"Catherine!"
The girl heard someone calling her name as she sped through the crowded school hallways, pressing her books tightly to her chest. "These damned voices again...", she thought to herself as she sighed heavily, ignoring the call.
"Catherine!" the girl heard again, this time louder, as if she was trapped inside her head and the voice was chasing her. She shut her eyes and gritted her teeth, attempting to focus on the hallways' uproar. It was the end of another tiring school week and students were flowing out of their classrooms hurriedly; some making friday-night plans and others preferring to head home.
"Catherine!" the voice repeated in a more insisting way, as the girl felt her body tense and her nerves twitch. She lowered her head, rushing towards the exit door, accidentally bumping into students and tripping over her own feet.
Just as she shakily reached out for the door handle, a hand suddenly squeezed her shoulder tight, making her jump. The hand gently spun her around, and Catherine recognized the blonde girl standing before her, an amused expression on her face.
"Goddamn it, girl, I've been calling you for the last hour! Why the rush, is everything okay?" she asked, her hazel eyes penetrating Catherine's dark brown ones in concern.
"I, uh... yeah, yeah, I'm totally fine..." she mumbled incoherently, her body relaxing to the familiar features of her best friend. Catherine then exhaled deeply and managed a weak smile, resuming:
"I'm sorry Emily, didn't hear you with all that noise."
The word "paranoid" was repeating in her head, because, in the end, the little demon living in there was right, wasn't he? That's all Catherine had become ever since that damned night; a prey to her own pathetic hallucinations, a coward, hiding from the world and herself, unable to rationally think.
"Ah, no problem", Emily chuckled. "Just wanted to say bye." Scratching the back of her neck, she resumed: "I don't know, you've been looking kind of troubled these days, and your mind seems to be constantly elsewhere... Cathy, you know you can tell me if anything's wrong, right?"
Emily looked genuinely worried; she really wasn't used to Catherine being so distant.
"It really isn't anything, Em, I've just been a little tired you see... Nothing the weekend can't fix after all."
Catherine tried to seem the most joyful possible; she didn't want her best friend worrying about something she couldn't help with.
Emily smirked at the mention of the weekend and shot Catherine a mischievous look; before slowly stating:
"You forgot."
Catherine's smile dropped, her cheerful expression being replaced by a puzzled one. Playfully punching her friend's shoulder, Emily added:
"Saturday will be the 31st of October... Saturday's Halloween, dumbass!"
Catherine's eyes widened a bit; her thoughts have been so hazy lately that she had totally forgotten about it.
"Oh, right, yeah... I'm not really up for a party, though..."
"It's okay, me neither, to be honest. Although you know Halloween's my favorite day of the year, so we really need to plan something. We'll just watch a movie together!"
Halloween was actually the worst thing that could happen to Catherine; she had had enough traumatizing in a single month. She thought about declining the offer first; but then again, at home or at the movies, there is no escape.
Catherine eventually answered:
"Okay, works for me. I know I've been behaving like a big-ass potato lately and I appreciate your patience a lot. You pick the movie!"
"Oh, don't you worry about this... The movie will be so damn scary you'll have to sleep over", Emily grinned before turning away and walking the opposite direction to catch up with some girl.
"Yeah, with no doubt..." Catherine thought as she stepped out of the school building, not knowing whether to anticipate or dread the weekend.
*******
Catherine lazily dropped her school bag on her bedroom's wooden floor.
"Fuck this" she exhaustedly muttered as she walked towards her mirror. Leaning over, she noticed- and with great disgust, how unusually pale her skin had gotten over the last month, and how deep her hollow eyes were sinking into the black pits that were surrounding them, because of the lack of sleep. Sighing, she desperately tried to fix her unruly, black hair but it was hopeless. She was a complete, total mess.
Focusing intently on the middle of her forehead where a pimple had newly appeared, her hands suddenly stopped moving and her eyes involuntarily shifted to stare at the left spot behind her in the mirror. For a millisecond, Catherine's pulse quickened; had she just seen a shadow plastered on the wall? She could've sworn it wasn't there when she entered her room, two minutes ago. Trembling, she slowly turned around, facing the wall that was behind her: the shadow had disappeared. Swallowing hard, she gathered all the courage and energy she still had and spoke as firmly as she could, trying to hide her quivering, weak voice:
"I-I know it's you! I know you're here."
Inhaling sharply, she resumed:
"Please leave me alone. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
The room remained eerily silent. No unusual sights. No nauseous feelings. It had left.
Catherine had to accept the bitter truth: she really couldn't do anything about it, so she eventually had to get used to it.
