XTales.net

A woman learns about a ritual to communicate with the dead. She decides to use it to bring back a lost family member. Reading time: 17 minutes. Now, also available on Wattpad and Pratilipi. SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING! A jeep rapidly advanced on the moonlit lonely road in the dead of the night. The winds were calm and cold, whispering a melody. It was a serene night, waiting for something to happen. The driver, a young woman named Meghna or Meg, stared at the empty path that seemed to be endless. Her mind harboured a chaos of endless thoughts and memories. A single drop of tear slid down her face while she tried to contain the raging storm in the ocean of her mind. 'Tonight's the night,' Meg thought. She had been waiting for this night since she learned about the ritual. ‘Tonight—I'll see if it works. I hope it does.’ Meg had left the city far behind her. Now, her jeep was tracing its way on a single-lane road in the middle of a desert. There was not one—not on

A bizarre experience of a receptionist at a hotel. Reading time: 4 minutes. Wake Me Up! I used to work at the reception of this five-star hotel. My shifts used to keep changing, and sometimes I had to work the midnight shift. I hated that timing because I still had to keep myself awake all night, even when there was no one to attend to. Another reason I hated this shift is that it used to get super lonely. At times, I was the only staff member available. Sometimes, I literally had to go to a person's room to just open a window or show them how the cable works. I don’t know why I got so scared with all the goddamned lights switched on. Maybe, it was the creepy atmosphere here. When you walk in these corridors at night, you can hear your footsteps echoing throughout and back. You wouldn’t be able to tell if someone’s walking behind you in perfect synchrony or not. It gives you chills just to think about this. Anyway, the bizarre incident that made me quit my job happened month

I had a dream a long time ago about an alien invasion that almost felt like a premonition. Reading time: 5 minutes. Just a Nightmare? It was a calm night of late September back in 2016. I was in my third year of Engineering. My roommate hardly ever stayed in the college dormitory for two consecutive weeks. He often visited his girlfriend back in his hometown, a couple of hours away. The point is that I was alone in our room more often, and so was the case that night too. I had dinner and went to bed early. It was way later than midnight when I woke up thirsty. After gulping down a litre of water, I went back to bed. But sleep was far away from my eyes, so I continued reading the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay. I can't remember which book out of the series it was. After half an hour, I felt sleepy again. I put down my phone (I was reading an ebook) and went to sleep. Maybe that was it. My hyperactive mind couldn’t go back to sleep just yet. My body might have been resting,

A father is anxiously waiting for his son, returning after a long time. Reading time: 6 minutes. The Waiting A father was anxiously pacing in his living room. He was waiting for his son, very dear to him. A calm afternoon spread across the town. The father had missed his afternoon nap just to greet his son, who was returning from abroad after a very long time. He looked at the clock. It was almost time. “Oh, what’s taking him so long ?” he muttered. He started worrying as his thoughts wandered across all the possibilities. His weak heart panicked by the thought something unfortunate might have happened. ‘What if an accident...?’ he thought and immediately shook it away, the uneasy feeling. He prayed, ‘God, keep him safe.’ As if someone was listening to him, the doorbell chimed. Its echoes hadn’t even died before the father raced and pulled the door open. “Hahaha! Hehe! My son!” “Hey, dad. How’ve you been?” "Oh, come here, you little rascal! What took you so long?" The fath

A man, after being in a plane crash, finds himself in hell. Reading time: 11 minutes. A little announcement, or maybe two. We achieved two milestones in the last week. First of all, XTales.net has been featured in the list of world’s top 80 horror blogs by Feedspot. Make sure to check out their list. https://blog.feedspot.com/horror_blogs/ And second, the previous story, ‘The Letter to My Other Self’ was published on world’s most popular horror-fiction platform creepypasta.com. Head over there to read it and vote. https://www.creepypasta.com/the-letter-to-my-other-self/ And now… My Plane Crashed and I Went to Hell D o you know about fear when you are walking down a lonely road all by yourself in the middle of the night? You are scared as hell, but when you are with friends walking down the same road, it’s not that scary. Everything changes when you are not alone. So maybe it’s not the darkness you are afraid of. Maybe it’s the loneliness. I just thought of that because I was walking

A new shared dreaming console 'Dreamscape' has come out and it has got the whole world addicted to it but there's a dark secret involved that nobody knows about. Reading time: 27.895 minutes. Previously - Don't Let Her See My Face Chapter One  Dreams Come True T he dense forest reeked of gunpowder and blood. The thick air was covered in smoke. It was still awfully quiet. He was listening attentively, hiding in the bushes behind a tree. His eyes were open looking for anything that might pose a threat. His ears were trying to catch every single little sound that could be of the enemy. He was breathing slowly, not trying for it to be heard even by himself. Then the radio chimed. “Alpha, do you see anyone?” He pressed the button on his walkie-talkie. “No, it’s quiet but there’s gotta be somebody left, stay sharp.” Then he saw a movement. A bush in the farthest corner of his vision was moving. There was somebody in the bushes. “I’ve eyes on the enemy. Northwest, in the bush