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Taranjit Kaur

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 English Short Story

Murder in the Dark

Eva walked home from school, it had been a busy day and she was worrying about the amount of homework

she still had to do. Night was fast approaching and the street lights were glowing dully. The chilly winter air

whipped her hair around her face as she stepped into one of the many dark alleyways that led towards her

home. As she ambled down the lane, her heart shaped face with tanned skin and blood red lips were just

visible in the light of the evening.

Eva’s home existed in one of the many narrow twisting streets of Mirza, a small town in Northern India. The

streets of the town themselves were like a maze, so that anyone new in the town lost their sense of direction

within minutes.

Eva was walking along these narrow streets while her dark brown eyes were deep in thought of what she

would wear to the year 10 Prom later in the year and also with whom she should go with.

‘Well’, she thought ‘I’m not going to be picky, but maybe Imran, the absolute hottest guy in the year. ‘She

knew that he liked her’.

As she was musing over these thoughts, she saw a dark figure up ahead, it seemed to her a teenage boy

around her age, maybe older, she couldn’t be sure. The boy moved off and was quickly swallowed up by the

shadows. Eva quickened her pace as twilight approached, and came now to a dark turn.

She looked up and saw the boy again,

‘He’s probably new in town; I’ve never seen him before, wonder if he’ll go to our school’.

He had black hair, and was dark, tall and handsome. But there was something else, his eyes, they were dark as

his hair and had a cold look in them, they were staring intently at someone, as a hunter would look at its prey.

The woman was unaware of anybody’s presence and was tending to some flowers outside her house. Eva hid

in the shadows as he looked around, he then walked quickly and quietly towards the young woman. Eva

stared in horror as he took out a knife and put his hand over the woman’s mouth. The woman struggled

against his grip but he took out a knife and slit her throat. Eva let out an involuntary scream. The boy looked at

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her, and she seemed pinned against the wall under his gaze as he stepped over the woman’s lifeless body and

moved towards her. She struggled against her fear as she looked upon the ruthless killer coming towards her.

Before she knew what she was doing, Eva dropped her bag and started running. She ran out of the alleyway

and turned right into a narrow crooked lane. She didn’t look back, she didn’t need to, she heard his footsteps

right behind her.

‘Oh please someone help me’, she thought breathing hard, ‘why isn’t anyone around when you need them’.

Eva ran through the labyrinth of streets and alleyways, she didn’t dare stop, she knew if she did then she was

dead. She turned into the general direction of her home. The footsteps were starting to die away behind her.

‘Oh my god’; she thought as the cruel memory came back to her; ‘I just witnessed a murder’.

She stumbled into a small passageway combining two streets. She wiped the sweat of her forehead with the

back of her hand, and ran into the passageway. She heard a rock clutter behind her and she looked back into

the gloom, she thought she saw a figure moving. Gripped with fear Eva started running again.

‘It was only your imagination’, she thought, ‘only my imagination, yeah right”.

She looked around her tense and aware of every sound, ready to run. Eva tried to recollect her thoughts and

looked around to see where she was.

‘Okay, I’m on the west side of the town, and my house is on the north, so I just have to keep running straight

and I’ll be home soon’, she thought trying to ignore the distance and taking a deep breath.

Willing her already tired legs to go on she started to run once again. She took a lane straight ahead of her that

looked to be wide and not as dark as the others. She sprinted down the lane and halted in front of a crossroad.

The street branched out into three passages; she hesitated not knowing which way to take. Eva muttered a

silent prayer and walked slowly into the far left route.

Eva had walked about ten paces when suddenly a hand came up over her mouth and dragged her into the

shadows of the street. She felt the warm breath on her neck as terror rushed through her and she struggled

against the iron grip. Eva tried to pry off the fingers from her mouth, but the other hand came up and brought

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her hands down in front of her. She attempted vainly to kick him, but was thrust against the wall for her

efforts. She felt his hand lift from her waist and reach down.

‘Oh no’, she thought, her heart thumping wildly against her ribcage, ‘not the knife’.

There was nothing she could do, trapped against the wall, with his body pressed up against hers. Suddenly she

heard footsteps, and felt the boy’s body stiffen at the sound. Eva heard the sound of the footsteps get closer

and closer, the boy let go of her as suddenly as he had grabbed her. She felt herself being thrown towards the

ground. She looked up and saw that the boy had disappeared. She looked to the lane where she has heard the

approaching footsteps and saw a group of three people.

“What are you doing all alone here in the dark”, asked one of the women.

“Are you okay”, asked another man in a concerned voice.

“It’s okay I’m all right, I just”, Eva stammered.

‘Should I tell them about the boy or would they just think that I was just imagining’, Eva thought quickly.

“Could you escort me home?” Eva asked anxiously, “I had just lost my way in the dark”.

‘Was she going to tell anybody she had just witnessed a murder, Eva knew she wasn’t’.

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 English Short Story

Reflection Statement

The short story that I have written is of the genre of murder and mystery. I was inspired to write this story

after I watched a murder mystery movie jam-packed with suspense. The idea of a short story full of mystery,

murder and suspense appealed to me so I decide to write my short story of this genre.

I decided to name my main character Eva as it is an ordinary name and I wanted that to be symbolic of her as

an ordinary girl. This is also evident in the description of her in the beginning of the story which portrays Eva

like any other girl in year 10, who is worrying about her day to day life. In the case of the killer, I decided to

leave his name anonymous as I believed that would create more trepidation for the reader. My introduction

to the murderer in the story is of a shadowy figure unknown to anyone, I thought this created the character of

a ruthless killer extremely well. In addition to this I completed the character by portraying him as a teenager,

as that made the story out of the ordinary.

The setting for my story is a realistic setting, though the name of the town is changed. I selected this setting

because I could imagine a murder scene such as this one taking place in one of its many cobbled lanes. The

writing of my story is very descriptive as I believed in this way the reader would be able to further understand

the character and the setting making the story attention-grabbing.

I decided to leave the murder of the anonymous woman mysterious because I wanted the audience to be left

with that sense of ambiguity after reading the story. The mystifying murder also allows the reader to use their

imagination to come up with the reasons for this murder.

I really enjoyed writing this short story as the idea was one that had never occurred to me before. My ideas for

a short story were generally of teenage lives and problems, so this idea for me was definitely out of the blue.

My biggest goal in writing my short story was to capture the reader into the suspense of the story, and after

writing it I felt that I have achieved that goal. Though I feel that I have done a good job in writing this story, I

believe that the use of more metaphors, similes and other language features could have enhanced my literary

work. Overall I was extremely pleased with my short story and felt that I was rewarded in my efforts in writing

it.