SAMPLE: NEVER ENDING NIGHTMARES by Pael Khugan

Ava decided that since she had made an excuse of her thesis, she might as well sit and finish a part of it. She had been doing quite a bit of research over the last few days and had gathered most of her facts and had neatly compiled all her notes—sorting them out into various sections. Now she just had to type it; but it was easier said than done. It was a grueling task to sit down and type all those theories and hypothesis, not to mention sketching the diagrams and explaining her ideas while trying to make them sound simple and precise.

Her work took almost the entire morning to complete. Being a meticulous person Ava did not let anything distract her till she finished her job for the day. After she had hit the last key on the computer, she felt the angry rumbling of her stomach protesting against being kept unfed for so long.

Feeling hungry but a little lazy from working on the laptop for so long, Ava decided to fix herself a spicy tuna sandwich with lots of mayonnaise and cheese accompanied by a nice tall glass of iced tea. Bringing her lunch to the sofa in the hall, she put on a Hindi movie that she had bought sometime ago but didn’t have the time to see before.

She was quite happy with her progress on her thesis for the day and also happy that she had not sensed anything unnatural. She didn’t experience the feeling of gloom, nor did she think that someone was following her or lurking in the shadows. In fact, she was quite confident that it really was all in her mind.

Thank God, I never mentioned anything about all these funny feelings to Arul, she thought. Looks like I really did imagine them.

After the movie ended, Ava stretched out, made herself comfortable on the couch and closed her eyes intending to take a short nap. The cool breeze blowing in from the sea was so relaxing that towards the end of the movie she could hardly keep her eyes open in spite of it being a pretty entertaining film. After switching off the television and the DVD player, she dozed off on the couch and in no time she was snoring contentedly.

When she woke up, it was almost dark and she realized that she must have been sleeping for quite sometime. Through the glass doors overlooking the ocean she could see the deep purple sky; the sun had set a long time back leaving behind just a pale touch of gold and orange trail on its way to light up another part of the world with its brightness and warmth. The trees faraway were already black.

Ava got up hurriedly and switched on the lights in the hall. Opening the glass doors she came out on the patio and stood there, mesmerized by the sound of the roaring waves crashing against the rocks and spraying tiny droplets of salty white foam. The breeze had changed its direction and was blowing from the land towards the sea. There was no sign of life anywhere. She felt like a solitary survivor on a shipwrecked island.

Some shipwrecked island it is, she thought with a wry smile. An island with a beautiful house which scares me more than it comforts me.

Ava noticed that the feeling of depression and fear was gradually creeping up and spreading like a cancer through out her body. Her heart was beating a little faster than it should; as if it was anxious over something that her conscious mind was not aware of. She glanced uneasily towards all the shadowy corners of the garden—not sure what it was that she expected to see, but nevertheless gave a sigh of relief when everything seemed to be the same.

With dismay Ava gradually started grasping the fact that she was going to be alone in the house for two days and two nights. At that moment somehow, it didn’t really feel like a good idea to fight her fears.

Why am I thinking like this? What fear am I worrying about? Wondered Ava, confused.

She closed the glass doors and stepped back inside the hall. The house was silent. It felt like everything including time had stopped; waiting for something to happen—dreading that something was about to happen.

“Get a hold of yourself.” Ava warned herself aloud, shaking her head.

At this rate she knew will be a nervous wreck before the next day and for no apparent reason. She put on a mixed CD of slow rock songs—choosing the particular CD knowing that the loud music would take away the feeling of loneliness. Within the next few seconds the sound of The Scorpions singing “when the smoke is going down” filled the air. She increased the volume loud enough so that every part of the house was filled with the tune. Feeling a lot better Ava went upstairs to take a nice long bath.

She allowed the tub to fill up to the brim before taking off her clothes and lowering herself into the scented water. She let the warm water drench her for a long time—scrubbing herself vigorously as if trying to wash away the apprehension and anxiety that seemed to follow her at every step.

After the bath feeling a little calmer, Ava changed into a pair of denim shorts and a blue polo neck T-shirt. She decided to read just for fun for a change. She was sick of the scientific journals with all its experiments and theories that she had been mugging throughout the past few months. She just wanted to relax with a book that will soothe her nerves down instead of getting them hyped up.

She found a paperback that she had bought on an impulse from a newspaper stall a few months ago. The reviews behind said that it was a modern day Cinderella story. Ava looked forward to know just how a pumpkin was transformed into a stage couch in the modern day. She came down the stairs carrying the book with her. The music was still blaring; it was one of her favorite songs ‘out of my mind’by Duran Duran. Humming to the tune she went to find something to munch while reading.

While she rummaged through the snack cupboard in the kitchen that contained all kinds of junk foods, which incidentally was hers and Arul’s favorite part of the kitchen, she thought she heard a noise—a loud thud to be precise. Ava paused for a moment and slowly turned around apprehensively. But everything looked the same; nothing had been disturbed or fallen down like the noise suggested. She got worried and briskly walked back to the hall. The song that was playing when she returned to the hall was something that always sounded very creepy to her.

She frowned trying to remember whether she had actually heard this song before in the CD that she was playing. As far as she could recall, she was always slightly scared of the song and made it a point not to play any CD that had the song. It was a song called ‘Nightmares’ by a rock group from the 1990’s. The singer had a very deep and husky voice. Passionately he was singing ‘…..even when I close all doors, there’s something haunting me; never ending nightmares comes instead of you.”

Hearing the lyrics Ava felt a sharp shiver scuttle up her spine; she quickly walked towards the music system and switched it off. In a moment her bravery seemed to have been shaken to its core. She felt very shaky and the sudden silence in the house was not helping her feel any better. She truly couldn’t remember that song being there in the CD in the first place. She started frantically looking around for the CD cover everywhere to confirm her suspicion. Suddenly, she heard a noise in the guest suite and her head jerked up.

Who is that? She thought.

She could hear distinct footsteps of someone walking in the patio adjacent to the guest room. She knew that no one was supposed to be there. Since, even if anyone had dropped by, they would surely ring the bell at the main entrance to the hall. She could feel panic rising—rushing through her whole body like a flooding river.

Wait a minute. Thought Ava. I have become such a nervous wreck that I didn’t stop to think that it could be a patient who has come to consult Arul. It’s possible that they may not know that he was not in town.

Feeling like a fool at being so paranoid she hurried towards the guest suite. Looking though the glass doors that led to the patio, Ava tried to reconfirm whether her assumption about a patient was right. Sure enough, there was someone sitting on one of the chairs that she had placed outside. Ava switched on the lights in the patio to get a clearer look at the person. But before she could do so, with a sharp sound all the three bulbs burst all at once.

Ava was so exasperated. The wiring in this house is completely screwed up.She thought, remembering the numerous bulbs that had fused time and again at various parts of the house from the time they had moved in.

The patient outside didn’t seem to have any reaction at all to the sound of the glass shattering—sitting still, unmoved, in spite of the noise of the shattering bulbs. Ava opened the patio door and started to walk towards the patient. Huddled inside a blanket, the patient was completely covered and couldn’t be seen at all. In fact Ava was not sure whether it was a man or a woman. The patient seemed to be all alone; there was nobody accompanying him or her. Ava found that a bit surprising. Generally all patients came along with someone either from the family, or sometimes even friends. But there he was all alone, wrapped in a blanket. She was worried that probably he was feeling cold due to high fever. Otherwise, it was torturous to be wrapped up completely in the island’s humid climate.

“Excuse me,” she enquired. “Have you come to see the doctor? He is not in today. Dia tidak di sini, you know.” She said trying out her broken Malay. He won’t be there for the next two days. Why don’t you come back in a few days time?”

All the while she was speaking, Ava tried to peep within the blanketed darkness, trying to look for the face. There was no response. It didn’t look like she was even heard—leave alone understood. Ava was very concerned.

How sick is he? She thought. I hope he is not unconscious. She walked up to him; there was still no reaction. Ava hesitated, her palms were sweaty and she was feeling very nervous. She didn’t know what to expect. Hope he is alive, she thought anxiously. She touched his shoulder wanting to shake him, thinking probably he had fallen asleep and hoping against hope that he was not unconscious or worse still, dead. Her hand recoiled the moment she touched the blanket. It was like touching ice through a blanket

As she drew her hand back, rubbing the palms together, trying to get rid of the icy feeling that ran through her hand, the figure slowly looked up towards Ava. The horror that in the name of a face looked up at her, made Ava shriek with fear. Never before had she seen anything as ghastly—as ghoulish as what was sitting in that bench in front of her. In the pale stream of light that trickled out of the guest room sitting area she saw that the face was the color of cigarette ash. The skin around the face had shrunken to show the white color of the skull at its edges. The eyes had melted till they were just sockets filled with a greenish yellow liquid that oozed out and ran down the cheeks. The lips had shrunken back. The jaws had decomposed exposing huge yellow teeth. All Ava could make out was that whatever monster it was, it was in the form of a female. As the face looked up towards her with those empty eyes, she could see maggots crawling out of the nostrils.

All of a sudden she could the music system playing by itself.

‘Even when I close all doors, there is something haunting me. Never ending nightmares comes instead of you.’ She could hear the lyrics clearly. They seemed to know Ava’s fear, her aversion, and decided to follow her wherever she runs. Ava’s body practically shut down. But her mind was screaming at her, asking her to get out---to run till the end of the earth and then run beyond it---to get away from the monstrosity before she was consumed by it. But her body refused to oblige; she was totally paralyzed. She felt like a rock—a rock with all human emotions intact, but stuck to one place on the ground.

The ghostly figure got up. She stared at Ava and broke out into a smile so menacing that even the air around her seemed to turn cold. The chill in the air made Ava shiver involuntarily, and that’s when she got her body back to obey her mind.

Ava ran like never before, she ran like a tsunami was following her, a tsunami that wanted to engulf her till she ceased to exist. She rushed through the patio door and ran towards the hall. She was a nervous wreck by then and had no idea what she wanted to do or where she wanted to go. All she knew was that she had to get out of the house. Reaching the hall, Ava could suddenly feel a sharp pain in her chest that shot down her left arm and through her spine. She lost her balance and tripped on the coffee table and fell down with a thud. Ava could feel her knee wet, as blood oozed out of it, hurt by the corner of the coffee table.

Is this it? Am I going to die like this? She thought—almost giving up. But her body, her mind had other plans. GET UP!! HURRY! RUN. Urged a tiny voice in her head. We can’t give up. Perhaps it was her survival instinct, perhaps it was even her fear of never seeing Arul again, that kicked her into action. Ava scrambled up from her fall.

Turning around and looking towards the patio door, a sliver of which could be still seen from the hall, she saw the ghoulish figure was now outside hanging upside down from the patio door frame. Her long wavy and filthy hair was hanging around her upside down face and her scraggy hand was extended towards Ava as if she trying to reach out for her. Part of the face was flattened against the glass of the patio door giving her a more distorted look. Ava didn’t wait to see anything more. She got up, grabbed the keys to the jeep that was parked outside and got out of the house.

As she ran out of the front door her eyes fell on the fountains on both sides of the stairs that led to the car porch in front of her. Bright red blood pouring from the statues of the women on top and ran down the entire fountain creating a river of blood. The blood flowed freely on the driveway turning the entire path scarlet. Suddenly both the blood covered statues of the women turned their heads toward Ava and smiled while blood gushed out of their perfectly carved-in-marble teeth. There was such malice and chill in their smile that they simultaneously appeared human and alive, and inhuman and dead

Ava ran as fast as her legs could carry her, for the first time cursing the long driveway. She kept on running towards the jeep but somehow, the path seemed to go on and on. She could hear a harsh cackle of laughter overlapping the creepy music that was still playing. Finally with a last desperate scream she got inside the jeep and started it with a speed that only a person who is followed by certain death can do.

Driving away into the night, away from the house, she glanced at the rearview mirror and saw the statues still watching her with a malicious smirk stuck on their faces. As she moved farther away from the house, the lyrics to the song started to fade gradually although the next part of the song was still playing in her mind against all her wishes, all her will. ‘Lost in a part of my self which I can’t find anymore….. I wonder whether it will end tonight…’