I was only ten years old i first understood what fear truly meant.
That night, our house felt too silent.
Both my parents had gone to work early in the morning and told me they would return late. This was not unusual, but something about that night felt different. Heavier. Darker.
My little brother was fast asleep, his tiny chest rising and falling peacefully. I sat beside him, gently fanning him away from mosquitoes, afraid to leave his side.
Outside our house stood four old tamarind trees.
Their branches were twisted, dry, and stretched out like long crooked fingers clawing at the sky. In the day time, they looked ordinary. But at night...
They looked alive.
Everyone in our village belived ghosts lived in those trees.
People whispered stories about shadows moving at midnight, about voices calling travelers by name,and about voices calling travelers by name, and about strange screams coming from the nearby farm.some even claimed that people who went nearby those trees after dark never returned the same.
I had heard these stories many times.
And that night, every single one of them replayed in my mind.
The house was unnaturally quiet.
No dogs barking.
No insects chirping.
No sound of wind through leaves.
Only silence.
A silence so deep that I could hear my own heart beat.
I kept glancing at the front door, hoping to see my parents walk in. Every passing minute felt like an hour.
The weak yellow light from a single bulb barely illuminated the room.Shadows clung to the corners of the walls, unmoving yet threatening.
I hugged my knees closer to my chest.
Why it is so quite?
Even the tamarind trees outside stood completely still.
That was when a strange feeling crawled up my spine.
The feeling of being watched.
Slowly, I turned my head towards the window that faced the trees.
Darkness scared back.
Nothing moved
Yet my chest tightened
My throat dried.
Something was wrong.
Then-
A sudden rustling sound came from outside.
Not loud.
Just soft movement through dry leaves.
My breath caught.
I learned forward,straining my ears.
Again.
A faint sound.
Like someone walking...Slowly.
carefully.
My heart began to race.
Its just an animal, told myself.
But deep inside, I knew
Animals didn't walk like that.
I glanced at my sleeping brother.
He stirred slightly but didn't wake.
Fear tightened its grip around my chest.
The silence outside returned.
But it was no longer peaceful.
It felt loaded.
As if something was waiting.
Watching.
Listening.
Then, from the farm beside our house.
A scream tore through the night.
Not loud.
Not sharp.
But long.
Painful.
Broken.
A sound that did not belong to any human or animal I had ever heard.
My blood ran cold.
My entire body froze.
For a moment, I couldn't even breathe.
The scream slowly faded into the darkness, leaving behinda silence more terrifying than before.
And that was when I heard it.
Foot steps.
slow.
Heavy.
Crunching softly over dry leaves.
Coming closer.
Toward my house.
"The silence of the empty house broke.....and the real horror began".....,
Wait for next ..... chapter its very curious.....coming soon ....