I Wrote a Horror Story to Survive My Own Darkness
How does someone who has never read a single horror book end up writing a horror story? I still do not completely know. It was purely spontaneous. Three days ago, I mentioned in a video that I was thinking about writing a short horror story. But the thought would not let me go. By 9:00 PM that same night, I sat on my bed to write. I wrote for three straight hours, went to sleep, and finished it the next day.
The secret society in this story is called the Architects of the Ridge. If you have read 13 Days in My New House, you will recognize them as the same shadowy group connected to Paul’s father. In that book, they were described as a circle of elite individuals who treated the world as their personal property. Local archives tied them to a haunting phrase: "cleansing the land."
This short prequel, set roughly twenty-five years before the main story, reveals what that cleansing actually meant. The Architects believed the poor were useless, unwilling to work, and undeserving of space on this earth. Their idea of cleansing was nothing more than systematic disposal.
I had no idea where this draft would take me. Looking back, I think I needed to sink into something dark because my real life had hit a breaking point. I was going through a severe mental breakdown, and in the middle of it, I lost a close friend. The grief was overwhelming. The weight dropped off me, and the pain felt like it was eating me alive from the inside out. Darkness took over my mind.
As usually happens, the story came to me late at night, in the quiet moments before sleep. That late hour is the only free time I ever have between endless work and notifications.
I will not pretend I enjoyed writing this. I did not. Some scenes made me sick to my stomach. Others brought me to tears. But I wrote it down became it was the only way to release the heavy, poisonous feelings trapped inside me. It was a way to purge my own demons. Now that it is on paper, I feel a sense of relief, and I am finally ready to focus on finishing House of Crimson Vows.
Do I recommend this story? Not really. I did not even promote it heavily. It was not written for marketing or trends. It simply had to exist. Some of you might find something in it, while others might hate it, and that is completely fine with me. I have always written straight from the heart, guided entirely by what lives inside my head rather than what others expect or advise.
Happy spooky season. Take care of yourselves out there, because sometimes we do not need Halloween to remind us how cruel this world can be.
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