It was dark. There is silence in the woods, with a large house at the end of the row and towards the empty roads. A wind blows hard, wiping the dry leaves out of the surface. A beam of light was coming out of that house. The door opened and banged to the side of the walls. A ticking voice of a clock was coming out from the living area. The door was closed by the wind that shut the door locked. I witnessed the thunderstorms outside through the windows. A sound came from the other room, like a vase drop from the chest to the ground.
Next to the room is another door getting towards the basement. A shadow is blooming on the ladder from the basement. A boy walks through the ladder and reaches for the cellar. He took a left and continued walking for a few steps, where he saw a wood pile. Behind that is a chalk powder in a bag, dropping from it and spreading on the ground, making a line to the right. He strolls over and follows the line. He saw the body of a lady’s drawing in the blood. It was quiet and dark in there. He could not see her face. He moves close, and in the little light, he sees her face is blue. An injury marks on her forehead, and her eyes are wide open in shock. He heard the voice. It’s a footstep. The voice is getting more precise, like those steps coming towards him. He looked back and saw a tall, muscled man with a hammer. The boy yelled,’ Help!’”
Victor is sitting in the combined chairs waiting at the Airport. It is 1:30 a.m. It was still an hour for his flight to board. A lady walks in and passes her seat when Victor loses focus on the gripping horror story he is reading. He bought that best-seller novel from the bookstore at the Airport. The owner of the shop said, ‘Nice novel, sir. Don’t miss reading the last page’ that made Victor curious to read and finish his book right away, so he reveals the suspense on the book’s last page. His eyes go to her boarding pass. He saw that the name Anna Sebastián, was the same as what was mentioned in the book on the house nameplate.
He returned to reading his book. After 30 minutes, there was an announcement for passengers to board the flight. He marked the book’s page and kept it in his bag. He settled into his seat after adjusting his baggage. He got an aisle seat. The middle seat was empty, and next to it, on the window seat, came and sat the same lady that Victor had met in the waiting lounge.
He saw her face for the first time, but he thought she looked familiar. He smiled, and he got back her smile. Later, he fastened his belt, and the flight took off. The light got dim, and it was pretty dark. The air hostess asks if they require a blanket because of the cold. Victor took one. And the hostess tried to call Anna. But she never responded. ‘She might have been in her deep sleep already,’ Victor said.
The hostess went after keeping an extra blanket in case she wanted. Victor put the blanket on the empty seat, and when she woke up from her sleep, she looked at Victor. Anna looked precisely the same as the lady described in the book. The bruise marks on the forehead and her face were blue. He was amazed to see her. His bottle dropped. He tries to get his bottle. A man sitting next to another aisle seat in the same row helps him to take his bottle from the ground. Victor thanks him when he sees that man, and he looks and wears the same clothes described in the novel he has been reading. He doesn’t understand how the book got into his mind as he saw the same faces and characters everywhere, a severe impression of the book on him. He thought of taking a nap, and before that, he used the restroom. He moves towards the restroom. There was a queue, and he joined. When he reached and waited for his turn next, a toilet door opened, and he saw a boy as described in the story. He defended his eyes. The boy smiled and left. In a hurry, Victor locked the door, splashed water in his eyes, looked around, saw himself in a mirror for about a minute, and then returned to his seat.
Victor was terrified of the characters. He kept the book aside. He tries to take a nap. A few minutes later, he heard a whisper when he got into a deep sleep. He woke up suddenly and saw to his left that the same boy he encountered near the restroom was sitting next to him on the middle chair. He unfastened his belt and got up from the chair. He was freezing and took his blanket to cover his body. He looked again at the seat, but no one was in the middle seat.
The hostess approached and asked, ‘If he needs any help?’. Victor said, ‘Can you give me another seat?’ I will not sleep here. She looked around and offered another seat, the middle one. Victor agreed, took his stuff, and sat on it. He took a deep breath and had the book in his hand. He kept that in the seat’s pocket. He was struggling with his sleep. He looked around, and all the passengers were sleeping quietly. He gazes at the book. The book frightened him, but simultaneously, he was eager to complete the story as he remembered the words of the store owner, ‘Don’t miss the last page. He retook the novel, started reading and used his cell phone torch light. There are still around 35 pages left before reaching the previous page.
The story goes, “When the boy saw a man with a hammer, he ran away, came out of the house, and took the back door. He spots an older man in the backyard, sitting with a bonfire. He was wearing a long-sleeved shirt with the Pyjama, taking a shawl on his upper body and covering his head in the cold. In that hushed environment, the older man hears the boys breathe heavily. He called the boy and told him to sit and calm down. The boy shared with the older man what he had witnessed inside the house. The old man said,’ Don’t worry, I know who was inside.
Aren’t you scared of them? The boy asked.
The old man replied, “No at all. Let me tell you the story. It was 20 years ago…”
Victor read the story and changed the pages of the novel, and he reached the second last page. The plane got turbulence, and the man sitting in Victor’s right window collided with him. The man looked at Victor, and Victor’s eyes met his. The older man lives those exact words from the book. Victor heard his words, which matched with the book’s text on the last paragraph on the second last page. Victor turned to the previous page, and the man whispered, ‘Vhicctthhorrrr, Diiid youuu liiikeee thhheee hoousssee.’
Victor turned his face to the man; with his eyes wide open, he felt chilling bones all over his body. His one hand was on the cabin crew call button, and the other hand, he was holding the book with the last page on. His body got frozen out still, and he breathed his last.