Runaway Halloween

Chapter 6

Being led down a dark passage, Brian looked either side of him at the walls he was unable to see, apart from the famous bony fingers of death which lit the way. He shivered as he bunched his shoulders together trying to keep warm.

It was no use.

"It's no good trying to keep warm by doing that," the visitor who led him turned to inform him. "Where you are going, it will never be warm."

Brian looked at him, before turning and seeing the other four figures walk behind him. Between the lights, the figures seemed to disappear into darkness, before reappearing when they past light. He tried to slow the pace, but as his body touched any of the ones behind, they would poke him in the back with their finger, urging him to continue at the same pace the leader walked.

"We are nearly there," the visitor leading them said. "You will soon understand why we did what we had to do," his voice became more drawn out as he spoke. "We will show you why we were unable to leave you there longer than we did."

Brian turned to see the others nod and chant, "We will show you." They repeated the words over countless times until they reached their destination.

"We are here," the visitor in front said, pushing open a door.

As it opened, Brian was felt amazed as his body temperature slowly increased. He saw the walls of the room behind the doors were covered in light – much brighter than what he had just walked through. He was amazed as he scanned the room and felt like a child finding it's first bit of technology.

The light on the walls were caused by things which Brian assumed were monitors.

The leader walked into the room. "Please follow,' he commanded with his forefinger.

Doing what was asked, Brian entered, watching people mill around on the ground as their gazes fixed on the monitors mounted above them.

As the visitor journeyed into the room, he glided through the people as he neared the wall.

Brian tried to do the same, but found he had to walk around them, which took him twice as long to reach the visitor.

He turned, and the other death figures were still following.

With him by the one who had led him, Brian looked towards one of the screens, then the visitor. Brian watched as the figure held out it's arm.

"Watch," he ordered.

At first, Brian was unable to see what he was pointing at, but then the room went quiet, and he turned as everyone in the room turned their attention to where death pointed. There was a collective gasp as Brian concentrated on what he thought he had to see. He squinted his eyes and eventually saw what he was meant to.

It was his bedroom. The bedroom he had woken in thousands of times. The bedroom him and Melanie shared before... He didn't want to think about those words. The bedroom that would be forever imprinted on his mind and he would remember it forever. No one was going to erase that memory.

He watched as the bedsheets ruffled and pushed back.

He watched as Melanie turned to reach out her arm.

He watched as she reacted with a jolt and sat upright in bed.

He watched as she revealed her body. The body he had loved for so many years and never wanted to be parted from it.

He watched as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. Those legs he had always wanted to kiss so tenderly.

He watched as she ran to the other side of the bed, kneeling by the side, reaching out her arms to grab the pillow and pull it to her own mouth. How he wished he was able to kiss her tenderly all over now. How he was able to imagine her body against his as he witnessed this.