XTales.net

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 woman can perceive the dead and that is still not the darkest part of her existence. Reading time: 7 minutes. The Broken Pendant S he moved around the dark living room, trying to get to the hall without bumping into anything and surprisingly, she did. It was as if she had moved through the furniture. The clouds rumbled over her head in the sky although the rain had stopped. She put the dish in the sink and went back to the living room ignoring the young woman who stood in the hallway, with her torn up dress and her face hidden behind her messy hair, both covered in dirt and blood. She sat on the couch, in complete darkness and dead silence. The only thing that could be heard was the remnants of the storm that had now calmed down. She moved her head towards the window and looked outside. Another woman stood just outside the window, old, this one but with somewhat the same appearance—clothes, dirty, torn-up, and bloodied; face, hidden behind her bushy hair also covered in dirt an

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

A strange tale of an alien, a time travelling woman and a man with a library of hidden knowledge, the tale of their adventure through a desert when they are chased by a mysterious phantom. Reading time: 15 minutes 25 seconds. Previously - An Evoking from the Stars – An alien lands in ancient Egypt and walks across the middle east following a signal, looking for someone. & The Creator and the Creation – Bela decides to fix the time machine that she found in her basement to go meet her father who went missing before she was born. Chapter One T he dry and hot desert was unwelcoming. The scorching heat was like hell-fire. The sun may as well have sucked the life out of any inhabitants right way instead of drying them up bit by bit. The hot winds were no comfort either. Every gust was like a slap to the face. Every shrug was a decree of death to the ears. The hot sand covered the land that one could see from their feet to the horizon. There was not a single tree in sight, a petty littl

Two young YouTubers go on a life-changing adventure to a haunted cottage in a forest where they get trapped until a mysterious saviour arrives. Reading time: 17 minutes. Chapter One — Poking Around Dead Things "H ello guys, welcome back to our channel Mid-Night Mysteries," said Tammy, pointing the camera at himself. "As you can see, we have finally arrived at cottage number 13. Phew! Honestly, guys, it wasn't easy; the travel alone was exhausting. Back there, you can see Ash unpacking our bags. We are gonna take a good nap before we set up our equipment, but before that, let me show you guys around." He stood up and started pointing his Handycam all around the cottage. It was an old cottage. The dust had covered everything, including the floor and the wooden furniture. The lanterns on the walls were evidence that nobody had rented this cottage for quite a long time. Ash was now lighting up those lanterns while Tammy walked out. "Let me take you outside.