Peripheral Vision: A Supernatural Thriller(35)
Sarah awoke from the vision gasping for a breath. “Oh my God...” The bathroom was filled with a heavy cloud of steam. For a moment Sarah thought she might still be in her dream, but then she looked down and saw the tub was no longer filled with warm bath water, she was bathing in dark, red blood. Sarah screamed, jumped out of the tub, and grabbed a towel as she ran into the hallway. She rubbed vigorously all over her body in a desperate attempt to remove the sticky blood from her skin. She rubbed and rubbed until it hurt, before realizing that there was no blood on her body and there was no blood on the towel either. She stood there, naked, wondering if she had finally snapped. She first thought of her pills and then she thought of Nick. She quickly wrapped the towel around her and rushed into the guest bedroom, grabbed her phone, and dialed. With her ringing phone in hand, she ran back into the bathroom. The blood was gone. She was disoriented. She felt crazy. The room seemed to be spinning and fading away. I’m going to pass out, she thought. But that’s when she heard Nick’s voice on the other line.
“Hey Sarah I was just going to call you...”
“Nick?! Nick you have to get here now! The tub was filled with blood, there was blood everywhere…but now… and the school teacher... I know what happened… I know what happened! Call the police!”
“Sarah, calm down. What’s going on?”
“Just get here... please! I, I’m in danger!”
“I’m on my way!”
She hung up and again ran back to the guest room, dressing as fast as she could and then rushed out into the hall.
Sarah immediately stopped. She stared at the wall. The broken, photo-less frame was now hanging back on the wall. And it was no longer photo-less. The wooden frame was now surrounding the photo of young Sarah on the tricycle.
At that moment, Sarah’s late aunt’s bedroom door creaked open and the record player again began to play. Sarah decided not to stick around to see what happened next and instead ran downstairs, but as she hit the bottom step, the lights went out. In the sudden darkness, her left foot missed the step and she went crashing to the hardwood floor below. She landed hard on her side. Sarah groaned. She could feel the bruise already forming on her hip.
She frantically picked herself up off the floor and limped into the kitchen. The knife set was to the left of the kitchen sink. Thank you, God.. Sarah pulled out four knives from the wooden block before she found the big, long, sharp one she was looking for. The blade glistened in the dim moonlight slipping in from the kitchen window. It’s beautiful, she thought.
Chapter 11
Tunnel Vision
Sarah found herself standing at the bottom of the stairs in the dark, holding her kitchen knife and debating on whether to go back up or not. All at once, there was a loud popping sound and then the lights began to flash on and off. With each moment of light in the darkness, Sarah saw the face of a different woman standing in front of her on the stairs. Sarah screamed, and in return, the women screamed. Their numbers grew with each new flash of light. And then there were six female figures surrounding Sarah. The record player now blared from up the stairs in Elizabeth’s bedroom. Sarah could no longer move. She was surrounded and she could not move, but she could see.
The women all wore flowing white dresses, and seemed to be crying. They didn’t quite seem to be standing-no that wasn’t the right word. Their bare feet didn’t touch the floor. They floated. Sarah found her mind wondering where their shoes were and at the same time quickly realizing that she could see straight through the women to the wallpaper behind them. It was like looking through a dirty windshield on a glaring sunny day, when what’s there and what’s not is hard to make out.
One of the women, she had faded red hair, reached out and took Sarah’s hand. It was cold and wet. It made Sarah think of the times she had put her hand in front of a humidifier as a child. But it was what appeared behind the floating transparent woman that grabbed her attention. The outline of the frame was the first thing to materialize on the wall, but that was quickly filled in with the colors and outlines of a large photograph. The six women now all locked hands and formed a chain pulling Sarah towards the photograph on the wall. It had stopped shifting. Inside the large wooden frame was an old family photograph. Sarah looked closely at the faces, immediately finding her mother, her uncle, her grandparents, and then her focus shifted to the other young woman in the photograph. She had long, black hair and carried a striking resemblance to Sarah herself. It was the woman from her dreams.
“Lizzy.” Sarah whispered, and then the six girls all reached in grabbing Sarah’s hand and pulled her up the stairs. Sarah screamed and tried to fight against it, but they were much too strong for her, so she clutched the knife tighter and let them lead the way.
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Nick’s truck flew up the gravel driveway to the white house, spitting small rocks from beneath the tires, and skidded to a stop. He jumped out, not bothering to close the door behind him, and sprinted up the steps and the front porch. He bolted through the front door.
“Sarah?!” He shouted as the door swung open. The opening door slammed against the wall behind it, and at that second, the lights came back on.
“Nick!” Sarah came rushing down the stairs to him, the long knife still in her hand. She tried to say more as her bare feet clapped down the steps, but the words just didn’t seem to fit together. Her memory seemed to have had lapsed since she went upstairs. There was a giant ball of blackness lingering behind her eyes. What the hell did I just see? She asked herself.