Short Story : Whispers in the Grove :
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark ( Horror Story)
By Prabir Rai Chaudhuri . All Copyright Reserved 2009
My family is originally from Amacueca. My grandfather had a ranch on the edge of town, in a wooded area.
We used to go on weekends to visit his ranch, as it is a
very nice place to spend the holidays.
What I like to do most in that place is hiking through the forest.
In a rural area, horror stories always abound.
I remember that my grandfather used to tell us some, about apparitions in the mountains and my favorite story, one where a witch appeared to him as a beautiful woman, who asked him for help, because she was lost, but when my grandfather saw her feet, they were similar to those of a duck.
My grandfather talked a lot about that witch, he said that these beings had the power to create hallucinations, to make you lose yourself and then steal your vitality.
Honestly, these horror stories were very entertaining to me, but I didn't believe anything he said, I believed that my grandfather, being away from the city and people for so long, made up these stories so as not to get bored.
Some time later I would regret having judged my grandfather that way.
One afternoon, I was walking with my brothers and some cousins, very close to the limits of my grandfather's land. Before, I never saw others living in the area, but during that walk, we noticed a cabin.
We didn't pay much attention to it at that time, we were just curious to see something like that, because there is nothing in that area and due to the size of the construction we couldn't imagine that anyone lived there.
We continue walking along the path, until we reach a slightly hidden clearing, it is a strange place, something like a mound in the middle of a grove of trees. When we were kids, we used to pretend that UFOs landed there.
When we entered the grove, a foul smell greeted us, the smell of a decomposing corpse. We quickly noticed why it smelled like that.
Some animal bodies were perched on the mound, which due to their state of decomposition, we could not guess what they were. I suppose some were birds, because there were many black feathers scattered about.
We all squeezed our noses and although we were repulsed, we stayed there looking at that dump of shapeless corpses. From a bush, next to a skin, a huge black goose came out, with red eyes, it was missing some feathers, it looked terrifying.
The bird lunged to attack us, letting out horrible squawks.
We immediately leaned back and started running, as I was going slower, the bird
managed to grab my pants with its beak. They were moments of pure desperation,
because I swear that the bird's squawks sounded like words, it was as if an
infernal being was throwing curses into the air.
I don't even know how, but I managed to get away from the
bird.
I didn't see my brothers or my cousins. Due to the panic that overwhelmed me, I
strayed off the path without realizing it.
I started screaming like crazy for a while, but no one came
looking for me.
I tried to retrace my steps, but I only got more lost.
At that point I remembered what my grandfather said about witches being able to confuse you with hallucinations, so that you would get lost, I couldn't help but start crying from fear.
After a while, I tried to calm down, because despite being lost, nothing strange had happened to me, except for the bird attack.
I walked in a straight line, thinking that sooner or later I would have to go out onto a path, even though it was already dark.
Who knows how long I had walked aimlessly, when I finally
saw a light in the distance of the road.
I ran in that direction, then I reached the mound in the clearing again, I
stopped a few meters away, because I noticed something strange.
The light came from a campfire and next to it were two young women and an old woman. What I saw in front of me is a scene of complete madness.
The goose that chased me just a few hours ago appeared from the shadows, looking even more terrifying than when it chased me. He heard his squawks, they sounded even more human, I can almost assure that he understood his words.
Suddenly one of the girls began to convulse on the floor, while the old woman approached the goose, took it in her hands and suddenly cut its neck. The animal let out a scream that was in no way different from a person's scream.
This forced me to scream.
I thought my scream would attract the attention of the witches' coven, but no,
those women seemed lost in their strange sinister ritual. I then took the
opportunity to walk in the direction of the gap that would take me to my
grandfather's ranch.
It didn't take long for me to meet my entire family, who
were desperately looking for me.
I told them about the coven I saw on the mound.
After they heard my horror story, everyone told me that that couldn't be possible, because they also passed by that place and didn't find anything strange, only the corpses of animals.
I couldn't believe what they were telling me, I was very sure of what I saw.
The next morning, we walked to the small cabin. Inside it was completely empty, just a few black feathers, but we saw no sign that anyone lived there.
Upon returning to the ranch, I told my grandfather what happened to me, he believed me and was very scared, he told me that the bird I saw was very dangerous, because it could be treated in the way in which the devil himself manifested himself.
That night I couldn't sleep, because I heard a loud flapping of wings outside my window and although I didn't dare to look out, I'm sure that that horrible black goose with red eyes was out there. That time I didn't want to go out for a walk again and I was pressuring my parents to go home.
It took a couple of years for us to go again. In fact, we
returned because my grandfather was sick.
When we arrived we found him in bed, according to what an aunt told us, my
grandfather would not recover, he had cancer, in an advanced stage, so he just
wanted to say goodbye to us, before he got worse.
When it was my turn to talk alone with him, he told me that he returned to the place where I witnessed the coven.
Just like what happened to me, he saw a huge black goose emerge, with black eyes, but my grandfather, far from being scared, cut its neck with a machete he was carrying. According to my grandfather, the bird continued to squawk after it was dead, and it took a while for his body to fall.
After my sick grandfather killed the bird, well that's what he said, and also at night he heard the bird's squawking in the patio or outside his window, it always stalked him where he least expected it.
We spent a couple of nights at the house, as my mother
wanted to be there until my grandfather passed away.
During those nights, I had a couple of somewhat strange dreams, in all of them
I returned to the place in the forest, I found the goose, only instead of
attacking me, it looked at me and spoke clearly, with a woman's voice, its face
was deformed. , it seemed as if he was transforming into a person.
The scene forced me to wake up screaming.
My grandfather died after a week.
I don't know whether to believe that the cause of his death was revenge on the part of the witches.
I have many doubts, both about my grandfather's death, and about the phenomena that I experienced while at the ranch, such as the bird, if it was really a witch, or was it, as my grandfather said, the way the devil appeared .
Talking with my cousins, I learned that several had encountered the bird in other areas of the forest and also seen an old woman wandering near the bird.
My mother and her brothers sold the ranch and we never returned.
I know perfectly well what I saw and I hope that the new owners don't have to deal with that devilish bird, which I still have nightmares about sometimes.