Short horror story about a man who got a job in the wrong house!

 

It has been six months already since I last had a job. I fell extremely ill during my last previous job and had to quit. I am someone with a lot of good education and at the moment just about anything would do and thanks to God I finally had one odd job. I got hired as a cook for a house. The pay is not much but it’ll do just fine for the time being. I got a letter of acceptance on Tuesday and left for work on Wednesday.

This place was a little far from where I used to live, it was almost on the outskirts of another city. After boarding the train I took a window seat and stared blankly outside for quite some time. I didn’t realize how lost I might have seemed until an old lady sitting opposite to me called out to me.

“Are you ok son?” she asked smiling kindly.

“Ah yes, I was just… looking at the forest outside” I replied back smiling. I really had been looking at the trees. This was the first time I had boarded a train that took this route and so I never knew just how beautiful this part of the city looked. Well we were already a little outside the city now.

“Where are you headed?” she asked curiously.

“Kinla, it is one of the little remote towns between here and Maves. Actually it is smaller than the rest of the towns don’t know if you know about it.” I kept explaining hoping that something might make her recall the forgotten place but her expression remained confused.

“Ok… I have never heard of it. Do you live there?” she asked

“No not exactly, I am going to live there for some time now but that is because I just got hired for a job there. I live here in Crona.” I couldn’t help a smile form spreading across my face as I mentioned myself getting hired. The old lady smiled back at me as it looked like she understood the reason behind my smile. I felt it might seem rude for me to not ask anything in return so I asked her where she was headed.

“Me? I have not decided yet.” She replied looking out of the window.

“Um… ok… You are going straight to Maves then?” Assuming that that was the last stop I asked a little intrigued by the way the lady answered to my question.

“Maybe” she smiled at me mischievously and after this we both sat quietly minding our businesses until she suddenly called out to me again after a couple of hours.

“Do you believe in luck?” with a somewhat eager expression

“Uh… yeah I do, why do you ask?”

“That’s a good thing. As long as you believe, luck will be on your side” suddenly there was a slight jolt and I realized that the train had already slowed down quite a bit.

“Thank you” I smiled as I picked up my luggage and got off the train. ‘Luck huh? Well I sure do feel lucky today’ I thought to myself and made my way to the little and only tea stall in the small station. I took a cup of tea, gulped it down almost burning my tongue and rushed out of the station. It was already evening and I had to get there before it got dark. Right outside the station there was a cab and it seemed like that was the only ride available.

I walked up to the cab and showed the driver the address where I had to go. Maybe it was just my imagination but he stared at the address for a brief moment and then eyed me intensely.

“So can you take me there?” I asked him feeling a little uneasy under his stare

“Of course. Please get in” he said and tossed the piece of paper which had the address onto the seat next to him. I carefully kept my luggage inside and then got inside the cab. “Are you here for a job?” he asked looking at me through the mirror.

“Yeah. I am going to be their new cook” once again I couldn’t help but smile on saying that line.

“And seems like you are really happy about it” the driver replied smiling back.

“I was having a tough time finding a job before this so yes right now this work seems good enough.”

“I would suggest you to not to take this job sir” the driver’s expression suddenly changed a smile to a frown. “You don’t know what you are getting yourself into”

“What do you mean?”

“That place is haunted… or should I say cursed. Strange things happen there”

“What kind of strange things?” this guy had started to really creep me out now, but something in his voice told me that he was not fooling around.

“The story starts with the all-time famous scenario where a family dies inside the house. The family consisted of a father, a mother and their son who had just passed out of school. One afternoon the neighbors saw smoke coming out of their house. When the family inside did not respond to the doorbell or shouting from outside, the neighbors called the police and firemen. Three charred bodies were found. The state of the bodies were so bad that they were beyond recognition, still continued investigation on the bodies to confirm the exact details of the death. The culprit was believed to be a young mentally unstable man who had escaped prison. Sadly he could not be found. The house was sealed off for everyone and after many days the results of the autopsy came in. the bodies that were found were male. All three of them.”

“What? What about the mother?” I had gotten really engrossed in this little story that the driver had been telling.

“That’s the thing. Her body was never found. After a few months of sealing of the house one day suddenly someone spotted the mother inside the house through a window. But no one dared to go inside and whoever did never came back out and so things have remained like that since then.” The driver looked at me through the mirror and asked “Do you still wish to go there sir? It is not a nice place.”

I thought about it for some time. I was indeed in a bind for money and this was the only place where I was able to find a job but this guy’s story was creepy enough to stop me. Money was not more important than my life. I decided that I would try elsewhere.

“Can-Can you take me back? To the station?” My mouth felt dry but I managed to get the words out. “What happened to the people who never came out?” I knew this was a question whose answer I probably won’t get, but I wanted to clear my mind of the job and so it was best if I could get creeped out to my limits.

“Some believe to have seen them roaming around in the house. Other think that they might have simply gone crazy and then gone missing, due to the curse. But I know the truth. I have seen them and I have seen what happens to them. It would be best to not know about it sir.” We remained quiet for the rest of the back journey. Something kept bothering me other than the disturbing tale that I had just heard. After some time the car approached the station slowly and stopped right in front of the gate.

“Yeah I guess you are right. How much?” I asked as I kept trying to figure out what bugged me. I paid him the money in perfect change and started getting out of the car when suddenly I realized what it was.  “Hey there is something I need to ask you” I stopped with one feet outside the car.

“What is it sir?”

“You said that no one knows the truth except you. How is that possible?”

“Ah yes. Actually I was their former cook sir.” The driver said smiling at me through the rear-view mirror.

I looked at the driver’s face through the mirror and it suddenly hit me. I started feeling a little sick in the stomach as the driver’s face twisted in an earie smile. “But you said no one gets out of there … how did you get out of there then?”

“Sorry sir maybe I should re-phrase my sentence” the driver turned around and face me properly for the first time, opened his mouth and almost whispered the next sentence.

“No one gets out of there… ALIVE” and he burst out laughing.

Without wasting any more time I made my way to the train that was ready to depart in a few minutes. Right now I would have got onto any train but thankfully it led to where I wanted to go. I sat on a seat neat the window and took deep breaths to calm down a little. After the train departed I recalled my meeting with the old lady in the evening and I felt that this might have been my luckiest day until now. I had a story to tell and I was alive to tell it.

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