Spooky Story Alert: Story of a bad storyteller

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She was a bad writer. Her stories never made any sense, and neither did her language. Her 10 self-published books hardly fetched her any readers. She had begun losing sleep as she was in desperate need of money. All she needed was a workable story idea which could pay the rent and bills; rest, she thought, could be polished by a ghost writer.

On the last day of May, at sundown, she felt a bizarre tingling in her heavily pregnant belly. She felt as though the baby was trying to tickle her from the inside. It was these moments which made her think that there should have been someone she could share such small joys with. Brushing the loneliness aside, she sat down to write.

Her thin frame with her eight-month-old belly bump couldn’t sit still. She had absolutely no idea what to write on. Sipping on her chocolate milkshake, she sat contemplating near the window whether to take up some job. As she was blankly staring outside her window, she saw a black frame of a little boy standing on the edge of the terrace top of the neighboring building. Since it was almost dark, she was unable to figure out what that little boy looked like. Oddly enough, the tingle in her belly increased.

“Hey! Here! Look down, here!” she waved and called out to the boy. The little black frame didn’t move an inch. She called out loudly, again. Nothing happened.

“Hey little boy, get down of the terrace top! I’ll call your mother,” she yelled sharply. In the dark, now, she could see the head of the boy turned towards her. Suddenly, she felt her baby kick inside her belly.

There it was! An idea struck her mind. She was going to write a tragic story about a little orphan boy who would later turn out to be a vigilante. Not an original idea, but she could refine it later, she thought. Even as she was happy for having thought of something, she felt a bit scared when that black frame kept looking in her direction with stony stillness. She waved and called out again, but to no avail. “What if he jumps to his death? Has he been abandoned? How has his mother been so careless?” These thoughts troubled her.

She then decided to meet the boy. Her belly kept tingling crazy as if the baby in it was trying to say something; maybe warning its mother against leaving the house. Nonetheless, her curiosity made her leave the house and head towards to the opposite building’s terrace where the little boy’s motionless figure stood.

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As she reached the entrance, she hurriedly asked the security guard if he could help. He dismissed her saying no one has the keys to the terrace top, except him. She insisted that she did see the boy. Unwillingly, the grumpy guard accompanied her to the terrace top to see if there was any kid at all. The door of the terrace top was locked. He looked at her with a smug expression. Nevertheless, he opened the terrace door, only so he could mock her.

The terrace top was pitch dark. The guard flashed his torchlight in all directions but couldn’t see any boy.

“Yes, ma’am. Where’s the boy?” He asked her with a smirk.

She followed the guard and looked around.

“There. See,” she said softly pointing towards the south end of the terrace top.

The little boy had now turned his frame towards her as she informed the guard.

She could now see that the boy wore, what she figured in the dark, were tattered clothes. But couldn’t see his face. He was standing still as a mannequin.

The guard wore a puzzled expression. Annoyed, he shouted at her for wasting his time as he was not able to see any boy. It was then she suddenly felt her baby, insider her belly, kick her. As she looked up, the boy standing at the south end of the terrace top now seemed a bit closer. But his little black frame was still standing motionless.

The irritated guard asked her to leave. She looked at the little boy and saw he was a few more steps closer. She asked the guard to flash his torchlight in the boy’s direction. But he wasn’t listening to her. He sensed that there was something spooky with this woman and wanted to leave the place.

She called to the little one lovingly, “Hey, baby, what’s your name? Where is your mother?”

No response.

Annoyed, the guard held her left arm tightly and began dragging her towards the exit door.

Suddenly, she felt her belly twirl from the inside leaving her in excruciating pain. She shrieked in pain. The guard was shocked as her shriek sounded like an animal’s during a slaughter. He left her arm in a haste and ran towards to the exit door.

She crouched on the floor seeking support and heard a loud thud from behind. She turned around. What she saw drained the blood from her face. The exit door had fallen so hard that it cut the guard’s body into two symmetrical pieces. Scared and confused, she yelled as loud as she could. When she turned around, she saw the boy, again motionless, standing only a few feet away from her. She could now see his face a little clearly. His round face reminded her of someone. Someone familiar. Her belly burnt from the inside.

“Who are you and what do you want?” She asked as she slowly tried to make her way towards the exit. However, she felt she couldn’t move her limbs. Was she paralyzed?

She saw the black frame of the boy slowly lift his hand and pointing it towards her belly and whispering in the most melodious voice: ‘I want your baby, Sheila.’ She was still not able to recall the familiarity in the boy’s face.

She gave another loud shriek and jolted back from her nightmare.

Her coffee mug was empty, and all dried up. She didn’t realise when she had fallen asleep and her nightmare woke her up at 3 am in the morning. Sweaty and scared, she looked at the terrace top of the same neighbouring building but couldn’t see any little boy standing there.

Later that night, she slept peacefully in many days as she now had a story idea in mind.

(Please forgive me for this long post. But hope you liked the story. Please comment/critique below so I'll know if I anyone at all reads my blog! :D )