Hello, Lovely Soul Drop!! I love writing different genres, and today I'm sharing a story with you that's supposed to be a horror/mystery story!! I hope you enjoy this chilling tale.
-"It's not funny!"-Sean protests.
-"Yes, it was!"-Lucy laughs; punching his arm gently. The redhead tries to hold back a smile, but it creeps up to his lips in the end.
-"Alright, alright…maybe it is a bit"-
-"¡Lucíaaa, ven a ayudar con las hallacaas!"-granny Rosa yells at her granddaughter.
-"I'm guessing you're needed inside?"-Sean smiles at her.
-"Ding, ding, ding! Come, you can help us too. I'll teach you how to tie them up and then you can eat one. Just…don't eat the leaves again"-
-"How was I supposed to know you don't eat that?!"-
The teenagers return inside to help with the meal preparations. Venezuelan music blares off a cell phone while Lucy's family cooks. After hours of hard work, the pair return outside.
-"¿Pero cuándo vas a casarte con ese muchacho?"-Rosa's upset words worry Sean for a moment. -"What did she say? Did I do something wrong?"-he asks not noticing Lucy's flushed expression. -"She said I should study more! Come!"-
As they step outside, the cold breeze bites at their cheeks. Despite what her family keeps repeating, Lucy and Sean are just friends. They grew up together and have never spent too much time apart.
-"Thank you for today"-she whispers. A warm smile plastered on her face. -"Thanks to you! I promise I will tie them better next time"-
Their laughter is carried by the wind along with the snow. Just as they plan to return inside, the rest of their friends arrive.
-"Lu!! Sean!!"-Viviane yells; waving her arms like someone about to drown.
-"You don't have to let everyone know we're here, Vi"-Louis, her twin, sighs.
-"We have a challenge for you!"-Emily exclaims not bothering to say hello.
-"Whatever it is, I'm in!! Unless it's eating bugs. Ants I can handle, but nothing else"-Lucy replies hugging each of them hello.
-"You wish! It's much worse"-Viviane hugs back.
-"What is it??"-Sean's green eyes widen a bit.
-"Already scared??"-Lucy jokes.
-"We're going camping!"-
A week later, the five teenagers are ready to start their camping trip. It's not their first, but maybe it could be their last. As Lucy and Sean set the tents, the twins look for firewood, and Emily checks their food supply.
-"Isn't this typical?"-Lucy comments.
-"What is?"-Sean replies; trying his best to fix the tent.
-"Us being here. Five teenagers camping, the perfect setting for a horror film"-
-"Why can't it be a coming-of-age film? Or maybe a fantasy one!"-
-"That's no fun!"-
-"Oh, hush, you're just mad you didn't get your letter when you were 11"-
-"Like you did?"-
Snap.
The three teenagers look around with tense shoulders.
Silence.
Several minutes pass, but nothing other than normal nature sounds can be heard.
Crack.
-"Aaaah!!!"-
The initial screams are replaced by laughter as Louis blinks sitting on the ground. Her twin continues to laugh instead of helping him up. Sean offers him a hand as Lucy picks up the firewood he dropped.
-"You almost gave me a heart attack !"-Louis protests.
-"YOU were gonna give US one!"-Lucy chuckles.
-"It seems we have everything we need. The hike here took us longer than expected…"-
-"It's getting dark"-
-"Perfect! Scary story time!!"-
-"I won't let you crawl inside my sleeping bag this time"-
-"Your behind is too big for the both of us to fit!"-
An orange warm light illuminates their faces as they sit around the fire. Emily is telling her creepy story while the rest listen.
-"...and it was her heaaad!"-she screams, raising her arms.
-"That was lame!"-
-"Y…yeah…it was obvious from the start"-Viviane says with nervous laughter.
-"Who goes next?"-Sean's smile is warm as ever.
-"My turn!"-Lucy's arm shoots up.
-"The floor is yours"-Emily bows her head.
-"Alright, alright, this story is from the land of my ancestors…it's called El silbón which translates to The Whistler.
Legend tells of a young man who was spoiled and bratty. He spent his days whistling as he went from bar to bar wasting time and drinking his weight on alcohol. His parents gave him everything he wanted, yet he was never satisfied. One day he asked his father to go hunt a deer for him, and even though he tried very hard to please his son…he came back home empty-handed. Drunk and enraged, the young man hit his father. Blood splattered everywhere! When he stopped, the old man was staring up at him with dead eyes…he was gone. Unfazed by his horrible actions, he dismembered his father and took the meat to his grandmother. She asked where the meat had come from, and he replied "It's the guts of my useless father. I asked him to hunt a deer for me, but he didn't bring anything back. So you're going to cook him for me so I can finally stop being hungry" his tone didn't match the grizzly nature of the situation. Enraged, the grandmother went to the rest of the family, and he was tied up to a tree. They whipped him for days and poured salt and peppermint on his wounds to make them ache even worse. As he was about to die his grandmother cursed him "May your errant soul wander the earth forever, you will never find peace and you'll be forced to carry the remains of your father". He now roams at night carrying a bag with his father's bones, as he walks he lets out a terrifying whistle. If you hear the whistling close to you, then you're safe, but if you hear it far away then you're in danger because he's extremely close to you. Sometimes he spends the night inside a house, if someone hears his whistle then everything is fine…but if no one hears him…someone inside that home will wake up dead in the morning"-as Lucy ends her tale, all of her friends stare at her with wide eyes.
For a brief moment, the only sounds are the cracking of the fire and the nocturnal fauna.
-"That was…a great story"-Sean breaks the silence.
-"I loved it!"-Viviane backs him up.
-"I'll never see whistling the same way again"-Emily jokes.
-"Well, goodbye to a good night's rest!"-Louis fake complains.
-"I'm so glad you liked it! It's my favorite Venezuelan legend. Colombia has it too, but they always try to copy us!"-Lucy jokes.
The fire is out as the teens sleep in their tents. A cracking noise wakes up Emily and Lucy. Before either can say anything, a shadow passes by. A human-shaped one. Lucy's back damps with cold sweat while Emily holds her breath paralyzed. Frozen in place, the two wait for another noise. Nothing. After a while of silence, they decide maybe they imagined the whole thing. It was better to hope for that than to dare to look outside and find out they were wrong.
Fatigue wins over fear. The women of the group sleep, but Sean wakes up feeling the call of nature. As he steps outside of the tent, a chill goes up his spine. Not because of the weather, yet provoked by the footprints on the snow. Probably one of them went out and he didn't notice. Once relieved, he returns inside their tent. Louis' rhythmic breathing relaxes him. Everything is alright.
Sunlight caresses the trees and slides through the branches creating a gorgeous yellow aura. The forest looks like it was taken out of a fantasy land. Lucy smiles at the gorgeous landscape before her.
-"You're up early"-Sean tells her with a tender tone.
-"So are you"-Lucy chuckles and scoots over so he can sit on the log beside her.
-"I've had a wonderful time with you…I wish I could freeze time. Capture these memories and keep them forever…"-
-"I feel you. It feels like good times never last long enough"-
-"We have to enjoy them while they last. It's easy with you"-Sean smiles, and they fall into a comfortable silence.
A piercing shriek shatters that silence a few moments later.
-"What was that?!"-
-"It sounded like Emily!!"-
They rush back to the tents to find Louis coming out of the one he was sleeping in.
-"What's wrong?!"-
-"We don't know!"-
Lucy enters the tent; her friends close behind her. Emily is standing next to Viviane. Her face has a greenish tint and her lip trembles. The words seem to be stuck in her throat as she gasps like a fish out of water.
-"What…what's going on, Em?"-
-"Vi…Vi…Vi…"-
At first the words make no sense, but very soon they sink in like rocks ready to squish her like a bug. Lucy's heart races, her eyes shut, but he forces them back open. They land on the peaceful expression on Viviene's face. The color and rigidness of her corpse are too evident to ignore. Viviane is no longer alive.
-"Lu…I…"-Emily's voice breaks. Her knees feeling like jello beneath her. Together they come out of the tent.
-"What's wrong? What happened?"-Sean inquires.
-"Where is my sister? Viviane! Stop messing around!"-Louis storms into the tent.
A heart-wrenching screech erupts from the inside. Sean tries to follow him, and gasps as his best friend holds his chest and drops on his face with a thud.
-"You're joking…right? A cruel prank? I…"-the redhead stutters. Crimson starts to pool next to Louis' face, his nose broken with the fall. With a trembling hand he takes the pulse of his friend, even though he clearly didn't need to. The twins are dead.
-"Sean?"-Lucy tries asking. Emily, who was already crying in silence, starts to sob loudly. Each sob rattling her body with desperation.
Sean falls sitting on a log, his legs unable to hold him any longer. The three of them stay in place either crying or staring at the nothingness. How could this be real? The minutes crawl by as they wait to wake up to find this was just a nightmare. A tricky mirage to shatter their moral.
A low long whistle can be heard in the distance. Emily pulls her hair standing up.
-"It's him! It…it's the whistler"-her eyes unnaturally wide and her face disfigured by fright.
-"What? No, how could that be? That's just a legend. You're still in sh…"-
-"Shut up!!! You saw him with me last night. We saw his figure right outside of the tent, and we didn't hear him whistle…so Viviane woke up dead!"-
-"Emily! We…we saw a man. Not the whistler. I'm not even sure we saw anything…"-as soon as the words left her lips she knew they were a lie. She had seen a man outside.
Sean recalls the footprints outside of their tents the night before and looks at them confused.
-"I saw footprints last night…I brushed them off as not important. Maybe they belonged to one of us. I'm sure there's a perfectly natural explanation for all of this. We have to call the police and let them know we have two…two…two people they need to look at"-he finishes unable to utter their grim reality out loud.
-"Let me try calling them…"-Lucy goes inside to search for her phone. She does her best to ignore her friend's cadaver and brings outside the device on her trembling hands. She dials and waits to hear the operator, but nothing happens-"The…the signal is dead. I can't reach them"-
-"We have to return to the town"-
-"And leave them alone here?! No way! An animal could eat them"-
The long low whistle paralyzes the three of them. Emily screams holding her head.
-"I don't want to die!! I don't want to die!!"-she shrieks and runs away like a soul chased by the devil himself.
-"EMILY!! WAIT UP!!"-Lucy screams and tries running after her.
When they reach a clearing, Emily is nowhere to be seen. Alarmed, they look around for her trail…but there's none. They try calling her name to no avail.
-"It's like…she vanished"-Lucy mumbles in disbelief. Sean holds her close to try and comfort her, and maybe himself too.
-"Everything will be ok, we just have to keep looking for her…"-
-"What if she's right…what if…"-
-"The whistler is real?"-Sean finishes for her. She nods feeling idiotic to believe something like that.
-"Let's keep looking for Emily…"-she offers not wanting to think about it more.
Hours go by, but their friend seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth.
-"We have to look for help"-Sean admits after a while. His friend nods unable to speak.
Back in town, the sheriff listens to everything wide-eyed. They form a search party, and pick up the two bodies that luckily weren't eaten by animals. The search went on for weeks, but Emily was nowhere to be found. Alive or dead.
Years would go by. They would raise their children together, watch them grow, and play with their grandkids. However, the cold dead eyes of Louis, the peaceful corpse of Viviane, and the image of Emily roaming alone in the snow haunts them to this very day. Each time the wind whistles they wonder what really happened back then. Something only the snow knows.
What do you think?? I'm a beginner at this genre, but I had a lot of fun. Would you like to read more stories like this one? Let me know!!
Thank you so much for reading!!
With much love,
Belle Moon.