Quote:
You are just getting ready to head to sleep and you're all tucked in when something catches your eye. It's a strange shape, or light, in your room. It's only there for a second, but dread immediately floods through you. It was just a shadow, right? Maybe you pulled too many all nighters? Forgot you put up that new poster and thought it was something else?

...Or was it something else?

Either way, whatever you thought you saw was only there for that fleeting moment. What did you see? How do you react?

...Are you going to be able to sleep tonight?



Kailey was still snickering by the time she got ready for bed. A part of her felt bad for teasing Hania like that with that story... really, she could have told the real story. The real s**t, the real horror. But recounting how she found her friend on her bed, bloody and beaten, after her jackass boyfriend beat the s**t out of her... yeah, the real monsters were people. Not the youma. But then, people brought out the youma anyways...

She rubbed her face in front of the mirror in her bathroom, sighing. Too deep. She was supposed to be laughing over how freaked out Hania was. She totally got him ha. Sure she hadn't really been planning on it. Kinda thought she'd just… legitimately ask him about if he knew about Halloween, and explain it a bit if he didn't. Where the scary story came from? Hell if she knew.

But it'd been fun, and she'd spent the rest of the evening cuddling him and snickering.

Still was snickering.

It was cute when she could freak out a black cat around Halloween.

Smiling, she moved back into the other room, winding up her hair into a haphazard bun and ponytail. Didn't bother with much as she crawled under the covers, the lights off save for some random horror flick on the TV. Sliding glass door was closed and locked, curtains drawn.

Didn't have to be in to work for the night, and it was… it was a relief to actually sleep when she needed to.

The screams from the co-eds being hunted down by some spook with some random a** weapons were mostly muted, and Kailey tucked herself further under her fuzzy blankets. It was… odd she could fall asleep to that, sure. She knew that much. But… eh. It was white noise.

Something made her open her eyes though. Maybe it was just the sounds from the TV making her senshi nerves go on edge. Maybe it was the story she'd told earlier, bringing back bad memories. But she opened her eyes. Shadows moved across the wall, cast by her belongings and the odd colored lights on the TV screen. She didn't say anything, didn't move. Just watched them flicker and shift, wave and shuffle around.

The only thing that caught her attention, was the mass in the corner.

That was normal. The lights didn't reach there the way they should have. Usually she didn't give a s**t. Just ignored it, roll over, go to sleep. But there was something about this mass. It… held her attention. It was only for a brief second. There… then gone. The mass of shadows lessened, and Kailey cussed. It wasn't the shift in the lights. It was a shift in a body. Her pulse amped up. Mind going back to that place, that time when that jackass tore up Vicky without much thought or care. She didn't even remember if the guy'd been on something.

Her hand went to the knife under her bed. Her cell was under her pillow, and she flicked on the flashlight. Flicked it around… but there wasn't anyone there.

Her pulse wouldn't calm the ******** down.

How long had she sat there, waiting for something to come out of the shadows? How many times did she flick her flashlight off, then back on when the dread became too much? She felt like she was five…

Fingers moved across the screen of her cell, bringing up a contact from her list.

Her voice was soft when the line was answered.

"Yeah can… you come over? …Later then? …Yeah. …Nah I'm ok. I just... I just freaked myself out. That time of year, y'know?" She tried to laugh it off.

But her pulse wouldn't calm the ******** down.

(WC: 630)