Read Short Horror Stories :: Auntie

She was sick and tired of walking. What else was there to do though? She was alone. It’s not like she’d meet another person. And she’d already read all the books she could find in her town.

She heard laughing. She hadn’t heard laughing in years. She heard children playing? There weren’t any children left. She was imagining things. She needed to stop imagining things. But it couldn’t hurt to go see where the laughing was coming from right?

There was a town. There were people in the town. She hadn’t seen another person in years. There shouldn’t be people anymore.

“You poor dear! You look so tired sweetheart, and hungry! Come have something to eat!”

She had been spotted. She walked towards the voice that was calling her.

Why did the woman look so much like her mother?

Why did the children look like the distant cousins she’d met twice years ago?

Why did everyone look like someone she knew?

Was she in the afterlife? She was confused.

She sat down.

She took the plate offered to her.

Why did it taste like her favourite burger? She hadn’t had a burger since Before. She had almost forgotten what burgers tasted like.

She ate the burger.

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“Call me auntie! Does it taste good? I wanted it to taste perfect for when you arrived!”

“It tastes amazing auntie.”

“Let me get you some water dear! It must have been a while since you last spoke!”

Why did the women say she knew she was going to come here? Why did she feel so warm?

“Here sweetheart! Drink some water!”

“Thank you, auntie”

“Of course Aadi!”

How did she know her name?

Why was she so comfortable around strangers?

Why did the town feel so familiar?

She remembered when she was younger, and her mother moved into a town similar to the one she was in now. There had been a new auntie, she was a younger auntie. That auntie never spoke much.

“Where is the bathroom auntie?”

“Go inside, go up the stairs and it’s the second door on the right!”

“Thank you auntie.”

Why did the person in the mirror look so similar to the auntie that had moved into her town all those years ago?

Had she somehow traveled to the past?

“I see you’ve discovered you’re back in town dearie!”

“Auntie?”

“Yes, this town is at all points in time at once! Our family has lived in this town from the dawn of the earth and past the end of earth too! It certainty doesn’t hurt that we’re in all-time either!”

“What’s going on auntie?”

“Well to sustain the time, sometimes we have to sacrifice others.”

Aadi felt herself snap back down to earth with those words.

“Are you saying you’re going to sacrifice me auntie?”

“I never said that sweetheart!”

The woman, or whatever she was, had starting looking less human. Her eyes just slightly too big, and her mouth just a tad wider than a human mouth.

“What are you auntie?”

“Would you like some juice dear?”

“No thank you auntie.”

“I insist.”

The being calling herself her auntie looked less human with those words.

“Yes auntie.”