The Red Dress

She put the curtain aside and looked outside. It was dark and cloudy, although it was just 1PM.

Today she was alone at home. Her parents were away, in another city for their work. She had one sister but she was studying abroad too. So for today she was alone.

The girl decided to get her homework done. She grabbed her Psychology notebook. On the top of the notebook was her name written in red permanent marker

FARAH KHATTAK

She rolled her eyes in frustration. She was in university now, yet her mother still treated her like a nursery kid.

Clicking her tongue in annoyance, she began writing. She had to write a debate essay on the topic “Is Modern Society Becoming Emotionally Neglected”

Halfway through it, she felt something strange

She looked around.

There was nothing.

Her room was messy with clothes everywhere.

Then she looked towards the clock.

It’s small needle pointed at 12 and big needle at 2. The clock wasn’t working. It was supposed to be 3PM.

She pulled her chair right below the clock, climbed on the chair and took the clock off. She changed the batteries and put it back where it was.

She began to continue her work and lost track of the time. It was now 4PM. Farah closed her notebook and got off from the chair. She then began to clean her bed and putting the clothes back at their place. As she closed the cupboard, she noticed the door of the room infront of her.

A cloth hung on the door handle. The lights were closed. It felt like a face was staring back at her. She kept staring for a while.

And then she felt as if it smiled.

In fear, she slammed her room door and locked it. She held her breath as she slowly sat on the floor.

It’s just an illusion. Just an illusion.

As if she had not recovered from what she had seen, her phone chimed making her jump.

It was her friend’s message.

“I am coming to your house. We are going to order and have fun.”

Farah slowly typed back her fingers shaking

“Okay I will be waiting” clicking send, she closed her phone back again.

Again, her eyes glanced the clock. The same mistake

The small needle at 12 and the big needle at 2.

She darted her eyes around and shouted panicking, “Is anyone there!”

But there was no response.

Then her hand hit her head in frustration.

“Damn I forgot to fix the time.”

She took of the clock again and fixed the time to 4:30PM.

Noticing that her friend was about to arrive, she decided to change her clothes.

She took out a red full sleeve shirt with dark blue jeans. She tied her hair into a French braid and breathed a sigh of relief.

Today has been a hectic day. She mummered to herself, as she closed her eyes relaxing on the sofa.

“For sure it has been.” A voice whispered close to her ears.

Farah jolted up straight into the air and then back to the sofa. And then someone started laughing.

It was her friend Zara. She was pointing at her and laughing loudly, holding her stomach.

“It isn’t funny!” Farah rolled her eyes.

All of a sudden her breath hitched. She held the sofa tightly with her hand as she struggled to breath. The air was heavy and dense. Suffocation was increasing.

Her eyes locked on Zara, screaming for help. But Zara wasn’t there. Farah’s eyes started to blacken..her gaze turned towards the ceiling. The view suddenly started to blurr. It was getting difficult to move. Her body was stiff. She tried to grab the table for her support but her hand slipped.

And then the lights went off as Farah’s body fell to the floor.

******