Shudder Novels & Stories

This get away is more of a toxins related one. I need to get my mind off this bullshit. Now. S H A T T E R E D "ASSHOLE!" I grunted while laying another punch to the jocks now broken, bloody, damaged face. He was almost knocked out cold on the dirty alleyway ground as I kept his body pinned down which was almost two times bigger than mine. He pissed me off at the wrong time. I looked up for a split second during my chain of punches and that's when I saw it. The red and blue flashing lights.

For the first time… Umbraeth stumbled. And bled. All the gods and goddesses in the heavens held their breath. On Earth, the balance shifted. The air rippled with heat, smoke, and raw energy. Cracks began to splinter across the stone floor beneath Umbraeth’s form, his inky mass now flickering, unstable. The echo of each strike—fire, magic, shadow, spirit—left him reeling. For the first time, he screamed. Not in triumph. In fear.

A sickening feeling churned in the pit of my stomach, a foreboding sense that something dreadful was about to unfold. In the darkness, my senses heightened, every nerve on edge. And then, in that chilling moment, I saw it—the dim outline of a face, its features obscured by shadows, eyes devoid of warmth, piercing through the gloom and locking onto mine. A primal instinct screamed within me, urging me to flee, to escape the clutches of this horrifying apparition.

Samuel turned pale and huge-eyed with fear, but he didn't budge. The next thing was a resonance, "Arrrrrrrr!" It sounded loud and round and shook the very foundations of the room. Adrian seemed stunned, as if taking a punch below the stomach from which his breath had been knocked out. It reverberated through every cell in his body, leaving in its wake a shaking, disturbed feeling.

But then, the unbelievable happened. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the ecstasy on his face contorted into something else entirely, a horrifying rictus of shock and agony. The man froze, his body going rigid, every muscle locked. His eyes, already wide, dilated further to grotesque proportions, threatening to burst from their sockets, reflecting a sudden, profound horror.

Another cough rips through her. I rush to the table, grabbing a glass of water and handing it to her. “Madness?” She takes it with shaky hands, gulping it down like it’s the only thing keeping her alive. “They say…” she breathes, lowering the glass, “you begin to shift… without will… killing… without control…” My stomach drops. This is really scary. An illness that can make you shift without will and kill without control is quite forbidable. “This is really bad…” I whisper.

“…the lady in the shadows…the one who watches you and wants you dead…” As the little girl's words from her vision swept over her,Beth felt a sense of terrifying unease. It was a coincidence,she told herself,nothing more.It was impossible that the little girl and Marcus could be speaking of the same thing,it was just impossible! “The lady in the shadows?”she said,her hands trembling in fear. In her mind she saw herself lying cold and frozen in that casket.

Her legs trembled beneath the blanket. Her lips shook violently. “Don’t… don’t come closer…” she whispered. The shadow stepped forward. Just one step. Lilith’s breath shattered. Her voice tore out of her throat—high, sharp, filled with terror. A scream ripped through the room. “AHHHHHHHH!!”

Shuddering with the awful reality of this shitty insane world and the players who treat lives like disposable commodities. “So, they will come again? Her men will keep coming after me until I’m dead?” It’s shrill, high pitched and drenched in fear as I shudder, voice breaking as it comes out of me and everything pales around me as my eyes blur at the bite of tears. Alexi puts his glass down and stalks towards me.

But now I’m just cold, tired, and ready to get home. When my car comes into my line of sight, a cold shiver races down my spine, stopping me in my tracks. The shiver isn’t caused by the wind and snowflakes lashing across my skin. No, that kind of shiver is caused by unwanted eyes watching from the shadows. Stalking, even. The kind of stare that makes a person’s entire body freeze with fear.