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Never Fear

Never Fear

Written by: neverfear
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 Never Fear is dedicated to bringing you original stories in the Horror and Dark Fantasy genres. With weekly episodes, you're never left wanting for your scary fix!Copyright 2020 All rights reserved.
Episodes
  • Episode Four - Never Fear Part Four - Horror Story for Halloween

    Episode Four - Never Fear Part Four - Horror Story for Halloween
    Oct 31 2020
    Never Fear Part Four The air went out of my lungs. My bladder threatened to release. Somehow I was again looking into the face of the thing that had haunted both my waking and sleeping mind. Neither Alice nor Phillips had noticed how my face had fallen, and I couldn’t move or make a sound to alert them. It didn’t move either, just looked back at me with its crippling stare. Before I could force myself to take action, a deafening crash came from the direction of the front door. In the fraction of a second it took to look toward the sound and back, the thing disappeared. Alice had stood up already, and I was distantly aware that Detective Phillips had grabbed our glasses off of the table, and thrown them into the kitchen sink. She then threw open the door of a walk-in pantry, grabbing each of us by the collar to shove us inside. I could hear footsteps coming from the front room as I scrambled in behind Alice. Phillips closed the door softly, trying not to make a sound. Once we were inside the pantry, Phillips called out to the intruder. “Police, identify yourself!” The footsteps stopped, but there was no answer. “I’m armed. Make yourself known. I will use lethal force.” Footsteps could be heard again; the pace was slower now. The sound of them changed as the intruder entered the kitchen, the footfalls now coming into contact with the yellowed linoleum of the kitchen floor. Alice grabbed my hand as we stood face-to-face in the back of the pantry. With stuttering breath, we watched the line of light under the closet door, listening. “Billy?” Phillips said, surprised. Then, obviously for our benefit, she added, “Stevenson?” There was no response. “Billy, don’t do anything you might…” The bravado in her voice was penetrated with uncertainty as she said, “Wh-why are you here?” A hollow, hoarse voice responded to this. “It won’t leave me alone.” “What won’t leave you alone?” Phillips responded, but her tone communicated that she knew exactly what he meant. “It’s made me do things,” Billy said, ignoring her question. “It gets in my head and stirs up my brain like a mixer dipped in a bowl of bread dough. It doesn’t stop until I… do what it wants.” Billy kept speaking in a rambling manner, but I wasn’t able to listen to what he was saying. A swampy smell had filled the small space in which Alice and I cowered, prompting me to turn my gaze away from the sliver of light under the door to look at Alice. My breath caught as I realized that something was standing behind her. The face of the creature that was what remained of Samuel Higgins was mostly eclipsed by hers, but one wide eye could be seen, boring into mine. The now-familiar feeling of paralysis came over me. Alice must have felt it. In a barely audible whisper, she asked, “Is it here?” I couldn’t answer. In my heightened state of panic, I kept my focus on the eye which was still locked with mine, while still managing to listen to the conversation happening just outside the door. Lieutenant Phillips was speaking again. “Billy… What’s your plan here, huh?” Silence was the only answer. After a few seconds, she spoke again. “Don’t do something stupid.” Her voice was edged with solemn intent. “Put the knife on the table.” I watched, helpless, as a slimy gray arm snaked out around Alice now. A twitching gray hand began reaching toward her throat. More urgently now, Alice whispered, “Where is it?” The hand was right in front of her face, which led me to believe the thing was only making itself visible to me. I sat there contemplating whether it was safer to stay inside the pantry, or to take our chances with Billy out in the kitchen. Billy could be heard making noises that almost made it sound like he was retching. After a moment of confusion, I realized it was actually sobbing. “I just want it to be over, you know?” He said. “So, I have no choice. It sees you now.” He blubbered for a moment, then said, “It knows you see it too. It doesn’t like that.” He breathed heavily, then stopped his sobbing. “I… I have to… “ The whole house shook from the force of Billy’s stomping as apparently he rushed the lieutenant. Phillips could be heard yelling, “Billy, don’t!” A sound much lower and louder than I expected cracked the air as Phillips fired her service revolver once. Through the ringing in my ears I could hear them continue their scuffle. My heart fell as I heard Phillips yelp in pain. The creature’s hand was now closing around Alice’s throat, and, as it did so, Alice looked in my eyes. I saw the hope in them drown, dying as the sound of Phillips’ struggling faded. I looked back to the creature’s face, which had moved slightly, only half obscured behind Alice now. For the first time, the vengeful face curled into a smile. I looked back to Alice to see her expression had changed from one of fear to one of resolution. I felt that same resolution ...
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    27 mins
  • Episode Three - Never Fear Part Three - Horror Story for Halloween

    Episode Three - Never Fear Part Three - Horror Story for Halloween
    Oct 31 2020
    Never Fear Part Three We decided we should try to get some sleep, even though we knew it was going to be elusive. We hadn’t a clue how to protect ourselves, so we had to be satisfied with barricading my bedroom door with my desk and bookcase. Once we had done that, I rolled out my sleeping bag on the floor, and let Alice take the bed. We laid there in silence for what felt like hours. Each of us knew the other was still awake, but we didn’t speak. Eventually, sleep swept us away. When we awoke late the next morning, I threw open the curtains, happy to let the sunlight wash over my room. It seemed to have a cleansing effect, pushing the events of the night before away. We weren’t sure how to get ahold of Leah Phillips, but we figured that someone at the police station might know how to contact her. Knowing that driving a car illegally to a police station was a terrible idea, we decided to walk there. It was only about one and a half miles from my house. The officer at the front desk was immediately apprehensive when we approached. “What’s up, guys?” He asked. “Um…” I looked from the officer, to Alice, then back. “We’re looking to talk to Officer Leah Phillips.”          The officer frowned. “Lieutenant Leah Phillips, you mean.” Alice spoke this time. “Yeah, is she still here?” “Still here as in not retired?” The officer asked. “Yeah, believe it or not, she’s still kicking around. Longest tenure on the force by far. Most cops retire once their pension kicks in, but not her.” He tapped his pen, thinking. “You know, normally she wouldn’t be here on a Saturday, but I think I actually saw her this morning. What do you need her for?” I shared another glance with Alice, then said, “We just want to talk to her.” The officer stared at us for a long moment, then clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth a couple of times. “Alrighty,” he said. “Let me see if she’s available.” He disappeared down the hall, and returned a couple minutes later. He waved for us to follow him. My mind raced as the officer led us down the hall. I never expected her to actually be here. I thought the most we could hope for was that someone had an address or a phone number for her. What were we going to ask her? Hey, remember this case from decades ago? Yeah, we were thinking maybe an evil monster was responsible. Your thoughts? Lieutenant Phillips stood up as we approached. She gave the other officer a nod, and he left. There were piles of papers and manuals and other junk on Phillips’ desk which varied in height. The stacks looked like little skyscrapers on the tiny metropolis of her desk. There wasn’t a single section of brown desk space that was uncovered. And yet, it all looked meticulously organized. The stacks were level, and even, and there were pens and pencils and staplers all within her reach, tucked neatly into corners here and there. I got the impression she could find anything she wanted even with a blindfold on. “How can I help you kids,” She asked in a gruff voice. I was startled by the question, as I had been intently studying her appearance. She was older than any police officer I had ever seen. My first thought was that she looked like she should be playing the organ in a church somewhere, not here doing… I realized in that moment I didn’t really know much about what police Lieutenants did. “Uh…” I stammered. “We wanted to talk to you about a case you worked on from a long time ago.” She blinked, but didn’t stop me. “Well, actually, several cases. The disappearances and murder that happened in the forest just outside town,” I said. Phillips’ tensed her face at this, dropping her eyes to scrutinize one of the piles on her desk. “What about them?” I looked at Alice, not sure how to continue. She took over. “Was there anything weird about them?” The lieutenant sat back in her chair, and breathed deeply through her nose, shifting her gaze between the two of us. Then she picked up a cup of coffee from a stack of manila folders, revealing a ring that would make my mother shiver. She took a heavy sip before she continued. “Have you two seen something?” She asked. Her expression and tone were casual, but the pace of her speech was slower now, and she carefully enunciated each word. I wasn’t sure how to best answer the question, so I just said. “We’ve definitely seen something.” Her next question came with a little more force. “Have you done something?” Alice gave a measured response to this one. “We haven’t done anything… bad.” Phillips leaned forward again, appearing somewhat relieved by this answer, and placed her coffee cup back on its stack of files. “Why don’t you start from the beginning.” I told Phillips about the messages I had received which had set everything in motion, then Alice and I traded off describing the sequence of events up until now. Except to ask a clarifying question...
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    28 mins
  • Episode Two - Never Fear Part Two- Horror Story for Halloween

    Episode Two - Never Fear Part Two- Horror Story for Halloween
    Oct 31 2020
    Never Fear Part 2 Alice was still bugged that I had ignored her messages the night before, but she seemed to forget her annoyance once I told her about what I had found. She listened intently as I gave her a rundown of what I had listened to so far. I sent her the link to the audio, and she said she would start listening to it during her free period later that day. I was halfway through my Spanish class when my phone buzzed. The message from Alice read, “You must have sent me the wrong link, when I follow this one it gives me a ‘page not found’ error.” I frowned, and pulled up the original forum message the anonymous user had sent me. When I selected the link, I was greeted with the same error. I narrowed my eyes in confusion. Why would this person direct me to this page if they were just going to kill it the next day? Luckily, I had downloaded all of the audio files, so I sent Alice a message saying I would just show her later. This earned me another eye-roll emoji. Between the content of the podcast itself, and the mysterious user who had sent it to me in the first place, I had too much on my mind to focus in my remaining classes. The person knew where I was from, which means they had read through my post history. Now they had deleted the link to the audio, which led me to believe that I was the only one they had sent it to. I was starting to get really creeped out. Alice didn’t share my concern when I explained this to her as we waited for the bus after school. “Maybe they’re just trying to screen it to a small audience, and they set the link to expire so it could only go to a few people,” she said. I wasn’t convinced by this, but I let it go with a shrug. I looked over at the kids who were getting picked up by their parents. I could suddenly feel Alice looking at me, my cheeks burned and I turned my gaze to the concrete. “Soon we’ll be able to drive ourselves,” she said. On the bus ride back, Alice listened to the podcast on my phone. I had given her a summary of the first few cases Evan covered, so she could start at the good part. I was satisfied to hear her gasp in surprise every now and again as she listened.             The bus arrived at my stop, and this time both Alice and I got off. We decided we would listen to the rest of Evan’s podcast at my house. It was a Friday, so we didn’t have to worry about school the next day. I asked Alice if she needed to let her parents know she was going to be home late. She shrugged and said, “They’re in Mexico, remember?” I nodded, and she continued, “Besides, they don’t care where I’m at even when they’re home.”             “Oh, come on. That can’t be true,” I said.             “Oh, yeah?” She asked. “Do you remember that field trip to Washington DC we did last year?”             “Yeah, I remember.”             She laughed. “I forged their signature on the permission slip, and didn’t tell them I was going. I thought for sure they were gonna cuss me out for having been gone so long without telling them. When I walked through the door after the trip, my mom just asked me why I was getting home from school so late, then sent me to the store to buy her tampons. She didn’t even realize I’d been gone.”             I stopped walking to look at her with wide eyes. “That trip was three days long! How could they not notice?” I shook my head, and looked at the concrete, trying to figure out how that could even be possible, then gave her a skeptical look. “You’re making that up.”             She stopped walking long enough to look back at me with eyebrows raised. “Believe what you want,” She said. Then she spun on her heel and started walking again.             When we got to my house, we entered through the side door which opened up into the kitchen. I hung my housekey on the hook next to my mom’s nature views calendar, and noted with a smile the circled date, which was Sunday, two days away. My mom’s work trip was the seventh one this year. It was last minute, and I had begged her not to go. I had tried many times to convey to my parents how much I hated when they were gone for work, but it was no use. I nagged my mom for days, and, while I couldn’t get her to stay home, we did come to a compromise. I would stop bothering her, and, in return, she promised that when she and Dad got back we would all go to Scream Kingdom, the local amusement park, for the day. I turned away from the calendar and looked out the window, then nodded, satisfied with the deal I had negotiated. I made Alice and I grilled cheese sandwiches, and we spent a few minutes eating and discussing everything we’d heard on Evan’s podcast up until now. We were talking about what kind of creature could have been haunting Annette, when I realized my phone’s notification light was blinking. I checked it to find I had ...
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    42 mins
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