Zahra's speaking moment (11º5)
This happened last summer. I was staying with a cousin at our
grandparents’ house in a small, remote village; one of those full of tales of
ghosts, demons and other unearthly beings. I had never been to such a place. It
certainly lived up to its reputation. Although it was very hot, one would not
assume it was summer judging by the sky. It was grey as clouds full of rain.
But it never rained; instead, the whole village always seemed to be swallowed
by a never-ending fog that only existed around it.
One day, my cousin decided to explore the village. I wasn’t daring
enough, but he managed to convince me. We asked our grandparents if we could go
for a walk. I was hoping they wouldn’t let us, but to my surprise, they said it
was completely safe for us to go. My grandmother didn’t believe in anything
that she couldn’t see, hear, or touch,
and neither did I, but there was a little voice in the back of my head
that kept telling me that that wasn’t
such a good idea.
We left the house, turned right, and walked a few meters until we found
a straight, very narrow path surrounded by incredibly crooked, leafless trees.
I had to stop right there, but my cousin wanted to keep going. He succeeded in convincing me again, as
curiosity spoke louder, and we found a small, seemingly abandoned house at the
end of the path. However, we didn’t approach it, in that moment; neither of us
was brave enough to. The white paint was peeling off, and all the windows were
shattered except for the topmost one: behind the dirty glass, I could only
distinguish a pale figure touching the window, pointing outside. I yelled at my
cousin and told him to leave, and began running as fast as my legs could bear,
but he grabbed me by my arm and stopped me. Apparently, he hadn’t seen the
creature. I looked again…And then there was no one there. I figured it was just
my mind playing tricks on me. Five minutes later, we saw two kids entering the
house. We knew them; they were our neighbors, so we found it very odd that they
were entering the house. How could that be? Could they be visiting a relative? They
just opened the door and went inside, effortlessly. We finally decided to go
back to our house and never spoke of the matter again.
A few days later, my grandmother came to me with a worried look on her
face. She asked me if I had been with those kids – my neighbors – or if I had
seen them. I lied and asked her why she was asking me such questions. She
simply answered:
“They have been missing for a couple of days now”
I couldn’t believe her words. In the blink of an eye, before I had time
to think about the reckless decision I was about to make, I decided to go
explore the village on my own. I didn’t want to tell my cousin. It took me a
while to find the path we had been through the other day. Strangely, it seemed
much longer than it was that day.
But that wasn’t the strangest thing.
As I looked at the end of the path, instead of a house, I found nothing.
