The Last Stop. #2 : The Shadow in the Fields.

How long had he been walking now?

He’d finished his water and thrown the empty bottle away without a second thought. The sunlight from the sinking sun was fading more and more with each passing moment. The road ahead still seemed endlessly long.

Prem started to fear he might really have to sleep out here in the open.

The wind that had once been scorching hot now turned bitterly cold as it swept over the fields and hit his body, making him hug himself and clutch his shirt for warmth.

At one point, when Prem lowered his head, his eyes caught sight of a shadow stretching beside his own, keeping pace with it.

He jerked his head up and spun around in shock.

“..............................................”

Nothing.

No one.

What was that shadow he’d just seen? Was he hallucinating?

Before he could finish the thought, a shrill, strange wail suddenly floated in from the fields.

The sound felt distant and thin, yet somehow it was clear enough to send Prem’s heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst out of his chest. His knees trembled. Beads of sweat rolled from his face down his neck in heavy drops.

Am I just imagining things because of the heat? Because I’m hungry? Or… is that really the sound of something out there?

He spun around slowly, straining his ears to locate the source of the noise.

The sound rose into a long note, then stopped, then came again in a series of shorter cries before stretching into another drawn-out wail.

After standing still and listening for a while, he managed to pinpoint where it was coming from: a single spot somewhere in the fields.

Prem squinted hard, focusing on that direction.

Then his eyes met another pair of eyes staring back at him through the dry, yellow stalks of rice.

When he concentrated, he could make out their shape: big, round eyes with narrow, predatory pupils like a hunting animal’s. A mouth gaped open wide, and a long tongue drooped almost to the ground.

The moment those eyes realized he’d spotted them, the thing lifted its head and let out a scream that echoed across the fields.

“GREEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDD!!”

Prem flinched so violently it was like his whole body jumped backward several steps.

In that instant, the clump of rice stalks swayed in a violent burst, as if the creature watching him had leaped out with tremendous force.

He stumbled back, panicking, terrified, completely at a loss.
His throat went bone dry in an instant—so dry he couldn’t even force a sound out.

He half-walked, half-ran forward.
The cursed echoing footsteps still followed close behind.

Prem tried desperately to keep his mind together. He felt like he was about to snap—or pass out.

As he staggered along, almost losing his grip on reality, he suddenly spotted a bright light in the distance, shining from a rundown little hut sitting alone in the middle of the fields.

Hope surged in him at once.

“Please, let someone be in there!”

He hurried toward it and pounded on the door with all the hope he had.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Please open up! Please, anyone, are you in there?” Prem knocked and shouted at the same time.

A moment later, the door creaked open just a little.

“Well now, young man. What do you want?”
A hoarse old woman’s voice drifted out.

“Yes, please—let me come inside!” Prem begged.

“Hm… it’s already dark out, you know. Alright then, you can come in.”

As soon as she said that, the door swung open wider, revealing the figure of an old woman in faded clothes and a shoulder shawl. Her face was wrinkled and gaunt, her eye sockets sunken deep. Long white hair flowed down to her waist.

She stared at him with a cold gaze that somehow wasn’t completely unfriendly.
Prem froze for a second at the sight of her face.

“Come in,” the old woman said with a smile. “You look exhausted.”

Prem hesitated for a moment, but when he looked back there was only an endless expanse of fields and darkness. The terrifying sound from earlier had gone quiet, but the darkness now covered everything. Pale gray mist drifted here and there above the fields, making the scene even more unnerving.

Prem had no real choice. He stepped into the house.

Inside, the place was cluttered with old belongings.
The shadows of wooden furniture swayed with the flicker of an oil lamp.
The air smelled of dry grass and dust.

Prem sat down on a rickety old wooden chair that wobbled slightly.

The old woman picked up a silver bowl filled to the brim with water and handed it to him, then sat down on another wooden chair beside him.

Prem took the bowl and drank greedily.

“Easy there, easy… Heh heh heh. Your hands are shaking. Did you run into something out there?”

She’d noticed his trembling. And she was right. Prem still hadn’t recovered from what he’d just experienced.

As he debated whether to tell her about it or not, he noticed something strange.

The old woman hadn’t blinked once since he’d come in.

Those large eyeballs just sat there in their sockets, and Prem couldn’t help but wonder: Where are her eyelids?

And her smile looked unnatural—as if the corners of her mouth had been torn wider than a normal human expression.

Her fingers were thin and shriveled, bony and long, with dark, dried reddish stains caked under the nails.

The old woman folded her hands under her chin and asked him a question—while that eerie grin stayed frozen on her face the entire time.

“What are you doing wandering around here? This isn’t a place just anyone can pass through, you know.”

Her question came with such a sly, knowing smile it was as if she already knew the answer.

“Uh… I—I was on my way to visit my grandpa in this village, ma’am. But the bus dropped me off out here.”

Prem fumbled through his backpack and pulled out a piece of paper with his grandfather’s address and district written on it.

“Mmm…” The old woman examined the paper, frowning thoughtfully.
“This is completely the other way. You really are lost. Heh heh heh heh.”

Her low chuckle made goosebumps shoot up Prem’s arms.

“I–I thought so too… Um, do you live here all by yourself? Why aren’t there any other houses around?” Prem asked, his voice trembling.

The old woman was silent for a moment. She turned her face away. Her eyes sank deeper into the darkness of their sockets—then emerged again to fix on him once more.

She muttered softly,

“…Why would you assume I live alone…?”

She cut herself off abruptly, then smiled at him again.

“It’s late. You should spend the night here,” she said sweetly.
But her eyes were so hard and cold that no words could describe it.

Prem’s body went rigid.

He finally admitted to himself that the creeping terror he felt toward this house was real—he wasn’t just imagining it.

This decaying wooden house standing alone in the middle of the fields was definitely not a safe place to stay.

And then he heard it: faint whispers from the dark corners of the room.

They sounded like multiple people murmuring together, but there was no one there.

Sweat soaked Prem’s face.
His heart pounded out of rhythm. His eyes bulged wide as he slowly turned his gaze toward the source of the whispers, which still floated in the darkness.

The voices were speaking in some language he couldn’t understand—or perhaps they were just too quiet for him to catch the words. But woven into them was the sound of soft, eerie laughter.

Even though he couldn’t see anyone, Prem was fairly certain he knew what they were.

He slowly turned back.
His eyes met the old woman’s unblinking stare.

Prem swallowed hard. The sound rang in his throat.

Gulp....

“Heh heh heh heh…”

Soft laughter leaked from the old woman’s throat. The lamplight glinted off her brownish teeth. Her large eyes glowed starkly against the black hollows of her sockets.

It was a sight that burned itself into his mind.

And if his eyes weren’t deceiving him, the faded shawl draped over the old woman’s shoulders was slowly turning into a rippling black shadow that spread outward, pulsing and swelling across the room.

That pitch-black shadow swallowed everything, even the light of the oil lamp, snuffing it out completely.

The room plunged into darkness.

The only things still clearly visible were those large round eyes and that grinning mouth full of teeth.

Just as he was about to get up, the old woman suddenly shot out a hand and grabbed his arm tightly, laughing in her throat.

“Heh heh heh heh… Where are you going? I’ll get a nice place ready for you to sleep. Heh heh heh heh…”

Her hand was as cold as if it held no warmth at all.
Prem cried out, “Waaah!!” and tried to pry those bony fingers off, but her grip only tightened, her nails digging into his flesh.

Instinct screamed at him: Run!

He yanked his arm back with all his strength until her hand slipped free. Then he kicked the chair he was sitting on straight at that demonic old woman and hurled himself toward the old wooden door, which was already being swallowed by shadow.

He slammed his shoulder into it, forcing it open, and bolted outside without looking back.

“This is insane, this is insane, this is insane!” Prem screamed in his head.

What is this!?

Around him was only absolute darkness—so complete he couldn’t see the ground. He had no idea which direction he was running in. Left? Right? Field? Road?

He couldn’t tell.

And the more bizarre things got, the more desperately he ran.

He could hear footsteps behind him—plural, not just one set.

Several of them.

He squeezed his eyes shut and ran as fast as he possibly could.

“Hee hee hee…”

Prem jolted when a strange, giggling laugh sounded right next to his ear—along with the sensation of cold breath against his skin.

The breath was icy and reeked of rot.

Even though he was sprinting faster than he’d ever run in his life, that breath and that giggle stayed at his ear, keeping pace with him effortlessly.

Then he felt something cold and slimy press against his face.

Holding his breath, he slowly opened his eyes and turned his head.

Sticky, viscous slime dangled from whatever was touching his cheek.

It was a tongue.

Prem’s eyes flew wide open and he screamed,

“WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The tongue roamed across his face, licking and smearing slime wherever it went. Behind him, high-pitched cries of cruel, delighted laughter echoed.

Prem chanced a look back toward the source of that horrifying sound.

What he saw was a massive black shadow floating toward him, as if it were his own shadow come alive.

Even though the night around him was already pitch dark, this thing was darker still.

And what made his blood run cold was that inside that darkness floated countless eyes—eyes drifting all through the shadow—and every single one of them was focused on him.

The shadow rose, stretching higher and higher until it nearly scraped the sky.
Haunting laughter boomed all around, mocking his frantic attempts to escape.

It was as if the sound were telling him:

“Run all you want, you stupid boy. It’s pointless.”

He was on the verge of giving up, certain he was going to die—that he was going to be devoured by this demon.

He realized his legs had almost no strength left, and he was so exhausted he could barely breathe. The shadow expanded, preparing to engulf him. Some of the eyes half-closed, others glared, but taken all together they looked pleased—delighted, even.

Drawing on one last scrap of willpower, Prem forced his legs to move and sprinted with everything he had left.

“Aaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhh!! I won’t let you catch meeeeeeeee!!”

He screamed at the top of his lungs.

In that instant, a blinding light slammed into his vision.

His brain, reacting automatically from lived experience, instantly recognized the source of that light.

The answer flashed through his mind in that split second:

“Headlights from a coach…??”

CRAAAAAASHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

A deafening impact exploded through his body.
Pain surged everywhere at once.
He felt the cold air rush around him as his body was flung through space by something massive.

And then everything went dark.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 The Last Stop. #1
 The Last Stop. #3