SHORT STORIES FRIDAYS (19)

GRACE’S WITCHY ADVENTURES : A PARANORMAL THRILLER SHORT STORY BY ME.

The Story so far:

Grace Royce accompanies her best friend and colleague, Sharmila Gupta’s wedding in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, India. When Sharmila shows her fiance’s photo, Grace is shocked because she has frequently seen him in her dreams forcing an innocent girl to suicide.

She saves Sharmila from marrying a criminal after nabbing him and his friends in a shameful act of trying to hang an innocent girl.

Grace has recurring dreams of Sharmila attempting suicide when the friends are holidaying in Dehradun. Her fear is about to materialize after their trip. Grace skilfully revisits the past and alters everybody’s memories to stop the wagging tongues of people from hurting Sharmila. She thwarts the attempt of a mad scientist X, in Australia, who is watching the proceedings, to kill Sharmila.

He stages small accidents which Grace is unable to prevent. Finally, he is able to cause a hit and run accident leading to Sharmila’s death. Grace is mourning the loss of her good friend while blaming herself for failing to protect her. She has a strange dream at night, where she finds herself in her bedroom in Australia. Her dead parents appear before her and they take her into the alternative future time zone, had Sharmila lived. Whatever she witnesses is awfully shocking to her.

She sees the evil side of Sharmila abusing her friendship and taking advantage of her. She is horrified to see her best friend kidnapping and sacrificing her with the help of a mysterious stranger. She comes back to her room with her parents and Sharmila’s soul pays her a visit. She explains how she was cursed by her grandma after she accidentally killed her grandfather who was bedridden with cancer. When she clarified that it was just an accident, her grandma realized her folly and offered a choice to die young before the curse could materialize or live a long cursed life. She had chosen the former. Sharmila warns her to be careful.

Grace decides to investigate Sharmila’s death and views the CCTV footage that shows the car which ran her over. She finds that it belonged to Vinod Mohan, Vivek’s ( Sharmila’s former fiance) younger brother. She approaches the police and hands them the evidence. Vinod claims of innocence and says that he had lent his vehicle to a friend who reported it missing. Grace is frustrated and prays to Sharmila for guidance.

Grace sees identical bracelets on the wrists of Vivek and Sharmila in her dreams. She requests Sharmila’s mother for the bracelet and discovers the hidden microchip which alerts X in Australia because both the bracelets were connected to his destiny machine. He orders Vivek’s death which leaves Grace completely stumped.

X is surprised to find his mentor Edward Fox’s son Stewart on his doorstep. Stewart is shocked to hear about Sharmila’s death. He takes X to task for acting in a haste and tells him about Sharmila’s past. Both of them are planning to bring her back from the land of death to wreak havoc on earth which Grace sees in her dream.

Grace questions Sharmila’s spirits and discovers the identity of her killer. Grace leaves to Australia with Sharmila’s parents. She requests Sharmila to infiltrate X’s gang to uncover clues and prevent him from carrying out the dangerous task of reviving her. She spots X and enters his body in the presence of Stewart. X gets into trouble after misbehaving with a waiter and Stewart slaps him. He drags him out of the cafe as they go back to their hideout.

Sharmila decides to have fun at X’s expense. She enters his body, snatches the phone from one of the guards and calls Grace with the update. X returns the phone with a thanks. His guard is pleasantly surprised. When X comes to his senses, his guard appreciates him for his good manners which X vehemently denies. Sharmila re-enters his body and X turns into a pervert. Stewart kicks him while the guard chuckles and gets fired. Sharmila possesses him and manages to capture the incriminating photos of the hideout. The guard visits the lab and blackmails Stewart to reinstate his job Or face the police. He has already forwarded these pictures to other men as a precaution and potential blackmail. Stewart and X are ready to merge their sinister machines as Sharmila is shocked and contemplating how to stop these villains from carrying out their evil plan.

She foils their attempt to revive her with their combo machine by entering X’ s body and making him enter wrong password that destroys their project. She leaves him and possesses Stewart who tries to seduce X. They fight with each other and while they are discussing the chain of events, they eventually find out about Grace and try to kill her by sending their assassin. Grace has a nightmare and witnesses her own death. When she wakes up, she’s shocked to find a stranger holding a sharp knife in her room and she screams.

And now:

CHAPTER 11

Road to excitement and danger.

Grace screamed at the man who was staring at her. He had a sharp knife ready to plunge into her body. She was numb with shock. Before she could open her mouth to question him, he said, ” Don’t yell, Gracie! It’s me, Sharmila. Just listen to me before you start screaming. X and his accomplice, Stewart, have accidentally found out about your indirect involvement in the failure of their sinister plan. They have sent this guy to silence you forever. I entered his body to warn you about the gravity of the situation. I am going to pretend stabbing you. Act like a dead body and I will snap the pictures of your ‘corpse’ to convince those rascals that you are indeed dead. Meanwhile, you try to convince the boss and work from home until the danger passes off. I will somehow try to contact you. I have to prevent these guys from resuming their work on their dream project.”

The man ( assassin) sent by X gave her a cushion and a bottle of red nail polish. He made her lie down with the cushion placed above her abdomen, opening the tiny bottle of nail polish. He pretended to gag her mouth and inserted the knife into the cushion. He also spilled the red nail polish to fake her death. He snapped a picture of her ‘dead body’ and left the place immediately.

He joined his partner waiting outside with a can of gasoline. ” Hi, “said his partner, ” Did you finish the task? ” The assassin replied, ” Yes. But what are you doing with the gasoline?” His partner, ” The boss told us to make her disappear from the face of the earth to eliminate the trace of a murder.” ” Are you insane?” said the assassin, ” Do you want to set the entire neighborhood on fire simply to get rid of the corpse? It will look more suspicious.” ” We can enter the house and try to tamper with the electric circuit and make sure that a faulty wiring led to her death. “” Why are you so desperate to protect the boss? Are you going to clean his butt everytime he shits? ” His partner was astonished to see the assassin’s wavering loyalty towards the boss. He asked him, ” Don’t tell me that you are planning to switch over to the other side. I am surprised at your attitude. We are his employees and should be loyal to him.” The assassin replied, “Sometimes I wonder if they you have a brain at all. I admit that loyalty is important but protecting our interests from the exploitation by our bosses is equally important. Haven’t you watched any movie? The gang leader always pins the blame on his henchmen for the majority of crimes committed by him in order to escape from prosecution. Why should we get punished for the crimes committed by the boss? He will never hesitate to throw us under the bus to save his skin. Look, we have eliminated the girl. It’s the proof of our loyalty. There’s no need to burn the neighborhood.”

His partner agreed with his view and they drove away to the den. They were unaware that X had sent two men to monitor the execution of their tasks. They stopped outside a bar and had drinks before resuming their journey. The assassin couldn’t help feeling that he and his partner were being tailed. He cast a casual glance around and observed a black car following them. He whispered to his partner, ” Do you know that the boss in whom you have misplaced faith sent a couple of our comrades to keep an eye on us?” The partner felt as if someone had stabbed him in the heart. So much for being loyal! He said, ” You were right. Let’s teach the son of a bitch, a lesson he would never forget.”

The assassin gave a maniacal grin and said, ” I have a plan that would cover our behinds from the asses, sorry, bosses.” He pushed the accelerator and increased the speed. Their stalkers gained a momentum. After playing hide and seek with their pursuers, they reached an accident-prone area. He swerved the car to take a sudden U-turn whereas their pursuers lost control of their car and rammed into a tree with such a force that both the men ended up losing their consciousness. The assassin picked up the can of gasoline and set the car on fire. He clicked the picture of his dirty deed. His partner was waiting for an explanation. The assassin filtered the recent photo in such a way that it appeared as if a house was on fire. He attached the photo of Grace’s fake dead body with that of the fire and sent it to X. His partner understood the plan and grinned at him. ” That’s a great job, but how would you explain the disappearance of two men? ” questioned his partner.

The assassin explained, ” I would claim that the men he had sent behind us, were traitors working for the police. We found them leaking the information on our hideout to the police. We caught them red-handed and killed them. Now, let’s forward the information on our hideout to the police.” The assassin sent the pre-recorded video of their hideout to the police. After waiting for half an hour, he warned X that the police might be on their way and sent a message of the supposed betrayal by their own men. X asked him and his partner to move on to a secret location and stay hidden until he contacted them. Meanwhile, X alerted his partner and men to vacate the den, leaving behind everything to avoid getting caught. They fled through the secret tunnel and remained hidden among the bushes, watching their secret haven getting raided. X and Stewart were furious over the betrayal of the dead men whom they had sent to spy on Grace’s assassin and his partner. They waited patiently until the coast was clear. When they went back to their den, it was stripped of everything they possessed.

The assassin and his friend disguised themselves as respectable businessmen and escaped to Sydney. Sharmila’s mother knocked on Grace’s bedroom in the morning. When she didn’t respond, she opened the door slightly and screamed at the sight that met her eyes.

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