The Red Room (short story)

For other uses, see The Red Room.

The Red Room was written by H.G.Wells in 1896. It is a horror/supernatural short story about a young man who stays in a castle in which three old people live.

The really really really old castle is said to have a haunted room called the "Red Room". This room is presumed to be haunted by a ghost. The young man decides to stay a night in this room to cast away any fears of the ghost. He sets himself up in the room and lights his candles. But just after midnight the candles suddenly start going out and in a whirlwind of panic the young man fights with the 'ghost' desperately trying to relight the candles as one by one they all go out. He violently crashes around the room throwing furniture and then faints when he strikes his head. When he wakes up the old people ask him if he now believes the room is haunted. He replies that it is not, but rather that it contains something far worse than any ghost: "Fear! Fear that will not have light nor sound, that will not bear with reason, that deafens and darkens and overwhelms. It followed me through the corridor, it fought against me in the room." Arguably, this story ends in a big anticlimax, and seems very scientific for a horror story.