age.
  Without hesitation, the little boy took the rusty key and went upstairs, at the end of the hallway where the door leading to the attic was waiting for some brave explorers. He had to wait for his sister after he reached it, because he was too short to put the key into the key hole.
  -Next time let me take the key, OK? His sister scold him with a smile, to show her little brother that she is joking with him.
  This time, the sister was the first to enter into the attic and her brother followed her closely, being scared of the small darkness. He felt better when the light bulb was on and they both searched carefully in their dad’s old toy box.
  Those old toys didn’t impress them much and when they were almost close to empty the box, they found a rectangular wooden box. At first the children thought it was a chessboard, but it didn’t have squares painted on the outside. Not knowing what sort of board game it might be, they decided to open it.
  It was good luck that the box had a broken locket, therefore the children opened it without a struggle. Inside it was similar like a chessboard, but it didn’t had its unique design painted in red and black. Its inside was as blank as it’s outside. But this matter didn’t seem to bother its finders.
  -What’s in it, sis? Hurry up and read this paper, I want to know the rules of the game.
  -Hold your horses! This game doesn’t even have a name. On this paper are written only three rules:
                                                                                   *
  “1) Throw the eight sided dice once at each turn.
  2) When you reach a colored square, follow the clue on the card with the same color as the square on its back.
  3) Do not cheat because you will regret it.
  Have fun!”
                                                                                   *
  -Look what I found: a purple dice with eight sides and a big folded cardboard. The boy said after his sister finished reading the rules for him.
  -Okay, now let’s unfold it and see how it looks. She said to her brother taking the cardboard from his hand.
The cardboard wasn’t that great. It had one hundred squares, connecting one side of the board with the other one with numbers, of which a quarter were painted in six colors: blue, green, yellow, red, brown and orange. Her brother also showed her six cards, with their back sides painted in the colors mentioned earlier and on the front side the clues.
  -Now let’s play, I choose the boy figure. The box also contained two figures only, so it can be played by only two players at a time. One figure was a boy and the other a girl.
  The two children placed their figures at the start circle, the brother was the first to role the dice and to his disappointment, the dice showed him the number one, which meant that he could move his figure one square further.
  His sister had good luck, when her turn came she threw the dice hard and it showed the number eight. Not only she had an advantage from her brother, but she moved her figure to the first colored square. It was green. She picked the green card and read it loud:
  -“Flora’s food is water and sun light, but Venus likes to eat flies. Answer correctly and you may go three squares ahead. Give the wrong answer and you will eat poison ivy.”
  -Who is Flora? Her brother asked, ignoring the card’s warning if his sister gives the wrong answer.
  -I am the one to answer it. If you help me then you will cheat and it is against the rules. The correct answer is: a plant-eating flies.
  To their surprise, the figure moved three squares ahead by itself. Now the boy was more found in rolling the dice.
  -Number five. The orange square is near it.
  And so the two children played not noticing its strange clues and rules. This time, the boy’s figure landed on the orange square.
  “My color is my name. Answer correctly and you will go eight squares ahead. Give the wrong answer and your skin will change.”
  -It is an easy one. An orange! The boy said being happy to see that he past his sister’s figure.
  To make the story short so that you, my readers, won’t get bored, here is how things developed: The brown square was the girl’s turn to answer the clue:
  “I am liquid, I am solid and everybody loves to eat me. What am I? Answer correctly and you will go ahead ten squares. Give the wrong answer and you will have a painful diarrhea.”
  -The answer is chocolate. And luckily that this clue was easy as well, otherwise ... ughhh ...
  The yellow square was the boy’s turn and his clue was hard to guess: “I am very sour. What am I? Answer correctly and you will go ahead five squares. Give the wrong answer and you will it ten pieces of the right answer.”
Unfortunately, the right answer was lemon, but the boy said something else and for his inconvenience, he had to eat ten lemons that appeared out of nowhere after he answered wrong.
  The blue square was next and the girl was concerned about the clue:
  “I have the same color, only when its day I am light and when its night I am dark. What am I? Answer correctly and you will go ahead six squares. Give the wrong answer and you will have to hold your breath until you become blue.”
  Sky, this was the correct answer. Too bad the girl didn’t guessed and had to hold her breath until her brother said to stop before she became purple. The game was almost done. There were only ten squares left until the players reach the other side of the board and the last square, the red one, was the ninety nine.
  The boy reached it and when his sister was about to read him the clue, she was staring at the card frightened.
  -What’s wrong, sis? What does it says?
  -“Answer correctly and you will win the game. Give the wrong answer and you will die. Would you be so kind to cut your wrists?”
  -NO! The boy answered without hesitation, but unfortunately, the right answer was ‘YES’. Are we going to die, sis? He asked his sister, looking at her through his tears.
  -I don’t ...
  She couldn’t finish her sentence because her heart stop beating and so did her brother’s. After the two children collapsed on the floor, two big foggy hands grabbed them and put their dead bodies inside the board game, along with the other accessories.
  Three days later, the worried parents didn’t lost hope in finding their lost children. They searched in the attic, at first, but the only strange thing they found was that the old board game had two new wooden figures that looked perfectly like their missing children.
  After reading this story, I hope you wouldn’t be too scared to play board games anymore. Or you would dare?!

VII. Dead Man Walking

The dark sky is full of shinning stars. A thick fog makes its appearance, covering this magnificent view. It is better this way anyway. At this time of night, everybody is sleeping in their warm beds and safe homes, without even noticing a sad tune coming somewhere on the deserted streets.
You wonder who could that be in this time of night?!
  Near a dark alley, a large shadow is heading slow to an unknown destination, followed by the body that it belongs to. The body is all wet and pale, with torn clothes covering most of it, its eyes are sad and empty. The mysterious person is walking slowly, one foot in front of the other, his arms hanging aside the body, the head slightly directed down.
  When it reaches a lightning pole, the person’s figure became more clearly: it is a man that looked more dead than alive. His lips are moving slow and from his mouth a strange song is coming out through there:
  “You ... killed ... me ... when ... you ... left ... me. ... Now ... you ... are ... looking ... at ... a ... dead ... man ... walking.”
                                                                                    *
  It was close to midnight. The dark sky is full of shinning stars. A thick fog makes its appearance, covering this magnificent view. It was not good. Victor wanted to be a beautiful romantic night for him and his fiancee, Victoria.
  He was returning from work with a big bouquet of red roses, some chocolates and a wedding ring. Victor and his fiancee were engaged for a year now. It was time for Victor to pop out the question.
  Victor finally arrived at his house. He took the keys out from his pocket and slowly unlocked the door. At this time of night his fiancee was probably sleeping in their bedroom and he wanted to make her a surprise without scaring her. The door opened without a sound. Victor went on his toes upstairs.
  When he was about to open the bedroom door, he heard heavy breathing coming from the other side. Being curious, he opened the door quickly and surprised his fiancee making love to his best friend, whom was going to be his best man at their wedding.
  His best friend jumped out of bed and locket himself in the bathroom. While Victor was arguing with Victoria because of her unfaithful act, Victor’s best friend came silently from the bathroom with a gun in his right hand.
Victoria shouted at him to stop. Victor turned his head around but soon he was shot.
  When he woke up, Victor found himself lying near a harbor, all washed up and with warm blood streaming from his chest.
  He stood up and began walking home, if he could find his way back. Fortunately, he did.
                                                                                        *
  Under the lightning pole, he could easily see through a window his fiancee and his best friend arguing. He came under the window and listened carefully. They were talking about Victor, how they had disposed his dead body near the harbor and the chances of the police to suspect them for his death.
  His fiancee, Victoria, was crying while holding the wedding ring into her hands. She never wanted to cheat on Victor, especially with his best friend, but Victor was always working until late and when he came home, he was too tired to make love with her.
  -Stop crying, you bitch! It is your fault that I had to shoot Victor. If you haven’t called me here to make love with you, this would’ve never happened.
  Impatient, he took the gun again and shot Victoria.
  -There, now you can have her, Victor.
  When he got out of the house, with Victoria in a bag, he was face to face with Victor. He couldn’t believe his eyes and he tried to shoot him one more time, thinking that he’s still alive. Unfortunately, the bullets didn’t have any effect on Victor now.
  A police car was coming, being called by a neighbor who heard the gun shots. Victor made himself disappear, leaving his best friend and Victoria, who was still moving in the bag, to deal with the police officers. Both of them were arrested for Victor’s disappearance.
  Although Victoria and her lover told the police where they left Victor’s body, it wasn’t in that place anymore.
Even now, people say that Victor is still alive because they hear his voice singing on the streets every night at midnight, when he found his fiancee cheating on him and he got killed by his best friend.

  Author’s note: This story was inspired by a song with the same titled “Dead Man Walking”, by Smiley, a pop singer from my country, not the serial killer Smiley from the horror movie.
Here’s the link to the video:
http://youtu.be/CeKeN6B11bY

VIII. John’s victims

This is the scary story of a vet named John, who agreed to do some strange business in order to make money fast and easy. As a vet, he didn’t have too many patients and his payment was not that big, but enough for John to pay his bills and still have some for him self.
   But, his greedy human nature made him sell his soul to the devil, so to say.
   One night, when he was heading home, he met a stranger who made him an unusual offer: to murder young beautiful virgin women and steal all their blood. In return, the stranger promised to pay him a lot of money, enough to live without a job for years.
   If I or any of you would have been in John’s shoes, we would have refused the stranger’s offer without hesitation. But as I said earlier, John was very, very greedy. Therefore he accepted the offer in a second.
   After a whole year of murdering beautiful young women and draining all the blood from their dead bodies, John was losing his sanity little by little. He didn’t notice, or better said, he didn’t care as long as he was now the wealthiest man in his town. He had everything that anyone could dream of: a huge mansion, luxurious cars, expensive furniture and electronic devices.
   Then one night, when a full year past since John first met the stranger, all his luck began to vanish. Usually, John and the stranger had a special place to meet in order to make the blood trade and get rid of the corpses. This time however, the stranger didn’t appear as he usually did. John waited all night long.
   When sun began to rise, John was still holding the glass container with blood and a sack with the victim’s corpse. Being scared that someone might see him, he quickly hidden the incriminating evidence in the car’s trunk and drove back to his mansion.
   Seeing that his ‘business partner’ didn’t showed up a couple of days later, John’s sanity was getting weaker and weaker.  Soon, he began talking to himself about the many young women that he killed. At first he wasn’t afraid of his diabolical doings. As the days turned into weeks, he began to realize what he really did in order to increase his financial situation.
John was now completely and irrevocably mad. He continued talking alone in the mansion as if it was full of people, when in reality he was living all by himself.
   The mail man was the only real person that ever came near his house and every time he heard John talking alone, he became more scared of what his ears were hearing.
   “Yes, I did it, I’ve killed virgins in order to become rich and I have no regrets. Not even one!” These were the last words the mail man heard from John before he was taken to an insane asylum and his entire wealth was donated to the poor.
Some say, that even closed inside the most secured room of the asylum, John still talks to his imaginary friends. The doctors say that this is a natural symptom of madness and that John must be left alone.
What they didn’t know was that John was talking to his victim’s lost souls. Seeking revenge, the souls would leave John alone only after he pays for his wrong doings. Until then, they continue to haunt his mind, altering his sanity and health night and day.
   “My poor victims, because of me, they can’t rest in peace!” John says every time when a doctor asks him who is he talking to.

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Publication Date: 02-20-2012

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