Tick… tack… It’s 3:00 now.” Once again, the sound from the electronic clock rang out again. On the rusty old radio, the shrill sounds of the song “The Child with a Black Heart” began to play again. It’s probably the 13th day I’ve heard this song coming from my old radio. But, it seems that this time is not the same as the previous 12 times, right? Accompanying the eerie melody of the song is a series of muffled screams from someone.
For a moment, I suddenly remembered the story that my grandfather told me when I was 9 years old. It was the story of a boy who had an unhappy family. His father was an alcoholic, a man who only knew how to indulge in cigarette smoke and social evils every day. Not only that, but he had to watch him beat his mother so many times that he had to be hospitalized dozens of times a week. And then, perhaps it came, too, that his mother passed away in the face of the fifth abuse of the week. At that time, the boy was only 14 years old.
That boy seems to know that he has a natural talent for music. I don’t remember clearly, it seems that he wrote a song at a very young age – 14 years old. But the melody really made me feel creepy, even though I only heard the remake, I still understood how scary the original was. I remember that my grandfather said that after composing that song, the boy killed his father and then committed suicide. It was also rumored that his soul had actually haunted the song. Because when the police arrived at the scene, the notes about that song flew without wings. It felt like it had flown back to the underworld and become Satan’s favorite music.
The story didn’t stop there, about 10 years after the incident, records of the song were suddenly found in a cemetery in the city center. However, underneath that pile of papers was a man who was struggling, as if he was trying to do something? And then, the police came, but perhaps not in time, the man was no longer alive. They rummaged through his notebook paper, and suddenly saw a piece of paper that said “The Child with a Black Heart”, and underneath was a piece of music for that year’s song.
The police officers seemed so happy to find this that they quickly returned to the headquarters to listen to the song in the hope that “we will find the solution to the mystery of that year.” But, things didn’t seem so simple, those police soldiers after listening to that song, they had really terrible symptoms. Some people vomited blood, others had brain hemorrhages, and even had blindness. After discovering the incident, no one dared to listen to that song again. Because at this time, it was probably manipulated by some evil force, not the soul of that boy.
Rumors about the song became more and more widespread, so popular that the whole government had to reassure all the people. Even so, it still seems that it cannot be reduced somewhat. On social networks, there is still a lot of information related to it, and it is also a topic that netizens have been talking about for many years, almost so much that it constantly becomes the top search. But one thing I have always wondered my grandfather is that, during all these years, has not found any evidence that can explain the mystery of that boy?
My grandfather only laughed slightly, because perhaps he himself could not know. After that, he told me that every full moon night, when the clock strikes exactly 3 a.m., a purging ghost will appear again. It had a small figure, a kitchen knife in his hand, his clothes were tattered, and he would sniff out the money from the family. The people who were sought by it actually had a terrible death, they had their faces cut across their faces, their hearts would be cut open and dipped in a black liquid, along with their legs and arms would also be cut into pieces.
Hearing this, I also guessed who that person was, that person was probably the boy of that year. Carrying a grudge against those who betrayed their families like that, he was probably the only one, and I think he would kill many more people. Not unexpectedly, my grandfather went on to say that, since then, reports of fatal incidents have reached thousands. Actually, the police at that time were very confused, they didn’t know what to do, the mystery of that year had not been solved, where would it go?
Then, about a year after that discovery was officially closed, a social media account suddenly posted a music clip with its name: “The child with a black heart”. At that time, netizens once again made waves because they knew that this was a small part of the song. Once again, the police opened the discovery, and this time, they were determined to solve the mystery. They opened a global investigation, which involved the FBI. And, after a period of searching for information about the account that posted a small part of the song, the police learned that the person was the son of the late musician who had recorded the song in the past.
When his father died, he continued to study the piece, and then played it again. By the time everything was done, he posted a demo of the song on social media a few hours before the official version was posted. After the police learned about the story, they went to his house. But it seemed that this time was the same as the last time, he had died exactly like his father. At this time, perhaps the police realized the danger of the song, but by the time they realized it, it was too late, the number of listens to the song had reached nearly 10 million just because this is a topic that has never stopped being hot in cyberspace. It all almost collapsed, they didn’t know how to save those innocent souls. Wouldn’t everything end like this?
About 13 days later, the media reported on the incident. All expressed their compassion for those who had died. The mystery behind that song is still on the journey to find the solution. The deeper you explore it, the more the stories behind it are revealed. And there’s a story about an unfortunate family that gets a lot of attention from members of the FBI. It is the story of a family of three, they live happily together in a suburb, surrounded by a vast steppe. The family daily worked as a cattle raiser, flower grower, as well as taking care of their farm.
It seemed that life would be happy for a long time. But no, an event struck the family. It was when the father began to feel that his current life was too deprived and boring, he fell into gambling to make money, as well as indulging in alcohol and smoke to find life more interesting. Since then, the father has almost changed completely, he has treated his family very cruelly, he beat his wife to the point of being hospitalized nearly a dozen times a week. His son really didn’t understand why his father had changed so much, he had begged him to spare his mother many times but he didn’t seem to respond. Until one day, the wife died just because she was abused too much.
The son was really miserable at this time, always blaming himself for not being able to protect his mother. Until the end, he had a grudge against his own father, he composed a song to be able to express his own hatred. Hearing this detail of the story, the FBI knew that they would once again have to go back to the previous house where the family lived to find the final solution here. When they got there, they felt an unpleasant smell, as well as an unusually cold air. The deeper they went inside, they suddenly saw an old photo covered in dust. It seems that there is a picture of the boy in the other story. He looked very happy on his face, it didn’t seem like any incident had happened at this time.
Walking around the house for about an hour, the FBI still couldn’t find anything. And in the end, they still have to go back empty-handed. Suddenly, a member of the investigation team asked: “Why don’t we invite a magician to come and summon the soul of that boy?” – “But it’s been a long time, it’s been 10 years, maybe his soul is no longer here, but instead a demon, I think everyone’s death after listening to the song must have been caused by that demon,” another member replied. I remember at that time, when I heard this, I suddenly turned around and asked my grandfather: “Why didn’t they invite the magician to capture that demon instead of summoning the boy’s spirit?” “But the important thing is that at that time we couldn’t determine what kind of demon it was, moreover, at that time, there was no magician strong enough to be able to catch demons,” my grandfather replied with a slight smile.
Seeing that, I felt a little disappointed with that story, I really don’t know what it would be like in the future if that demon wasn’t caught. Then, my grandfather went on to say that after that, the FBI could only remove all the content about the song from all social media platforms as well as web platforms. Perhaps, their attempt this time was unsuccessful. “Beep..beep..” Suddenly my alarm sounded, pulling me back to an empty reality. Looking at the clock, it is now 5 am. I couldn’t believe the time I had been thinking about that story for so long. It felt like I had just experienced a dream. And if it’s really a dream, I want to be able to stay a little longer so I can know what the end will be.
I feel really disappointed that the story has not had the most satisfactory solution. I also wondered, what if someone still kept the material related to that song at that time? Will it spread rapidly again, and then millions more people will die? And what will the police be able to do after those two great defeats, or will they fail again to bring the death toll to the billions? Countless questions kept running in my head, I honestly wanted to know the end of that story. I thought, maybe I’ll have to set myself the most satisfying ending. In the meantime, something strange happened, the radio had disappeared? It’s really weird, it’s just here, right? It seems to have emitted someone’s scream, right? Never mind it, maybe it’s just somewhere around here.
The next morning, I woke up, and in front of me was a strangely peaceful scene. I felt so confused, was it a dream? And then, my father suddenly came in and told me to clean the attic today because he was a little busy. I also agreed to my father’s request because I didn’t have anything to do today. While I was cleaning the place, I suddenly saw a rather strange document. It looks like an old diary. At that time, out of curiosity, I picked up the notebook and opened it to check it out, but what caught my eye was something really scary, was it a sandpaper? At that time, I was really surprised to read its name – “THE CHILD WITH A BLACK HEART”. I thought this thing wasn’t real, right? It had a strange attraction to me, it felt like it wanted me to open it up. This thing is weird, it has a huge attraction, and should I decide to open it up? I felt that it was manipulating me, right.
By: Nguyen Hong Anh
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