GHOSTS STORY

Author:- Rupesh Jahabak

The very memory of that night was like a recurring nightmare... The fog was cold and damp, and an icy wind blew through the shadow-cloaked forest, but Raven barely noticed the chill. Autumn trees, bare and skeletal, clawed at her as she ran frantically through the woods outside her home. Her heart pounded so loudly she felt certain it would burst. Glancing back over her shoulder, she glimpsed vague, indistinct figures moving through the mist behind her. A full moon shone through the barren tress branches overhead. Storm clouds drifted across the moon like a veil. They were chasing her. Whatever they were.

Only seventeen year old, Raven knew she was soon to die.
Heartrending screams ripped through the night, sending fresh jolts of fear and anguish through the young woman's soul. Her dark brown hair streamed wildly behind her. Panic filled her wide blue eyes. Undried tears streaked her cheeks. A thin linen nightgown provided scant protection from the cold. Spilled blood streaked her gown, glistening wetly in the moonlight.

The stick crimson fluid had soaked through the fabric, causing the linen to cling to her skin. Bare feet she raced over a carpet of fallen leaves. Thunder boomed above her. A jagged bolt of lightning sliced the sky in twain. Rain poured down in sheets, drenching Raven. The forest floor turned to mud beneath her feet. Muck oozed between her toes and she had to fight to keep her balance on the slippery leaves. If she fell, her pursuers would be on her in an instant. Chances were, she would never rise again.

Who are they? She wondered. Why did they kill her family? More screams penetrated the darkness. The blood chilling ululations came not from human throats. Something is in the stables, she realized. The horses sounded as though they were being torn into pieces, which might well be the case.

Raven had already witnessed far worse this evening. The blood upon her gown was not her own, but it could not have been any more precious to her before it had gushed from the severed limbs of her mother, sister and baby nieces. She had left the butchered bodies of her nearest and dearest

strewn upon the wooden floor of their violated home when she had fled madly into the night, seeking out the only family left to her.