The Tunnel

"Boo!! 

Are you ready, Renee?"

"You freaked me out, Sasy. Yes, I'm ready, so let's get going..."

Gish, Sasy, Irene, Joy and I... Five girls, we are going on a road trip. It's 9 p.m. now, and we're leaving on a long night ride to another city, 560 km far, for a vacation...

Both Sasy and Gish work for the same company. Irene is a chef and owns a restaurant. Joy is a blogger who travels to different locations and writes about them, therefore you might also refer to her as a tourist or a traveller. And I'm a fashion designer with my own boutique...

And a vehicle with us...

Joy is in the driver's seat. I'm sitting next to her, with Sasy, Gish and Irene behind us.

We've only just started moving from my house, and the last stop was only mine. Because my house is close to the highway, Joy and others came to pick me up.

We'd already finished our food. We packed our belongings and made our way to the highway.

We were travelling as time passed...

 And then two ways appeared in front of us...

"When you guys see this, which path do you think we should take? I think the first one is fine because we only use it as many times as we travel..." said Joy.

"Isn't it tedious? What about the alternative? Let's try something different."

"Sasy, I believe we should take the path we are familiar with."

"What you say Joy? Renee is correct." Irene stated.

"I'm fine with either of them, but let me tell you that I have no idea what the second way holds..."

"Wait, the first route takes less time, and the second route takes more time, and rarely people use it because it's a deserted way with a lot of nonsense rumours about it, so I guess we should go with the second one. It'll be more fun, and there will be fewer cars, so there won't be any traffic issues. After all, we're here to have fun, so the more time we have with each other, the more fun we'll have!" said Gish.

"Okay, miss Google. We'll use the second path, but if something goes wrong, there won't be any network connections inside, right?" Irene stated.

"When you have pals nearby, who needs a network? xd..." said Gish.

"Okay, okay, I'll take the second one. Lets move." said Joy.

So, based on Gish and Sasy's statements, we chose the second path...

We had been travelling for several hours so it is now 12:30 a.m. Moving on to the road, it was absolutely deserted, with not a single car in sight.

We were constantly on the move. Irene and Sasy were sleeping, Joy was driving with music playing in the background, I was looking out the window, and Gish was on her phone doing something...

As we travelled through the area, which was densely forested on both sides and through which we passed through tunnels, there was perfect silence... And then I noticed something at my side...

I came across an unusual tree...

It was a massive tree, it had no leaves and was entirely dried out.

I'm not sure what it was about the tree that bothered me, but I sensed something wasn't quite right... And as the car was moving, I noticed someone hanging from it, nothing was visible save the corpse, which was shrouded in darkness...

I was astounded. I suddenly shouted gently as we passed down the route, "Stop the car Joy!"

Joy abruptly came to a halt, as if she didn't understand what had happened. Then I said, "Can you see that tree?"

"Tree? Which tree? Darling, its a forest there are thousands of trees here..."

"See behind!" Renee stated.

Joy drove behind, and when we arrived at that tree, there was just a tree with no one on it...

"Are you referring to this particular tree?" Joy pointing to that tree and asking Renee.

"Hmm."

"Oh common!! What's new in this?"

"Nothing. Continue driving..."

When we were both having a conversation, everyone else was asleep, and we continued on our way...

I was busy thinking about it after a while, and they ended up in a tunnel...

And suddenly Joy exclaimed, "Oh Shit Man!!"

Renee asked, "What happened?!"

"This Tunnel Dude!

You know what! Its the most longest tunnel in the whole country, it is 9.30 kms long."

"Seriously?"

"Absolutely!"

"How do you know you've never been down this road before, right?"

"Yeah, I've never been on this path, but I've heard of it. I've also heard of this tunnel, but I've never knew where it is located exactly...

I was like ugh it's mundane when I saw the tunnel's name.

It's only the beginning, man. I'm guessing it'll last 1-2 hours or somewhere in between...

I suppose you should rest for the night like others."

"No worries, I'm not drowsy..." Renee smiled as and stated her statement.

Joy returned her attention to driving after we finished our talk...

We'd been in the tunnel for over 30 minutes and the others were still asleep, as Sasy and Gish had awoken and Irene was still sleeping...

"So, where are we right now?" Enquired Sasy.

Gish replied, "It's the longest tunnel here."

"So, you already knew it, right?" Joy was ecstatic.

Gish seems to have said it all.

"Ugh."

And then something caught Sasy's eye in front of the car... And she yelled loudly, and we were all startled, even we saw someone in front of our car, and Joy abruptly came to a halt...

We were taken aback when we saw nothing behind us, and we were even more taken aback when we saw nothing in front of us, and it was completely abandoned...

Irene was still dozing off...

Joy kept driving, and Sasy wondered aloud, 

"What was that?

Have you all seen it?"

Joy answered, "Yes."

Me, "Hmm."

Gish, too, yelled with us, but when Sasy asked if she saw anything, she said no.

"No, I didn't see any of the nonsense you're talking about."

"Didn't you?" Asked Sasy.

"So, what made you scream?" Asked Joy.

"I've never screamed nonsensically; in fact, when you guys screamed so loudly, it freaked me off."

They were less than pleased with her statements after hearing this, although they pretended to be satisfied...

Except for Irene, everyone was travelling with their eyes open...

After around 20-25 minutes with everything appearing to be fine, everyone was basically in a trance of silence when...

The car came to a halt.

"What had happened?" I inquired to Joy.

Joy responded, "I'm not sure, but I guess its a tyre puncture."

"Oh."

"Let me check..."

Joy took a step out...

And she was right the front tyre of her side is punctured.

"Guys, the tyre has punctured."

"What the hell, how long will it take now?" Asked Sasy.

"10-15 minutes."

 "Gosh." Exclaimed Sasy.

"Will you assist me, Renee?"

"Yeah sure I'm coming..."

Then I departed and went to assist Joy.

Joy took the tyre from the dickey...

She sat down to change the tyre with the tools she needed, and I was there to assist her.

The other girls were inside the vehicle...

Gish was shocked when she saw suddenly someone behind us while we were working and immediately opened the door and exited. There was no one behind us when she exited.

So Gish decided to just stand there...

Then there's...

In the car, Sasy and Irene are both sleeping...

Sasy suddenly was astonished when she noticed a girl of about 13-14 years old walking on the street.

She saw her and was about to call us when Sasy noticed that girl seated on my seat, which means the front seat beside Joy.

She was utterly taken aback as that female abruptly turned around...

Her face was creepy, and she yelled angrily. When Sasy witnessed this, she was absolutely taken aback, and hands on her neck appeared from her seat, ready to kill her by holding her neck from the backside.

We had just finished the tyre thing outdoors and were ready to go inside when we heard Sasy's voice, and we dashed inside....

We heard her yelling and approached her to see...

Sasy is heavily inhaling.

"I noticed her here...

Right now..." Said Sasy.

We were both staring at each other and then Joy questioned, "Who?"

"That Witch with the Girl's disguise!"

We were all shocked to hear it because we hadn't seen anything other than Sasy shouting ineffectually.

"Even after all of this, how come Irene is still sleeping?" Joy suddenly enquired.

We were trying to wake her up, but she was still sleeping, and then I noticed Irene in the rear-view mirror, and I was astonished to see a black covering over her body from the sides, and then all the lights in the tunnel suddenly went out... It was pitch black, only our car's headlights were turned on, and everything was dark...

We were all freaked out, so we immediately piled into the car.

Then we got a torch because the lights inside the car, as well as all of the other technologies, were out, and when we turned on the torch, we checked for everyone with their names called out, and Irene was nowhere to be found...

We were all taken aback when we noticed her approaching suddenly in front of our car like she was possessed... She was walking with a hanging rope in her hand...

We were all utterly taken aback...

Joy asked, "What's wrong with Irene?"

I then stated, "She is not Irene."

Leaving all eyes on me...

Then Sasy stared at me and gave me a creepy smile.

And it was there that she changed her appearance.

Irene's face was slowly transforming to a spooky ghostly appearance, and when she was standing and walking, she slowly nealed down in a very creepy manner, turning her hands in back and her legs in front criss-crossed from front to back...

And she was appearing extremely scary and was slowly crawling and coming towards us...

She suddenly vanished out of nowhere...

And then Sasy got out of the car and started screaming hysterically like Irene, what's wrong with you, why are you acting this way, what's wrong with you, and then that ghost arrived...

Where?

This time she sat on the top of the car, as if she was going to leap, and she did, so she jumped on Sasy, and then her hair was simply grabbed in air so hard that her body was also taken, and she was carried somewhere in the dark, and we couldn't save her...

We were all terrified, and out of the five of us, just three were left. We didn't know what to do or how to get out of this tunnel, which was packed on all sides.

Joy asked Gish, "Gish, if you were aware of this, why did you lead us down this path? Answer me!"

Gish was just speechless...

"Gish is it True?" I asked Gish.

"A Sacrifice." Gish answered.

Me and Joy were still after hearing this...

 

"According to the tale, it takes a sacrifice.

There was an incident here in this tunnel many years ago when a girl came here on this route and hanged herself on a tree and committed suicide; there was no tunnel at the time.

People say that when she was about to hang herself, there was a satanism going on in the forest somewhere nearby, and that when the sacrificial process to the Devil was going on, the people doing the process including their sacrificial body also included her body by chance, and that she was an unexcepted soul who caused her to be like this with both the witch and a ghost..."

"Why you dared to bring us here, then?" I asked.

"To just clarify this, but because of my mistake two of the souls have already died, I'll sacrifice the third one, and the regular deaths in the forest will come to an end..."

And as soon as she finished her last word, she took a knife from her bag, stepped out of the car, and there she spoke some spells from her mouth, and then there was a cyclomic storm in the air, and she saw us, grinned, and then cut her neck.

And we were really taken aback.

After this catastrophe, Joy and I were unconscious, and when we awoke the next morning, we were in a hospital. The local police launched an inquiry, searching for everyone in the tunnel, but not a single body was located, nor in the forest...

Joy and I were still thinking about those things for a long time actually, we were disturbed, and I still get goosebumps thinking about it cuz it is something that is never gonna make us forget 'The Tunnel'.

                                                   -The End-