Story of a Ghost Town

By Francesco Brasiello

Three friends venture to discover an uninhabited village. A crescendo of suggestions, anxieties and fears put the three protagonists in front of the horrors that lie behind that only apparent quite. Debute horror novel inspired by situations really experienced by the author and his travel's companions during their visit to an abandoned village in the Pollino National Park: Laino Castello in Calabria ( a beautiful region in Southern Italy). Photos and narrative interact with one another in an eye-catching and meticulous description of places and moods. You'll feel the fourth travel's companion. The photos are edited by the author, the cover image is by the artist @zoeartrosilda.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: May 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781547501229

Book preview

The events contained in this work are the result of the author’s imagination Even though the mentioned places are real, they are used only for narration purposes. Any reference to actual events or existing or existed persons, are purely coincidental.

Cover The ghost town by Rosilda zoe

Website: www.facebook.com/zoeartrosilda

Photographs contained in this work

are the Author’s properties

and they are protected by copyright

I thank my brother Antonio for the valuable suggestion,

and all those who contributed

more or less (un) consciously

Francesco Brasiello

Story of a Ghost Town

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Translation by

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Franca Cristina Novello

Prologue

It hasn’t been easy to remember... I would rather forget. I hope for you that you won’t be plagued by the same nightmare...or maybe, on the contrary, I hope to convey all the moods I felt in those moments. It would be extremely tempting to know that I affected your dreams, the more obscure ones.

Find a quite place, far from everyone ...lights off and closed doors...don’t forget the windows, take care that they also are tightened. I’ll take you by hand in forgotten places...don’t be frightened...it’s too soon now. Your journey is going to start...

It had to be the naturalistic parenthesis in our summertime, but, instead, we remember it for very different reasons.

I never ever found myself in such terrifying situations and frankly I do not wish it to anyone.

Overall it was a nice day, apart the grisly epilogue, I mean. Of course the trekking excursion remained just a fantasy, because of the uncertain weather. Nevertheless we could be satisfied with the car tour in the Pollino National Park. This immense green lung, wild and mysterious, with its stories, its legends, its villages, its inhabitants. We were on our way back, excited for having spent so many hours in that fantastic natural oasi.

We had almost reached our last stage suggested by our morning knowledge. A quick visit and then we would be back at home.

We followed the directions, map in hand, when we finally spotted some houses.

Welcome to ***...how many villages welcome those who visit theme? Essentially all, you could think, and probably it is so. Well, for us the entrance in the village had been completely different...there was no welcome.

Now, imagine for a moment.

Any reason urges you to knock at the door of a stranger.

A person opens it, and... you immediately understand that there wouldn’t be any welcome, nor invitation to come in. Would you have the courage to enter? Unless you are very rude, I’d say you wouldn’t. And if we add that you feel there is something wrong there, something that upsets you... Would you enter?

Perhaps it would had been better if we had gone away as soon as possible, turn the car and go back to our lives.

After all we are speaking about a village...what ever could have happened?

Story of a Ghost Town

I – Inauspicious Omens

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We warn that for security reasons the village is fully under video surveillance.

This is the huge sign that welcomes those who are entering the town that was supposed to be inhabited, but somebody told us that it wasn’t...

Old Village historic Center indicate an arrow sign ahead: -Maybe is the Old Village Center to be uninhabited- I think and say to the others.

It just seemed unlikely to us that only the historical center could be uninhabited.

We surely misunderstood or they gave us an erroneous information.

We follow the indications that brings us out of the village.

We walk quite a long way: -Surely we went the wrong direction-, I think.

We are about to turn back when we see another tourist indication: Old Town centre 3 Km. Could it be so far away a village centre?

We continue incredulous through uninhabited mountain routes. Three kilometers uphill are not few, and we are already far from the village. Where the hell are we going? Why a village centre is so far away from the village itself? And why the area is fully video surveilled?

We continue through uninhabited mountain routes.

With this questions in my mind we continue on this anonymous road, untill we start a typical street of medieval villages, paved with stones. On one side a fence that looks recent, on the other side a long series of modern metal streetlamps, English style.

The light breeze laden with woodland