The Chirping 5

A Horror story by Emil Minchev

The following is part 5 of 5 of a short horror story from A Coffinful of Nightmares by Emil Minchev. Paid subscribers get it now, unpaid subscribers have to wait for ten weeks (or buy the book). Here is the first part. Here is the previous part. Enjoy!

‘Where’s the other guy?’ He went out into the corridor and looked left, then right. It was exactly what Rasputin had done before he’d disappeared. ‘Don’t tell me he vanished too?’

‘He was… taken,’ I managed to say.

‘Taken?’

‘Yes. We heard a loud chirping sound, then he saw someone or something that made him drop his phone and a second later he was gone.’

The businessman fixed me with his little black eyes. ‘Just like that?’

‘Just like that.’

‘Hm. Where did it happen?’

‘Exactly where you’re standing now.’

He quickly looked around, waving his phone in the air like some sort of weapon, then saw something on the floor and bent down to pick it up. It was Rasputin’s phone – a beat up grey Nokia.

‘I don’t see any clothes on the floor,’ he said.

‘You need to look… more to your left,’ I whispered.

He followed my advice and the beam from his phone illuminated a neat little pile of clothes. ‘Jesus. Here they are. Just like the others.’ He turned around and aimed the light directly at my face. ‘You say it happened just before I came?’

I nodded, shielding my eyes. ‘It happened very quickly. One minute he was standing there looking at me and the next he was gone. No scream. No noise. No nothing.’

‘But what happened exactly? Did you see him getting attacked or dragged away or something?’

I shook my head. ‘He just dropped his phone and the corridor went dark. And when I raised my light, there was no-one there.’

‘What made him drop his phone?’

‘He saw something that scared the living shit out of him. Something advancing towards him from the left. His features kind of… froze. Could you point your light away from my face, please?’

‘Why didn’t you help him?’