XTales.net

A prank turns fatal, but that isn't all. There's more to what meets the eye. Reading time: 15 minutes. Now, also available on Wattpad and Pratilipi. SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING! 1 The freezing cold whispers of the wind passed through the trees on both sides of a lonely road. The foggy silence clanged loudly on the road covered with snow. Then, a rattling noise broke this symphony of the winter. The sound came from the engine of a car. It suddenly died when the vehicle came to a screeching halt. And just like that, it went dead quiet again almost instantly. The person behind the steering wheel, a shabby, half-sleepy man, stared at the white figure on the road, squinting his eyes. His face was covered in a thick, greying beard, and his rugged clothes carried as much filth as the seat cover of his car. He couldn't see clearly for three reasons. One—it was still pretty dark. Two—the figure blended with the fog as if they were but one. The third was a secret the driver wa...

A crazy killer is on a spree. Surprisingly, no one can clearly remember his face. What kind of deceptive tricks is the killer playing? Reading time: 8 minutes. Now, also available on Wattpad and Pratilipi. SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING! The detective sat idle in his chair while scrolling Instagram reels. Anxiety kept eating away at him. The case of two murders that he was working on had gotten nowhere in the past week. If he has no clue soon enough, this will turn cold like the bodies they had found. He had no idea what he was watching. The scrolling gave him a false sense of progress. He felt as if he was going somewhere. Maybe the killer will turn up at the bottom of the feed. A car chased across the highway at the speed of the wind. The caption read When Liquor store is closing in 5 minutes. Does your dog bite? It's complicated, another caption read. The dog rolled down a small thing that made the skaters trip and fall. The first comment read An alternate universe where Joh...

A man confesses on his trial for murder. Reading time: 4 minutes. Just a Precaution The courtroom was silent; no one said a thing. The prosecutor had just summed up his case. The judge had asked the convict if he wanted to say something. The convict had asked for a glass of water. The doorman entered with a glass of water. He walked up to the booth and handed it to the convict, who gulped it down and handed it back. “I did it,” he said finally. Everyone in the courtroom gasped. The judge ordered them to settle down, and the convict went on. “I killed my best friend. I didn’t want to, but he threatened to throw me to the police for murder. Yes, I killed the barman too. It all happened in a spur of the moment.” The convict was lost in his memories. “It was late, and I had been thrown out of three bars consecutively. This was fourth. The barman said they had closed, but I begged him to serve me one last drink. My alcohol addiction got the best of me. He refused, and I lost my tempe...

A family moves into a new house, and the horrors follow. Reading time: 4 minutes. Cliché “Honey, did you hear?” she asked, whispering. “About what?” he inquired with his mouth full of toast. They were sitting at the table in the kitchen having breakfast. “The kid of the new couple across the street went missing. Poor guys. They’d just moved into their new house.” He couldn’t understand her need to whisper. “I’m sure they’ll find the kid,” he said rather coldly. “Do you know if the police said anything?” he asked. “Same old bullshit! ‘We are doing our best' blah blah—” He finished his breakfast and grabbed his case. “I should head out. See you in the evening, hon.” They kissed each other and walked towards the door. “Do you think I should go see them?” she asked. “Yeah, sure,” he quickly replied without even thinking. “Okay, bye.” It almost seemed to her as if he didn’t care. She shrugged her shoulders and went in. Later that afternoon, she went to see the couple across the stree...

A forest guard's account of the final case of his life that made him retire from his job. Reading time: 23 minutes. The Forest Never Forgets 1 The year was 1993. I listened to the downpour on the shed of the local administration office of my district's forest department as I waited for the Forest Officer who, like usual, was late and going to be later because of the heavy rain. Everything looked grey and discoloured. A gloom covered the village. There was no sound except for the rain on the shed. I sat thinking, in a dark hallway with no lights because of the power cut due to the rain. I remembered my last few weeks as the newly appointed Forest Guard here and it gave me a strange feeling. I had been a forest guard for three decades. All my colleagues got promoted, one even got retired and I was still doing this job. In those thirty years, I had seen some unsettling things that kept me awake at night, or I should say days because that’s when I used to sleep. Maybe that was...