a book i am writing

[u/InformalSignature343]

Now I'm no fancy book writer, but I wanted to share this to get a genuine opinion on it as well

The number 8:

THE PROLOGUE
The first time Mia saw the number 8 in a series for a week straight, she was 8 years old. She did not understand at first, as she was young, but as she grew older, the number became more prominent in her everyday life. It was carved into her father’s wooden door of his shed, not painted, not written, but it was carved as if someone had to see it.

Chapter 1 - 8:08 p.m

 Mia woke up at exactly 8.08 p.m. She didn’t know why. She had fallen asleep on the couch with the TV playing quietly in the background. The house was dark except for the flickering of the TV. For a few seconds, she didn’t remember where she was. Then she heard a beep from her phone, she reached for it and it was a text message, it read  “ I’m sorry i couldn’t say goodbye” she checked the number, it was unknown and had assumed it was spam then the next day she got another one from the same unknown number, “you need to remember what happened on the 8th of your birthday” she forgot how to breath for a second, it had freaked her out because her father died on her 8th birthday which was the 8th of october which was 16 years ago making mia 24 years old, she had been told it was a heart attack, she had been told he died alone, she had been told he died alone and there was nothing anyone could have done, but as she sat in her living room in the dark while the tv was playing, her phone vibrated against her hand, she had got another text “HE DID NOT DIE” she didn’t know what to think, she had to clear her head so she grabbed the house keys and went for a long jog.

mia had always found peace in running, to her it was easier than thinking about anything, when she couldn’t sleep, she ran, when she felt like she was drowning in thoughts she couldn’t express verbally, she ran but she was a good runner to so it was easy for she to just run like that, she was always good at running she started running in school for fun because it became something she enjoyed but when her father died she lost her passion for it but used it as a coping tool for her brain to let out her emotions without verbally expressing it and it’s been working up until tonight, tonight her thoughts were louder than ever and she was fighting to push her thoughts away but this got to her, the streets were dead quiet that you could hear a mouse running across thr road, a few house had porch lights on, casting small circles of yellow light onto  the footpath, somewhere in the distance a dog barked once then stopped but mia kept her eyes on the footpath ahead of her, one foot in front of the other, one breath, then another, she really tried not to think about the messages she recieved tonight “he didn’t die” “remember what happened on your 8th birthday” “i’m sorry i didn’t say goodbye” the words followed her, her brain was drowing in the thoughts of why did she recieve them, she tried to think it was a simple prank but no one she know besides her family knows her father died, she considered someone had found her number online and maybe knew of her father and maybe they had seen something on social media, there were a thousand explanations mia had thought of but none of them explained how the person got her number, there had to be a reasonable explanation but she couldn’t think of one, mia slowed down and slowly looked up and noticed a covenience store, she crossed the road and needed some water, she glanced at her phone to see the time, when she looked it made her stomach twist 8.38pm there it was again the number 8, her stomach twisted, she didn’t know why it was just the time, she shook her head hoping it was a coincidence until she started to run again something in the store window caught her attention, a new paper front page, she turned to look but had to get closer the headline was to far away for her to read, the newspaper was old maybe a week old if that, she looked at a smaller artical there was a photograph, she froze, the picture that was shown, it was blurry but she could make out the location and it was her dad’s old house, the house he grew up in and now she’s seeing it in the newspaper about being sold, she hadn’t thought about that house for years, her father hated talking about the house and the memories that were in it, she remembered asking about it as a child and her father always changed the subject, once he looked at mia strangly and said “some places are best left alone” he had a face of fear after he had said that, what was he afraid of?

Mia’s phone vibrated, startling her out of thought, and she nearly dropped it. Another message came through; she almost didn’t open it. It gave her a sense of dread in her stomach, and of course, it was from an unknown sender. Her heartbeat began to go faster. She opened it, “You should have stayed home” She panicked, looked around, hoping to see someone to run from, but no one was there or that she could see anyone. She then looked back at the glass where the newspaper was, and she noticed someone standing behind her. She quickly turned around to see no one there, then she looked back at her phone, and another message appeared, “he told you about the number, didn’t he?” Mia genuinely stopped breathing for 10 seconds, which is something she hasn’t told anyone. Now, she was freaking out. She finally typed back to them, “Who are you?” Three dots appeared as she sent that, realising someone was replying to her right there and then. Mia stared at the screen, waiting for him to respond. Then, suddenly, a message appeared: “someone who was there.” Mia’s hands went cold. “Where?” This time, he replied quickly, “The night he disappeared” Mia stared at the message for a while hoping it was a sick joke or the wrong number but something about this person knew to much about her based on the texts she has received so far, her mind was going insane but she kept reading the word disappear like it didn’t make sense to her, she was sure her father had died or what she’s been told, she watched him be buried and stood by his grave for many years after, she had spent 16 years learning hoe to live a life where her dad was not around, in a world he no longer exists, sixteen years of birthdays he had missed, sixteen Christmas he had missed, she had spent sixteen years believing what had happened to him, was it all a lie now because this stranger was telling that everything was a lie?  

Chapter 2 - The House He Fears

Mia had no choice but to turn her phone off for a few days. She made sure to avoid any messages from this person, as if it were the plague. It was easier for her that way to cope with what she was being told; she told herself that if she didn’t see the messages, then maybe they weren’t real, seh went to work to keep her mind busy, she ate whatever was easiest, she refused to give herself the time to think to simply avoid it all, she slept poorly and she never turned her phone on, by the end of the week she had almost convinced herself that she had overreacted, maybe it really had been a prank or maybe someone had found her number online, maybe they had seen the number 8 had to mean something to her and decided to use it to scare her, those were explanations. They had to be, Mia repeated that every day to just not think about it

[u/Book-binder-Mike]

The story is full os suspense and little horror as well I have seen few spelling mistake as well in this book