friday fears

oh not the sick twisted fingers of dread,
not the black hanging cloud of despair...
fear and adrenaline pump through my body,
as i step out of the peaceful darkness into the-

...feeling quite gothic this morning...

Gothic Composition~

Julia couldn’t see, she couldn’t breathe. All she knew was that someone, someone she loved was screaming. The air was turning cold and she could feel something closing in on her. Her heart was hammering in her chest and there were noises, noises everywhere.

She suddenly woke up with a start, tears streaming down her cheeks, hands clammy. She hadn’t had that nightmare for years, and out of the blue it came back, just like that. She turned over and looked at her clock: 7:45 am. Her eyes wandered over to the photo of her grandfather who was reading a story to an 8 yr old Julia. Julia sighed, 8 years on and she still missed her grandfather. That reminded her, she hadn’t been to visit his grave for a while. She had promised that she would go every month to put tulips- his favourite flowers there.

It was a chilly 16 degrees outside, and the wind kept tearing at Julia’s hair. But she held tight to the flowers and wrapped her jacket tighter around her. The graveyard looked forlorn and forgotten. Fog hung heavily around the gravestones. Julia walked quickly, remembering the way to her grandfather’s plot. Take the 2nd left, then a right, and it’s the 2nd last one from the end. She looked up, and froze in horror. Instead of the gravestone, there was a huge gaping hole in the ground. Who would do such a thing? Fighting back her tears Julia gathered her courage and slowly looked over the edge of the hole. The darkness seemed to go on forever. Julia leaned in closer, terrified but fascinated. She thought she heard...someone screaming? Suddenly the earth gave way under her and she fell headfirst into the hole. She landed with a painful thud on the cold damp earth. Breathing hard, she fought the urge to scream her lungs out, but instead looked around and tried to see if she could climb back up. The small square patch of light above her gave her a small hope. She shuddered and tried not to think about dead bodies in the ground all around her. She cautiously reached out and touched the moist sides of the hole. Grimacing, she spread out her hands, searching for a foothold. She stopped, too scared to move. What was that sound? In horror, she realised it was coming from above. Too late she looked up and saw that her only chance of escape was gone- the hole had been blocked up. A million terrible things raced through her mind. She was certain that someone had been up there, and it sounded like they had pushed a cement slab across the hole opening. Why? How long would she be stuck in here before someone came to find her? Was she to die here, in her grandfather’s grave? She cried out for help. Only her echo returned. Julia started to panic. The complete darkness enveloped her. The air was dank and sour. She sat down and hugged her knees to keep warm. Morbid thoughts kept threatening to sneak in but she tried hard to concentrate on thinking of ways to escape. Chills like miniature spiders ran up and down her back. It was deathly silent and as cold as a tomb. Julia closed her eyes.

They had found the little girl hiding in the closet. “Poor thing, she was half scared to death” the policewomen murmured. When she saw her grandfather being taken out on a stretcher, she ran and hugged him, crying her eyes out. She couldn’t understand why he didn’t respond and hug her back. His blood covered her from head to toe. They had to pull her off his cold body but still she fought and screamed as they carried him away. For a whole year afterwards, she couldn’t speak. It was rumoured that the little girl had been there when her grandfather was murdered and that she had seen his attackers. But when she finally was able to speak again, she could not remember a thing- the horrific nature of that event had wiped itself from her memory.