Short story

Silent Footsteps

Part 3

And I screamed on the bed, sitting straight up, wide awake. I rushed to my window, opened it as fast as I could. I took in gulps of fresh air. I was so frightened. I felt a trickle of sweat run down my forehead.

The dream I just saw was linked to the dream I had seen earlier. I knew it. It was the same room. There was no oxygen and I had been choking. But it wasn't really me. Though I felt it was really happening to me, it wasn't me in the dream. I never had blond hair or blue eyes. i always had black hair along with intense brown eyes.

As I looked out the window, I remembered everything that had happened in the dream as I was standing in front of the mirror. Slowly the reflection of the unfamiliar face had begun to fade in the mirror. The unknown face had begun to decay. Flesh had dangled out.

The features had become distorted, twisted. She smiled. The lips, so dry, had fallen to the grot, crushed into a rather human powder. The teeth had been chipping off. They had been spotted with grease. She laughed frenziedly, manically. An odd smell had drifted to my nostrils. I wanted to throw up.

Imprisoned

The long blond hair melted and had formed an oozing liquid. She took the fluid and reached out for me with her hand. I wanted to run away but I was imprisoned in the mirror as a reflection, her reflection.

Her hand was burned all over, small wounds which still had a bright glow, burns as if someone had poked her hand with a cigarette. The flesh of the hand fell down. The odour was too strong now. Too hideous it had been. As the bone appeared I had screamed and woken up.

I shuddered. Disgusting! The smell was sickening. i felt nausea com over me. I went to my table and sat down on my chair. Why were the two dreams linked? I couldn't understand. This was so eerie, extra-ordinarily eerie.

I took out my drawing pad and started to sketch. It was as if the pencil moved in its own rhythm. I drew a curve here and there. I pictured the face in my mind and just let my hand glide in its own pulse. The glassy eyes and the long blond hair, I knew were the main features. I gazed into the final sketch. Who was the girl in my dreams?

Hair

I went to college the other day. I saw Suzanne speaking with another school girl, Jessica. Jessica was thin and small. She had shoulder length brown hair. her brown hair always caught one's eye. I carried the picture I had drawn the day before. I waved at Suzanne and Jessica. I guess they were so absorbed in their conversation they didn't see me. As I approached them, I noticed they were speaking in a hushed tone. And I overheard part of their conversation.

"Will we get caught? I am so scared".

"Don't worry. Nothing will happen".

"Are you going to tell it to anyone?"

"No way. Look, no one should know what we did. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, I do. But what if someone knows that we bur", and Jessica's voice died down when she noticed me.

"Hi!" Suzanne greeted me warmly, with a hint of distrust in her eye.

Something inside me told me not to tell that I overheard part of their tete-a-tete. "So at what time did you come? I just came". I lied to both of them.

Hiding

Without realising, Jessica let out a sigh of relief. What were they hiding from me?

"Anyway, I came here to ask you whether you had seen anyone like this", and I handed them the sketch I had made of the girl in my dreams.

"Yes - I mean - no!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes", Suzanne ad Jessica said in unison.

"Are you lying to me?"

"Never", Suzanne replied indisputably.

I felt suspicion arouse in me.

Linked dream

At home, after college I thought about the linked dreams, the calls, and the brunette who pushed me down the stairs and followed me, the cigarette butt at the end of a dreamlike conversation, the appalling image of a girl who disappeared into thin air and the mysterious conversation between Suzanne and Jessica.

Why did see two dreams that were related? Who was it who called me that night to ask for help? Was i the same person who had called me to say that what I heard in the living room was true? Why was a brunette following me? Did I know anyone with auburn hair?

I racked my brain and suddenly I remembered. Jessica. It couldn't be. She didn't hate me. But she was uneasy in front of me. Had she done something wrong? Was she confiding to Suzanne about it?

She did way yes promptly when I asked her whether she knew the girl in the sketch. Only after she realized what she had said did she say no. Why had Jessica been so troubled?

* * *

"Suzanne, I think I will meet Simone today. I have to do something. Besides I think she knows. What about the picture?"

"Look Jessica, I don't know, I have to go home now".

Jessica watched Suzanne retreat. She decided to tell Simone and do something about her.

* * *

Puzzle

I tried to put the parts of this mysterious puzzle together. I couldn't place the dreams and the calls in a logical way. I figured it was Jessica who pushed me down the stairs and followed me. I couldn't think of any sensible reason why.

The telephone rang. "Hellow?" I said.

"Hi Simone, this is me, Jessica".

Why was she calling me? "Hi, so what's up?"

"Simone, I wan to meet you alone, i the auditorium of our college, at three in the afternoon. I have to tell you something. Bye".

And she kept the phone. Why did she really want to meet me alone? Why?

I got ready to meet Jessica. I was too scared to go meet her without telling anyone, so I informed Suzanne about our meeting at three in the afternoon.

I went to the auditorium of our college. "Simone, thanks for coming."

"Why did you tell me to come here?"

"I have to confess", Jessica said.

"Finally. So you are going to confess that you were the one who pushed me down the stairs and followed me, right?"

Kill

"Yes"

"Why did you do it? I thought you were my friend. You just pretended to be one. You tried to kill me!"

"I am sorry, I really am. I did something awful. I want to tell this to someone and you are my friend so I want to tell you".

"What more is there for you to say?"

"I tortured the girl in your sketch!" She burst out crying.

"What?" I screamed out.

"I was drunk that night. I was out of my mind. I was smoking a cigarette at the time, and I scorched Lucy with it", she said in a rush.

"Who is Lucy?"

"Don't you know, she is the girl in your drawing. Tell Lucy that I am sorry. I really am. I feel less guilty now that I told you".

I recalled the cigarette butt at my home, the voices and the phone call.

"Don't tell me you did this at my home?" I asked her furiously.

"No, we didn't".

"You mean to say, you didn't".

A voice at the back of the auditorium told me. I turned around.

"Suzanne, you too!" I was shocked.

"Yes, Simone, me too. Guess what, Jessica just burnt her with an eeny meeny lighted cigarette, I actually killed her". She laughed menacingly.

"You didn't tell me that you killed her!" Jessica screamed at Suzanne.

"So you didn't know about this?" I asked her.

"How could I have known?" Jessica was almost hysterical.

"She didn't know, Simone. I killed Lucy, because she was more talented than I was, more beautiful, more attractive. I took the advantage of the situation and killed her". I had never seen Suzanne like that with one corner of her mouth twisted into a cruel smile. "I did it, and I am proud of it", she finished off.

"Suzanne, you shouldn't have done it. Where is that kindness within you?"

Kindness

"Simone, the kindness is gone out of my heart. I liked you, but Jessica spoiled everything between us by telling this secret to you. I am sorry Simone, but I guess I have to kill you too. Don't worry, Jessica will be company for you. I am going to kill her too for destroying our friendship". Suzanne laughed frenziedly.

Before we could even run she trapped us. She tied both of us together. She dragged us towards a dark room in the corner. Jessica and I struggled but she had tied our hands with a strong knot. Once we were inside the dark, dust-covered room, she told, "Lucy died of suffocation, no oxygen. She couldn't breathe. The same thing will happen to you.

This was an old dressing room in our school which is not used any longer. In this you will suffocate just like Lucy". She had an evil but victorious look on her face. She locked us in and left us to suffocate in the dust-filled room.

By and by, we found it difficult to breathe. I was only then did the girl in my dreams or else Lucy came into the room. "Simone, I have come here to help you. I have been trying to show you what happened to me. Remember the dreams, the phone calls, it was me. I died but I won't let you die."

With silent footsteps she came towards us and the knot became loose somehow. Then the door opened suddenly. We were free. As I turned to say thank you, she had vanished.

Soon after that, Jessica and I went straight to the police station. Suzanne was caught. Everything was fine after all because of a silent footed stranger - Lucy.

by Sriyani Maduka Jayasinghe - 13 years, Lyceum International School.