Half-men. Scary short story
One boy moved with his mom and dad to a new house.
The house stood on the very edge of the city, far from other houses, and it was a very long walk to the school. Yet in the yard, all the children always played together and immediately accepted the boy as a friend.
After school they played hide-and-seek, catch-up, fortress siege (the sand fortress was on the shore of the river), black well (it was necessary to find the darkest place and hide in it) and other interesting games.
Once, when they were playing "high above the ground" (in this game it was necessary to climb trees, getting down to the ground as little as possible), the children suddenly began to shout:
"Half-man! Half-man!"
And they began to point in the direction of the entrance, from where an old man in a wheelchair rode out. He didn't have legs.
The children began to tease him, calling him half-man, and the old man in the wheelchair threatened them with his fist and scolded them.
The boy did not like that his new friends were teasing the cripple old man.
"Why are you teasing him?"
"He was first who started," one girl answered, "as soon as he came here to live, he immediately began to scare us with some kind of half-men that come at night and cut off half from other people.
"For what?" the boy was surprised.
"Because they don't like whole people. They are half-men," said the girl.
The children did not tease the cripple for long, but they also lost interest in playing in the yard and went to the river - to play stone skipping, where you have to throw stones so that they jump on the water as much as possible.
"What kind of half-men are these?" the boy asked the children.
But the kids just shrugged.
"No one knows."
And the girl, one who told about the old man, added:
"My dad said that there are no half-men. It is just that old man went crazy. And his legs were cut off because he had a car accident."
And the children forgot about the crippled old man and began to play on.
But at night the boy had a dream. He saw strange people but could not understand what had happened to them. They had legs and arms, but something about these people was strange, incomplete.
Then the boy realized what was wrong with them. They really were half halves. That is, they had only one real half - right or left. And the other was fake - like a reflection in a mirror. These half-men had to pretend to be real all their lives. And they were very afraid that other people would see that they were only half real. And so, they hated complete people. During the day they pretended to be real, and at night they caught people - those who were complete. They cut off their arms and legs so that they too would become half-men.
After this dream, the boy began to look closely at people. Some people tried not to stand straight, but only sideways, so that no one would notice that they were half-men.
There were not very many such people, but they were everywhere.
One day the boy ran into an old man in a wheelchair at the entrance. The old man looked at him carefully and the boy realized that he was looking for whether the boy was whole or half.
"Half-man," said the boy suddenly, though he had no intention of teasing the old man.
"I don’t have legs," the old man replied, "but I’m still a complete person. And you?"
"What?" the boy was surprised. He was already beginning to believe that the old man had indeed gone mad.
"Why don't you like to look in the mirror?" asked the old man.
But the boy covered his ears and ran out of the entrance. As he ran, he shouted:
"Half-man! Half-man!"
And the children who were playing in the street immediately picked up his cry:
"Half-man! Half-man!"
More scary stories:
• In the dark. Scary short story
• Something from a dark corner. Scary short story
• In the old cemetery. Scary short story
• Queen of ants. Scary short story