Chapter 4

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Melanie watched the darkness engulf the garden as a chill descended her spine. She moved from the window as she shivered.

Unable to answer any question, she needed to hear Brian's voice, because taught her how much she was missing him.

She reached for her mobile phone from her handbag. With it in hand, she clicked through the prompts to find Brian's number. Pressing the green button which prompted her to telephone the number, she listened to his voice, "Sorry I'm unable to come to the phone right now. I am either busy, or saw who you were and just decided to ignore you. If you like to leave a message, please do so. If not, and I don't know who it is, there will be no chance of you getting a call back."

Melanie smiled at his sarcasm, and felt a tear roll down her cheek as she spoke, "Hi Bri, it's me, Melanie. If you get..." she paused and felt stupid, before realising he could not answer her message. She pressed the 'end' button before throwing the phone onto the work surface. Placing her hands either side of where the phone had landed, she looked at the screen glow in the blackness around her. She willed it to ring and Brian to be on the other end, but deep inside herself knew it would never happen.

Leaving it, she walked back to the living room.

Sitting in the chair by the fireplace, she reached out her hands to the coldness of where the warm bars of the electric fire had earlier been. She had preferred a 'real' fire burning to keep the room cosy. It was a lot of hard work to get it started and had to be careful during the day, but it always felt nice as she sat in front of it.

Nightly, she would sit in this chair thinking of the good times she and Brian had shared. Now, it was all change. She had known Brian had been dead for six months, and had him buried, but was still able to feel his presence in their home. Friends had asked her why she did not want to move, but she told them there were too many good memories in this house, and she wanted to keep a hold of them for as long as she was able. She explained how she could feel his presence and it comforted her knowing he was still around – even if she was unable to see him.

It all seemed to change in an instant when she arrived home tonight.

As soon as she had entered, the coldness pushed itself at her. She thought it was because the fire had not been lit, but fleetingly seeing Brian - or what she thought was him – in her home gave her some comfort and it had warmed a little, but soon went back cold when she witnessed what she did in the back garden.

She tried eagerly tried to find an explanation, but was unable to arrive at one, reaching the conclusion conclusion it must have been her imagination playing tricks with her. On tonight, of all nights, there could have been many people wandering the streets dressed as death, and it could have been any number of them by her window, and maybe her imagination just ran away with her when she thought she saw one in the house with Brian.

Getting a coat from the back of the chair, she placed it around her upper body and snuggled into the chair under it.

Her eyes began to droop, and soon she was asleep.

Brian invaded her dreams as he had done most nights since passint, but she enjoyed seeing him, making her feel as if she had her own guardian angel and would be protected from anything.

The mobile phone on the kitchen work top begun to light and play it's ringtone.

Startled, she awoke scanning the room. Melanie had forgotten where she was, but soon her eyes adjusted to the darkness and saw it was her own living room. Realising this, her eyes quickly diverted to where the noise came from and saw the light of her mobile light the wall in the kitchen.

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