The Last Scream

You can now listen to the story on my YT channel

36 years ago...

36 years since my last smile....

Those were my childhood years.

When everyone lived their childish days with full lungs.

We lived in a remote village in the northern part of Bosnia.

None of us had phone,tablets,computers just pure game everyday outside, in the mud,on fields,deep inside forest's' on graveyards everywhere we could reach just for fun.

If we were a cats back in the days the curiosity we had, would cost us of all nine lives.

But we had one life and we lost it.

Do you feel a shiver moving up your spine?

I would,

but im paralyzed.

I haven't felt anything since that day. Neither the wind on my face, nor the hot water under the shower.

Wondering what it's like to live without feelings?

You don't live, you just exist.

You don't dream, only nightmares are there.

As a reminder of what happened 36 years ago.

A reminder that never fades.

Our elders always said: "Owl had a sinister reputation probably because it was a bird of darkness, and darkness was always associated with death".

But they said a lot of things, many stories in the long nights.

You couldn’t know if they were true or not. For us, these were just good night stories any.

When you are young and full of energy, you don't think about what the old people say but you think you are smarter.

But we should have listened to them.

Behind the church in our village was a football field next to the cemetery.

We loved playing football there every day. The cemetery didn't scare us, we used to stay there even long into the night.

But this time something was different.

What fascinated me was that we all felt that someone was watching us.

There was no one but us and that owl standing on the fence of the cemetery.

She was looking towards the cemetery, so we thought maybe someone was there, and we kept playing.

During the game, I felt that presence of someone’s gaze on me again.

I turned my head and looked again toward the graveyard and saw the owl slowly turn its head 360 degrees and look directly at me.

I froze.

That direct look into those huge black eyes aroused fear in me.

I couldn’t move I was paralyzed watching her.

With her gaze she penetrated deep into my soul, while I saw in her eyes the endless darkness, the abyss.

Suddenly everything stopped.

My friends started looking at her one by one, I believe they felt and saw the same thing I did.

There was no more shouting on the field, no smiles when you scored, and no wind was heard passing through the treetops.

Only silence remained.

Deep in that silence it echoed a voice so gentle you could listen to it forever.

It's all my fault.

I couldn’t resist that voice calling out to us.

I couldn't take my eyes off the owl.

I said let's follow the voice, we have to go to the cemetery.

And off we went.

The youngest among us on the way to the cemetery came to his senses and said let’s not go better to keep playing.

But I insisted we go as the oldest among us.

I wish I hadn't.

Even today I’m not sure if we were so mesmerized by the owl’s gaze that we lost track of time or just stood watching it for hours before entering the cemetery.

All I know is that it was a beautiful day, and after entering the cemetery it was night all of a sudden.

But even though the night was dark it was not as black as the owl's eyes. They simply glowed with darkness. She stepped away from the fence as we entered and stood on a nearby tombstone.

As we approached her she stepped back again to another tombstone.

The voice was louder than before,

it looked as if an owl was leading us towards him.

She was just dragging us deeper and deeper into the cemetery.

With each step the voice grew louder, closer.

And we were getting more and more obsessed with it.

I heard a scream, I thought one of the comrades got stuck for something and fell, I didn't pay attention I continued towards the owl and the voice.

The screams were repeated one after another horrible horrible screams but my heart was calm and my eyes mesmerized by the owl's shining gaze.

I was persistent in reaching out to see where she was leading me who had such an intoxicating voice.

And I succeeded.

After countless jumps from one tombstone to another, she finally stopped.

She stopped at the tombstone of the empty tomb.

Her eyes stopped shining with that endless darkness.

The voice fell silent.

The moonlight appeared above us I finally came to myself released from that mesmerized look in her eyes.

I fell to my knees from fatigue, I looked around and saw no friends, I called them but they didn’t respond. The moonlight was getting stronger I looked down and noticed blood stains on my hands,

I looked better and noticed I was all covered in blood.

I was terrified, I looked up and looked at the owl, it didn't make any sound, it just looked at me, but this time with a gap in its eyes.

Fear gripped me to the point that I was paralyzed, I felt like I was falling into that grave and I had no control over my body.

And the moments before I fell into that grave a tombstone caught my eye. There were no names or dates on it, it was just written

"Here you lie".

The next morning the gravedigger found me there

laying down in an empty grave covered in blood.

My hair was white, the gravedigger was calling the priest to pull me out of the grave and call the police.

I couldn’t speak it wasn’t clear to me why they would call the police until they picked me up from the grave. That’s when I saw my friends for the first time after the incident.

They were everywhere cut into pieces and scattered throughout the cemetery.

There was so much blood.

So much of their blood and not a drop of mine.

Days later the police questioned me at the hospital about the incident.

I told them the truth but the more I repeated it, the less they believed me.

They found me guilty for the massacre committed and because i was paralyzed placed me in a mental hospital.

36 years have passed since then,

no one has believed me.

My only hope for future generations is that someone will find this dictaphone and write my story.

That voice I followed was the voice of an empty grave waiting for me.

I understand that now.

Because the owl is here again at the other end of the room in the dark.

I thought I ran away from her but you can't run away from her.

There was only one scream left that had not been heard that night in the cemetery and more drops of blood that had not been shed then.

Before you hear my scream of death I just want to tell you.

If you see an owl with deep dark eyes that shine

run away .....