Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween all! I hope your day is full of candy and scary movies and awesome costumes and other Halloweeny-stuffs.

Here's a Halloweeny thing I wrote weeks ago for a 500 word writing competition on Go Teen Writers.  The inspiration for this came from a combination of an old epitaph and this really weird story idea I had a few years ago.   If you like, critique it and tell me what you think. 

Something warmed my face.  An orange glow illuminated the insides of my eyelids.  The smell of grass tickled my nose.  It was a lovely day.

Something told me this was wrong. But how could it be?

My stiff eyelids fluttered open.  Blue.  All above me was watercolor blue. The warmth on my face seemed to say “Stay and look at this blue.  The sunlight will keep you safe.”

Sunlight. That was the warmth I felt.  How could I have forgotten?

I curled my fingers to feel the grass.  The cool ribbons felt good against my stiff fingers.

Why was I so stiff?  What had I done yesterday? I didn’t remember. What about this morning?  Who had I been with?  I didn’t remember.  A shot of fear ripped through my stomach.   I couldn’t remember anything before lying here in the sun.

Surely there was someone in my life, someone I loved, and who loved me.  No memories of family, friends, or foes came to me.

Who was I?

My mind was blank.

My breath came in panicked bursts.  Who was I?  Where was I?  How had I gotten here? What had happened?  Why did it feel so wrong to breathe?

My back creaked with pain as I sat up.  I was in a field bordered by trees.  Ink spots appeared before my eyes, blotting out the landscape around me. The world began to tip.  My head hit the ground. 

What was happening to me? Who was I?

Something in my mind whispered Tess.

My name was Tess.  Tess Who?  

My heart pounded. My ears rang. I put a hand to my face to shield my now burning eyes. 

My skin was white. White like the skin of a corpse. White like death.

Was I dead?  Is this what death felt like?  If this was death, what had my life been like?

A memory penned feint words on the backs of my eyelids. 

Remember friend as you pass by…

Remember what?

… As you are now so once was I…

The words sharpened in my mind’s eye.  Dark words, written in stone.

… As I am now so shall you be…

“Prepare for death, and follow me.” My throat felt rough, and my tongue felt dry and awkward in my mouth and on my parched lips as I formed the words.   They felt so strange, yet so familiar.  Why did I remember such an eerie verse? Because I remembered death.

More memories formed as death painted a picture in my mind.  A woman looked down on me, her brow creased in worry and her eyes full of love and…sadness? 

Colors shifted and the scene changed. I looked down at the woman dressed in black as she stood by a small stone church. Others stood with her.  A train of gloomy figures dressed in black.

The picture blurred as though it were wet paint being washed away.  A tear ran down my cheek, the warm water soothing my burning eyes.

 I'd forgotten how creepy this is.  Hope you...enjoyed it.  Happy Halloween! Because, ya know, saying it three times in one post is absolutely necessary.