On the Wrong Side | Short Story Part 1

Hello Friends, Read the Part 1 of the new Horror Short Stories Series. I hope you are able to imagine it all the way i did, while penning down my thoughts. Also, all the questions that the story may leave you with, will be answered in the coming parts :)

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What once, was a lush green garden, was now a hostile thorn bush and the swings that once saw happy children jumping around, and were now empty, creaking in the most haunted manner possible.

What haunted the most was the isolation. Though she was just by herself in the longstanding compound, Aayat knew she was not alone. She could feel the emptiness of the large edifice stare back at her with a smirk.

Just as she turned around to defy its insubstantial stare, something caught her attention. The entrance of the narrow passage that had a fragile rusted grill in the name of a “gate”, was swinging open. Almost as if something was breezing in and out silently.

Aayat couldn’t help but notice the walls. So tall and never ending, encircling her as if she was a victim of an ambush. She could feel a bead of sweat trickle down her lower back, finally getting absorbed in the linen of her skirt. She noticed a few empty spaces on the wall, where windows must have stood. Over the years, some of the bricks had fallen off leaving a series of black holes to peek through. However, no one ever dared do so.

Friends, acquaintances, neighbours, even strangers crossing the small town of Currie, located in the outskirts of Minnesota knew that this was a pad one must never trespass. There were many urban legends around it. Interestingly, people believed in every single one of them.

The most recent urban legend told by her parents was where it is believed, that this edifice, many many years ago was a mental asylum, where all the world’s ghastly experiments were done on the patients. Right from open brain surgeries, to seeing how different organs react to different chemicals, without giving anaesthesia, this place was a living hell.

But then someone’s notorious plot landed the entire asylum into a massive fire, fortunately or unfortunately wiping it clear of any human life. After being abandoned for over a decade, people from the nearby vicinity started reporting voices and sighting coming from the asylum. Sometimes scream of a man, medical tools falling from no-where and its sound, echoing endlessly.

A proposal to demolish the structure was also being considered. But the chief strongly believed that doing so, could make matters worse and he was clearly vary of messing with the supernatural. So this got rejected just as quickly, as it was proposed.

The sudden chill in the winter air gave Aayat Goosebumps. With the sun having retired for the day, she knew standing in the premise was not the best of her decisions.

The words of her brother kept echoing in her head, “Once a woman disappeared after she decided to explore that damned asylum. No one has ever seen her since. Mumma says not to ever loiter around it post sunset. You also stay away from that place. Ok Di? ”.

One voice in her head said, “Aayat, Just spool back your steps and go home now. You have no idea what you are getting into”, but the other voice said, “Those are just urban legends! You know they aren’t true. Besides, it isn’t as dark as yet. I could just sneak in a little, get a look and then go back”.

The wind whisked strongly now, and Aayat was struggling with all the dust, dry leaves and her hair which was all over her face. The circling of the leaves caused by the wind storm with the asylum in the backdrop, only added to the eeriness of the place.

She looked down at her watch which showed she still had 10 minutes left to be home. So Aayat decided, she will only go as far as 10 steps from the gate, look around and see for herself what it is, that the people of Currie were so scared of.

She held the fragile gate open, and walked past the dry bushes that seemed to be in abundance. The structure indeed was scary. The architecture was intricate and being an architect herself, she appreciated the playful arch, beautifully chalked out corridors with rooms every 2 meters, probably medical examination rooms if the “Mental asylum” Urban legend was true.

Holding her hair on one side, as she craned her neck to get a better view of the inside, something held the loose end of her skirt and she stopped. Her heart skipped a beat and she didn’t know whether to keep walking or to look back, at whoever it was… holding her skirt! 

Sweating profusely now, her throat was dry with fear. She was cussing herself “Oh God... I probably shouldn’t have come in”. Her over-imaginative mind was already imaging a walking dead zombie like thing with scissor hanging out from one ear and a tong from the brain that was left open after one of those horrendous surgeries!

Clutching her skirt, she held her breath, preparing herself for the worst. With tears in her eyes, tears that came out of fear, she pursed her lips & turned back.

“Oh ! Just a rusted hook”, she whispered under her breath and bend down to remove the skirt from its grip. She was glad it was not a psycho or a zombie or an Annabella which was holding her skirt.

Aayat looked around for now she it was really dark. The kind of dark that scares people. The kind of dark that you would not like to be in, alone. She ruffled with her skirt, her cell phone and got up to leave.

Just as she stood up, the world around her started spinning and an excruciating pain gripped her. She lost her balance and fumbled a few steps to see who it was. Or what it was that gave her a blow on her back of her head. With tears now rolling out of her Kohl smeared eyes, everything seemed blurry. She was struggling to keep her eyes open, struggling to get a look of what it was. But it was dark. And then a new kinda darkness overtook.

She was no longer conscious. Lying in the premises of a building that was damned and abandoned, Aayat just lay there.