Chills: A Short Story Collection

By Sahar Sabati

The same people are impossibly spotted in two different places at once; a man considers murdering the husband of a woman he loves; while driving home very early in the morning, a driverless car appears out of the fog and follows two sisters home. Fear of the unknown, emotional intensity, and plain old creepiness will give you chills long after you have finished reading the seven stories in this collection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sahar Sabati
• Release date: Oct 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781497761575

Book preview

Chills: A Short Story Collection

by Sahar Sabati

Published by Sahar Sabati, 2013.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

CHILLS: A SHORT STORY COLLECTION

First edition. October 18, 2013.

Copyright © 2013 Sahar Sabati.

Written by Sahar Sabati.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Chills: A Short Story Collection

Contents

Preface

Double double

The Mug Shot

Karma

The car in the fog

Monster in My Closet

Misty Eyes

Mindy's Melody

By Sahar Sabati

Contents

––––––––

Title Page

––––––––

Preface i

Dedication ii

Double Double 1

The Mug Shot 11

Karma 18

The Car in the Fog 32

Monster in My Closet 47

Misty Eyes 56

Mindy’s Melody 71

©Sahar Sabati

Preface

Stories can give you chills for many reasons. Sometimes, it’s fear; sometimes, it’s the suspense; sometimes, it’s the emotional intensity, while other times, it’s just plain old creepiness.

One of the roles of fiction is to explore concepts in ways that we cannot do in real life. The stories in this collection are metaphors for fears that I or close friends of mine had to face. Instead of bottling them up, I explored them through fiction, laying my anxieties to rest and making the fears easier to deal with. In the cases where the fears were those of my friends, I shared the story with them. I was amazed how, although the character’s situation was always completely different from that of my friend’s (especially in the stories featuring paranormal phenomena!), it had so much power to help.

Exploring darkness, as I did in all of these stories, also helps appreciate the light. Humans have both a lower, darker nature, and a higher, more illumined one. The latter has to learn to control the former. Through fiction, we are able to explore what might happen if we don’t, which helps steel our resolve. After all, controlling our lower nature is no easy feat!

More than half of the stories in this collection feature paranormal phenomena. Although I do love the idea of the paranormal, I do not believe in it, in any shape or form. But they make for a fantastic storytelling tool, as you will see in the coming pages.

My hope is to help trigger in you, dear reader, a reflection about your own fears, and your own lower nature, be it the actions you would consider doing, or the beliefs that you hold. It is my hope that this reflection will help you in your struggle to control your lower nature.

I also hope that you get many chills while reading these stories, because fiction, after all, is also about entertainment.

This collection is dedicated to my parents, my sisters, and my husband,

who bear the brunt of my imagination with grace and patience.

This collection is also dedicated to the many emergency room nurses

whose hard work in oftentimes arduous conditions

are a constant source of admiration.

Double double

The weather was hot and humid, perfect for ice cream. As Dana's bus slowly inched forward in the dense traffic, she couldn't help but daydream about the cold, smooth taste of a vanilla ice cream cone slipping from her tongue down her throat, leaving behind a refreshing feeling that would temporarily take away the seemingly omnipresent grittiness. She sighed, loudly enough to make the old lady facing her smile.

I really want an ice cream cone, Dana admitted, smiling back.

The old lady laughed. You should get off at the next stop and get yourself one. At the rate we are going, you probably would make it home around the same time.

That's good advice, Dana said.

Not that she was going to take it at least when it came to getting off at the next stop. She had left her car in a municipal parking lot a couple of stops ahead and was going to be in its air conditioned interior very soon. However, the ice cream cone was a good idea. A couple of minutes later, she bid the old woman farewell and walked across the parking lot with a bounce, thoughts of the cone she was about to purchase twirling in her head.

She drove to the closest McDonald's and parked her car. As she stepped out, she smiled at the sight of the tandem bikes lying on the grass in front of the fast-food restaurant. Probably a family outing, she thought, noting the pink streamers on both bikes.

Inside, she looked for a family with two little girls but couldn't find any. She placed her order and a few minutes later, was heading back to her car with a perfectly swirled vanilla ice cream cone in hand.

That's smart, she muttered when she realized she would have to do a spectacular acrobatic sequence to fish the car keys out of her purse while holding onto the rapidly melting cone and somehow managing to lick off any errand drops. Thankfully, she got the keys out with minimal damage – a bit of ice cream on her shoes – and unlocked the doors.

That's when she noticed the family. There was only one girl. The other child was a boy who was around six years of age. Both were licking their cones while the parents unlocked and prepared the tandem bikes. The little girl – probably two years older than her sibling – was watching her with a smile. Dana smiled back and gave a little wave with her cone. She had probably given her quite a show, hopping and struggling to get her keys out. The little girl waved her own cone back as her father called her. He looked up at Dana and they smiled at each other, knowing adult smiles that easily blossomed around cute children. As Dana drove off, the family was still there, the parents patiently waiting for their children to finish eating. Dana would have loved to have children by now, but that was a line of thought she preferred not to follow.

She turned her car into the main street, polishing off her cone. It had been a short pleasure that left behind a vague feeling of dissatisfaction. She wiped her hand on the napkin, slowing the car for a red light. She glanced to her right and did a double take. It was the tandem bike father! How did he get into a car and here so fast? Aware that she had been staring, Dana quickly looked away, her mind swirling thoughts around in confusion. It couldn’t be him; the father was on a bike with his wife and two children. This man was driving a car and was alone – or was he? Dana looked at the back seat of his car and her jaw dropped. The little girl was also there! When she saw Dana looking at her, she smiled a little and waved.

Although shocked, Dana managed to wave back, albeit weakly. What was going on? How could these two have made it all the way here by car so quickly, what had they done with the tandem bike and where were the mother and the little boy?

The light turned green. In a split second, Dana decided to turn the car around. The