Hysteria

Chapter 5

Cold night air was biting my exposed skin, leading me to push my clavicles inward in order to tuck my torso, barely covered by a flimsy tank top, inside the cage of my arms. My trunk missed the warmth provided by my wool sweater while my hand was itching to turn back and grab the sickle I had dropped near the side of the road to avoid drawing suspicious looks. The adrenaline rush I had been riding on for oh so long had finally went back to its normal level, leaving me behind feeling more tired and anxious than before. My sneakers were producing weird squeaky sounds I dragged them along the rough pavement I had been walking indefinitely for what seemed like hours. Raising my heavy eyelids, I glanced at the fancy colossal hands of a round clock adorning the clock tower in front of me.

It was way past midnight, 2 am to be more precise. I could scarcely tell it by the way the crowd roaming the town’s square had leaned towards an adult audience, with little to no children in sight. Multiple pairs of eyes were burning holes into my worn out body yet I wasn’t affected much by them as it was still better than the haunting eyes I’ve been seeing all night. Whether it be a decomposing one, a buttoned one or... burning embers.

My first encounter of the night with that hideous creature had filled me with doubt, drilling it inside my head that I wouldn’t be able to survive alone for the whole night but the surprise victory I had stumbled upon in case of the scarecrow had eventually given me some hope, hope that I wouldn’t be needing someone else’s help to ensure my salvation, hope that I had miraculously become my own dawn.

Suddenly a chortling group of teenage girls dressed as witches passed by me, the loud noises urging me to turn my head towards them, immediately making me regret my decision as my wandering eyes landed on the jolly group, more specifically the girl-witch walking two or three feet behind them. She clearly was neither interested nor involved in the group’s conversation. In fact, her eyes were trained right on me unnerving me with her odd stare. Passing a quick glance at her group talking nonchalantly amongst themselves, I moved my gaze back towards the lone girl only to find her giving me a weird smile. That’s when I realized.

She wasn’t human. She was a real witch.

‘It’s okay. It’s fine.’

Repeating the words for the umpteenth time in my head, I averted my eyes from her, keeping them trained on my brown sneakers which once used to be white, trying to focus more on my next step rather than the queer witch staring at me.

‘Right, Left, Right…’

Too focused on my drill, I was crossing the showcase window of a shop when the mannequin displayed in there jumped towards the glass and started banging against it as if trying to break it with her mere hands to reach me.

“Shit!”

Through sheer luck, I had managed to remain quiet at the unforeseen occurrence, saving myself from the addition of another embarrassing situation I had faced in public but my feet hadn’t been all that lucky. In the end, I had twisted my ankle in my attempt to turn away from the glass and had as a result, bumped against the witch staring at me, making my eyes almost pop out of my sockets.

I had no idea what to say or how to behave. I was opening and closing my half parted lips in an alternate manner resembling a fish as I gawked at the uncanny existence in front of me with only one thing in my mind,

‘Shouldn’t have dropped that sickle.’

“Here, for you.”

The witch tilted her black hat back, giving me a devious smile with her black painted lips as she all but thrusted an object in my hands before disappearing right before my eyes.