Who doesn’t like stories that have something to do with the supernatural? The unknown always generates curiosity. There are certain things that have no explanation and that is what intrigues the human psyche. The concept of afterlife and what happens to one’s soul after death has given rise to supernatural folklore, because sometimes even science has no answer. Horror, as a genre in cinema and books, finds a lot of takers but it is not rare to find these stories in real life. There’s always someone you know who has once had a spooky experience in their life and you cannot decide whether to believe them or not but somewhere inside you want to.
Even in India, there are a lot of places which are believed to be haunted. The list is long. Paranormal investigators have tried to find the truth about such experiences scientifically and most of the times, it has turned out such things do exist in form of energies. Every place possesses a positive and negative energy and a vibration, which makes you feel comfortable or uncomfortable.
So, when a Quora user posted a question asking for some ‘good horror short stories’, internet did not disappoint. A few of these short stories are actually disturbing and scary. Here are 4 of them:
1. Afterlife
I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of afterlife. All my life I’ve wondered about what happens when we die, what powers do we get when we leave our body, and whether ghost folklore was true. Such was my fascination that as a child, i was always found in the mystery section in the city library, hunting books describing the process of death, the creatures that come to take away our life, and what we become when we die. One of the most interesting theory i read as a child was that when you die, you become the creature you fear the most. That got me wondering on what creature frightens me the most. So, in search of finding the reflection of my death, i wandered everywhere, and read about almost all creatures. But, i wasn’t truly frightened by anything. The only thing that came close to frightening me was the graveyard near my house. People had often told stories about a scary spirit haunting the place, and that it was one of the most horrifying experience of their life. So one day, i decided to venture into the cemetery and see the ghost myself, to finally find a horrifying face, which might become mine in the afterlife.
On Halloween, i decided was the best time to investigate the cemetery, as my parents allowed me to stay out late, and i could be missing for some hours. So, grabbing a torch, and a walking stick, i ventured into the graveyard. I’d been here so many times, although it was always in bright sunlight. Now, in the cover of night, the air was as blue as an emerald, with streaks of white smoke moving through the hard stone, the cemetery looked nothing like before. The light from far away lamp posts bounced off the gravestones ever so slightly, but the tombstone of the rumored spirit was peculiar because it strangely absorbed most of the light. As i walked across it, admiring the strange effect, i failed to notice the slippery stone my foot was placed on. With my next step, i tripped and fell, and felt something hard hit on my head. Within a flash, i was on the ground. As i got up, a strange face was looking at me. It was that of a child, our neighbor’s son, Clark. He looked terrified, as if he had seen a ghost, and ran as fast as he could when i opened my mouth to tell him i was alright. Oh great! Now the kid is going to rat me out, i thought. I’ll deal with him later. As i continued to search for the spirit, i noticed nothing unusual. Except one thing. The night never seems to end. And every now and then some annoying people come in to the cemetery, and get absolutely terrified when i greet them, then they turn white with fear, and run back as fast as possible, as if they had seen a ghost with the most horrifying face….
2. The Interview
Journalist: Mr. Sharma, can you speak about the incident?
Sharma : Yes. I’m a CID officer. My crew and I reached the spot at 10:30P.M yesterday. It was an abandoned multistorey building. I ordered my men to look out for things which could be presented as evidence.They were engrossed in their work. Meanwhile, I inspected the ground floor. I found a dairy with a note on a piece of paper, which looked a fresh one, as the papers in the dairy were bit old, yellow and worn out. I started reading it.
“ Hi, I’m Sinha Agarwal. I aspire to be a movie Director. I always search for abandoned buildings, as I can shoot there in near future. As a part of it, I reached here. To my surprise, I could not only find a nice awful building but a horrendous story too.
Today is my third day here. At nights I could here voice of a baby crying and a female voice trying to console. I tried to follow the voices. There were none. The third room on the right in the first floor is haunted. Whenever I tried to open the door, I get injured somehow. I doubt the voices are over there. Now, I’m going to that room. If you are reading this, probably I’m..”
It was dark. I switched on my flash light and climbed upstairs. Suddenly, I could hear the voices too. Clock struck 12. I held my nerves and moved forward. I opened the first door and focused the light onto every nook and corner of the room. Nothing strange. As I was moving towards the second room, the voices grew stronger. I tried to open the second door. Kicked it hard and after several attempts, it creaked. I moved inside, focused the light slowly on each part of the room. I saw a cradle. Well decorated. As I was nearing it, someone grabbed my neck from behind and mumbled, “ Don’t try to kill my baby. He is mine! Get lost!” I muttered, “ Ok! Ok! Leave me!” I was literally thrown outside the room, hit the wall and landed with a bruise over my forehead. I was bleeding at multiple places. And that door closed with a bang automatically. There was no one as I tried to focus the light all around. I moved towards the third room. The door was open. I stepped inside. There was a nauseating odour and my eyes started watering. I could barely breath. Focused the light. I could see a person sitting at the corner of the room, with his legs flexed at hip, his head in between and his arms covering it, a posture as if he was frightened and hiding. Furniture was piled up. My phone switched off. It was dark. I shouted, “Hey! Are you Mr.Sinha? Hey?” I waited for the response. I tried to feel the objects and moved forward.
Suddenly, I could feel a nose, coming down to dry lips, cheeks, ears and hair. It was a lady. I could feel her pulse. I tried to perform CPR. Someone grabbed my neck and banged the head to the wall, punched on my face, kicked in my ribs and holding my head against the wall, he said, “ Thanks for coming dear! I know you would!”
Journalist: Then?
Sharma : I couldn’t remember anything from then. As I opened my eyes, I’m here on the hospital bed.
Journalist : “Can you sign this interview record here?”
Sharma : Yeah!
Journalist: Thank you. Take rest.
The signature read, ‘ Sinha Agarwal.
3. Clock strikes 12
This experience is of my friends elder sister. She is married and was at that time living in a rented house with her husband and two small children. They had recently rented that house. It had a bedroom, kitchen, a living room and a garden outside. There was a gate beyond the garden. My mom was living with my sister for a few days and as she saw the house she said she had a negative vibe. After she left my sister used to be there with children and often times she was alone as her husband used to travel to other cities for work. While alone on one such night, she heard the sound of someone washing clothes outside the home. She looked out to find no one around. This continued for a few days with the clock stopping to work after twelve at night. And the sounds starting after twelve. The sounds used to be like someone cooking, washing clothes or utensils. She was terrified and told her husband when he returned. He refused to believe and scolded her for believing in such things. Then one night as her husband was there too, the clock stopped working at twelve fifteen and the sound of a small child crying started from just outside the home. The sound was more like sniffling while you cry. My sisters husband went out to check what it was. He even checked outside the gate but there was nobody around at that hour. The crying continued all night. For a few days after that there was no such activity. Than my sister’s brother in law came to stay with them and was sleeping in the kitchen. My sister until now had developed a fear of twelve o clock at night and was looking at clock as it was about to strike twelve. As soon as it did, there was a noise. It was a short circuit and the kitchen caught fire. My sisters brother in law somehow extinguished the fire. That was most probably a fire accident but my sister was scared enough. They left that house a few days later.
4. The Hostel
This one is called “ARENT YOU GLAD YOU DIDNT TURN ON THE LIGHTS?”
This story is about 2 girls sharing a room in a hostel. Exams were getting close and all of the students in the hostel were indulged in studying. The first girl, call her Jane was a morning person. She preferred waking up early to study and excercise. The other girl, call her Jannet was a night person. She preferred staying up late.
The good thing about the hostel was that they had a study room on the ground floor and living rooms were on the first floor and above. These 2 girls were studying together until Jane decided it’s her bedtime and she should head to sleep and Jannet continued studying . It was way past midnight. Jannet realised she should revise the notes she made yesterday before she calls it a day.
She came inside tip toeing in the room. But something was strange. There was a mild rusty smell in the room, sound of water drops like someone has left the tap slightly open, and a hushy kind of sound coming from Jane’s bed. Jannet recalled, Jane was a heavy sleeper and often used to snore when she was tiered. Jane made sure she didn’t switch on the light, she just didn’t want to disturb Jane. She careful reached her cupboard by taking a few calibrated steps in the dark. Opened it, identified her notes in the darkness and tip toed her way out of the room.
It was almost sunrise, bird chirping everywhere. Jannet decided her body needs rest and she should wake Jane up too. She reached the room in a half drowsy state and as soon as she opened the room, she was stunned. Dropped all of her material and feel on her knees. She lost all her strength to move. Jane’s body was pinned to the wall. Her throat completely slit open and room covered in blood. The rusty smell was of a rusty knife used to slit her throat. The sound of water drops were actually of her blood dropping on the floor and the husky voice was Jane’s attempt to call Jannet but couldn’t. But that was not it, what sent Jannet in a traumatic state was the message the killer wrote on the wall. It read “Arent you glad you didnt turn on the lights?”. The killer was in the room, slaughtering Jane when Jannet came to collect her notes.
Find the entire Quora thread here.
Have you ever had any supernatural experiences? Do let us know in the comments sections
