Mirage's Light

(My first ever attempt at a horror story. Written as a 2 page short story for my school's literature magazine. I decided to make it horror just to try out something new.)

Genre: Horror, Thriller

They couldn’t stop running. Their only choice was to keep going. To make it to the end of the tunnel.

As far as they knew, stopping at the current moment would be risking the loss of something that they held extremely dear to themselves; it wasn’t a sacrifice worth doing.

And who could blame them? They never knew that they’d get themselves into a situation of this caliber. No one would’ve been able to know what was coming if they’d done the same.

As the 3 of them ran towards the white light that kept getting brighter with every step, that small glitter of hope that remained within them suddenly multiplied a hundred-fold. That feeling of freedom they lost slowly but surely returned.

“We’re almost out! There it is!” the one who was in the front of the 3, the boy with short, brown hair and dark blue eyes, exclaimed as they got closer to the end.

The other 2 with him, another boy with blond hair and brown eyes, and a girl with long brown hair tied in a ponytail and beautiful green eyes ran behind him. The boy on the left, the girl on the right; they formed a small triangle.

They didn’t stop. They couldn’t give up. That taste of freedom they yearned for was too close to stop now.

But of course…not everything is what it seems.

Less than 10 feet from the light; they were extremely happy. They would exit this ordeal. But…what’s this? The light…The gate of hope…vanished. Disappeared. Without a trace.

They stopped running and panicked. They were paralyzed. Where was the exit from this hell? Was this a sign? A sign that this was… their fate? Their destiny? Their… end

“W-what this? Where is it?!” The boy in front shouted.

“What do we do?! It’s getting closer…” the other boy said.

“N-no…T-this can’t be-”

The girl was interrupted. The area went dark. The all panicked until they suddenly heard a sound. A sound reminiscent of a gushing.

The darkness lifted, and the boys saw the one thing they refused to believe would occur.

The girl’s body was…decimated. A pool of red formed around the now corpse. Her outsides, her insides…fully visible to the human’s eye.

“No…Elaine…!” The brown-haired boy extended his hand out to the body, tears welling up on his eyes at such a grotesque sight.

“Is this really…how it all ends…?! With our dea-” the blond boy was interrupted.

A black spike pierced him from behind his body, now covered in red. As his body fell to the floor, the brunette boy saw it: The second thing he dreaded the most.

In front of him stood a black hooded figure. Under the hood, a pair of white eyes that cried blood could be seen, alongside a smile with sharp teeth. It was suited to be called…the embodiment of a nightmare. The boy was paralyzed; he couldn’t move. And in that second…

Silence captured him.

The nightmare had taken the opportunity…and it gruesomely stole the one thing the 3 of them held extremely dear…their own existence.