Your worst Nightmare

A single red rose!

No one could have known the darkness that plagued his mind. No one would have believed in the ghosts that led him to the edge of madness!

It started with a heartbeat. The slow, rhythmic boom of a drum in the distance. A herald of life. A herald to death. The heartbeat stopped!

Six husky men carried the coffin, their faces unsmiling, earnest, absorbed in their task. The mourners gathered around the graveside as the preacher said prayers that no one really heard. Mutterings of condolence and sympathy mingled with the wind that blew from a surly sky. A storm was brewing. Dark clouds were descending!

At the wake there were many strangers. People he didn't know offered deepest sympathy with a handshake and a kind word or two. Most of it fell on deaf ears. His mind was too numb to comprehend. The only thing he seemed to understand was that no one else could comprehend the pain he was feeling. How could they? They hadn't lost a soulmate!

That night, when everyone else had gone home and he was alone in the house, he cried. She had left him. How could she leave him? Why was she taken away from him? She was so young, 27 years old. Far too young to die!

A shadow crossed the room.

"Alice?" He mumbled. He looked up, followed the direction of the shadow. "Alice?" He called again. There was no answer, no sign of the shadow. And certainly no sign of Alice. He cried again!

He was awoken at 1.14 am by a clap of thunder. The storm was huge. Rain rattled the windows, wind pushed at the panes, threatening to shatter their defense against the cold. A flash of lightening threw shadows scurrying back to the corners of the room, even if only for a split-second. The shadows regrouped and recharged. Once more the assault of darkness draped its veil across the room. The gloom, it seemed, would never abate from his mind... ever again.

Someone called his name. Or was it the wind? Alice? Could it have been Alice? His pupils dilated, trying to search among the shadows. He was certain Alice was in the room. Another flash of lightning, a second of brilliant light.

There! Alice was there, by the foot of the bed, illumined by the flash of lightning!

"Alice!" He cried, "Is that you Alice?"

There was no reply. Only the howl of the wind, the rattle of the rain, the roar of the storm.

And yet, he was certain, she was there. He'd seen her! He had seen Alice. He didn't sleep again that night. He stayed awake, keeping vigil. Watching, waiting for Alice to return. She never did!

A week had passed. He bought flowers and went to the cemetery. As he neared the gravestone, he had seen a mourner, dressed in black. A black, lace veil over her head. It looked as though the grave she was attending, was next to, or close by Alice's grave. She held a single red rose in her hand, and he could tell, even from a distance, that she was weeping tears of sorrow. He could relate. He walked on, past a rather large family mausoleum. It had obviously stood for generations, and no doubt held generations of family members. He didn't bother to read the epitaph. He walked on. When he emerged at the other side of the mausoleum, he noticed that the lady with the rose had gone. He kept walking.

When he reached Alice's grave, he was very surprised to find the single red rose laying by the tombstone. He looked all around, but could not see the lady anywhere. Who was she? Why was she visiting Alice's grave? Where the hell did she go? He knelt down by the graveside and picked up the rose, as if it held a clue. It didn't! Was she a friend of Alice? If so, from where, or when? He thought, he knew all of Alice's friends, yet he hadn't recognized this woman. She was a stranger to him, an enigma. A haunting torment that would niggle at his sanity in the days, weeks and months to come!