My Horror Stories:

The Curse:

My name is Mary, I am thirteen years old and I live with my parents and older brother in a serene and peaceful neighbourhood in the suburbs of Lillington, the house that I live in is spacious and homely, it has that distinctive homely feel to it that houses usually do after you settle into them, the house used to be wonderful until horrible things started to occur.It was a wonderful day, unusually warm for early Spring since it was only March, I was sitting in the garden gazing at the flowers that were prospering and staring up into the bright Blue sky thinking about how good life was at that moment I wore my White lacy dress that day because it was so hot outside and my hair was tied into a ponytail, I was never good at doing my hair so I would always ask my Mum to do it for me.
"Beautiful day isn't it?" My mother came outside with a basket full of laundry, I got up from the wooden bench to assist her, I grabbed the clothes and began to hang them up onto the clothing line using the pretty butterfly-shaped pegs that we had.
"Absolutely!" I agreed, removing a stray piece of hair from my face.
"Can you take this empty basket inside please?" My mother asked me. I picked up the empty clothing basket and took it into the sitting room then I went back outside and picked up the novel that I had meant to complete.
"We have guests arriving to discuss with your father his business deal," my mother told me. "They're coming from very far, I'll need your help in preparing the house for when they arrive."
"When? Today?" I asked frowning. I didn't appreciate having guests over because they were always troublesome and I felt conscious about my weight and personality in front of them, most people were toxic and pretended to be kind and I knew that privately behind my back they would judge me but because my father was a wealthy businessman he was the owner of Starfruit Enterprise company, it was a company that specialised in anything to do with the exotic fruits, they made starfruit drinks, foods, and even candy as well, I loved Starfruit as it was one of my favourite fruits but I didn't like the company of strangers in the house but this deal was a large one as my Dad wished to develop the company internationally so they could sell the products into other countries.
"Yes, today at 04:00 PM, we don't have much time left the guests will be here in a few hours," my mother said. Sighing I walked back into the house and helped her clean up the sitting room and cook dinner.
"Can you prepare the salad and put it in the fridge after you finish? I'm going upstairs to take a quick shower," my mother said leaving the kitchen, I heard her thumping footsteps ascending the steps.
I scrubbed my hands with soap and grabbed the wooden cutting board, I got an onion, a cucumber, lettuce, and tomatoes out of the fridge and started to slice the vegetables into small pieces then I grabbed a bowl and put the salad into it, afterwards I stirred some salt and lemon into the bowl, mixed it into the salad then quickly shoved the bowl into the fridge and headed upstairs by now I was feeling a little tired so I went into my bedroom and decided to take a nap.
'A little nap won't hurt,' I thought to myself as I shut my eyes and promptly fell asleep.When I woke up again it was 04:30 PM when I checked the clock, the guests had already arrived and I could hear them excitedly speaking to my father. I grabbed my Beige cardigan, threw it on and headed down the stairs to meet the guests, in the hallway I passed by my mother who was bringing a fresh loaf of bread that she had baked into the sitting room.
"Where were you? I have been calling you for half an hour!" My mother whispered angrily. "You were supposed to set the table before the guests came."
I frowned and did a mental facepalm, I had felt so exhausted that I had forgotten to set the table and my mother was furious. I apologised to her, put on a dignified face, entered the sitting room and sat down next to my brother.
"Mary, I am so glad you are here," my father turned to me. "This is my daughter Mary," my father said introducing me to the guests.
I looked at the guests sitting on the leather sofas, it was an older couple and they had a son who was my age, he had dark hair, deep Brown eyes and was not bad looking, 'wow, he's cute!' I thought to myself. I saw my brother sitting next to my Dad he was busy not paying attention to the guests, he was on his mobile phone, 'probably looking at the latest game to buy,' I thought to myself smiling.
My mother entered the room carrying her famous lemon drizzle bundt cake and set it down on the dinner table.
"Would anyone like some cake?" She asked.
"Sure, we would love some," the old man whose name I found out was Wilson Smith, dressed in a Grey business suit responded.
"Oh I forgot to get a knife, Mary can you get it?" My mother asked me.
"Sure," I replied. I got up from the leather sofa and headed into the kitchen, I grabbed a Black knife from the kitchen drawer and entered the sitting room. I walked over to my mother and gave her the knife, she cut the cake into neat even slices.
"Here, can you pass these plates to everyone?" She asked me handing me over a plate.
I grabbed the plate and another plate and gave them to the guests.
After everyone had finished eating cake and dinner which was my mother's famous homemade stew, my father and Wilson discussed the business deal then an hour later Wilson and his wife Anna and his son Michael got up to leave.
"The food was delicious," Wilson commented gleaming at my mother who stood next to my father proudly beaming. "Oh, before I go I would like to ask you something personal."
"Sure, what is it?" My father asked.
"I want us to become closer, not just as business partners but as a family too, I was wondering if your daughter would be interested in marrying my son?"
"That's very sudden though," my father frowned. "Mary isn't old enough yet."
"Well we can just wait, she and Michael are around the same age, he is 1 year older than her. It's just that I've noticed them eyeing each other all afternoon."
"I don't know, we would have to think about it," my mother chimed in.
I looked over at Michael to see what he was thinking, he was cute but I felt that there was something weird about him I just didn't know what it was. He glanced at me with his dark eyes as the guests left the house, he came over to my side and pulled a Black beaded bracelet out of his jeans and gave it to me.
"What is this for?" I asked but he didn't respond and left the house along with his parents. I studied the bracelet that was in my hand, it was dark but pretty in an unusual way. I didn't like dark jewellery but I decided to wear it anyway.Later that night I had a particularly unusual dream that Michael and his family rang the doorbell, I opened the door and they went past me as if they were ghosts. I felt scared and Michael turned to me and said "I will destroy you if you don't marry me." I panicked and also felt angry because I was being threatened in my own home by a strange guy who I barely knew. He came over to me, pushed my hair out of my face, and began to strangle me. I gasped for breath and tried to push his hands away, just as I thought I was going to die everything turned Black and I arose panting in a sweat, the feeling of his fingers on my neck still lingered.
'What a crazy dream,' I thought to myself.
I checked the clock it was approximately 12:54 AM. Midnight. I turned to the other side of my pillow, closed my eyes, and fell asleep again.
The next day I felt weird like I had this crazy feeling that something terrible was gonna happen and I told my parents about it. "It's probably just your social anxiety," my mother told me. "Yeah you need to go out more," my father agreed. He always agreed with her, he was like a sheep. He went along with the rest of the flock and what everyone else said and did, he never thought for himself and it always irritated me.
I went into the kitchen still feeling sleepy because of the nightmare I hadn't slept properly so I was more tired also I was not a morning person either and I despised going to school, it was another Monday morning.
"What do you want for breakfast?" my mother asked me, she stood with her hands on her hips wearing the Grey apron that I had brought her for mother's day, it had "Best Chef Ever!" written in sparkly Pink writing.
"Scrambled eggs," I mumbled slowly. I always had the same thing for breakfast mostly because I enjoyed eating it and also because I wasn't a breakfast person and it was the only breakfast item I liked. I looked over to my brother, he was eating Shreddies and looking at his phone, he was always buying the latest video games and playing games on his phone.
"Do you want coffee as well?" My mother asked.
"Yeah sure, whatever," I said.
My mother quickly made the eggs and then poured me cappuccino in my pastel mermaid mug but as she came to give it to me, she slipped and ended up spilling the coffee onto me, my hair and clothes were soaking wet.
"Oh great, now I'm going to have to go to school smelling like coffee," I yelled angrily. I got up from the table abandoning my half-eaten breakfast and went into the bathroom to clean up while my father helped my mother to mop up the spilt coffee.After school was over I went back home and my life pretty much changed after that. I put my handbag down and entered the sitting room where I saw my parents and brother sitting on the sofa, they were quiet and had tense facial expressions on their faces.
'Something must have happened,' I thought to myself and I wondered what.
"Come and sit down," my father said after a while, finally noticing me.
"What's wrong?" I asked worried as I sat down next to my mother.
"We have some bad news," my father spoke hesitantly.
I looked at him waiting for him to elaborate further.
"We have to sell the house."
"What? Why?"
I was shocked.
"Mr Smith, the man who came yesterday with his family called me today and said that he changed his mind about the proposal, he doesn't want to take it after all. And now without the proposal, we won't have any money left at all, business has declined."
"What? I thought you were doing so well? Why didn't anybody say anything to me?"
I felt annoyed. They always left me behind and I was always the last person in the family to hear or know anything and I was tired of not knowing the family secrets.
"It's just not working out, we're experiencing a bit of bad luck."
"But I'm sure we will get over it because we are a strong family who lives and works together," my mother added. She clasped her hands together. "We shall pray to the Lord and He will give us strength."
"Yeah, alright," I mumbled. I was confused, scared and nervous. I didn't want to leave the house, I loved living here. All of my childhood memories had taken place here and now suddenly I would have to leave them behind. Suddenly inside I felt hot and angry, I wanted to fight and protect my family and our right to live in our beautiful home.The next day I got up to go to school but as I went to the bathroom I felt that something wasn't quite right. The house was silent, deadly silent, and more silent than it should be. Our mornings were usually busy with footsteps creaking on the floor, the sound of water running in the shower, pots and plates banging in the kitchen as breakfast were being prepared, and my mother and father arguing with each other about something my father had done to annoy her, but this time it was different, unusually different.
I went into my parents' bedroom.
"Why aren't you guys downstairs?" I asked them.
My mother and father were both curled up in bed, their faces were both pale and they looked sick.
"We're not feeling well," my mother explained. "I think I've caught something."
"So have I?" My father said turning to his left side to face my mother. "I think it's the flu."
"You'll have to prepare your own breakfast but make sure you close the cooker switch and don't burn anything," my mother said. "Tell your brother he will have to buy his lunch at College today."
"Ok!" I said. I gently closed their bedroom door to give them some privacy, I went back into my bedroom and got dressed then went into the kitchen and made myself pancakes because I felt like it. I grabbed a carton of Orange juice from the fridge and poured myself a glass. I decided to skip out on coffee because I didn't want to have any today, it was too warm outside to drink it.
My brother, Tom entered the kitchen yawning and slumped himself down onto the kitchen chair, I turned over and looked at him.
"I've made extra pancakes if you want any, oh and mum says that you have to buy your lunch today at College," I explained to him.
"What? Where's mum and dad, are they ok?" He asked worriedly.
"They're fine, they just have the flu but hopefully they will get better," I said. "Let's just eat our breakfast and try to help out if we can."
"Sure," Tom mumbled.
I grabbed a plate and loaded up three pancake slices then I grabbed a cup and poured some Orange juice into it for him.
"Thanks," he said.
"Do you want any coffee or tea?"
"No, I'm good."
After breakfast, I went back upstairs and brushed my teeth, put some light make-up on then Tom and I walked to school, his College was next door to my school so we both took the same route together.
"I can't wait to pass my driving test," Tom said.
"Yeah, I'm sure it'll be fun," I agreed.
"Just want to be more independent, don't want Dad to drive me anymore."
Tom was almost 18 and his birthday was in January next year, he had been learning how to drive for almost a year and a half now and was eager to pass so he could go to places alone and go however fast he wanted to. After school we walked home together in silence, we didn't feel like talking since we both had had bad days, we just wanted to deal with it in private, I was very similar to my brother, and we were both introverts and loved our privacy and space.
As I entered the house I saw my mother sitting in the kitchen, sipping tea in her favourite love hearts mug.
"Why did you leave the tap running in the bathroom?" She asked turning to look at me with an angry expression.
"I didn't," I responded taking my shoes off and setting my bag onto the wooden hook. My brother took his shoes off and silently slipped upstairs, he never got into trouble for some reason he could always escape my parents' wrath.
"Well somebody left it on," she said. "Already we're having money issues, we don't need the water bill on top of this."
"It wasn't me," I explained again. I went upstairs into my bedroom and locked my door. I grabbed some make-up wipes and started to take my make-up off when I thought I saw a dark shadow in my room.
'It's probably nothing' I reassured myself in my mind.
Just as I unzipped my jacket my hand started to hurt. "Ow!" I cried out loud. I looked at my hand to check out the sudden pain and saw that my Black bracelet was glowing Red.
'What kind of a bracelet is this?' I wondered to myself. I would have to research this further; I had no idea jewellery could glow like this. I ran to the door and unlocked it and knocked on Tom's door.
I stood and waited, and after a while, he opened the door.
"What is it?" He asked annoyed, he was in the middle of playing a video game and had paused it.
"My bracelet is weird, it's glowing!" I explained. I showed him the bracelet but now it was just plain Black beads again. "I mean it was," I added trying to explain myself.
"Really? Maybe you are just imagining it," Tom said. "Now if you would excuse me I have something to do."
He closed the door so I left and went back into my room just as I entered the room, I heard somebody whisper my name.
"Mary."
It sounded like a man, it was deep and raspy. I thought it was my father but he was sick and in bed with the flu nevertheless, I decided to head into my parents' room to see what he wanted.
"Did you call me just now?" I asked him, but my father had the duvet covered up to his head and was loudly snoring away.
'Weird,' I thought and quietly left the room and went back into my room. I changed my clothes then switched my computer on and started to work on my English assignment when I suddenly felt a hot breath on my neck and the same voice called my name again.
"Mary."
I whipped around and looked all over my bedroom but nobody was there, I started to feel uncomfortable and I felt a cold chill down my spine. I felt like I was being watched, I wanted to tell my family but I knew they wouldn't believe me, my mother might but my father would laugh because he only believed in science and wasn't into all that "rubbish people invent," as he liked to say.
A few years later as time progressed I had finished school it was now September and I was about to start my first year of college, my brother Tom had graduated already and had passed his driving test as well, our luck had gotten worse.
Luckily enough we didn't have to move houses, but my father had retired from his business after he had suffered a knee sprain so he was out of work and at home, my mother and brother had resorted to stress eating and had both found out at the same time they had diabetes type 2 because "it runs in your family," the nurse had explained to them.
"I think the house is haunted," I said to my father as he drove me to Stanford's College, it was located a mile east of our home, out of town in a posh and upscale village called Easton where people used fancy words and had brunches all the time.
"Really? What makes you think that?" My father said staring out of the window, driving slowly as he always did.
"I've seen shadows, heard voices call my name and heard weird sounds at nighttime," I explained hoping that he would believe me.
But my father just laughed. "It's a very old house, old houses always make strange sounds it's just how it is and the science behind it all."
"The science behind it all," is what he believed and would always say whenever anyone would talk about the supernatural or anything he didn't believe in. He believed that if you couldn't see it and science couldn't prove it then it didn't exist.
"What about ghosts?" I asked him adjusting my lipstick in the mirror.
"Ghosts don't exist, people just say they do," my father honked the horn at a driver who cut in front of us and whispered "idiot" under his breath.
"People say they have seen them," I argued.
"It's all just a joke, scientists haven't confirmed anything yet."
My Dad pushed down the breaks and reversed the car. He switched off the car ignition and got out.
"Come on, you don't want to be late on your first day of College."
I grabbed my backpack and got out of the car, I said bye to him and walked into the building. It was my first year doing a make-up course. It was one of my passions and I loved being creative so I was excited but also nervous because the first days are always the most difficult for anyone.
After College finished I called my Dad to come and pick me up, I sat down on a bench and waited for him to answer the phone.
The phone kept ringing and ringing.
I decided to text him instead.
"Just finished College, waiting on the bench outside." I pressed Send and waited for his reply.
After half an hour he finally replied.
"Hi, sorry for not responding I got into a car accident," my father explained after I answered the phone.
"How? What happened?" I asked shocked.
"Some crazy driver, he wasn't watching where he was going and hit me."
"That's terrible, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, but how are you coming home?"
"Don't worry about it, I'll just take the bus I said.
"Ok, well then I'll see you at home."
"I guess so."
I ended the call, got out my bus pass from my backpack and walked over to the bus stop; it was right next to the College. I sat down on the bench and waited for the bus, after a few minutes it finally came. I hopped on and took a seat next to the window and stared outside as the bus driver drove through the busy traffic.
After half an hour, the September sun was starting to set, giving the trees and grass a Golden glow. I finally made it home and walked into the house and it was quiet again.
"How was your first day at College?" My mother asked me, she came out of the sitting room carrying an empty plate and entered the kitchen.
"I don't want to talk about it," I said from the hallway taking off my boots.
"Why not?" My mother asked.
"I got bullied, some people laughed at me and I had to sit all alone for lunch, the food tasted horrible and the teacher kept picking on me not to mention that there's this creepy guy there."
"What creepy guy?"
"I don't know, he kept staring at me while I was eating lunch."After dinner, I went upstairs to do my College assignment and after an hour when I had completed it I chose to take an early night in because I felt tired as I lay in bed I instantly fell asleep but before entering into a deep sleep I felt my bed was moving like it was alive.
I forced myself to wake up and leapt out of bed and looked under the bed, but there was nothing there, everything was ordinary but as soon as I turned over to the door I saw something which made my heart vault.
In the corner of the door near the wall, I saw a Black figure which was about 8 feet tall, staring down at me with Red eyes.
I looked in terror and shrieked and then I shut my eyes and collapsed onto the floor.
My bracelet was gleaming in a shiny Red that matched the figure's eyes.