Chapter 109 Haunted!
|| Author Pov ||
In the depths of the dead forest, Rosa’s eyes darted around, searching.
The surrounding was grey, shabby and dry leaves under her feet. No one was there. A faint mist curled, lowly slithering through the trees, creeping toward her.
Then Rosa’s gaze froze. A black shadow stood in the distance. The outline of a woman. Familiar. Too familiar.
Rosa’s breath hitched. Her trembling hand lifted on its own, reaching forward. “Mommah?”
She blinked rapidly when another shadow materialized. The face grew clearer. Her father’s face.
The woman’s head tilted softly, “Baby? How are you? Mommy misses you.” her voice was gentle and achingly tender.
Rosa’s chest rose sharply. She nodded frantically, stumbling forward, taking steps closer. But the closer Rosa tried to get, the farther they drifted away. Their shadows stretched back, retreating with every step she took forward.
“Mommah, wait for me. Please don’t go. Momma?”
“Does he hurt you, my baby? Are you in pain? Mommy can take you away. Do you want to come with us?” The breathy voices slithered through her head.
Rosa nodded her head violently. Her legs were moving on their own as she chased them deeper into the mist. Her breaths came out sharp, frantic. But then...
The forest suddenly went pitch black. Every tree, every shadow, swallowed whole.
Her father tilted head unnaturally to the side, eyes boring into her soul.
“We never thought–” he rasped in a voice voice that echoed like a curse, “that you would give your heart to the son of the man who destroyed us. Our own daughter, our princess? How could you?”
A searing strike ripped into Rosa’s chest. It was so sharp she gasped.
“Papa. I didn’t kn-” her words stumbled out, breaking into silence the moment her gaze locked on their suddenly shifting faces.
Dark veins crawled over their skin like spreading cracks, distorting the features she once knew.
“Papa?” Rosa’s voice shook.
Their faces twisted into something monstrous, inhuman.
Rosa screamed in a piercing sound that ripped the forest air and in a blink, they were gone.
Her fists gripped the fabric of her dress tight and she spun around. The trees loomed over her like giants.
“MOMMMAAAH!”
Her scream broke off when an unnatural sound slithered into her ears.
A strange, weird noise. Grunting.
It grew louder. A low, guttural grumble vibrated the ground beneath her feet–the kind of sound no human could make.
Rosa froze. Her blood was running cold as the shadow swallowed the forest floor, towering higher than the trees themselves. The shadowed creature stepped forward, its deformed body twisted and monstrous, ugly beyond imagination.
“It’s time to kill you. Just like you let him kill me before your eyes and did nothing.”
The guttural voice rumbled. Every word vibrated through the ground.
Rosa’s legs gave way and she stumbled backward.
“M-momma! Papa!”
She sobbed, crying out as she ran but the monster’s thunderous steps shook the forest as it chased her down.
Rosa skidded to a halt when her parents’ figures appeared again right in her path. But their faces were no longer warm. Their features had morphed into grotesque, horrifying masks, veins crawling under their skin.
“No, no, no.”
Rosa’s lips trembled and she fell to the dry, crackling leaves, scraping her palms.
The monster’s enormous, earth-like hand stretched out behind her, casting a suffocating shadow over her trembling body.
“You’re not guilty, princess. You still love him. We will never forgive you.” The voices echoed distortedly, swirling through the forest like a ghostly chant.
Rosa’s wild scream tore from her throat “Nooo! Please, nooo!”
But it was useless.
The monster’s massive jagged hand reached down like the sky itself was collapsing.
Rosa screamed until her throat burned but no one came. No one. Darkness swallowed her.
—Rosa jolted awake, gasping. Her body was drenched in sweat. Tears streaked her face as she lay trembling on the bed. The realization struck...
A nightmare.
Nightmare!
But her chest still clenched with dread. The ceiling above looked darker than usual. Rosa didn’t dare move. Even the twitch of a finger felt dangerous. If she moved, something might come.
Her heart thundered inside her chest as she watched the curtain swaying with the corner of her eyes. Moonlight spilling inside her room.
Rosa rolled her eyes back toward the ceiling but a subtle movement at the far corner of the room stole her attention. Her heart skipped a beat and her whole existence seemed to halt.
Her eyes widened when she saw it–a human-shaped misty shadow, motionlessly standing in the air.
She was awake.
She was sweating.
The shadow remained still, silent and ominous. Her tears fell freely when it suddenly stirred, gliding through the air with an unnatural floating grace.
It floated closer silently but every step, or the illusion of one, made the air grow colder. Rosa’s fingers clawed at the sheets and her body shrank into itself.
She couldn’t open her mouth.
Lying there felt like death itself.
Rosa bolted upright, clawing at the sheets and searched for her phone to turn on flashlight but then she remembered, it was gone. He had taken it! Her chest tightened with panic.
The shadow crept closer. Could it be a ghost?
How many had died in this mansion? A spirit’s presence wasn’t impossible and that thought squeezed her heart mercilessly.
Was she losing her mind?
Was she hallucinating?
She was gasping in fear. As the shadow came closer, Rosa stumbled off the bed for her life. Her voice finally reached her throat.
Fear had stolen her voice but panic drove her forward. She bolted toward the closed door. Sweat and tears streaked her face, strands of hair clinging to her skin.
Her fist slammed against the door over and over. Each blow sent sharp pain through her knuckles.
Rosa dared a glance back. The shadow was moving with an unnatural patience that made her blood run cold.
Her fragile sanity teetered on the edge, fraying with every heartbeat.
Her hits on the door grew savage, fueled by terror.
“Open the door!” Rosalie finally screamed, echoing into the suffocating darkness.
“OPEN THE DOORRR—!”
Her loud scream shattered the silence, echoing through the empty halls of the mansion. Her knuckles split. Faint blood mixed with sweat as she pounded on the door.
Rosa stumbled back the moment the door creaked open. Her chest was heaving. Every nerve was on fire. Her eyes darted wildly, unable to register front or back. Her mind a blank void.
“Shad-shadow. THERE’S A SHADOW!”
She was embraced immediately into a hard chest.
“There is a shadow..! Th-there’s.. there–”
She was shivering for good. Her tears soaked the fabric she clung to. Her feets were stomping on the floor in fear.
“Shadoww–”
“Shh. Shh, there’s nothing. Calm down. Calm down, rabbit.”
The human voice reached her ear and Rosa stilled.