Stay Home

“Stay Home” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Tleubayeva Taniya, Nazarbayev Intellectual School of Chemistry and Biology of Pavlodar, Kazakhstan.

Stay Home

The raging storm outside woke up almost everybody in Hush town this night. The forest near the town looked horrible. Every minute intense silver lightning was getting closer and Pain's dogs' barks were louder and louder.

"There is something unusual" Mr Pain thought.

The morning was really freezing and foggy. Last night’s storm’s ghosts are still walking along the neighborhood. Nobody but these ghosts are crossing the roads between hideous ancient buildings.

However, the atmosphere in the 13th house of Grief Street was giving hope.

"Hurry up, darling!" - Monika shouted.

"Coming! Just a second!" - the voice from upstairs answered.

To be honest, Bjorn was still scared. Sudden call stopped his thoughts about Monika's "yes" or "no".

"Is the ring safe?" mom's voice asked.

"Sure. I'll ask her tonight. Don't worry. I'll call you later, everything will be OK," Bjorn answered. Although he wasn't really sure that everything would be OK.

Five minutes later Bjorn went downstairs. He heard Monika talking to someone in the backyard. Then she came in.

"I'm so sorry. I have to go. Stay home." Monika was crying and couldn't explain anything. She ran out as fast as possible and closed the door.

The closing door sounded like a gunshot.

Bjorn was really afraid now. He even didn't know what was the reason behind his fear. . He was fearing, which he felt every nerve in his body. Suddenly he decided to go to the backyard, to see if there is somebody who Monika talked to.

As soon as he touched the door something fell down in living room.

"Okay, don't panic." he thought.

When he came into the room, there was nothing unusual. Besides... An old wooden cupboard was outside right in front of the main entrance, so he couldn't open it! He tried to break the door pane but there was no chance.

"Relax. Just relax and find the mobile. You need to call Monika," he told himself.

Bjorn usually left his phone on his bed. He went upstairs and started trembling. Bedroom's window was closed but he remembered opening it an hour ago.

Bjorn was terrified. The phone was switched off. Next second he realized that there was no electricity in the house.

"Yesterday's storm!" Bjorn found out the reason of absence of electricity - "Okay then. I need to shout as loud as I can to call Pain or somebody else," he thought.

He continued shouting for about eight minutes but his common sense told that nobody heard him.

He felt like somebody or something doesn't want him to escape.

This evening Pain was nervous as usual. His dogs were out of their minds and they were barking and barking. 53-years-old man tried to fix his antenna which was damaged because of yesterday's storm but he couldn't work. Screams of his most loved neighbor Monika didn't leave him a chance to keep working.

Monika moved in 2 years ago and in Pain's opinion she was the best bride for Bjorn.

Pain noticed Monika being too nervous and acting weird last days.

Next second Pain saw Monika sitting into the taxi and crying.

"Hey Monika. What's wrong?"

Monika didn't answer. She just left. Pain continued working with electricity.

Bjorn woke up in his bed. The lights were turned on. Young man didn't remember everything at once. After he realized what happened, he hoped this was just a scary dream.

He opened all the doors in the house. Monika wasn't here. He checked the phone and there was no connection.

Bjorn tried to see something outside but he saw only darkness.

"Okay man. If this isn't a prank I'm going crazy. What's next? When do I start seeing ghosts? Are there any aliens? Please, Monika, arrive," he cried.

He felt no hope. Monika left him for... Who knows? May be forever. He stopped thinking and acting as a real man.

"What if I never see her again? If she left me here alone, she didn't really love me. I'm so stupid! She lied to me all these years! I will kill her when I meet her!" His inner psycho finally got him.

Next three hours he walked around the rooms and sometimes tried to break windows.

Pain saw the lights in Bjorn and Monika's windows. He really worried about these two and he decided to visit them and make sure everything was alright.

Bjorn's heart stopped when he heard someone knocking the door. He was terrified because he remembered that there was a wooden cupboard in front of the door before he fell asleep.

While going downstairs, he bumped into the wall and fell down. He still felt something didn't want him to open the door and escape.

Finally Bjorn saw Pain's old wrinkly face in front of the door but suddenly that wooden cupboard (which was inside now) started falling down. Pain ran into the house and saved Bjorn.

"Where have you been all this time?!" Bjorn shouted.

"What are you talking..."

Their dialog was stopped by the noise of the engine. It was Monika and she looked really exhausted and tired.

"MONIKA! WE NEED TO TALK TO YOU RIGHT NOW!!!" Bjorn shouted louder than Pain's dogs -"How could you leave me here? Where have you been and who you talked to?"

"Bjorn! I asked you only to stay home. I'm so sorry. So sorry. You had to... Bjorn!"

Next second she was interrupted by a flying branch which took Bjorn's head away.

Some people of Hush town say that Monika was a witch, others say she was an alien, but it doesn't matter. She was ready to pay the price equal to her life to keep her love saved, at home. However, the Destiny decided that Bjorn didn't deserve it.