About:
The cave is forbidden for a reason. For Tia, it's a load of bullsh*t and she is determined to show her superstitious grandmother that the stories and lectures are full of crap; even if that means Tia has to blackmail the creepy kid from class to take her there. They've been hiding the fact that their mother went missing months ago, but Tia only cares about getting her grandmother off her case. Perhaps if she hadn't been so selfish, so angry, she might have realized sooner that the stories were true...
The Curse of Contempt
Genre: Thriller
Format: Short story
Publication Status: Unpublished
Intended Audience: Young Adult (YA), Ages 12 to 18.
Comparable Films / Books:
Goosebumps meets Warehouse 13 set on the wild coastline.
Notable Achievements:
Rachael's debut urban fantasy novel "Demons at the Doorstep" was the 2020 winner of the Canadian Book Club Awards
Content Considerations
Content Warnings:
- Injury, death, or gore, Bullying
Additional Notes:
- Nothing is explicitly described, only alluded to. However, it could be considered mature content depending on how the story is interpreted.
About the Author
Rachael Bell-Irving is a Canadian Author based in Vancouver, BC, on the traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. After graduating from the University of Guelph with a dual specialization in Classical Studies and Zoology, Rachael returned to her coastal roots, where she lives with her partner and works as a writer and content developer by day. When not buried deep in her writing, Rachael enjoys trying new coffee shops, playing video games, and dreaming of more adventures. Connect with Rachael through her website rbiwrites.ca or @rbiwrites on socials.
Short Film Adaptation Idea
The full short story could be developed into a five minute film.
The narrator leads their vindictive classmate Tia into a coastal cave, considered forbidden by locals because it's believed to be a burial ground and house spirits. Despite the narrator's warnings to be calm and not get angry, Tia is verbally aggressive when it appears the cave is empty. She threatens to follow through with her blackmail, that she'll tell everyone the narrator's mother has been secretly missing for months and they've been living alone since their sister ran away from home.
To protect their secret, the narrator leads Tia into the burial room that's hidden at the back of the cave, where the bully realizes there are real graves and some of them are fresh. The narrator reveals it's their sister, and the bones Tia stepped on when entering was their mother. The spirits target anyone who enters the cave in anger:
"Tia’s hands go to her throat. Her mouth opens and closes, like a fish that has been pulled out of water. My mother did that too when the spirts wrapped around her throat and squeezed. They did what I had always wished I could do. They hated the anger as much as I did. So, when my mother tracked me down to the cave in anger, they made her go away."
Despite trying to protect their sister, she was also angry that the narrator kept returning to the cave despite what happened, and the spirits killed her too. The story ends with the spirits strangling Tia. The narrator watches with little sympathy, too entranced with their own curiosity toward the spirits and wanting to know about the cave.
