SpookTober: The Voice from Nowhere

To bring in the Spooky Season, this October we had our brilliant APB writers come up with their own little horror stories!

The Voice from Nowhere

By: Sarah Amira Samsulbahrin

I was on my way home from the public library. I loved spending my holidays there. I’m sort of a bookworm, you see. While I was walking down my neighborhood street, I passed by one of my neighbour’s house. The house had 3 golden retrievers; you know, the beautiful dogs with golden fur that you usually see in commercials. Usually, those dogs would greet me happily and they would lick my hand whenever I pat them. However, nowadays, the dogs would bark and snarl at me. They would try to bite my hand off whenever I tried to pat them. What is wrong with those dogs, I thought to myself as I stopped to look at them, which began barking at me.

 Suddenly, I heard a faint whisper s calling my name. I turned around to see that there was no one on the street beside me. I began to feel a bit weird about the situation, so I quickly made my way back home. I have been hearing whispers since the beginning of my holidays. I didn’t tell my parents about it. They would have thought that I was going crazy.

Soon, I finally reached home. I saw my mother in the garden, planting some flowers.

“Hi, mom,” I greeted my mother as she was dusting off the mud off her jeans.

“How was the library, Rena?” asked my mother. I shrugged and quickly went inside. I helped to prepare dinner first. A few minutes later, my mother came in the kitchen still covered in mud and she tried to help me cook dinner. However, I nagged my mother. I told her to get changed into something clean and wash up before handling the food. My mud-covered mother obediently went upstairs to get changed. By the time she finished washing up, dinner was ready.

We ate our dinner and we chatted about our day. Our conversation was pretty random until I asked my mother about my father.

“Mom, why isn’t dad calling us?” I asked my mother.

“I don’t know, sweetie,” replied my mother.

“But he always calls us whenever he’s away on a business trip,” I said. It had been a week since he left for a business trip in Japan and he never called once. It was very unusual for him not to call or video chat. At first, I thought my parents were arguing with each other. But my mother reassured me that their relationship was fine. I wonder what’s stopping him from calling us, I thought.

We finished up dinner, and my mother insisted that I rest while she cleaned up since I had prepared dinner. I went up to my room and lied down on my bed, staring at the blank ceiling. Then, I heard my name being called. Mom is probably calling me, I thought.

I quickly got out of bed and went down to the kitchen. When I got there, my eyes widened. The kitchen was dark and there was no sight of my mother anywhere in the kitchen. I could have sworn that I heard my name was being called from the kitchen.

Suddenly, I heard my name again. This time it was a soft whisper coming from behind me. I couldn’t turn around. It was as if my whole body turned to ice. The soft whisper continued to echo through the kitchen and I could feel all the hairs on my body standing up. The whisper grew louder until I could hear a cold, soulless voice calling my name. I could feel cold sweat falling down my forehead. I couldn’t breathe and began gasping for air. I wanted to scream but it was as if a huge lump was stuck in my throat. Then, I felt a sharp, cold air growing behind me. It got colder and I was sure that someone or something was behind me.

“Rena? What are you doing down there, sweetie?” my mother called to me.

I let out a loud gasp and the cold air from behind me, suddenly disappeared. I could hear my mother coming down the stairs. I could sense that the something or someone behind me had disappeared. I plucked up the courage and quickly turned around, only to see my mother looking at me with worry.

“Rena? What’s wrong, dear? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost,” said my mother and felt my forehead that was covered in cold sweat. I quickly hugged my mother, not saying anything. I was still too shaken to say anything about what just happened to me. My mother did not say anything as she hugged me back while gently stroking my hair. After I was less shaken, I quickly told my mother what had happened just a while ago.

“There was something or someone behind me,” I said with a hint of fear in my voice.

“It was nothing, dear. Maybe you were just imagining things,” said my mother as she stroked my head. However, she didn’t sound convincing. I could tell she was hiding something from me after I told her about what had happened. She had the look of fear in her eyes. We did not say anything else and went upstairs. Since I was still shaken about what just happened, I begged my mother to let me sleep with her for the night. Surprisingly, my mother agreed. So we went to bed together.

I tried my best to fall asleep. I turned to see that my mother had already fallen asleep. I poked her face but she did not wake up. It was unusual for her to sleep that deeply. I looked at the clock and it was almost  2 a.m. I closed my eyes again and tried my best to fall asleep. 

Just as the clock struck 2, I felt a sharp pain on my chest. I opened my eyes with shock. The pain in my chest was so unbearable, that I had difficulty  breathing. I started beating my chest to get rid of the pain. I continued to gasp and choke through the pain until the pain simply died away. I quickly sat up on the bed, still clutching on to my chest, gasping and wheezing for air. I turned to my mother who was still sleeping soundly. 

What’s going on here, I thought. I quickly snuggled closer to my mother. I then fell asleep in my mother’s arm, feeling safe. I slept as if the sudden pain in my chest had never happened.

I woke up and saw that my mother was no longer sleeping beside me. She must be making breakfast, I thought as I rubbed my eyes. I stretched and yawned loudly. The things that had happened yesterday and last night were still fresh in my mind. I quickly look at my chest but there were no bruises or anything on it. I took a deep breath and told myself that it was nothing. I quickly went down in my pajamas. As I went down, I saw a man sleeping in the living room sofa. The man had messy hair and a beard. He looked as if he had not bathed for a week. The man however, was no stranger. I knew who that scruffy man was.

“Dad!” I yelled happily. 

I quickly rushed down the stairs and gave him a hug while he was still sleeping in the sofa. My father did not wake up despite me hugging him so tightly. I began shaking my father to wake him up. I had so many questions. Why didn’t he contact us? Why does he look like as if he hadn’t bathed in a really long time? Why did he come back home early from his business trip?

After a while, my father finally woke up. He sat up and I quickly hugged him again. “I missed you so much,” I told him. I let go of him and looked at his face. He did not look at me. His eyes were swollen and his face was skinny. He looked as if he had lost his whole life.

“Dad, what’s wrong?” I asked nervously. Suddenly, my father began crying. It was more of an ugly crying and his crying wouldn’t stop.

“Mom, help me. Dad can’t stop crying,” I called out for my mother. She did not reply. I panicked. I have never seen my father crying this badly. Suddenly, I heard the doorbell ring. My father immediately stopped crying. He wiped his tears away and ran to the door, leaving me behind. I chased after him. He opened the door and I was shocked to see two policemen in their uniforms standing in front of the door early in the morning.

“Sir, we caught him. We caught the man who killed your wife and daughter. He was hiding under the town bridge with all the stolen money and jewelry,” said on the policemen. My father sank to the floor, bursting in tears. He wailed and cried so hard while the policemen comforted him.

I stared at them. My whole body froze. My mind went blank. I couldn’t completely grasp what the policemen had said.

Suddenly, I heard my name being called. This time it wasn’t a whisper. 

I turned to see a black hooded figure with a cracked skeleton head floating behind me. The skeleton extended his bony hand to me.

“Rena, it is time to go. Your mother has already left. She’s waiting for you,” said the skeleton gently. I looked at the skeleton. I immediately knew that it was him that was standing behind me yesterday in the kitchen. But this time, I wasn’t afraid. I took his skeletal hand. 

“I’m sorry,” said the skeleton as we walked away together.  

My name is Rena. My mother and I were killed by a robber who broke in to our house. We were both killed in our sleep. I was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife. I died on the night of first day of my school holidays at 2 in the morning. This is how I left the world.