Not Every Story has a Happy Ending

By Mayra Castaneda

People believe that every story is like a fairy tale, and that every tale ends with a happy ending. But we live in a much darker place. Many things can change in a matter of seconds or minutes, and for some of us, those moments can change our lives forever.

People always say that things happen for a reason as a form of fate or that there is a design for each of our lives, and that no matter what you do, the outcomes will always be the same, as there is no escaping from your destiny. The stories that I have included in Not Every Story Has a Happy Ending are examples of how simple and innocent choices have horrible repercussions.

I am going to take you for a ride among a world of beauty, friendships, love, and hope, and then as the pages turn, I will take you down a disturbing path of supernatural beings, revenge, macabre imagery, torture, and horror.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781636927428

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Not Every Story has a Happy Ending

Mayra Castaneda

Copyright © 2021 Mayra Castaneda

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2021

ISBN 978-1-63692-741-1 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63692-742-8 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

The Late-Night Visitor

In the Flesh

Full of Posies

The Thing in the Water

October 31

The Sick House

What Is Eating Me from Inside?

The Fourth Wish

Don’t You Wish You Were Dead?

To everyone who has stuck by me from the beginning till the present time and hopefully continue to support me in the future. I know I always put this is in every book I publish, but it is a message that I really do want to convey because this is something I practice in my real life every day, especially when you have those hard and dark days.

No matter how hard life can get or what the circumstances are, if there is something you want in life, do not ever give up on that dream or goal you have, because you are the only one who can put a limit to what you can do. Even when it seems impossible, keep fighting for what you want, and have faith in yourself always.

For everyone who is a dreamer, a believer, and a fighter.

For my father, Jose I. Rodriguez (March 16,1952–July 9, 2019). You will always be in my heart, and you are the reason why I keep following my dreams. Thank you for everything you said to me when I first decided to start my writing career, those words will stay with me forever!

For my mother, Arcelia G. Gonzalez. You have always told me that I should do what I believe is right for me, and even if sometimes you do not agree with my decisions, at the end of the day, you always support me. You know that I will always be happy if I follow my heart and my intuition. Thank you for making me a person who never gives up and does not stop fighting, even when things get hard!

Acknowledgments

I’m so happy to be working with Newman Springs Publishing again. Thank you guys for working with me once again. I love how professional you guys work to make a great product for people to enjoy. I love the process and communication that I have with the whole staff, and it means a lot to continue working with the team and hope to keep going with you guys with my future books, now that I have published three with you guys.

I want to give special thanks to my friends for always telling me to dream big and not give up and for believing in my talent. I want to say thanks to my family for making me strong and for the support they have provided and for the patience they have with me, because when I get wrapped in a project, all my focus is on my work, and I put all my effort into creating the best stories that I can come up with so that the reader is always happy with the product they purchase.

The most important thanks, of course, are to my fans and everyone who supports my work. Thank you for buying my books and for the reviews. Many of you have sent me personal messages on my social media accounts or to my e-mail, and that means so much! I can’t even put in words how beautiful it feels when I get to hear from my readers. Without you guys, I wouldn’t be able to do what I love. I truly have a passion for writing, and I feel so blessed to be able to call this work, so I do appreciate every single person who has and still supports what I do.

So to all my readers, I told you guys to keep an eye out for more projects now I have two books out, and as promised, this is my third book. I hope you like it, and yes, I definitely have more ideas, so please be patient and stick with me because there are more projects in the future. God bless everyone. Oh, and please continue to send me feedback. Like I said, I love to hear from every one of you. Thank you so much for taking your time to talk to me.

Readers, remember—always follow your dreams and never let anyone tell you that something is impossible. If you want something, just believe and go for it! Never say that you can’t achieve your goals, and just believe in yourself.

Introduction

There are many things that live in the darkness and in the shadows. These things (demons, spirits, creatures) are waiting for the opportunity to come out of the shadows and into our world. This is a story just about one of those things that waits for us patiently, until we are too weak, and then it comes to take us!

The Late-Night Visitor

Something is happening to me, and I am beginning to worry that it may be more than my imagination as the therapist has suggested. For the past few weeks, I have been experiencing very strange things.

Let me start from the beginning so you may get a better understanding on what is happening. I have come to call this thing the visitor. I do not consider it to be human, but since it comes at night, I have given it that name.

I had lived in a small town for most of my life until recently that I started to attend a college in Ohio. This may sound like a boring thing for some people, but for me, it was a huge step.

I had never lived anywhere that was so big and with so many different people. Everything was so different from where I grew up. Things were good at first, except for the fact that I had to leave everyone I knew behind—my childhood friends and family. But nonetheless, I was thrilled to explore different things.

I came from a middle-class family, so I was not used to having expensive things. I bought a lot of things on clearance or things at a bargain price. I am not ashamed to admit it; I love smart shopping. Besides, there was no way I could buy expensive things in my budget.

So when I moved here, I needed to get a job and a place to live. I was able to find a job within the first two weeks, at a Burger King. Even though it was not a high-paying job, it was good enough to get me by and to pay for my things.

I was attending college on a scholarship for having good grades, and I was not going to take this for granted. I have always worked and studied, so it wasn’t anything new to me. Besides being in a new place and not knowing anyone, having a job as a cook was not going to affect my social life in the least.

I had my own one-bedroom apartment with one bath, and it was near campus. I could drive to work, but the drive was about five minutes away, so I walked many times instead. I liked the fact that I had a choice of how I got to work.

I was applying for different jobs nearby in case I ever had car trouble and needed to walk or take the bus, and lucky enough, I found this job.

I only needed a bed and a couch and other small items to furnish the place. I was able to buy some things on clearance from stores, like my bed, and I was lucky to find other things in garage sales. Among these items were a stand-up lamp and a comfy rocking chair. My life was as perfect as you could have, until recently that strange things started occurring.

Everything was going well for the first three months, but something had changed. I began to wake up at different times of the night as I kept hearing noises in my living room area. I dismissed it for the first few nights by telling myself it was other tenants in the apartments making noise at night.

It has become a problem now that I have the responsibility of a job besides having to keep up with school grades. I began to fall asleep in class, and a new friend I made asked me what was wrong with me, because he seemed genuinely concerned. I finally decided to tell him what had been happening.

What kind of sounds are you hearing? Tom asked.

I was hearing… I hesitated for a moment at the thought of sounding crazy. It sounds like whispering or something. Recently the lights have begun to flicker in the living room. To make matters worse, it’s always after 2:00 a.m., so it’s very unnerving, I finally said to my friend Tom.

He looked at me with a strange face but then got excited and told me I probably had a ghost in my apartment. I laughed it off, thinking he was joking, until I realized he was serious.

The thought had crossed my mind, but I figured it was just stress or me adapting to a new environment; after all, I had never been one to believe in any of those things.

No, it can’t be ghost, I have never experienced anything like that before. I don’t even believe in that stuff! I said in a careless manner to my friend, who was smiling.

Well, then maybe you should go talk to the school’s counselor, like a therapist or something. Maybe they can help you figure out why you’re so stressed out? Tom suggested to me.

It was not a bad idea, considering I was not able to hide the fact that I was lacking sleep. My eyes had dark bags underneath them. Even at work, my boss had noticed me being sluggish. He thought it was from me partying with friends too much.

I wish! I quietly thought to myself.

The night came when I was finally fed up. I was so exhausted from school during the day and work in the afternoon. I only had one class the next day, and I was off from work for two days. I was excited; that meant I was going to finally catch up on some much-needed rest. I got home at 10:00 p.m. and jumped into the shower, then directly headed to bed after and fell asleep.

It was 1:00 a.m., and I was awakened by a noise. First I thought I was dreaming. I rubbed my eyes with my hand and adjusted to the darkness. I was able to make out the sound—it sounded like a rocking noise; it must have been coming from the rocking chair.

I got up from bed slowly, trying not to make a sound because I was afraid it was a burglar. It was not the normal time I would hear noises, so it made me worry that this time, I had an intruder. I grabbed a pair of scissors I had in my bathroom before entering the living room.

Once I was there, I could hear the noise getting louder. The room was not as dark as my bedroom because I had forgotten to put the curtains down. The light that peered through the window allowed me to see that the rocking chair was moving back and forth. My heart was pounding hard, and I began to sweat.

I knew I had to turn on the lights and see who was in my apartment. I turned the lights on, and the living room was empty; the chair abruptly stopped, turning my home quiet once again. What the hell! The words came out of my mouth.

I know I saw the chair moving by itself, I said, trying to convince myself that I was not crazy. I went over to examine the chair, and there was nothing; it was just a plain old wooden chair.

I headed back to my bedroom, leaving all the lights on like a scared little boy, and then I locked my bedroom door. That was the night that I decided to go see a therapist and see what was happening to me.

So this is where I am now. I have been seeing my therapist for two weeks, and even though he says it is the stress causing me to imagine these things, I do not agree anymore. I was fine the first few months, so this makes no sense. How can I be imagining the sounds and whispers in my apartment?

I kept thinking to myself, What the hell had changed?

It was going into five weeks already, and I had not made any progress with the help of the therapist. And what was worse, the activity at my place had intensified. It was like I was being punished for seeking help and trying to get answers.

I could not take it anymore. It’s these noises and the fucking whispers that kept me up at night. I did not even know if I was more scared or annoyed. I just wanted it to stop. I began looking for a new place to live, in desperation.

I could not afford to lose the little things I had, but at this point, my sanity was more important than material things. I was on the verge of failing all my classes, and I have already been reprimanded by my boss at work.

I can hear it calling at night—the visitor—as it comes to haunt me. It knows I have lost control, and its presence keeps getting louder. I feel it draining the energy from me. It wakes me up from any sleep I get.

The lights kept flickering in my apartment, so I called to complain. They had the wires checked by the maintenance in the apartments, but everything seemed to be good. Since it only happens after 2:00 a.m., they could not do much. The wiring turned out to be fine, and I switched the bulbs, but it still happens.

I know now that it is something else, and no one can help me.

This morning, I threw away the rocking chair since I thought this all started when I got it from that garage sale. I hope it worked, and tonight I would see if there was any difference. It is getting close to 9:00 p.m., and I decided to go to bed early. I headed to my room and turned off the light, and before I knew it, I had passed out.

I was awake now, and I could see the clock from here—it’s 2:00 a.m. And I can hear someone whispering my name outside my bedroom door now. Michael. Michael. Michael.

I slowly got up and turned on the lights to my bedroom. I hesitated to open the door, but I knew that it was now or never. As I walked to through the hallway and made my way to the living room, I saw a tall figure by the door. I approached the light switch and was trying not to panic, but as I walked closer and turned the light switch on, everything went quiet.

I gasped, realizing it had been a vivid nightmare caused by exhaustion. I was laughing at myself, thinking how silly I was acting. And then I felt a cold breeze hit my face, and the lights suddenly began to flicker.

"No!" I said out loud.

I soon realized I was awake, and the lights turned off entirely.

The noises came back. I could hear the night visitor calling my name.

I could see from the window’s light, that came from the outside streetlight, that it was a tall shadow that resembled a creature in my apartment. I could not make out the specific features, but I could see its body outline.

It now crawled up the ceiling, making noises like it was breathing heavily. It was moving fast, and I could feel it coming closer. I did not want to see it anymore, but I could not stop looking at it in fear that it would get me before I could escape.

I ran toward my bedroom door, but it was useless because it was beside me. I could feel the claws cutting my back as it cut me from the neck to my lower back. I screamed, but I knew that it was over. Nothing I did could help me get out of this demon’s grasp.

This thing had been feeding off me these last few weeks, and now I was too weak to fight it. I was like a poor cow in a slaughterhouse, waiting to be hacked. I knew my time was near, and to be honest, by this point, I was too tired to try and fight for my life. This demon had me, and I knew this was how I would die.

I had a flashback of my life with my family, all those good memories. I tried to sink into those thoughts as I died, but the pain was too much to take.

The night visitor had picked me up, grabbing my head, and pulled the skin off my skull. I could feel the blood run down my mutilated face. My back was now cold as I was bleeding out. I could see my hair scalp on the floor.

I fell to the floor, hoping someone would come to help, but I knew it was too late. I took my last breaths, seeing how this thing groaned and ripped the flesh off my bones, until everything went dark.

Introduction

This is a story about how innocent and careless things can lead to bigger consequences. Many times, when we are young, we do things not realizing the real dangers that are out there waiting for us. We forget that having fun in places we’re not allowed is worth the risk, but sometimes, we just may get more than we bargain for!

In the Flesh

Chris and Marty had been friends for more than six years. They were both high school students, and like every seventeen-year-old, they were always getting into trouble. They shared many similar interests, like the passion for anything that was movies and video games.

Every weekend, they got together either at his house or Marty’s, and they would watch movies and played games online. Many times, they would sit outside in the patio and told ghost stories to entertain each other. They usually did this on Friday nights.

Hey, Chris, we should try to do something different this Friday night. I’m getting tired of just hanging out at the house, he said. Chris did not argue with the idea because he had been feeling the same way. They were always at each other’s house, and it began to get boring.

Where do you want to go then? he asked Marty.

It’s barely Tuesday, let me see what I think of by Friday. He said okay and continued to his next class, waiting for the day to be over so he could go home and take a nap. For some reason, he was so exhausted. Finally it was 4:00 p.m., and he went straight home. As soon as he went inside, he tossed his backpack onto the couch and headed to his bedroom.

He woke up to the sound of his mom’s voice. She called him to go eat dinner. When he looked at the clock, he saw that it was already 7:30 p.m. He was surprised to see that he had slept hours. He figured since he