Perilous Women

by Albert Oon

  A Collection of Shocks and Terrors: Set VI – Perilous Women

  Albert Oon

  Copyright © 2019 Albert Oon

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 9781092881050

  Short Stories with Extras

  Story

  Page

  Immortalized in Death

  5

  Deception and Despair: Part 2

  54

  Maggie the Manga Maniac

  125

  A Sacrifice for the Family

  204

  Chapter 1 – Die Forever with Me

  Allie doesn’t live in anywhere special. The countryside she lives in isn’t known for producing the best crops or the best people, but it gets by. On one normal day, a strange girl with pink hair, white skin, and purple eyes showed up in a park while she was out. This girl has red bowie ties to hold up her pigtails, light blue eye linear, rosy red cheeks, and a pick schoolgirl dress with a red tie. The girl walks as if she glides across the ground and looks around as if she’s looking for a friend.

  Being the girl she is, Allie goes up to the girl and introduces herself.

  The girl smiles then says, “I’m Ellie. Do you want to be friends?”

  “Okay! Let’s be friends!”

  The girls quickly became best friends within a week. Ellie has a special ability to perform magic, which includes bringing plants and animals back to life and levitation. When other people saw her, they just assumed she was some kind of clown or performer because of the way she dressed. Allie thought more of her. The two of them were the bestest of friends in town.

  On one day, Ellie asked, “Do you want to come over my house today? It’s tall, big, and a magical place.”

  “I’d love to come over. Where is it?”

  “It’s in the forest. You know you’re near it when you see the trees with the white leaves.”

  “I’ll be there. Let me tell my parents first.”

  Allie tells her step-parents about going over Ellie’s house, but she unintentionally leaves out the magical part of the house. Her parents trust their responsible daughter and let her go out. In the forest, Allie follows Ellie’s advice and finds the part of the forest with white trees. She’s never seen trees like this before. She hasn’t even heard of them being the area. Along with the weird white trees, there are flowers that grow on the trunk of the trees. The flowers themselves are pretty, however, they appear to have eyes in the center of them that follow Allie’s every move. She brushes this off as her imagination despite the lack of wind that could be blowing the flowers.

  After going deeper into the forest, Allie finds a completely black and white house. The place doesn’t have many windows nor does the way to it appear to have been walked on recently. Wondering only about her friend, Allie knocks on the door while eagerly waiting. A noise inside that sounds like screaming makes Allie jumps, but then her friend opens the door.

  Allie assumes the noise was the creaky door then says, “Hi, Ellie. This is a nice place you have here.”

  “It’s great. I’m so glad you showed up. Come in.”

  Once Allie walks into the house, her photo is taken by a creature with a camera for an upper body. It then crawls up to the ceiling before Allie can get a good look at it. She feels weak now as it feels as if all of her energy was drained from her.

  “What was that?” Allie asks as she looks at her photo on the ground.

  Ellie takes the photo from her and says, “It was just one of the many pets I have here. It snaps the photo of everyone who comes in here, so I have something to remember their first visit by.”

  The interior of the house is nothing but black and white just like the exterior. Light can’t penetrate the windows, nor can it illuminate the dark spots within the building. The white lights on the candles barely light up the house.

  “Do you have other friends?”

  “I do.”

  “Are your parents home?”

  “They are, but they’re busy right now. Let’s eat lunch. They prepared it for us.”

  “That’s nice of them. I can’t wait to meet everyone.”

  “They’re excited to meet you too.”

  Ellie opens the door to the dining hall. A large table is filled with various meats, fruits, vegetables, and desserts. The aroma from the room is intoxicating to Allie.

  “Go ahead. Guests first,” Ellie says with a smile.

  Allie eagerly steps into the room. The door slams behind her, and now the room seems much smaller.

  “Ellie? What’s going on?” Allie says as she starts banging on the door. “Huh?”

  The door feels like a solid wall now. Another large noise makes the room close in more. It’s obvious now that this is just an empty room and not a dining hall.

  “Haha, you got me, Ellie. This is a cool magic trick you got. You can let me out now.”

  The walls slowly begin to close in.

  “You’re really starting to scare me. Let me out!”

  No matter how much she pleads Ellie to stop the walls, she doesn’t respond.

  “Please, Ellie! You’re my best friend, aren’t you?”

  As soon as she calls Ellie her best friend, the walls stop. Allie sighs in relief only for her to be squashed in an instant.

  “AAAAAAHHHHHH!”

  Allie wakes up in a completely white room in the house. There are several other beds with children in them except these children don’t appear to be lively. They have white skin like Ellie, but their eyes are hollow with a permanent smile on their face. Allie is startled by this but is afraid to move because she is surrounded. The children go back to sleep, which makes Allie comfortable enough to get up.

  When she enters the hallway, she finds more kids walking around from room to room. The hallway has candles with white flames on them to give it light. Hung up on the walls are pictures of children and young adults. It appears that their photo was taken by surprise, just like Allie.

  She follows the children to a real dining hall this time with the food she previously saw. At one of the tables, she finds Ellie except she is all black and white and is wearing a striped schoolgirl dress.

  Allie walks up to her friend and asks, “Ellie, what happened to you?”

  Her friend turns to her with a frozen smile and says, “I’m always like this. I’m glad you asked about me first despite what I did to you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “This house is ruled by mother who wishes to have all kinds of children for herself. She immortalizes them in death so no one in here can truly die. I’m just her favorite puppet that she uses to lure in people. What you saw of me was nothing but a hollow shell that I possessed.”

  “Why is she doing this?”

  “She wants to keep as many children away from death as possible even though she technically kills you when you first came in.”

  “I actually died?!”

  “The body that you came in with did. Your blood is tied to the picture that was taken of you. If you can get that and destroy it, then you can escape, but if you die after that, your soul belongs to the master of the house forever.”

  “Who is the master of the house?”

  “He is the one who gave mother her power. All I know is that you should watch out for the black cat in the house.”

  “Where can I find my photo?”

  “Deep within the halls of the house, but various traps will try to kill you. I don’t say this to everyone, but be careful, Allie. Dozens of kids have tried to escape, and no one has escaped. Most give up before they reach their photo. I think you should just accept your fate and stay here. We have friends, food, and loving parents.”

  “Loving parents don’t kidnap the souls of kids. I’m going to leave here and go back home
.”

  “Go ahead and try Allie. I’ll be waiting for you at your bedside.”

  Allie walks out of the room and wanders the house until she finds her way to a large art gallery with various pictures in them. These pictures are of other children, the black and white children, and creatures, one of which is the creature that took Allie’s photo. Now that she has a better look at it, she can see that the only color in it is the red in its eye.

  Wandering through the art gallery, she finds that some of the pictures move by themselves as if people are trapped in them. A closer look reveals this to be the truth with people screaming in them in bursts as if they were in Hell. Above these pictures are the caption “Naughty child”. A snake-like creature with barbed wire on its body catches Allie’s attention as it goes from one picture to the next. She cautiously walks through the gallery, however, she doesn’t pay attention to the art and gets ensnared by the barbed wire snake and is taken into a picture. The barbed wire strings her up in a tight photo frame and cuts off her limbs before cutting off her head.

  “AAAAAAHHH!”

  “Welcome back, Allie,” Ellie says with her frozen expression. She waits for her friend to catch her breath before asking, “It was painful, wasn’t it? All of the ways you can die here are painful.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to escape here no matter how many times I die. Why don’t you join me?”

  “I gave up years ago.”

  “Years ago? How long have you been here?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe a generation or three of kids? Anyway, I’m glad that you thought about me. Most usually hate me once they know what I did to them.”

  “I don’t hate you, Ellie. I want to get us out of here.”

  “You can try all you want. I’ve given up already and accepted my life here.” Ellie holds Allie’s hand. “Please. You’re the only one here I care about on the same level as mother. I don’t want to see you suffer.”

  “I won’t. Have a little faith in me.”

  “I don’t know what that’s like.”

  “Then you’re going to see.”

  Allie gets up and goes through the art gallery again. She finds the picture of her death on the walls, which plays it repeatedly. The feeling it gives me makes her sick, so she turns away from it and hopes that nothing like that ever happens again. This time through the gallery she manages to avoid the painting creature. Unfortunately, she doesn’t find her photo in the room, so she goes to the next one.

  The next room has a collection of dolls in them. They are all posed differently with some squirming in place with blood leaking out of their eyes and the cracks in their skin. Not wanting to take any chances with these dolls, Allie moves around the room carefully to see what they will do. Oddly enough, nothing happens. When Allie moves to the next room, she exits out of the closet that was in her room.

  “What?” she says in a surprised voice.

  Ellie, who is still sitting by her bedside, says, “You made it through the first set of rooms. I’m surprised you made it past the doll room.”

  “I wasn’t going to take any chances there. I moved as carefully as I could, and I always had my eyes on them.”

  “That’s probably why. They’re set to attack anything that moves and they also respond to not being looked at. If you want to go to the next room, you have to go back through your closet. Why don’t you take a rest? You have all the time in the world.”

  “I guess there’s no harm, but no funny business.”

  “Oh, there won’t be.”

  Chapter 2 – Teddies and Twisted Tales

  Allie sits at the dining table and looks at the food available. The table is as long as the room and is set up as a buffet. Despite the small crowd of kids taking the food, it automatically replenishes out of thin air. Allie takes the chicken and a salad with caution and eats it in the same manner.

  “So?” Ellie asks, “How do you like it?”

  “It’s delicious!”

  Allie thinks there might be something more to it and coughs some of it out.

  “There isn’t any magic in it if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  The sound in Ellie’s voice appears to be honest, so Allie eats. She tries every that looks appetizing until she realizes that she’s been eating for a while now.

  “I knew there was something to this food,” Allie says as she pushes her plate aside.

  “This isn’t any magic at all. I would know. It’s just that your home doesn’t have food like this place. Why do you want to leave this place? Isn’t it nice here? You have always delicious food on the table, there’s always a new friend to make, and we can’t die. I’m not good at making friends, but since you’re here, I finally have a friend.”

  “I don’t want to make my family and friends back home worry.”

  “Who cares about them now? You have me with you.”

  “I can’t always be with you, Ellie. I have to give other people my love and attention.”

  “Why? I need more attention than your friends and family. I don’t have anyone who loves me like you do and mother.” Ellie hugs Allie. “My lack of friends is the reason why mother and the master convinced me to be their lure for them. Every single kid hated me after I brought them here except for you. Please. If you get back your blood then die, I’ll have no one to be with.”

  “I promise it won’t be that way. Excuse me.”

  Allie walks out of the room then sighs. She walks into her room and into the closet to continue her search for her picture. The room she finds herself in is a large toy room with various toys that are twice the size of her. The room is as large as two backyards while the toys appear to be cute and cuddly and looking at them makes Allie want to play with them. What’s most different about this room is that it has actual color to it with no black, whites, or even greys in sight. There are other kids in the room and they’re playing with the toys and taking them out of it. Everything here appears to be safe, but Allie resists the urge to play with the toys. Her desire to touch them weighs heavily on her, which gives her the impression that the toys must have magic in them.

  The more she resists them, the more she wants to touch and hug the toys. Allie has never seen toys like the ones she sees in the room. Elegant dolls, fluffy stuffed animals, and detailed figures. The further she goes into the room, the more appealing toys she sees. By the time she reaches the next door, she’s sweating with dozens of toys surrounding her. It’s as if they’re begging her with their stare to play. Allie forces herself to go into the next room.

  This next room isn’t as cute, appealing, or large as the last. Instead, it’s a library with rows and rows of books. The are three floors with different sections of various books from around the world that covers every genre imaginable. Some of the books in the library are rare ones with few copies existing outside of the house. The colors are no longer colorful as they were in the toy room. Now they are filled with the normal colors of a library with browns, blacks, and white lights to illuminate the room.

  Still feeling the after-effects of the toy room, Allie stumbles around the room while darting her eyes around for possible danger. A snake with a barbed wire body comes out from the bookcase with a book for a face. When it opens its pages, a blank face with a smile shows itself.

  “Let me tell you a story,” it says as it envelops Allie into its pages. “This is the story of the little mermaid.”

  Allie is now dressed as the little mermaid and the scenery around her manifests as the creature talks about it.

  “She wants to get the prince, but his heart is taken by another. At the wedding ceremony, she decides to dance her best for their happiness. Dance little mermaid, dance your sorrows away.”

  Allie remembers this story differently, but she dances as the creature says to. What she forgets is that the little mermaid feels as if she’s walking on knives, which is one of the prices of walking with human legs. Allie too feels this pain in her legs but bears through it until things
start to change.

  “After all the pleasantries, the little mermaid is told that she doesn’t have to die. If she can kill her prince and his wife, she can live. She is handed a knife to carry out the deed. Will she?”

  Knowing her story, Allie tosses away the knife and jumps into the ocean and out of the story. Back in the library and her normal body, she takes more care of where she’s walking. The storybook serpent comes out of the shelves again.

  It says, “Let me tell you a story.”

  She tries to avoid it, but the serpent catches her no matter how fast she runs.

  The serpent says, “This is the story of Alice in Wonderland. She has just cried a river of tears and must dry herself off by running a race with several other animals.”

  Allie starts to run with the animals but is having a hard time to because of her wet dress.

  “It looks like Alice needs more motivation.”

  The river of tears floods into the forest Allie is running in. Distracted by the sight, Allie trips and is caught up by the river of tears, which turns into a river of teeth that chews her up.

  After her excruciating death, Allie wakes up screaming on her bed with her best friend ready to embrace her.

  As Ellie embraces Allie, she says, “Stops this Allie! I was hoping that the toy room would hypnotize you so you would at least stay here for a while, but you had to go and die again!”

  Allie pushes Ellie away and gets out of her bed.

  “I’m not going to give up! You’re not my best friend if you want to keep me here for the rest of eternity!”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about Allie! I am your best friend because we can spend forever here without a care or worry!”

  Ignoring Ellie’s words, Allie walks back into the closet. She makes it through the toy room again the same way she did last time with the same level of difficulty despite her going through it already. In the library, the story book serpent gets her again. Allie now has it in her mind that she has to go through the stories the serpents put her through. That would explain why this room is smaller and looks easier to get through than the past ones.