Thread: The Mystic Lady (Short Horror Story)

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The Mystic Lady
by L. Greqoh http://qlipothica.tripod.com



The sun was beginning to set.
Bobby and Allan would have to start walking back home soon.

Their parents had allowed them to walk to the fair, since it was so close to their homes.

Already the lights were beginning to glow in the coming darkness, casting a magical aura to the rides and games as people crowded and pushed their way through.

The two boys stopped in front of a large cabinet which stood alone off to the side. While people hurried to rides and games, it went unnoticed. Inside it, a figure was patiently waiting.

A sign on the cabinet read "The Mystic Lady". It was decorated with astrological signs and five pointed stars.

"Look at her eyes!" Bobby said, moving back slightly.
He stared through the glass at the old white haired gypsy woman inside, dressed in black.

Her grotesque features were very exaggerated. She had a large, hooked nose, complete with a wart. They hung over her thin lips which curled into a macbre sort of mocking grin.

"Her skin is a little bit too light," Allan remarked. The chubby boy put another piece of bubblegum in his mouth. "But her eyes are really scary," he agreed. "I'll bet they are glass," he decided.

The woman's hands rested on a glass ball in front of her, as she stared intently ahead.

"I think her expression just changed!" Bobby said squeamishly.

"Yeah, right.." Allan said, rolling his eyes he turned his cap on his cropped hair.

"It only costs a nickel!" Bobby exclaimed, pointing down at the change slot. The thin freckle faced boy began to search his pockets, pulling out a strange collection of things that only a boy of eight would carry.

Amidst the lucky rabbit's foot, a couple pieces of rock candy and an impossibly knotted yo-yo, a couple of shiny dimes glistened.

"No nickles." he said disappointed. He turned and looked at the long lines at all of the snack bars.

Allan frowned. "Maybe I have some change," he said. He finished off his ice cream cone, and began searching through his pockets.

His fingers found several coins. He pulled them out and began separating the nickles from the rest.

Soon Bobby was putting one of them into the metal coin slot.

At once the crystal ball began to light up, as campy music crackled from the aging speakers.

The woman's stiff hands began to move on the glowing ball as she spoke...

"I am the mystic lady....I see your future in the stars," she told them.

The lights began flashing on the machine, and it appeared that the woman's face took on a more sinister countenance.

A small green card with writing on it ejected from the slot at the bottom of the machine while the rigidly moving woman reminded them to come again. She suddenly came to a stop, awaiting the next customer.

"What's it say?" Allan asked, as Bobby squinted through his glasses at the small print.

As the two young boys tried to interpret the cryptic message on the small card, neither of them noticed that the cord of the machine had been unplugged from the wall, and was laying at their feet.

Bobby began to read, "As you reach a crossroads, a friendship comes to an end."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Allan asked impatiently.
"What a bunch of crap. I'm keeping my nickles," he said angrily.

"Hey," an adult voice called out to them, "What are you kids doing? Get away from there!"

A man came running toward them. He was dressed as a carnival worker. "Leave this thing alone," he said sternly. "It doesn't work, see?" he said holding up the cord.

Bobby held up his card he had gotten.

"It worked fine for us a few seconds ago, sir," he said apologetically. "Allan nodded.

"Don't you kids know, it's not good to tell lies?" the man corrected.
"See here?" he asked as he held up the plug. "There's no where to plug this thing in at. You must have found that on the ground somewhere."

"No sir, we.."

The man's face relaxed.
"All right, enough," the man said in a softer voice, a smile beginning to grow on his face.

"Tell you what...you take these," he said, giving a handful of change to each boy. "You boys split it up equally, ok?" he instructed as he patted Allan affectionately on his head.

"Just don't let me see you fooling with this..." he paused, "thing....It's going in the junkyard tomorrow, where it belongs."

Bobby glanced over at the gypsy's face. She seemed to be sneering at the man. It almost looked as if her eyes had rotated to stare at him. For a brief second, Allan saw what he thought was fear on the man's face as he stared at her hideous face.

The two boys happily ran off, forgetting all about the mechanical woman.

The man had been very generous, giving them more money than they had had when they first came. As the hours went by Bobby watched as Allan went from one game booth, to another.

He was doing very well. He had won a lot of prizes, which Bobby was carrying about as he followed him.

Bobby watched as Allan spent almost all of the money. He gave him a few coins to pacify him.

"Hey, we are supposed to share, remember?" he reminded his friend.

"He gave it to me!" Allan corrected.

The two boys were best of friends, but sometimes quarreled.
Bobby, being by far the smaller of the two, usually gave in meekly to Allan. Allan, despite being very chubby, was much stronger than his scrawny friend, and would press his advantage. This was going to be one of those times, Bobby figured as he watched Allan begin another game.

"I'm done," Bobby said, dropping his armful of prizes on the ground.

"Hey...come back!" Allan called.

Bobby walked aimlessly. He realized that it was getting late. Many people had already left, and he would be in trouble. He promised to be home over an hour ago.

In the distance he could see her...
The lights from the fair dimly lit her fiendish face.
Even from here, it appeared that she was smiling at him. A chill went down Bobby's back as he stared at her, remembering the incident with the plug.

Off to the side he heard some adults talking. A policeman was standing next to a crying woman and her angry husband. The man that they had met earlier, the one who had given them the change, was apologizing to the couple.

The police officer was holding up a small green card, like the one that Bobby had in his pocket.

Bobby could hear the officer scolding the man, "I don't know what kind of game you are playing, but I don't think it's very funny. I should run you in for this!"

"I don't know how it got in there, I swear officer...." he answered.

Bobby looked away. He took out the card he had gotten and looked at it again. He thought of Allan's selfish behavior.

"Hey, wait up!" a voice called from behind him.

It was Allan. In his arms he carried a model car that Bobby had set his heart on winning.


"Wow! How did you get that!" he asked...

"It wasn't easy. I had to spend almost everything I had," he answered.

Bobby frowned, his freckled face wrinkling up.

"But I want to give it to you," Allan said, handing it over to his friend.

"For me?" Bobby said in disbelief. "Thank you! I love it!" he exclaimed.

"Here," Allan said handing over his last fifteen cents. "This is yours. What do you want to do?"

Bobby looked at the three nickles in his hand. He noticed that the police officer and the carnival worker had gone.

He glanced at the machine that waited in the shadows.

"There closing down the rides," he observed. "But I know something I'd like to find out."

"No, Bobby. I don't like that thing. Somethings not right. Lets get some candy or something, and go home," Allan objected.

"No, come on," Bobby said in a rare mood of firmness, "I want to see if this thing still works."

So the two of them walked over to the grinning lady.
Allan recoiled in horror.

"She's smiling now? How could that be" he asked.

"I don't know. But I want to see what she has to say this time," he said as he put his nickel in the slot.

The two boys listened to it rattle down into the machine.
They both looked down at the disconnected cord in amazement as the eerie music again began to crackle, and the corpse like woman came to life once more.

"I am the Mystic Lady...I see your future in the stars.." she spoke in her otherworldly voice.
The crystal ball began flashing like a strobe light.

A strange expression was spreading across Allan's face. It was one that Bobby had never seen on it before. It was a look of stark horror. He looked as if he were going to cry.

Suddenly the old woman's neck turned and her obscene face spun about, looking directly at the terrified boy.
Her mouth sprang open as a fit of demonic laughter erupted.

Then the music stopped, and she became still once more.

Allan was paralyzed with fear.

Bobby nervously bent down and got the green card from the slot.
He looked at it, his eyes growing wide.

"What's it say. Bobby?" Allan asked.

He didn't answer.

"What's it say?!" He demanded.

"Allan, no..Just forget it," Bobby said starting to tear the card up.

"Let me see!" Allan demanded as he tore the card from his friend.

"Allan, no..please...It's not real..." Bobby pleaded.

Allan's eyes fell upon the message, which this time was not very cryptic at all.

It read, "It is time for you to die!".

Before Bobby could stop him, his friend was running as fast as he could...He ran out of the fair and onto the intersection, towards his house.

Bobby called out after him, but he never looked back.

Allan was running as fast as his paunchy frame could go. He never saw the car that quickly pulled out, knocking him into the air. He fell lifeless, like a doll.

There was a loud squealing of tires, and a loud crunching of metal as the car swerved and hit another car head on. It burst into flames.

Bobby screamed. He stood frozen in shock as he watched a man getting drug out of the car in flames screaming.

The man was calling for his wife.
It was the man who Bobby had seen earlier with the crying woman and the police officer.

The people couldn't get to the car before it was consumed by the fire. The woman's cries of agony made the hair stand up on the back of Bobby's neck.

Bobby looked back at the old woman in rage.

"You!!!" he screamed, "You killed my best friend! You ugly witch!" He cursed at her as he kicked the machine.

The lights were beginning to shut off now. The carnival was closed.

Bobby stood there alone in the dark staring through the glass at the smirking old hag.

He gave the machine one last kick.

It rattled, making the sound of coins jiggling inside.

And in the darkness, Bobby listened in horror as the music started up again. The glass ball again began to glow, this time with a hellish red light.

Bobby gritted his teeth as he walked to the glass.
He put his face right up to it. Her head turned and faced him.

"I'm not afraid of you, you old hag!" he said as he kicked the machine again, much harder than the first time.

The woman was not speaking or moving. The music stopped playing and the lights turned off.

Bobby yelled, "You old piece of junk!"

There was the sound of glass shattering as the woman's hands shot forward through the glass. They wrapped around Bobby's throat tightly.

He couldn't break free from the cold plastic hands. They slowly choked the life from him as he tried in vain to call for help.

The last thing Bobby ever saw were her eyes, glistening through the dark.



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For Macabre Tales Of Occult Supernatural Horror
Visit my site at http://qlipothica.tripod.com

OOH, Creepy! Sounds like I've heard it before, but can't be sure....

good story!