Short Stories : Stories From All Over the World, Part XVI: Welcome Home

Short Stories : Stories From All Over the World, Part XVI: Welcome Home

They arrived at their new house in the morning. - A whole house for you alone! - all alone! - here on the outskirts of the city. They could hardly believe their luck. Such a cheap house in such a beautiful location, despite the overgrowth. Anyone else who had turned down this offer had to be fools. But now it was theirs and they would never give it up again. They didn't have much - a cart was enough for the luggage - and they'd spent almost all their money on the house, but it should be worth it - and they wanted to grow vegetables in the large garden to sell. But first came the move - luckily at least furniture was already available. Hardly that they had brought everything in and said goodbye to the cart driver, Joam moved out to take another look at the property, while Aci did the same with the house.

The garden was old and overgrown, but big enough that you could get lost. So you wanted to grow something here? It would take ages to hack through the weeds. Sometimes Joam wondered why he had let Aci persuade him. Did he still love her so much? Or was it her female powers of persuasion? - And all these birds and lizards that were floating around everywhere - you would have to drive them away, clean everything. After a while, exploring the garden, something strange happened. Out of the corner of his eye, he believed a movement - to see a scent, to feel it. A bird? - No, it looked too big. Were there any other animals here? Bigger, more dangerous? He shuddered at the thought - he had always had a deep aversion to large animals. They were all too ... dangerous. - There! - Another move, this time on the other side. What was that? Fear and curiosity struck him. When the latter gained the upper hand, he ventured deeper into the garden. How far would it go? But he quickly realized this when he came to a wall. Everything here was so overgrown that it could not be seen from afar - nor the hole in which Joam suddenly fell. Only briefly did he notice a movement in the garden.

Aci explored the house. Of course, they had already been shown it before, so at least she knew roughly what was where. Everything about this house captivated her. It had been cleaned for her, but you could still tell his age. And Aci loved that. It was her feeling of being at home that convinced her to want this house - even if she had to persuade Joam to do so. But now they were there and would remain so, she was certain. To take another look at the bedroom, she followed the stairs to the first floor. At the top, she wanted to walk left, but - hadn't something moved on the right? She immediately looked in that direction, where she thought she saw movement from the corner of her eye - but there was nothing. Just the corridor and the doors to two rooms and the attic. Still, it looked suspicious. One after the other she went to both rooms, unconsciously behaving quietly. The first room was dark and empty. The second, the bathroom, was also black - but there was someone there! Aci froze in shock. A black figure - a dark shadow - moved over a sideboard and made movements as if she were putting on make-up. Just when Aci came, she stopped, turned and walked to the large pool of water. As the figure passed through the area of ​​light coming from the hallway, Aci realized that it was a black, wavering human-shaped fog - and there in the pool she saw another one, small as a child. The fear of terror finally won. Panicked, Aci closed the door and hurried down to the entrance to the house. Where was her husband

Groaning, Joam straightened up. Where was he? All around he saw nothing but filth and gloom. He recognized loose earth and roots above him - a hole through which hardly any of the weak afternoon sun shone in. So that didn't help him either. After all, he realized that he was lying on a pile of rubble and was now full of earth and dust. How wonderful to move in - he had to get out of here and take a bath. But he wouldn't come back through the hole. He straightened cautiously - and winced when he felt the pain in his legs. Hobbling, he finally got deeper into the room he was in. A vaulted cellar? How big it was - the darkness seemed infinite to him. Amazed, he made his way in the direction in which he suspected the house. Everything was pitch black - he barely recognized anything. The little didn't seem to be worth it either. After a while, he looked back to see how far he had come - and saw a figure standing where he had fallen. Black as it was, he didn't see any features, but she seemed to be coming towards him. Startled, he turned back - whoever it was, he didn't want to meet anyone. Panic crept into his limbs and he limped on through the dark as fast as possible. Every now and then he stumbled over rubble, now and then he turned - the figure followed him. He just wanted to get out of this vault - but would there be an exit at all? What if these were buried, unknown vaults? What would happen if he couldn't find an exit? - And finally, when he approached an even darker area, which he thought was a wall, he saw the stairs that had to lead up to the house back to safety - but then he heard heavy footsteps.

Aci soon found herself in the kitchen while searching for Joam. The horror was still in her bones and she was afraid that something might follow her. She got into the kitchen by accident; she had already searched other rooms - but only if the door was already open and she could see inside. She voluntarily stopped touching the door until Joam was there. - Where was he? - At last she got the idea to make a tea to calm her down. With this she sat down at the small kitchen table - the large table was in the dining room by the fireplace - and tried to calm down; to think. What she saw up there - it must have been imagination. Yes - imagination. What other explanation would there be? It just couldn't be anything else. - But then one of these shadowy figures came to her in the kitchen. Aci froze again. Cold sweat pounded her forehead. - The being ignored them. Walked quietly - hovered? - it across the room from the front door over to the hotplate - and pretended to cook there. - Or was it really cooking? Maybe these fog creatures also had to prepare food? - Part of Aci's consciousness wondered how another part could so calmly pursue such absurd thoughts while her body seemed paralyzed with fear - and decided to change that. With a sudden jerk, the hidden animal acted in her ... and she ran away toward the entrance.

No sooner had he heard the kicks than Joam threw himself halfway between the stairs and a pile of rubbish where he would be hidden. No sooner was this done than he dared to look out - and saw Aci coming down the stairs. He almost got up relieved when he noticed that something was wrong. This was not aci - aci was not transparent. But who - or what - was it then? And what did it want, what was it up to? From his hiding place, he watched the resistance to flee. The aci figure stopped at the end of the stairs, her face - oh how dead and expressionless! - she turned to the point from which Joam had come. From there the other figure came strolling - floating? - who had followed him. Soon she was caught in the faint glow that shone down the stairs - and oh what horror! - the figure bore its features! It couldn't be - what was going on here? A sound of fear escaped him - and the beings turned to him. He jumped up in fear for his life and ran away, deeper and deeper into the darkness, ignoring his pain. Soon he couldn't go any further - and fell into deep - deep - darkness.

When she got to the front door, Aci noticed to her despair that it was locked. As much as she shook; the door didn't move. - She was locked up. Hardly that this got into her consciousness when she turned around. There was another back door - but it was in the kitchen, from which the creature now came. The room's candlelight was only diminished by the misty shape of the figure. Aci shivered - and even more when she saw the creature carrying a cup in front of it. Nothing would keep Aci in this house - there had to be some way out. But the figure was already blocking the way to the rooms on the ground floor - all that remained was the stairs up to the first floor. Although the shadow approached slowly and silently, she hurriedly ran up the stairs, stumbled and almost fell down several times. Once at the top, she didn't know where to go. - Use one of the windows to jump into the garden? - Behind her she saw the shadow floating up the stairs - and on the left came a second from the direction of the bedroom. Panicked, she turned to the right toward the bathroom. When she opened the door, another shadow came towards her. Screaming, startled, she backed away. - To the attic? That would be a trap - but what remained? When they arrived at the door, only a fourth fog awaited them. Something broke down in despair. Crying, she sat on the ground on the spot, leaned against the wall, waiting for everything. - But after a while she noticed that nothing further happened. The figures were all frozen in their places. One stood to her left in the passage to the attic, another blocked the way to the stairs, another the bathroom. But none of them moved. And then Aci saw the open door to the other room in this hall. She rose carefully. Walking to this room, she watched the beings who still didn't move. Was this the real trap now? - Despite her misgivings, she agreed - what other choice did she have?

A dark room awaited them - the candles lit when they entered, but this was hardly surprising. The room, which she had apparently never looked at, once seemed to have been a children's room - even a crib was still found. But her attention caught the blackboard, which was nailed to a wall there: someone had written a fresh-looking font on it. And while she was reading it, a lot became clear to her and some things she remembered.

After reading it, Aci turned and thanked her family, who had gathered around them, both for the warm greeting and for refreshing their memories. It was many years ago that this had been her room, but now she was home again. She also thanked for the warning her parents and grandparents gave her. Joam could no longer harm her and her unborn child; they had taken care of that. Aci was free and back with her family - finally she was home.

Author : Andre Schuchardt