Dark Silences

Thirty Nine.

*Alice's POV*

Looking back, I'm glad I did swallow that pill. It was strange, the way that one, tiny orange pill can torment you and drown you in all of your thoughts. Everything comes to life.

I sat on the end of the bed as it kicked in. Something had told me to take it. Although I pretended I didn't know what it was, deep down I knew. Corey had told me about this years ago.

'Acid,' he called it. He had told me to keep away from it. When I'd asked Danny the next day, he had laughed.

"LSD? Oh Alice, you don't need to worry. You'll never be exposed to that kind of stuff."

Jack had interrupted him and mumbled. "Yeah. As long as you stay away from Danny and Corey."

Now I was sitting on the end of the bed,  I was almost disappointed that nothing was happening. I was numb. Lost. Smothered in misery.

A shadow knocked at my window.

I looked up, almost uncaring of this beast's white eyes upon the glass. "Alice." It sang.

Silence.

"Alice." It sang again. "Don't leave me here. Here where your father left me."

I opened my mouth to talk but nothing would come out. The shadow with the piercing eyes shot through the glass and vanished. My body convulsed and I choked.

Everything became warm and I looked up at the ceiling and then at the floor. I took a deep breath. Everything was okay now.

Click click.

The door opened and a pale hand appeared. What followed left me in shock. My mother appeared, her skin deadly and her eyes black. Only one hand remained, the other just a bloody stump.

I squeaked.

"Alice." She spoke to me in the silence. "You're here."

"Mum..." Tears appeared in my eyes.

"I'm sorry. I look somewhat... Unfamiliar. Don't I?"

"Mum..." I felt as though hands were wrapped around my throat. "Your hand..."

"Sliced off." She smiled, showing her teeth. They weren't how I remembered, all sharp and prickly.

"Do you mind if I slice off yours, Alice?"

I screamed and threw myself into the corner, falling behind my bed. She disappeared.

For a moment there was silence. In the silence, my journal leapt into the air from my desk. It opened into a new page.

A song echoed through the air.

'Your father left me
Left me for dead
And there I lay
Hopeless as I bled'

As the song repeated, two words appeared in my journal. 'Help me.'

That's when I screamed at the top of my lungs, the footsteps beating down the hall.