Kathy hurried down the twilit street, she’d promised her aunt that she’d be back from Ben’s by 7:00 which left her only five minutes to run two miles. It was Hallowe’en evening and Kathy had been over at her friend’s house watching scary movies for the past four hours; the last had been a rather lengthy epic about carnivorous butterflies and had gone longer than expected (hence the running). As she pelted past the local church she felt a shiver run down her spine as a gust of freezing air snaked around her beat-down trainers, Kathy could hear quiet sobs coming from the open church-building and although she felt her body screaming at her to run she couldn’t leave the person crying, could she? She took a tentative step into the shadowy hall and peered into the darkness, ‘Hello?’ she called, ‘I thought I heard someone crying’. As soon as she’d stepped over the threshold of the building the soft sobs had faded into silence and the high-ceiling of the cathedral was sending eerie echoes ricocheting off the stone walls, all Kathy wanted to do now was run but as she turned to leave the great oak doors of the church swung shut and she was left alone in the darkness. Or was she alone? The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she heard it, a noise like sand filtering between someone’s fingers came from behind her and she swung around to face the church’s pitch-dark interior. She bit back a scream as she felt something wrap around her arm; she kept her body pinned to the doors of the church and fumbled through her bag, looking for her phone. Finding it she opened it with trembling hands and shone the faint light around the room; directly in front of her was a decrepit corpse. This time Kathy did scream, she emitted a high-pitched wail and began to bang on the church doors while still facing the body. The corpse raised its head to look at her; its flesh dissolved away into darkness and the remaining skeleton lunged. Just as it was about to touch her, it too dissolved into shadows. Kathy could hear menacing laughter coming from the direction of the altar and she screamed at the sound with a mixture of fear and rage. ‘Leave me alone!’ she sobbed, as hot tears streamed down her face. She could feel a stabbing pain over her heart; her crying broke off into a piercing scream. Kathy collapsed and began to twitch on the ground, blood staining the front of her shirt.

-x-

Nathan had screamed when he’d seen the corpse, he’d only entered the church because he’d heard the girl crying. A decision he was now regretting. When the doors had closed behind him he had known he was in trouble. He watched on, screaming, as the girl raised her head. Her hand was still clutching a baby-pink mobile phone and the front of her white t-shirt was soaked with fresh blood…