Author

One year ago.

In the dead of the night a blood-curdling scream tore through the quiet of Ross Island.

The scream seemed to be coming through the woods. No one came out of their house to check, in fact people were too scared to even make a pin drop noise inside their house.

It happens every Tuesday almost like a ritual now. This has been happening for decades.

The reason behind it?...No one knows.

They just know the fear of it and the destruction that’ll come upon them if they dared step out of their houses.

The scream lasted barely ten minutes before silence fell over the island once again.

Every week on Tuesday they’d hear a scream like this, sometimes it’d be a man, sometimes a woman and sometimes…A child.

Along with the natives a tourist named Robert along with his group had heard the scream in his hotel’s room.

“It seemed to be a woman.” He said as he looked at his wife Emma.

“Yeah I think so too.” Emma nodded, sipping her water.

“I think she needs help, we should go help her.”

“No.” Emma disagreed.

“Emma, someone needs help.” Robert pressed.

“Robert, why do you want to play the hero when the people living here are not doing anything?” Emma argued.

“Just because they don’t have empathy doesn’t mean we should ignore the victim too.”

“Robert, you will not go.”

“Baby I’ll be back okay I can’t turn down a person in need.” Robert said as he stood up after pecking Emma’s lips then he took out a torch from his bag and got a knife which belonged to the hotel, pocketed them and while he was just about to go out of the

Main gates, Arvind the receptionist stopped him and came running towards him.

“Sir, where are you going?” Arvind asked.

“On a walk.” Robert lied.

“Sir you can’t go out right now.”

“Why?”

“That I can’t tell you exactly but it’s not safe.”

“Don’t worry, I know how to fight.” Robert assured Arvind.

“Okay fine if you insist but please don’t go towards the jungle and come back soon.” Arvind sighed in defeat.

Robert flashed him a smile and went out of the gate, he walked to the opposite side of the jungle and waited for Arvind to disappear into the hotel and when Arvind was out of sight Robert ran into the woods.

He turned on his torch and started searching around for the person in need of help but even after searching for half an hour he couldn’t find anyone. Only then did the realization hit him that he’s deep in the woods on a strange island where he doesn’t know anyone except his group.

He turned to go back but he’d forgotten the way, now terror started creeping up inside him, he swallowed hard and decided to follow the path which seemed safe according to his instinct.

Just when he thought he was almost out of the jungle as he had found the light which he thought belonged to the hotel he was staying in only to realize it’s a castle and not a normal one.

It’s full black in color. The only reason he was able to see it was because of the lights around the castle; it looked like it came straight out of a fantasy novel.

There were people around it wearing all black fur coats and there was a naked woman, dead…It seemed like because she was covered in blood. They were all standing there in a queue like it’s a school assembly. There were ten lines, maybe more. Robert couldn’t tell as he was hiding far away.

Four tall people, men from the front of the lines stepped forward, their back to Robert.

They stood in a circle around the dead body then one of them knelt down and sprinkled some powder over her before taking out an ax from inside of his coat and with one swipe it separated her breasts from her body. Her body struggled as pain shot through her before going still.

She was dead…For real this time.

Robert covered his mouth with both his hands to stop the scream that threatened to pass out of his throat.

Then those four men held her body from all four sides and lifted her up over their heads and started moving in a circle along with her body. They were chanting something in Bengali and since Robert isn’t a native so he couldn’t understand what they were chanting.

Robert was now too scared to even breathe out of sync, already cursing every life choice that had led him to this place.

He now regretted not listening to Emma and this brings us to the first moral of the life that is: Always listen to your wife.

The second one is ‘Curiosity kills the cat and it can get you killed as well, you don’t need to become that one too curious character in a horror movie who dies first.’

“I shouldn’t have come here, Emma was right.” Robert mentally scolded himself as if that’s gonna help him get out of here alive.

It was like a cult, freaking cult. Robert had heard cult stories all his life but he had brushed them off thinking they’re just conspiracies miles away from reality.

But now that he’s seeing the ritual live he couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Then they threw the body into the fire they had flamed earlier and returned back to their respective queues before they all went inside the castle.

“What the fuck was that?” Robert whispered to himself.

Robert slowly started backing away from the tree behind which he was hiding earlier and once he was at a safe distance from the castel and he made sure they couldn't hear him from that distance, he bolted in the opposite direction as if his life depended on it—it did.

After colliding from countless trees, almost slipping and falling into a lake, he finally made it out of the jungle.

He leaned forward resting his hands on his knees as he tried to even out his breathing.

Now it was almost 3:30 in the morning, he hadn’t realized because of the tall trees in the woods, after a few minutes he saw Emma along with some locals running towards him.

“Oh my God Robert are you alright?” Emma asked worriedly as she rubbed slow circles on his back.

They brought him back to the hotel and made him sit in the lounge. Emma handed him a bottle of water and he finished it in a single gulp.

“The forest is fucked up Emma.” He breathed looking up at Emma.

“What do you mean?” She asked, confused.

Robert stood up and grabbed her hand and dragged her towards their room.

“We need to leave.” He muttered, shoving her into the room.

“What is wrong with you Robert?” Emma yelped.

“Pack the bags.” Robert said taking out his phone to book their tickets to the USA.

“Will you tell me what happened there?” Emma pressed.

Robert explained everything in detail to her…

Then they left India and decided to never come back.

━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━

Veer

Today.

Tears kept sliding down my eyes as I was pinned by Aadhya against the club’s wall as she kissed me like she was starving and just got a scrap of food, How dare she?

I just saw her in that room kissing some girls and now she’s kissing me like I am the oxygen she needs to live. Rage surged through me as I bit down hard on her lower lip hard enough to draw blood and she pulled away, licking the blood off her lip.

Then she leaned in and sucked the blood off my lower lip, her blood which I didn’t even realize was there.

“Now will you let me explain?” She asked as another tear slid down my eyes, my lips trembled.

“Y-You kissed me with the same mouth you kissed her.” My voice shook as I watched realization dawn through her.

“I didn’t kiss her.”

“You did.”

She closed her eyes exhaling through her mouth before she took out her phone and dialed a number.

“Roger, send me the CCTV footage from private room number 180.” She hung up without letting whoever on the call to reply.

Then she looked back at me again. “Are you jealous, love?” She asked, and my jaw tightened at how amused she sounded at that moment.

“Why would I be?” I diverted my gaze from her.

Her phone buzzed, she clicked on something and turned the screen towards me.

It was the CCTV video from that room.

The footage showed that she didn’t kiss that girl and also pushed her off her lap.

My eyes widened at the realization.

I looked guilty before I schooled my expression back to cold because I didn’t wanna give her the satisfaction of knowing I feel guilty.

“Doesn’t matter, you still let her touch you.” I was mortified internally at how pouty I sounded.

She huffed out a laugh before she grabbed my fist which was still curled into my collar and kissed my knuckle before pulling it away from her jacket.

Then she removed the jacket and threw it on the floor.

“Any more complaints? Love.” She murmured leaning closer and my breath hitched embarrassingly.

“Let me go.” I growled trying to protect what’s left of my dignity but instead she pushed me back against the wall and a door opened and I stumbled into a room which was painted in dark red neon lights.

It was a door disguised as a wall.

I looked around the room and froze… “This—” I whispered to myself as my eyes widened,

“Remember this place?” Aadhya asked, locking the door behind her.

“I—” I took a deep breath, “This is where we—where we…”

“This is the same room where we fucked.” She completed the sentence for me.

“The same place where you had your very first orgasm.” She added with a smirk.

Yes this was the place where she had me after turning me down fifteen times—fifteen fucking times, and just after the night we fucked I woke up on an empty bed, no contact, no note nothing she was just gone.

She started walking towards me with slow predatory steps and I instinctively started walking back until I hit the wall she caged me there, leaning in as my breathing picked up.

“Wanna recreate that night?” She said her voice was a soft seductive whisper.

“You preserved this room?”

“I’ve also preserved your cum from that night.” She flashed an innocent smile at me which was anything but innocent.

“Let me go.” I gritted my teeth as my face twisted in disgust like who preserves a cum? This woman is a psycho.

But instead of pulling away she kissed me, not consuming, breath stealing like before this one was slower, gentler. After a few minutes she pulled away only to whisper against my lips, “Stop investigating Ross island and your brother leave that on me.”

“Are you related to that place?” My brow arched in suspicion and she just smiled at me before speaking, “You don’t need to know. Just know that it’s not your job.”

Then she kissed me again this time I didn’t let her lore me and pushed her away, “STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME.” I shouted and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind me.

This woman is insane. First she left me alone in that room after taking my virginity and now four years later she suddenly appears in my life and turns out she had preserved that room along with my cum… She disgusts me.

Who’s she to tell me what I should do and what I shouldn’t.

My brother was the only real family I had and he was killed on that island and no matter what it takes I’ll give him the justice he always deserved.