Horrorfiction - Tumblr Posts

Living with ghosts - Bunny (on Wattpad) https://my.w.tt/8tAUotEiT7 A collection of horror and dark fantasy short stories I wrote. Also, some paranormal journalism and spooky events I experienced. ENJOY!

The Ghost in the Mirror Shaina Tranquilino September 10, 2024

Detective James Harlan had seen his fair share of strange cases, but nothing could have prepared him for the mirror. It was a cold, gray evening when he first encountered it. The sky threatened rain, and the shadows of the city loomed long and distorted as Harlan stood in front of the old curiosity shop on the corner of Willow Street. The store was set to be demolished the following week, its last few days spent selling off an assortment of peculiar antiques and oddities.

Harlan wasn't one for curiosities, but something had drawn him inside—an invisible pull that led him through the cluttered aisles to the back of the store, where an ornate, dusty mirror stood propped against the wall. The mirror’s frame was heavy and intricately carved, dark wood curling into what seemed like a thousand twisted faces, each one more grotesque than the last.

The shopkeeper, a frail old man with sunken eyes and trembling hands, had appeared beside him as if summoned by his curiosity.

"Ah, the mirror," the shopkeeper rasped, his voice a mere whisper of sound. "You're the first person to show any interest in it. Most people avoid it… say it gives them the creeps."

Harlan, skeptical but intrigued, asked, "What's the story behind it?"

The old man hesitated, his eyes narrowing as he studied the detective’s face. "They say it’s cursed, haunted by a restless spirit. It belonged to a woman who… who was murdered many years ago. They say if you look into it long enough, you can see the past… see things that shouldn’t be seen."

Despite the chill creeping up his spine, Harlan found himself drawn to the mirror. It was as if it had a voice of its own, whispering to him, beckoning him to look deeper, to see what lay beyond the surface.

The shopkeeper’s bony hand gripped Harlan’s arm, his voice a desperate warning. "Take it if you must, but know this: the mirror demands a price. It will give you what you seek, but it will take something in return."

Harlan, always one to dismiss superstition, paid the old man and took the mirror with him. He told himself it was just a peculiar antique, nothing more. A piece of history to decorate his apartment.

But as soon as he hung the mirror on the wall of his living room, strange things began to happen.

At first, it was subtle—a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye, a faint whisper on the edge of his hearing. But as the days passed, the visions became clearer, more intense.

One night, as he sat alone with a glass of whiskey, Harlan found himself staring into the mirror, unable to look away. The room around him began to fade, and in its place, a scene unfolded within the glass.

He saw a woman, her face pale and frightened, running through the woods. Her breath came in ragged gasps as she glanced over her shoulder, terror etched into her features. Behind her, a figure loomed, a man with a knife glinting in the moonlight.

Harlan watched in horror as the man caught up to her, dragging her to the ground. The woman’s screams echoed in his mind as the knife descended, again and again, until the woods were silent.

The vision faded, leaving Harlan staring at his own haunted reflection, his heart pounding in his chest. He recognized the scene—it was an unsolved murder from twenty years ago, a cold case that had haunted the precinct for years.

Driven by an obsession he couldn’t explain, Harlan dove into the old case files the next day. The details matched perfectly. The victim, the location, even the murder weapon. The mirror had shown him the truth, the answer to a mystery that had eluded detectives for decades.

He began to spend every night in front of the mirror, searching for more. And the mirror obliged. Each time he looked into it, another crime unfolded before his eyes—unsolved murders, disappearances, cold cases long forgotten by the world. Harlan solved them all, bringing justice to victims whose voices had been silenced for too long.

But with each case he solved, Harlan felt something slipping away from him. His energy, his spirit, his very sense of self seemed to dwindle. The mirror took its toll, draining him bit by bit, just as the old shopkeeper had warned.

One evening, after months of this relentless pursuit, Harlan looked into the mirror and saw a face he recognized all too well—his own.

He was standing in his apartment, holding a gun, his eyes empty and hollow. Before him, a man lay crumpled on the floor, a pool of blood spreading beneath him. Harlan’s hand trembled as he watched the scene unfold, as he watched himself commit a crime that hadn’t yet happened.

He staggered back from the mirror, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The mirror had shown him the future, and it was a future he could not escape.

Desperate, he tried to rid himself of the mirror, to break the curse that had ensnared him. He took a hammer to it, smashing the glass into a thousand glittering shards. But even in the broken pieces, he could still see the scenes playing out, could still hear the whispers of the past echoing in his mind.

There was no escape. The mirror had claimed him, body and soul.

In the days that followed, Harlan’s colleagues noticed the change in him. He became distant, paranoid, his once sharp mind dulled by an unseen weight. They didn’t understand what had happened to him, didn’t know about the mirror or the horrors it had revealed.

And then, one night, Harlan disappeared.

They found his apartment empty, the shattered mirror lying in a heap on the floor. But of Harlan, there was no sign. It was as if he had vanished into thin air.

The cold cases he had solved were closed, the victims finally at peace. But the price had been steep, too steep. Detective James Harlan was never seen again, his fate sealed within the haunted glass that had lured him to his doom.

And somewhere, in a forgotten corner of the city, a new curiosity shop opened its doors, with a new old mirror standing in the back, waiting for its next victim.

The Diary's Secrets Shaina Tranquilino October 6, 2024

Sophie had always adored her grandmother, a woman of grace and charm who filled every room with warmth. But when her grandmother passed away, Sophie was left with an overwhelming sense of loss. After the funeral, she returned to her grandmother’s quaint, creaky old house to sort through her belongings. Among the porcelain figurines, embroidered pillows, and stacks of faded photographs, Sophie found something unexpected — an old, weathered diary, its leather cover cracked with age.

Her grandmother had never mentioned a diary. The clasp was rusted, but it popped open easily under her fingertips. As she flipped through the yellowing pages, she noticed something strange. The ink appeared faded, yet readable, and as her eyes skimmed the words, she could have sworn she heard something — faint, almost imperceptible whispers.

Sophie frowned and closed the book quickly. The whispers ceased immediately, leaving an unnerving silence in their wake.

"Must be my imagination," she murmured, trying to shake off the chill that crept up her spine.

That night, Sophie took the diary home with her. Curiosity gnawed at her, and she couldn't resist opening it again. The moment she turned the first page, the whispers returned, low and unintelligible, as though the very paper itself was breathing secrets into the air. This time, the whispers were louder, more distinct, like fragmented pieces of conversations just beyond her grasp.

The words on the page were written in her grandmother’s delicate hand. January 5, 1956. The entry was brief, recounting a typical day. But as Sophie read further, the entries became darker, more cryptic.

February 12, 1956: “The shadow came again last night. It watches me. I hear it whispering from the corners of the room.”

Sophie’s heart skipped a beat. She looked around her small apartment, suddenly aware of the shadows pooling in the corners, the way the lamplight flickered just slightly. She swallowed, pushing the growing unease aside, and continued reading.

March 3, 1956: “I tried to speak with it. It knows my name. It knows things about me I never shared with anyone. The whispers grow louder every night.”

The whispers in Sophie’s own ears seemed to swell in response to the words on the page, almost as if the diary itself was reacting to the memories being uncovered. She slammed the book shut, panting, her breath shallow and fast. But the whispers didn’t stop. They lingered in the room, filling the space around her with unseen presences. She could feel something watching her.

Desperate, Sophie shoved the diary into a drawer and stumbled to bed, hoping that sleep would bring her peace. But the dreams came — vivid, terrifying dreams of her grandmother, her face twisted in fear, standing at the edge of Sophie’s bed, mouthing words she couldn’t hear over the cacophony of whispers filling the room.

The next morning, exhausted and shaken, Sophie yanked the diary from the drawer. She had to know what was happening. As soon as she opened it, the whispers returned, louder and more insistent.

April 15, 1956: “I’m not alone. It’s in the house with me. I feel its cold breath on my neck when I sleep. It wants something. I don’t know what, but it won’t leave me in peace.”

Her grandmother had been haunted, tormented by something unseen. The realization sent a cold shiver through Sophie. But there was more, a final entry. It was written in frantic, uneven script, unlike her grandmother’s usual elegant handwriting.

May 2, 1956: “I tried to lock it away. Tried to bind it to these pages. But it’s not enough. I can hear it still, scratching, whispering. It wants out. I fear it will find someone else, someone to continue what I could not finish. God help whoever opens this book after me.”

Sophie’s hands trembled as she dropped the diary. The whispers grew louder, no longer faint but echoing through the apartment, a cacophony of voices overlapping, seething with malevolence.

Suddenly, a gust of wind slammed the windows shut, plunging the room into darkness. The whispers were everywhere now, suffocating, as if invisible hands were reaching out from the shadows to close around her throat. Sophie staggered back, her breath hitching in her chest, eyes darting to the diary lying on the floor.

The pages fluttered on their own, turning violently, as though something trapped inside was desperate to be freed.

"No," Sophie gasped, her voice barely a whisper over the maddening chorus. "Please, no."

But it was too late. From the corners of the room, the shadows began to coalesce, forming a shape, a figure that seemed to crawl out of the very air itself, twisted and hunched, its eyes burning like embers in a sunken face. It moved toward her, slow, deliberate, its presence suffocating the light.

Sophie couldn’t move. The whispers were in her ears, her head, her mind, filling every thought with dread.

"You shouldn't have opened it," the voices hissed in unison.

The last thing Sophie saw was the figure looming over her, its cold breath on her neck, just as her grandmother had described. The diary lay open at her feet, the final page blank — waiting for the next entry.

The Silent Hill Shaina Tranquilino October 15, 2024

The sun was sinking low, casting long shadows over the dense forest that surrounded the base of Silent Hill. Few locals dared to walk the trail that circled its base at dusk, for as long as anyone could remember, whispers echoed from the hilltop during the dying light. They weren't loud, but clear enough to unnerve even the boldest soul. "Turn back," they would say, in voices that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

Ben had heard the stories but dismissed them as nothing more than local superstition. He wasn’t from the small town that bordered the forest; he was an outsider, a hiker passing through, seeking solitude and challenge. He enjoyed proving myths wrong, finding in them only the fragile remnants of human fear. So, when the old man at the tavern had warned him about Silent Hill, he only laughed.

“Don’t ignore the whispers,” the old man had said. His voice had trembled in a way that made Ben almost uncomfortable. Almost.

“I’ll be fine,” Ben had responded with a grin, waving off the advice like he had heard it a thousand times.

Now, on the trail that wound around Silent Hill, dusk crept in like a slow-moving fog, draping the forest in muted colours. Ben's boots crunched on the gravel path, each step a lonely sound in the growing silence. The air grew cooler, heavier, and the wind rustled the leaves in a way that seemed offbeat, unnatural.

As he rounded a bend in the trail, the first whisper reached him.

"Turn back."

Ben froze mid-step. It had been soft, barely a breath, yet unmistakable. He looked around, eyes scanning the dense trees. There was no one. The forest was still.

He scoffed, shaking off the unease that tickled the back of his neck. Probably the wind, he thought, moving forward with renewed determination. But a few steps later, it came again, a little louder this time.

"Turn back."

He stopped again, his heartbeat quickening. The voice sounded close—too close—but still, there was no sign of anyone around. The trail was empty, the woods quiet. Ben frowned and continued walking, though his pace had slowed, his senses now heightened.

Then, more voices joined.

"Turn back," they whispered in unison, like a chorus carried on the wind.

He stopped cold. The whispers were no longer distant or vague; they seemed to come from the ground beneath his feet, from the trees themselves. His pulse pounded in his ears, and despite himself, a cold sweat began to form on his brow.

"Turn back," they repeated, insistent, urgent.

Ben spun around, expecting to see someone—a prank, perhaps, kids trying to scare him—but there was nothing, only the fading light of dusk and the looming presence of Silent Hill.

But he wasn’t the type to turn back. He pressed on, forcing his legs to move, though the unease crawled up his spine like icy fingers. His breath came in shorter bursts now, as if the very air had thickened with the weight of those disembodied voices.

The whispers grew louder, overlapping one another, coming from every direction.

"Turn back… Turn back… TURN BACK!"

He stumbled, his foot catching on a root, and for the first time, fear licked at his thoughts. His bravado cracked. He looked up at the hill, its silhouette darker than the encroaching night, an unnatural shadow blotting out the fading sky. It was then he saw it—movement, just at the top. A figure, standing still, watching him.

No. Not watching. Waiting.

The whispers stopped all at once, replaced by a thick, heavy silence that pressed on his eardrums, muting the world around him. Ben’s mouth went dry. He couldn’t move, couldn’t tear his eyes away from the figure that seemed to glide down the hill without moving its legs. It was tall, impossibly tall, its limbs thin and elongated, too long to be human. As it drew closer, Ben saw that its face—or what should have been its face—was a void, a featureless blackness that sucked in the last of the light.

The thing extended one of its arms, the limb bending unnaturally, almost serpentine. It pointed directly at him.

Suddenly, the whispers returned, but now they weren’t warnings. They were something else.

“He didn't listen,” they said in a soft, mournful chant. “He didn’t listen... He didn’t listen…”

Ben’s legs moved, but not by his will. He found himself walking, no, running—away from the hill, back toward town, his heart hammering wildly in his chest. The thing didn’t follow, but its presence lingered, a suffocating weight pressing down on his every breath.

By the time he reached the town’s edge, the sun had vanished completely, and the whispers had faded into the night. He stumbled back into the tavern, breathless, drenched in sweat, but alive.

The old man was still there, sitting at the bar, his eyes knowing, sad. Ben collapsed into a chair, shaking, his mouth struggling to form the words.

“I… I didn’t believe you.”

The old man gave a slow nod, his gaze distant. “Few ever do.”

Ben looked out the window, toward the dark silhouette of Silent Hill, a shiver running through him. He could still hear the final whisper, echoing in the depths of his mind.

"Next time, you won’t escape."

And he knew—there would be a next time.