The unexpected guest and the strange atmosphere!!
[Arc - Journey to Scarestown]
Startled by the knocking sound, Zayn hiding the blunt blade behind him , opened the door slowly.
Click !
A middle aged man having two crossed pupils and long black hair was standing outside the door. He was carrying a plate in his hands and smiled at Zayn .
Seeing the smile, Zayn Wolfe felt shudder for unknown reasons . He almost swung his blade at the middle aged man.
The middle aged man spoke in stuttering voice
"D-dinner ....t-he v-village head...s-sent "
Zayn Wolfe frowned and looked at the plate , only to see it was filled with meat and rice .
He disliked eating meat and he brought his own rations for the journey so he declined.
"Sorry but I'm not hungry!"
The middle aged man froze for a second, his crossed eyes looking at Zayn peculiarly.
Seeing him like this , Zayn was about to close the door but the middle aged men blocked the door and said with wide smile
"F-ood h-has to ...be ....e-eaten !"
Zayn Wolfe looked at him coldly. He really wanted to swing his blade at the middle aged man but thinking about the old man , he ultimately took the food from the middle aged man.
I will just take it and won't eat it ! Let it be like that .....
The midnight air in the ancient village of shadows carried an eerie chill as Zayn Wolfe reluctantly accepted the dinner delivered by the cross eyed middle-aged man. Despite the insistence, he chose caution over indulgence, opting not to consume the unknown fare.
Placing the food plate aside , Zayn slept on the bed . He began to slowly close his eyes after few seconds and he entered in light sleep.
As the clock struck 11:30 PM, Zayn's wearied eyes sought rest. However no matter how he tried to sleep , he ended up opening his eyes and when everytime he opened his eyes , a peculiar sight caught his attention—the shattered mirror in the dimly lit room.
Since he was sleeping opposite of the shattered mirror which was placed opposite of his bed , he always ended up seeing the mirror. Seeing the shattered mirror, he felt uneasy so he decided to place it somewhere else so he could sleep peacefully.
Zayn stood up , taking the mirror in his hands carefully. He began to examine the fractured glass curiously , as he began to face the mirror directly he discovered a disconcerting revelation. The shattered pieces in the mirror reflected multiple versions of himself, each with a distinct emotion—anxiety, joy, sorrow, anger, indifference.
His own face showcasing different expression in the mirror. Feeling shocked he began to focus on the mirror when a sense of foreboding gripped Zayn as he felt an inexplicable pull towards the shattered images.
The room seemed to darken suddenly, and a faint whisper echoed, beckoning him towards an unseen door within the mirror. A door was reflecting deep in the mirror, hiding behind his different reflections faces . Without knowing his own actions, he was dangerously close to the mirror. Suddenly his heart began to rave quickly and he woke up from the strange trance .
Alarmed from the strange feeling, he swung his blunt blade, shattering the mirror and disrupting the unnatural phenomenon.
The shattered mirror fell into pieces on the ground. Zayn Wolfe stepped back and said in low voice
"What the hell was that ?"
The room plunged into a subdued gloom, the dim lamps casting long shadows. Shaken, Zayn questioned his own sanity as beads of sweat trickled down his face.
As he was thinking Suddenly, a fleeting shadow traversed the window, leaving an unsettling shadow trace on the wall.
He immediately looked back but he didn't find anything at all .
Bewildered, Zayn went to the window and scanned the surroundings, finding no trace of any person in the victnity . The outside was very silent and some distance away , he saw the cross eyed middle aged men was unearthing something beside a palms tree .
Zayn Wolfe narrowed his eyes and saw that the middle aged man dumped something in the hole he dug, after that he began to cover the hole with the sand .
'What is he doing?'
Zayn was confused.
As he watched , the middle aged man stopped his actions and slowly turned around, to face Zayn.
Zayn froze seeing the cross eyed middle aged man slowly waving his hands at his direction.
'Did he see me ?'
Taking the blunt blade with him , he slowly went outside and arrived near the palm tree but there was no sign of the crooss eyed middle aged man at all .
"Did he run away?"
He frowned slightly and turned around to head back but only to see that guy was behind him at all time.
Closely, behind him .
When did he appear behind me?
Alarmed Zayn Wolfe looked at the smiling middle aged man . Silent for a second, he asked him coldly
"What were you doing just now ?"
The middle aged man didn't answer but slightly lowered his neck and said in low voice
"You shouldn't have come here !"
Confused by his words , Zayn wanted to ask again but the middle aged man left with his head still lowered . No matter how many times he called , the middle aged man left without stopping.
Zayn looked at the ground where the guy was covering something and saw that not far away from that place , there was still a wet drop of blood , staining the ground.
He saw that the shovel was still there , so pondering for a moment, Zayn took the shovel and beagan to see whats inside the ground. Close to the midnight, he began to dug the ground crazily and finally he found what the guy dumped inside .
It was a bloody goat ! But strangely there was no goat head .
It was beheaded!
"What a psycho!"
Zayn Wolfe felt that this middle aged man must have mental disability so that's why he was behaving like this , so he went back to the house after covered the hole again with the sand .
Closing the door , he looked around and saw that something was missing. The bed was now facing right side of the wall now , at first it was facing left side when he saw at the beginning but now it was changed !
"Did someone come when I just left now ? Even if they did what's the motive behind turning the bed to the left side ?....or am i just mistaken ?"
Frowning, he pondered the bizarre occurrences finally he attributed them to the weariness of his journey.
"Was it just my weariness that caused me dizzy ? Or am i imagining thinks ?"
Shaking his head , he began to sleep on the bed . Removing the bizzare event that just happened to him now .
As exhaustion overwhelmed him, he succumbed to the lure of sleep, only to be haunted by unsettling sounds—the distant howls of wolves, the haunting whistle of the wind, and a phantom voice whispering his name.
Yes he felt like someone was calling his name and he could hear all sort of sounds that are both familiar and unfamiliar.
"Why can't I sleep today ?"
Zayn Wolfe frowned .
Unable to find solace in sleep, Zayn turned his gaze upward, discovering two small holes in the roof. In this nightmarish vision, a dark green eye peered through. When he focused on the two dark green eyes he felt deeply unsettled and unease. He wanted to move but he felt like a mountain was pressing on him . He looked around for his weapon but what he saw was himself in a unknown empty black space and when he looked up , he saw that the dark green eyes were closing on him , sending a shiver down in his spine.
He immediately woke up !
"Huff .....huff ..."
Awakening from this surreal nightmare, he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, only to find it was a mere dream.
"Seriously...it was all just a nightmare?"
He took out his little pocket watch from his pocket and realized it was exactly midnight 12"0 Clock.
Taking a deep breath, he decided to sleep and not think too much about it.
Just as he considered returning to slumber, a faint whisper called his name.
ZAYN ~
At first he thought he was thinking too much but he once again heard the voice calling his name.
"Who is calling my name?"
He never said his name to anyone here ! So how is the other party calling him and most importantly where is this voice coming from ?
Many questions popped inside his head.
" Should I go see who's that ?"
Just as he thought, he remembered the old man strange warning.
DONT GO OUTSIDE AFTER MIDNIGHT!
As he was contemplating , The mysterious voice echoed through the chilling silence, leaving Zayn torn between curiosity of the unknown voice calling him and the village head's ominous warning.
The cold moonlight painted a haunting tableau outside, and the freezing wind carried a spectral melody through the ancient village. Zayn wrestled with the decision to investigate the whisper, unsure if he should defy the village head's cautionary words.
To be continued.....