Horror story

One rainy day, Rachel and Barney were celebrating their tenth anniversary in a cottage at the bottom of the Alps. A very cozy wooden house, but with a dark past that they did not yet know. They stood in front of the fire in the fireplace to light the candles when they heard some strange noises, but they were not alarmed. Shortly after, a breath of fresh air came through a window that they did not know that was open and the candles shut down suddenly. Rachel and Barney stared each other. He stood up slowly and went to get a flashlight for light. Rachel was left completely alone in the room.

Barney walked slowly into the kitchen and searched the drawers but found nothing. He looked in the attic buthe didn’t found anything.

Rachel shouted from the living room saying that someone was biting his leg and Barney thouht it was a joke from his beloved friend and he did not come to the aid of her. Suddenly, something was biting his left leg, too. Rachel found a small flashlight in the room into a small box and with her hands she tried to heal the wound.

Then, he heard a loud noise coming from upstairs. The two were really frightened and went towards the stairs . They hugged each other in fear and began to go up the stairs. Suddenly,Barney a step broke and fell down the hole. Rachel started calling him and with the same tone of voice he heard a voice saying: Rachel, leave Barney, leave him alone, both of you are going to die. Rachel started screaming again and tried all ways get her husband out of there... when a shadow appeared!

Barney felt a strong blow into his head and he fainted. Rachel was taken outside the house, where there was a small cabin among the trees. She entered into the hut and sat on a chair. She opened the light. The room was small but full of horrible things. There were pictures
of children, children with deformities or dead.

Behind a shelf, she could appreciate an old woman with a wrinkled face, big eyes and white hair.
Rachel tried to speak but she realized that her mouth was gagged.
The old woman started talking. He said she would never see her husband again and that she would never escape from there. That all the photos she could see were from old people in that house. Yes, that beautiful house had been a place where parents brought their children with malformations so that anyone couldn’t see them anymore.

Rachel began to cry because of the fear. The old woman began to laugh and Rachel felt much more scared.

Barney woke up. He felt pain throughout all his body but he tried to get up and go to look for Rachel. Running aimlessly, he stumbled over an object on the floor, with such a bad luck that it gave him a blow against a corner in his chest and died.

Rachel felt a severe pain and knew something had happened to her husband. He tried to escape but couldn’t. The old woman took her by the hair and dragged her into the house.

Then he saw the body of Barney on the floor and knew she would never get out alive from that trip that had to be so charming.

She began to mourn inconsolably and beat the old woman. She managed to escape and ran into the kitchen to grab a knife. The old woman recovered from the blow and ran away from the house. Rachel felt strange. He looked as if she was old and went to help her husband, without any success. She fell crushed by fatigue.

Suddenly she woke up, coughing, and when she opened her eyes saw that the house was on fire. The ceiling was falling and she could not do anything. She tried to break the glass window of the room. Her last image before the roof killed her. In the meanwhile... the old woman in the garden was waving her goodbye with a horrible smile on her face.


Tania Perales Domini


* Conte premiat en el II Concurs de contes breus 2011, organitzat per la biblioteca i els departaments de Català, Castellà i Llengües estrangeres de l'Institut Cristòfol Despuig.