Collection Of Horror Tales - Chapter 27 Reminisce Of The Dead

When I was coming into the room, the stench of death was omnipresent. In complementation to that there was also a deep darkness present, that nearly made my sight go blind. Only with some difficulty was it that I could make out the bed and the person within. She was lying still. So still actually, that I found myself questioning if she wasn’t already dead.

Suddenly, as if contradicting my thoughts the tattered sheets started moving a bit and an old voice could be heard.

This old one isn’t dead yet son; don’t think to highly of me, said the voice that was so familiar to me that I could discern it out of a thousand others. The voice has lost her once held energy and was sounding fragmented, as if only a small part of her past glory could be heard.

A sudden cough interrupted her. Worried as I am, I immediately started to offer my help anyhow, even if I didn’t know exactly how I should do that.

“Hahaha” a raspy lough came from the depths of the room. “Child, the only time you will have to help me is when sending my soul of to heaven.”

A little taken aback I asked after a short moment of silence:” Why did u wish to see me?”

“I have a favour to ask of you.” Her voice got considerably quieter while saying so, that I had to move my face so close to the blanket, that I saw her old face in every detail. The wrinkles parting the face in little parts of their own, the skin old and dry like paper and the closed eyes that gave the impression, she was just resting within her endless wisdom were getting more clear.

Suddenly her face optically twisted and it almost seemed as if another face was trying to come out from inside. The most terrifying thing was that while she seemed nearly asleep with closed eyes before, the eyes of the faint illusory face, that had seen the daylight for a glimpse, were wide open. Furthermore they had no pupils within. It was such a pure white snow like horror, that I could not remember the face except the eyes, by the moment it disappeared. I staggered backwards in shock. Soon the voice was heard again, still the warm, calm and raspy old voice, like nothing happened. “Could you please just not go to-?”

Just when I recovered my position beside the bed again to listen to her really quiet words again, another face came out of the familiar woman on the bed. I couldn’t tell if it was a new one or the same but the pure white eyes had the same look. The difference was, this time I got a good look on the face and it was so distorted, that not a single part of it seemed to match each other. It was as if every part I concentrated on was belonging to a different human. Even when I looked over the same spot twice, there was no resemblance between the two appearances.

If I thought of the first time as accident, now I had doubts. Was it my PTSD acting up again or what was it? But I never had so vivid and live like hallucinations. The doctor said that Hallucinations could occur. Even so, if I showed no signs of them early on, it was unlikely that I would get them later on. The time it took for me to come to that conclusion, everything vanished as if it was a nightmare fading away while I wake up. With the fading process my memories of the face also slowly disappeared from my mind, as if they were only the dispersing smoke of a cigarette.

I was so irritated; a reaction in any way to the situation was not possible for me. I just realized that my grand mom has started to speak again with her gentle and lovely raspy voice, I have known for so many years. A fear of coming close to her again emerged and I felt so unimaginable guilty for that. I couldn’t control my fear, I just knew that I could not go close, to a woman I have loved my whole life, again. As I realized this, tears came from my eyes rolling down, tears of unwillingness. Even so, I could not restrain the fear enough to move my head forward. I just watched myself scaring away from my own ancestors like a cat in front of a predator.

“Good child not go . The city hunting you child your death won’t rest . See your soul dead.”

The only thing I felt in this moment after she spoke those words was anger. I didn’t understand everything she said, but what I understood was enough for a deep and intense anger about being alone in this world and finding nobody on my side, was what was rising in my stomach. My wife that looks at me like I am here demise, her mistake in life and now my beloved granny, who wants to take me the only thing I have achieved, I have built up by myself in my life; the life in the city.

But what I didn’t realize was that she closed her eyes and her last breath floated gently over her face after saying this.