novel 4

THE MYSTERY NEVER SOLVED

Author : Kim Sparkle

Genre : Horror

The Shimla bungalow was a magnificent fortress of pine and mountain silence, with white-washed walls and porcelain tiles that glimmered under the Himalayan Sun. When I was five, moving from the humid heat of West Bengal, I thought it was a place from a fairytale. But while exploring the colourful garden one evening, I stumbled upon a hidden path of tangled bushes and massive tree trunks. Behind a wall of choking vines and filthy moss, I found a heavy, iron-bound door. As I reached for the handle, Mr. Das, our butler, pulled me away with a frantic grip.

“Some doors aren’t built built for hinges, ‘Choti Maa’,” he whispered. “They keep things from the light. Never wake what rests on the other side.”

The village maids, later, fed me the rot beneath the beauty. They spoke of a ten-year old girl who once lived there. She had been searching through the tall grass for her golden pendant, a gift from her mother, when she stumbled into a violent confrontation between a British officer and a defiant pheasant. The officer hurled a jar of acid meant for the man, but it struck the little girl instead. Her skin melted like candle wax. As she lay dying, the British dismissed her screams as the ;___ “Buzzing of an annoying fly”

“Her grave was flattened to build this house,” the maid whispered. “A shaman sealed her rage behind that door after she possessed the previous owner’s daughter and killed the whole family. It must never be touched.”

For ten years, I obeyed. But on my fifteenth birthday, the mountain air felt heavy. My friends gathered in the lounge, playing “Never Have I Ever.” When it was my turn, I blurted out, “Never have I ever opened the sealed door in our garden.”

The room was pin drop silence before everyone erupted burst into a mocking laughter. “You’re such a coward, Stella! You’re a prisoner to your own backyard!” they jeered. Their ridicule burned, making me feel pathetic and small.

That night, I crept into the garden. My heart thrashed as I gripped the ice-cold handle and pushed. The door swung into a void-an absolute predetory darkness. The sudden swift in the air was so intense that I felt a tectonic weight pressing my chest and my throat went bone-dry. Then, a torn scrap of paper slid from the abyss. Written in the handwriting of what looked like a toddler’s, it said, “Will you play with me ?”

“Who?” I whispered.

A violent gust pushed me into the void. The door behind me slammed shut with a thunderous slab and vanished. I gulped, my blood ran cold and then I ran, legs shaky, breathing in harsh pants . Just then I slipped into a warm, foul liquid. I sniffed my trembling fingers when the stench of rotten blood and phantom acid filled my lungs. My breath hitched. A giggle echoed.

“HeHeHeHe…”

“Who are you ?” I gasped.

“I AM YOU!” a voice hissed like a demon’s whisper. I turned only to come face to face with a mirror. But what I saw knocked the air out of my chest. I felt my heart beat go cold as I stared at my reflection which was a melted nightmare. Skin dripping like candle wax, eyes were a pit of hollow darkness bleeding black tears that flowed down my cheek like a bloody curse, and a horrifying lipless grin, twisted and dark, stretched across my face.

“AHHHHHHH!” I screamed, bolting upright in bed.

I panted looking around my room. A dream. Shaking, I ran to the garden. The door stood there, unopened. I laughed with relief. But as I reached for my neck, my gold pendant, a precious gift from my father which always calmed my frantic nerves, was gone. It had vanished like it never existed. The door in the garden had been the only one I never dared to open and the pendant had remained the only mystery I had never been able to solve.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***