Runaway Halloween

Chapter 5

Seeing those few words almost made her drop the phone on top of the cloak. Melanie kept a hold as heat emanated from it. She assumed it was the heat her body generated which was causing it.

The screen immediately went blank as Melanie tried to turn the power on. No life entered the mobile. "Damn you, why don't you work for me?" she shouted.

"Mellllllaaaaannnnnnniiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeee," she heard someone call.

Her eyes darting around the room the mobile phone screen flickered to life. Snapping her vision to it, the screen darkened once more. Shaking it, she wanted answers to her thoughts.

Rising from the bed, she held the phone in her hand as she went to the bathroom.

Inside, she placed both hands on the sink, looking into the mirror. She saw how drawn and tired she had become and wondered why her body was not telling her she needed sleep. But would sleep come if she laid on the bed?

As she stared at her tired eyes, Melanie squinted to look past her reflection into the background, seeing something rise behind her. Frightened to turn, she watched it in the reflection as it continued it's journey. She wanted to turn, but her feet felt as if they were nailed to the spot where she stood.

Slowly the thing behind her rose. She watched as it approached the same height as her.

All of a sudden, it dropped down a little and seemed to be encircling something under it.

Melanie watched as something materialised into the thing which she had watched rise from the floor.

Soon, she was faced with the reflection.

She felt her body go limp, and unable to prevent her body drop to the floor.

Her head banged the side of the bath, before she lay unconscious.

********************

Consciousness regained, she was lain on the bed, darkness entering her bedroom.

She opened her eyes slow as she turned over in her bed and reached out her arm. "Brian," she lazily said, expecting him to be there.

No reply.

Melanie snapped herself awake and looked to where Brian usually laid.

No one there.

A tear rolled down her cheek as it dawned on her once more that he had been dead for a few months. Then she remembered last night. It must have all been a dream. The house would still feel warm, and Brian's spirit would still be around to look after her.

She pushed back the duvet, and placed one foot on the floor.

Good start. There was nothing under them apart from the carpet. What she had witnessed last night must have been part of a nightmare. She had seen people dressed as death so many times during the evening, and the images must have invaded her dreams, making them appear real.

Rising from the bed, she went to the bathroom to have a wash. Turning the light on, she looked in the mirror. Nothing there which wasn't supposed to have been. The mirror reflected everything as it stood in the 'real' world. But as she turned to double check, one thing caught her eye – something dark in the bath.

Her head turning, she thought the dream had ended, but what was that in the bath?

Reaching for it, she picked it up and shook it. It looked like a cloak she had 'dreamt' about last night, but since when did dreams become a reality? She shook it, and gasped as something dropped from the sleeve into the bath. Reaching her hand to retrieve it, she quickly threw it back.