The guest inside the dark

It became eleven:30 at night. A long way from the noise of the metropolis, an vintage house stood by myself on a abandoned dust road. Inside, handiest a unmarried bulb flickered, trembling inside the faint breeze and perilous to go out at any second.

Ali sat hunched over a desk. In the front of him, his laptop become open, and beside it became a cup of tea. He turned into compiling data for his thesis.

Outside, a light rain was falling. The mild patter of raindrops against the window created an eerie echo inside the silent night time.

All of sudden, Ali felt as even though a shadow moved near the gate. Startled, he walked to the window, but noticed nothing except the rain and mist.
“possibly simply my imagination,” he told himself.

Two minutes later, the steel rattle of the gate’s chain broke the silence. This time, the sound turned into clean. Ali seemed out and saw a person status beyond the gate — tall, wearing a black raincoat from head to toe, his face hidden in the mist as though the rain had blurred it.

Ali opened the window and called out,
“sure… who're you?”

The man stood still for a second, then slowly stepped closer. In a deep, tough voice, he said:
“I need shelter… just for tonight.”

Ali’s coronary heart pounded. A stranger asking for safe haven inside the middle of the night, in such an remoted region — it changed into unsettling. But, out of human decency, he unlatched the gate.

The person stepped in. Underneath the dim light, part of his face have become visible — sickly faded, eyes swollen, and lips bluish, as even though from excessive bloodless… or death.

“Your room is over there…” Ali pointed toward a small visitor room. With out a word of thank you, the man walked towards it slowly and disappeared internal.

Round 1 a.M., just as Ali turned into completing his work, he heard a whisper.
It changed into faint however unmistakable — a person calling his name:
“Ali…”

He glanced closer to the guest room, but its door changed into closed. Then, the whisper got here again, this time from proper outside the window.

Ali opened the window — nobody. Simply the mist outside… and close to the gate, a subtle motion, as if any other shadow lingered there.

He became back inside and noticed the visitor room turned into empty. The bed seemed exactly because it had earlier than — untouched, as though no person had ever been there.

“wherein did he go?” Ali muttered.

Before he could think similarly, the lighting went out. The whole house plunged into darkness.

For a second, inside the pitch-black silence, Ali heard respiration — right in the back of him. He spun around quickly — not anything.

Then, a chilly hand gripped his shoulder.

Ali attempted to scream, however no sound escaped his throat. The deep voice spoke again, right via his ear:
“I instructed you… just for tonight…”

Abruptly, the whole lot went black earlier than his eyes.

When Ali regained focus, he located himself in his personal room — but everything become included in thick dust, as if nobody had lived there for years.

The pc turned into shut, the tea cup damaged and empty, and by using the window hung the identical black raincoat… damp, however frozen cold to touch.

His fingers trembling, Ali stepped out of doors and knocked on the nearest house’s door.

An old guy answered.

“became it raining right here last night?” Ali asked quick.

The vintage man frowned in confusion.
“final night? Son, it hasn’t rained here in three years. And that residence of yours — it’s been locked because the ultimate owner died. They are saying… at the night he died, a stranger came, and by means of morning, each had vanished.”

Ali’s breath froze. He turned in the direction of the gate — and there, within the mist, stood the same tall shadow… slowly on foot in.