HN Alptraum
Bio
https://linktr.ee/hnalptraum
HN Alptraum is a brand new horror novelist whose religious-themed scares will take you on a journey you could never expect. Read their first book, Lost Flock at the link.
Stories (11/0)
The Dragon of the Wood
Timmy was a lonely boy, though not chronically. It was an event of unfortunate circumstance that the young boy found himself in the woods, scared, alone, and unsure of how to get out. He had gone outside, barely leaving the sight of his home to play in the woods along the back of his yard. It wasn't until his mother called for him to come back inside that, as a nine-year-old will tend to do, Timmy ran deeper into the woods.
By HN Alptraum2 years ago in Fiction
Desert Train
When Arielle had woken up that morning, she hadn't suspected that she would end up stuck in a locomotive cabin barreling down old-looking train tracks with no conductor, no sign of stopping, and no memory of how the situation had come to he. But then, it wasn't something she normally gave much thought. And yet, there is exactly where she found herself at present, standing inside of a train moving much faster than she thought a train that old would be able to, opposite its incredibly warm coal furnace. As far as she knew, she was alone on the train. The cabin was small enough that she surely would have seen another person if there was one, as she hardly had room to move around herself, let alone if there were multiple bodies in it. Simultaneously, she was glad for this and extremely disheartened by it. No one else being there meant that at least she wasn't more uncomfortable, as well as the fact that no one else was forced to undergo whatever her fate may be. The other side of that though, was that it was entirely up to her to figure out both what exactly was happening and what to do about it. The only thing that she could think of was to let the furnace burn out, but by the looks of it it had been going for a long time and would continue to do so for much longer. If there was enough track for it to run long enough for her to die of thirst, then by the looks of the fire, it would. And that concept was terrifying on an additional level, since as she had woken up on the train, she had no way of knowing how long she had been unconscious or what had happened while she had been. So she needed to stop the train. That should be simple enough, she figured. All she had to do was find the brake. She looked about the cabin for something resembling a brake and eventually found a red metal lever. Sure enough, the lettering on the side of it read "Emergency Stop." When she pulled it down, there was a hollow click, then nothing. She pushed it back into place and tried again. The same click, the same nothing. Someone had cut the brake line. She had expected that it wouldn't be that easy, but had done her best to remain somewhat hopeful. Now, though, she slunk back against the wall, feeling defeated. Knowing it would amount to nothing, but wanting to have exhausted all her options before completely giving up, she reached into her pocket. Her phone was gone. She had known it was before she even checked. The weight of it that normally pushed against her thigh had been absent the entire time she had been on the train. She could see out of the front of the train and endless expanse of desert. She knew that even if she were to resort to the extreme and jump from the train, if she survived, she would die of exposure before being able to at all better her situation. She also knew that she could not simply allow the train to run through a desert she knew neither the size nor location of, but not how to stop it. The cabin, excepting herself and the burning furnace, was empty. And so too was the area around the tracks. There was no way she would be able to use anything to artificially slow the train, even if she was able to survive the hostile desert. The back of the train was obstructed, and the speed was too great to stick out her head to look behind, so she had no way of knowing whether there were cars on her train or if she was alone on the doomed locomotive. She hoped for the sake of others that it was the latter, and chose to believe as much. Suddenly, a stroke of brilliance flashed in her mind. She stood the farthest to the left she was able, and jumped. As she landed, she felt the train tilt slightly, confirming that she was thinking correctly. She tried again, jumping repeatedly without pause, and felt the angle increase slightly. After a few moments of doing so, the train started to tip. Arielle rolled out of her jump to a position on the side of the furnace against the wall, holding her knees against her face in a ball. The hot coals scattered around the cabin, sizzling as they hit the floor and walls, and burning her legs and arms. There was a loud crash as the train fell to the ground, stirring up an enormous burst of sand as it did. Bruised and burned, Arielle took a moment to collect herself before standing in the now sideways train. The door was on the right, so now sat overhead. She crawled over the furnace, standing on it to reach, which she could easily in the small car. She pushed the door open and heard it slam on the side, signalling that it was safe to grasp the edges of the opening and slowly lift herself out. As she stood on the side of the train, she looked behind it and saw two cars, both with sliding doors facing up. She went to the first and pulled the door open after some struggle. Inside the car, she found crates labeled "food" and "water." She cried, relieved that she would, in fact be able to survive, possibly even long enough to get help. Each of the crates was outfitted with a metal circle on the side, and next to the door was a long iron stick with a hook on the end, seemingly intended to pull out the crates from this exact situation. She grappled one labelled "water" and pulled it up, placing it down next to herself. The crate was simply locked, lacking a padlock and only kept closed by the built in mechanism. She turned it to the unlocked position and opened the box, revealing a single case of bottled water, explaining the relative ease of pulling it up. She removed the water and threw it to the ground, following by slowly climbing down the bottom of the car. When she reached the ground, she noticed that the train itself had been built like some sort of balancing beam, as though it had been intended to be tipped over.
By HN Alptraum2 years ago in Fiction
Amnesia
It seems cliche, to say that I have no memory of what happened, but it's the truth. In fact, I don't have much memory of anything right now. The last thing I do remember is letting my dog outside in the morning, then everything goes black until now, when I find myself sitting on a passenger train surrounded by nearly one hundred other people. I remember looking around myself whenever my memory starts back up again and confirming that there were several people around me filling the train, but since that time, no one has spoken to me, and - somewhat conveniently - there are no people immediately in my vicinity, and the train is moving too quickly for me to move from my seat to talk to anyone else.
By HN Alptraum2 years ago in Fiction
The Train Game
"Shit," the man muttered, bringing his hand to his temple. There was a sharp pain in it, which felt like the symptom of a lack of sleep even though he had just risen from unconsciousness. He looked around at his surroundings, finding himself in a wooden room which was not lit at all. Feeling himself moving at what he could tell was a high speed, as well as the sound of clacking metal, he was able to determine that where he was was actually a train car. The man approached the side of the car, expecting to find a door of some kind, which he did, though it was impossible to move.
By HN Alptraum2 years ago in Horror
Shinkansen
Kaito woke up with a throbbing pain in his head and a swirling feeling in his stomach, as though he was about to vomit. He used his right hand to grasp his temple, in an attempt to alleviate the pain he felt. Failing that, he removed his hand, and it took with it a clump of his black hair, which was matted and wet. Feeling it in his hand, Kaito slowly opened his eyes, looking around at his surroundings as he grew used to both the bright florescent lighting and the intense pain he felt.
By HN Alptraum2 years ago in Fiction
Event
The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The night was a new moon, so this out of place flame was the only source of light amongst the trees. No one was around to see it as it burned through the night, and when the sunrise came, it went. This would continue every new moon night through the next three months; the flame was lit just as the sun started to descend, and was extinguished just as it began to rise. Even though it was summer, and more people found themselves in the woods, no one ever saw the candle, since the cabin was in such a remote part of the woods which no one ever visited. Despite this, when the sky was absent a moon, the candle would be lit.
By HN Alptraum2 years ago in Horror
The Cabin
The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. It was a bright candle, able to be seen from the beaten path several hundred yards from the cabin. It was the first thing you noticed when you looked at the formerly empty building.
By HN Alptraum2 years ago in Horror
Don't Go to Sleep
Don't go to sleep. You've been taught many things: that it's necessary, that it's natural, and most especially, that it's safe. These are all untrue. Sleep is something which is a holdover from our animal ancestors, and modern humans should be able to function without. For our entire existence though, we have continued to sleep as though it still is something we need for our survival. Little do we know that all we do when we sleep is make ourselves more vulnerable.
By HN Alptraum2 years ago in Horror
The Hunt
Chet had been preparing to take his shot for several minutes, stalking the deer with his eyes. He held up his rifle, taking great care that the weapon was aimed directly at its intended target. When he moved, he did so slightly, making sure that the deer was always at the end of his bullet's trajectory. Chet was a skilled hunter, and he knew what he needed to do to make sure that his shot was going to hit its mark. When he finally felt confident that he was going to hit the animal, he out his finger on the trigger and started to squeeze.
By HN Alptraum2 years ago in Horror
Dragondawn
There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. This was a mantra which Zhang Si had grown accustomed to hearing repeated throughout his life, though he had never known how it was truly meant to be interpreted. Clearly, it was - at least at its surface - an objective fact, as as old as dragons were, they were not eternal. On the other side of that, however, the dragons had been there longer than any other race could remember. Si, the youngest Zhang, had lived in the Valley for his entire life, and the same could be said of every dragon he had ever met, which included his father Zhang Shu, who was entering soon into the second millennium of his reign as emperor. Before Shu, his own father, Zhang She, had ruled over the dragons for over three thousand years, living his entire five-millennium life inside the Valley.
By HN Alptraum2 years ago in Fiction
1,000,000
Winning the lottery is supposed to make life easy, but for John Hinklock, it had brought nothing but misery and difficulty. He had been down on his luck for a long time, and had purchased a ticket as a frantic, last-ditch effort to eliminate his financial concerns. He figured that in the best case he would win, and in the worst he would only be out a few dollars, which was nothing when compared to the money he was already short.
By HN Alptraum2 years ago in Horror
