by Ashley Hibbert
"It starts the same every time - I'm standing in a
room of white, no doors, and no walls. Everything's perfect
- horribly perfect. It's as if whoever designed it was waiting
for death to come. Here, they would stay for eternity, their
corpse perfectly preserved. No wind, not even a breeze.
There isn't a cobweb hanging in the corners. It's so beautiful
- so much so that I just want to throw up. I look around.
There's nothing - no way in and no way out. Not even a light
bulb, although the whole room is well lit. Silence screams
in my ear, so I scream back-
"Then I'm running. I don't know why - it's as if I
was running in air and when I hit the ground I didn't miss
a beat. I'm sweating, my hair is in my face, my chest is
burning - but still I run.
"I'm on pavement. On either side of me are houses.
It's well after dusk. The street curves. I run down a small
alley to a park. The alley is lined with bins and trash,
and huge rat races across my path just in front of me.
"The alley is dark and I slow down, though only a
little - I know that if I stop for a second I'll be dead.
"The alleyway opens up to the park.
"It's lighter in this area of town - I head towards
a corner of the park. Then I see my objective: an underpass
to the other side of town. I run down the slope, onto the
walkway. It's as dark as they alley - all the lights have
been smashed in, and each pace I take, echoes around me.
I feel as if the earth is pressing into me. I'm almost there
when I hear the echo of another person's feet behind me.
"I turn around, and there she is"
"At first she laughs. Then she looks at me sideways,
and I catch a glitter in her eyes from the street-light
above her. She looks at me, no- she looks into me. A terrible
pain erupts in my head, and I stumble, clutching the wall
and my head.
"'You've remembered," she says then laughs again,
and this time she does not stop. My head keeps hurting -
the laughing increases, and the pain increases, until finally
I feel as if my head is about to explode.
"Then I wake up, so utterly sad, crying until my alarm
clock goes off."
#
I stirred my legs awake, and took a sip from a nearby glass
of orange juice, lubricating my dry throat.
"So there you have it - so what's your prognoses doctor?
Am l insane?" I asked.
Jennifer's laugh was like the gentle ocean against the
shore. I relaxed.
"Far from it, Jeremy - all you're experiencing is
simply a natural reaction to the stress you've been put
under in the recent weeks and it's totally reasonable that
you're having some side-effects."
"Other people go through high school too, you know
- why am I the only one that's getting shell shock from
my Literature Essay?"
"You're right - yet you're different."
I smirked. "Good or bad different?"
"Good in this case - you choose to tell someone about
it. Other students don't have that courage."
"Well, not every student has a councillor as good
as you." I affirmed.
"Not every councillor has a client as favourable as
you are, Jeremy," she retorted.
I beamed, and gazed at the clock behind her - time was
up.
Jennifer caught my gaze,
"Same time next week?'
"Sure."
#
Jennifer's car drove into the distance, leaving me alone
amongst the orange street lights.
I started the twenty minute trek from the Health Centre
to home.
Metal stalked behind me, and I spun as the can fell into
the gutter, Dark phantoms loomed in the shadows, and I was
running from some fiend I knew nothing about.
I jogged across the empty road. The town was asleep.
I reached the side walk, and headed south.
Footsteps behind and I quickened my pace. I looked behind
yet the streetlights revealed nothing.
I kept running.
The lights became sparser and the streets darkened, fear
spurred me on.
I realised for the first time that I was in the wrong street
- I'd missed the turn that would lead me to the security
of home. The area looked strange, threatening - I'd rarely
ventured into this quadrant of town, and the feeling of
my sudden vulnerability threatened to suffocate me.
Suddenly a fragment of familiar street came into view,
and I ran towards it into a narrow alley-way. The only light
that revealed my path was that seeping from the streets
on either side.
A large mass ran across my path, and I caught sight of
a tail before it retreated back into its home. Realisation
dawned on me, and I stopped in my tracks.
My god, I gasped. I'm living my own nightmare.
My legs went numb, and my hands fell to my knees as I bent
over, horrified. Yet soon unmuffled footsteps resounded
behind me, and I was off again, racing like never before.
I burst into the park as I'd anticipated, and faltered for
a split second before heading around the left corner.
I contemplated my next move: apart from the Underpass,
my only other option was to run deeper into the unfamiliar
neighbourhood. The footsteps had stopped - maybe my pursuer
had simply gone to grass. I didn't dare look behind - somehow
I knew that if I turned from my goal just a second, I would
trip and fall.
I began sidestepping down the hill, and soon came into
view of the Underpass. Its entrance loomed before me, the
other side a dot of light.
I hit the pavement and kept running, committing myself.
#
The darkness pressed into me, suffocating.
Then the laughing. I stopped, knowing what I would find
even before I turned around.
It was her.
"You've remembered." She mocked. "You know
now that I can't let you go, don't you?"
"No.' I screamed.
Like before, the laughing wrenched my being. My knees began
to give way to gravity. I gasped for breath, but all I caught
was a musty odour like death. I fought to lift my head,
and looked at her cloaked face.
No. I screamed internally in denial.
It didn't have to be like this.
I screamed aloud in anger. I wrenched control from her
grasp, and strength returned to me.
The spell was broken,
I found myself racing to her. In her laugh I could sense
the disbelief, and as I neared I watched her cringe, defensively.
Yet I was out of control. I pounced on her cowering figure,
ripping away her hood as I fell on top of her. Her torso
collapsed under me, and we fell to the ground together.
She hit the cement hard, and I heard her skull crash against
the hard path, and a cool calm enveloped me. I shivered
uncontrollably.
I slowly raised me hand, and pulled back the slip of fabric
covering her face.
The face looked back with empty, surprised eyes, and the
pool of liquid beneath her head that stretched in every
direction, stealing colour from her cheeks.
Even in death however, the face was a dead give away to
its owner.
The face belonged to Jennifer.
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