Yvonne Fleece: A spooky Hallowe’en tale

Hallowe’en

Once upon a time on a small farm near Billingshurst…

Izzie woke with a start. It was still dark which was not surprising since she kept the blinds in her caravan down most of the time. She liked to shut out the world and create her own little space, her own hidey hole, her own lair. She knew what had woken her. It was her dream – nightmare more like…

She had been taken to a strange place, full of light but edged with dark shadows. She had felt very happy there which in itself was strange because her going to bed mood had not been. Some light music tinkled in her ears and the air smelt wonderful – all cinnamony and spicy. Her body felt light and carefree and her feet lifted her up in a graceful dance.

She started to dance in the middle of the place but gradually her feet danced her over to the edges and as the light darkened, her feeling of happiness was replaced with a sense of dread. The music had changed too, becoming heavy and turgid. She longed to dance back into the light but her feet kept dancing closer and closer to the darkening edges. She had no control, her feet would not stop carrying her to the incessant beat. Eventually she reached the edge of the space, looked down into an abyss and woke up, covered in sweat, heart pounding, filled with a black fear.

She reached over to the lightswitch but her fingers could not find it. In fact her fingers could not find anything. She got out of her bed. Her feet stepped onto sand. How could she have sand in her caravan? Nevertheless, she stumbled forward to the window. It wasn’t there. By now Izzie was really frightened. She didn’t know where she was. It certainly didn’t feel like being in her caravan.

Suddenly she was drawn to a faint glow from where she thought the bathroom was, approaching it with caution. The glow was emanating from an ornately framed mirror. As her eyes were drawn to the image in the mirror she gasped. It looked like her but her hair was in dreadlocks intertwined with gold snakes which caught the light as they moved. Her forehead had silver specks like glitter which pulsed when she gasped. But worst of all, she saw fangs which had grown on either side of her front teeth. The dark red stain which covered them dribbled down her chin.

She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound emerged, just a strangled gulp. At this point the light in the mirror went out and she was left in merciful darkness. Horrified and frightened she groped for her phone, its solid, familiar shape slipped in her waiting hand. Although it didn’t give any light, somehow she knew it was on, and took a selfie. She couldn’t believe she had grown fangs and wanted some proof of what she had seen. She sat in the sand, glad to have something solid beneath her. Her imagination took over then. All sort of questions and scenarios filled her head. Where was she? What had happened? Had she turned into a vampire? The tears began to roll down her face. She cried for a long time, drifting off into a deep trance-like sleep. Izzie woke up with a start. Daylight seeped from behind the blinds. It wasn’t dark. She was where she was supposed to be – in her bed in the caravan. Pulling the blinds Izzie gratefully checked out her surroundings. Yep, that sound was from the waterfall into the nearby pond she’d help dig with Nanny, and the crows were squabbling in the pine tree. Getting out of bed cautiously she headed for the bathroom and the mirror. It was ordinary again. So was she. Izzie grabbed her phone and looked at the selfie she’d taken during the night. The image was exactly what she had seen in the mirror! The gold snakes, the pulsing silver speck and above all those stained red fangs! The phone dropped from her hand.

She searched the mirror again. Yes, she was normal now. She sent the image to a friend with ‘Look at me!’ Her friend replied quickly, puzzled as she’d seen nothing untoward and wondered why Izzie had included an exclamation mark. Izzie was relieved but confused as the image was anything but normal. She tried to delete it from her phone. It wouldn’t go. She was stuck with it.

Stranger things do happen on the small farm near Billingshurst. Yvonne Fleece

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