THE BELL MUST RING
The dead girl had been smothering Kiera, nose to nose, since the candles died.
Kiera woke up choking. The smell of rot was inside her mouth. She couldn't move. She couldn't scream. Something heavy and cold was pressing on her chest, breathing on her face.
"CHRISTY!" she finally choked out, grabbing her roommate. "There was someone — on me — there was someone on me!" I can't stay in here.
Everyone knew Kiera. The timekeeper. The cleanest girl in the hostel. The one who rang the bell at 4am. Tonight her hands were shaking too hard to hold her phone.
The staircase down to the toilet was pitch black, swallowing their phone light. The air was too thick to breathe. Something was watching from below and holding its breath.
Halfway down, the air turned cold.
Kiera stopped. She could not move. Could not blink. Her legs felt glued to the ground. She could hear her own heart in her ears.
It was already coming up.
No legs. Floating. A burnt girl in a melted hostel uniform. Her mouth was sewn shut with black wire. And something white was pushing out from between the stitches.
Christy screamed and ran. She slammed the hostel door, locking it behind her
Kiera was alone and Trapped.
It was inches from her face. She could see maggots swimming behind its sewn lips. Its breath was so rotten she vomited in her own mouth.
It raised it's hand and slapped Kiera so hard her tooth cracked. Blood gushed from her nose.
Something in Kiera snapped. She screamed and slapped it back so hard its head snapped sideways.
It screeched and shot backward into the dark.
Kiera chest went cold. Like something had just left her body. She crawled back to the room on all fours.
Morning. 4:00am.
Kiera stood up to ring the bell.
Christy turned, saw her and peed on herself.
Kiera's face was swollen like a balloon, purple and huge, eyes sealed shut. On it were two black burnt handprints still smoking.
Behind Kiera stood the burnt girl, wearing Kiera's perfect skin, ringing the bell — and the real Kiera was the one floating with no legs.
Come join the Halloween Story Contest: at Dream Steem @hive-107855
Hosted by @ladyaryastark
Photos: My Prompt /AI Image
Upvoted! Thank you for supporting witness @jswit.
Thank goodness I'm reading it during the day! A chilling horror story with a shocking ending. Thank you for participating in the contest 📝 🎃 🦇
Thank you. I was a bit nervous about how the ending would land, so glad it shocked you in a good way. Thank you again for reading and for hosting this great contest.
On the contrary, thank you for joining. Writing is like a muscle; you have to exercise it. Who knows, maybe the next Edgar Allan Poe or Dostoevsky won't emerge from Steemit, just to name a couple of my favorite authors.
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Thank you for sharing your very interesting literature.
Thanks for taking the time to read it, glad you enjoyed it.
I like the imagery of this though one would often relate smell to the nose. There are many time, memories of awful smell always feel like it's in my mouth.
That's how terrible it felt. It wasn't just a smell anymore, it was so strong she could taste it and could not spit it out.
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Yes, it just amplified
OMG. The thought of this is frightening enough
Imagine being Kiera and watching someone wear your skin and answering your name.
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Reminded me of one East Asian folklore. The demon painted its own skin to look like a gorgeous woman.
Really creepy when you think about it
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I used to get nightmares when I think about ghouls and such when I was a kid.
I don't remember having such nightmares as a kid, but I had a terrible one not too long ago after watching an episode of "My Paranormal Nightmare." I watched it alone at night. After that experience, I never watch such shows at night again.
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I'm ok with horror entertainment these days. I can even watch them to sleep. haha
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That is like watching a horror movie, sometimes reading give us more emotions, because our imagination start to create the scene in our mind and also will try to finish it in our own way.
Thank you.
You're right , reading makes you become part of the story, and that's what makes it more scary.
😂 the ending is quite epic especially that handprint part😂😂
😂 it was so bad
😂For real 😂
I could literarily feel their pain🤣