| Fiction |
WHISPERS IN THE DARK
Whispers in the dark is a weekly short story in which weird
is the norm. An exercise in strangeness, the stories are
never to be taken too seriously, but should never be taken
too lightly. For if you lay awake long enough in the dark,
you’re bound to hear a whisper sooner or later.
Lucky Numbers
By Aaron Hall
Chase Anderson wiped the sweat from his brow as he waited
impatiently in line at the convenience store. The woman in
front of him was looking around the store, her eyes finally
coming to rest on Chase.
“Chase, that’s a nice name.”
Chase was about to ask her how she knew his name when he
remembered he was still wearing his work shirt from the
garage that had his name on the front. He did his best to
look polite.
“My grandma named me. She said I was always chasing the pot
of gold at the end of rainbows.”
The woman smiled.
“Yeah, my grandma was an idiot.”
The smile disappeared from the woman’s face and she turned
around disgustedly. Chase smiled to himself, happy to have
upset the nosey woman. But deep down he knew it was true, he
was always chasing the pot of gold. Anything to pull him up
from his lowly existence. Just one break in life, that’s all
he wanted.
As he thought to himself the line finally began to move, and
quickly it was his turn. Chase pulled out all the change in
his pocket and dumped it on the counter. One dollar.
“I’ll take one of the triple play lottery scratch offs
please.”
The clerk glanced at the change disdainfully as he handed
Chase the lottery ticket. Chase read the ticket slowly even
though it was the same one he bought every day. Scratch off
the three spaces to reveal your three numbers, if all three
numbers match you win ten times that amount of money. Having
no money let, Chase used his fingernail to scratch off the
first number. A six. He moved on to the second number.
Another six.
He tried to even his breathing, getting excited at the
prospect of winning. He tried to figure up how much money
he’d win if he got all the numbers to match, but quickly
gave up when he realized he didn’t know how to multiply.
Slowly he began to scratch off the final box. He tried to
make out the number underneath as he was still scratching,
anxious to know if he’d won or not. The number was coming
into view as he uncovered more of it. It was a…
Just then the lights in the convenience store went out.
Chase groaned loudly.
“What the hell is going on here?”
He picked up the ticket and held it close to his face,
desperate to try and read the last number. A growling noise
coming from behind the counter caught his attention. The
emergency lighting kicked on, bathing the place in a low red
light and revealing the source of the growling. A demon
stood behind the counter where the clerk had stood just a
moment before. Like something straight out of his
nightmares, it stared at him menacingly. Chase instinctively
ran for the door, careful to clutch his lottery ticket in
his hand as he went. His eyes went wide as he went through
the door. Instead of coming back out onto the street he was
heading straight for a giant gorge. It was as if the very
earth had split open. He tried desperately to slow himself,
but he had been running too fast and went over the side. As
he plummeted towards the fiery chasm below, he looked at his
lottery ticket. Six. Six. Six.
Chase smiled as he slammed into the lava.
“I finally won.”