The Shadows Inside

They said the old woman had gone mad. The grandchildren whispered it when they thought she was asleep. Neighbours who once greeted her at the gate now crossed to the other side, shaking their heads. She had begun talking to the corners of her house, scolding shadows no one else could see. When her daughter placed trembling hands on the admission papers, the destiny of the old woman was sealed.

The asylum stood at the edge of the city, surrounded by trees that never seemed to sway, as if frozen in time. Its gates opened with a groan that seemed to echo too long, as if unwilling to let her leave once she entered. The walls inside were damp, with stains that looked like faces melted halfway into the plaster. The smell of bleach mixed with something older, like dust that had been locked inside for decades.

Her room was bare: a narrow bed, steel railings, a small covered window, and a single dim bulb that buzzed at night. Silence here was different. It didn’t soothe her—it pressed into her chest until she felt she could not breathe. 

The Haunted Shuttlecock

It was a warm, thick evening in Granny’s childhood village, the kind of summer day when the air felt too heavy, like it might suffocate you if you stood still too long. The sun, hanging low in the sky, was a ball of red fire, casting long, crooked shadows across the fields. Granny and her two younger cousins had been running wild in the park all afternoon, their laughter sharp against the silence that usually hung over the village. They decided to play badminton, swinging their rackets lazily in the fading light. But, as the game continued, the shuttlecock suddenly took off, soaring far higher than anyone could have predicted.

It flew, almost as if it had a mind of its own, and landed softly on the roof of a building nearby. Granny’s heart skipped a beat. The building was unlike anything the village had ever seen. In a place where simple cottages dotted the land, this building stood out—tall, imposing, and made of cold, grey stone that seemed to suck the warmth from the air. It was new, out of place, and no one could explain why it had been built there.