My Body, Her Body
by Fay Snell, age 15.

All I can see is black. Deep, dark and dreary black, there is nothing else; I can't feel, I can't smell, I can't taste. I don't even feel like I'm breathing anymore. I don't know if I can see because there isn't anything to see. The only thing now is a deep black pit that has swallowed me up and enclosed my life. I try to move, look around, move an arm, pinch my skin, to see if anything is real anymore. Nothing works; it just carries on being black. I've lost all sense of time and don't know how long I've been here doing nothing, I feel nothing now. I don't feel hungry, tired, pain, fear - nothing. There is nothing.

...

I stirred in my sleep and peered over at my clock, 9:45 it read. I walked over and drew the curtains; the sun forced its way in, lighting up the room and sending a warming sensation down my spine. The bright yellow and orange haze took over the sky and filled my room with a blissful atmosphere.

Later on, in the evening Ben and I were sorting out old photos in front of the crackling fire downstairs. "What's this?" I asked taking a letter out from the box; it was in a dirty blue envelope with his name on it in red ink. His face screwed up so much it looked like it was eating itself; he used to do this when he didn't want to talk about something.

"Oh, a letter Kate left me before she died," he muttered. Kate was his ex-wife who committed suicide three years ago. He met me one year ago and was still very sensitive about it and never really told me what happened. "Oh we don't need that anymore, better to forget," I said and tossed the letter into the fire. As I did, a screaming sound shot through my ear causing me to fall to the floor in pain. I yelped as a tear ran down my face. The sound was sharp and rang through my ears, it sounded like a dying cat in extreme pain. The fire had roared up as hell rose from the floor and the angry red and orange of the fire merged into one and it become a blurred vision. I was so stupid. I didn't listen.

I awoke several minutes later with Ben stroking my long red hair. "Melanie, are you ok?" he asked, looking over me with a look of concern on his face. "Yeah I'm fine, what just happened?" I asked, getting up on my knees and rubbing my eyes. "The fire flared up and you were crying and then you blacked out," he replied, looking more puzzled than me. "Did you not hear that screaming noise?" I asked, feeling confused. "No, what do you mean?" he asked. "I was crying because I heard a screaming noise, it pierced my ears. It was horrible!" I said shuddering as I remembered. "No I didn't love, are you sure you're ok?" he asked wrapping himself around me like a shield from the horror. "Yeah - I dunno must just have been me?" I said kind of asking myself.
"Are you sure you're going to be ok, because I have to go to that business thing in an hour, I don't know whether I should leave you all alone tonight? I'll be gone a week!" he said.
"No! I'll be fine! I am a grown woman! It was just me, don't worry about it Ben," I said looking into his eyes, "Really." Why?

I woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. My room was dark and ominous shadows loomed in corners of the room. My white silk curtain flew upwards high above my bed - the window wasn't open. Neither was the door. I swallowed deeply. I sensed something in my room. Suddenly I felt a strong grip on my shoulder. Quickly turning into sharp pain. I shot around. Nothing there. Blood trickled down my shoulder and arm. A loud windy noise whistled across my room. A faint voice said, "I want your body Melanie." I let out a yelp and suddenly awoke; it was a dream! I got out of my bed and flicked the light switch on and stared at myself in the mirror. My shoulder was covered in dry crusted blood and I peeled the sleeve of my nightgown down. There were four deep nail marks on my shoulder with mounds of dried blood around them. If it was a dream then why were the nail marks still on my shoulder? A large gush of wind billowed past me. The window bashed open swinging on its hinges. The curtain lifted again. I slowly crept over to the window. I closed it. Got back into bed shivering with confused fear. I should have heard the hints.

The next morning I looked at the cuts on my shoulder. There were four extremely deep nail marks on my shoulder that were very thick - not something a normal human hand could do. I cleaned the blood around them and patched them up. I accepted the screaming in my ear incident could have been something in my head, but it was a little weird that I had nail marks on my shoulder. I decided to forget about it; it was probably nothing to worry about. But the voice I heard, "I want your body Melanie." Who wants my body? Why would they want my body? I couldn't work it out, and decided to put it out of my mind and get on with my work. I walked down to the study and placed my mug of coffee down on the table next to my slice of peanut butter toast. I picked up my post. I sat down on my desk to open it. In the centre of my desk was a yellow posted note. Writing scrawled across it in red ink. I recognized the handwriting. "You burnt my letter, I will burn you." Suddenly I remembered, it was the same handwriting as on the blue letter that Kate left for Ben. I took a sharp breath of panic, it was her. Was she haunting me? I only burnt her letter to help Ben get over her. Was she the one that wanted my body? I sat there staring at the message trying to figure out what was going on. She said she was going to "burn me." I didn't know what to do so picked up the phone and dialled Ben's number.

"She said she wants to burn me Ben!" I yelped in panic.
"Melanie calm down, she's dead! Surely you don't believe her spirit is haunting you and writing messages to you? Do you know how crazy that sounds?" he asked.
"Yeah, you're right, sorry for bothering you," I replied feeling relaxed again, he was right; there was nothing to worry about.

Later that night I lit up a candle to guide me to my room, as the electricity had stopped working because of a bad storm. I walked along the corridor; the candle flickered as shadows teased it. Rain thudded against the window shooting sparks of moonlight into the corridor. The moonlight reflected the raindrops into a spotted pattern on the floor and the red carpet made it look like blood droplets. The candles flickered even more and I shaded it with my hand to stop it from withering out. I took my first step on the stairs and it let out a loud moaning noise. The coat stand at the bottom of the stairs looked like a hunched old man with the many coats covering it. I walked steadily up the stairs, wind and shadows danced around me sending shivers of fear down my spine. I took the last step and peered down at the staircase which looked like it lead down into a deep dark black hole. I turned back round and hurried of to my room. suddenly the candle caved in and the light faded out. I scurried down the dark eerie corridor to my room, the last room on the left. It was dark apart from the white moon shining through the window at the end of the corridor. I felt a wet puddle on my bare foot. I could of turned back. A puddle was leading from the bathroom door. I walked up to it. Steam seeped from the crack in the floor. I could hear water rushing from a tap. I inched the door open. Heat hitting me. It was open about a meter. A voice I didn't even recognize as my own said, "Hello?" I didn't know.

There was no reply. Suddenly the lights blinked on. The electricity must be working now. I pushed the door open more. I flicked the bathroom light on. I walked inside it. The floor was covered in boiling hot water. It burnt my feet. The shower curtain was drawn across the bath. Steam arose from the top. Water sloshed violently down the sides of the bath. The mirror was steamed up. I could here a high pitched humming sound.

I repeated once more, "Hello? Who's behind the curtain?" The humming grew.

The bathroom filled with noise. I crept up to the bath. I put my hand on the edge of the curtain. The humming got louder. I pulled back the curtain as quickly as I could. The humming turned into a sharp scream. My shoulder was grabbed. Pain. Like before. The scream pierced my ears. Pain. I was thrashed into the bath. I struggled. Fear. The scream hurt my ears. Pain. Like a bullet to a heart. The nails pierced blood from my scalp. I was kept underwater. Pain. Fear. Blurred surroundings left me confused. My eyes opened to a red haze. Beautiful irony. Confusion. The screaming stopped. I clearly heard these words hammered into my brain, "You took my husband, and I will take you. I will become you." If only I took the warning.

I sat up in the bath, whatever it was had gone. The bath was filled with blood from my head; I put my hand on the back of my head to feel four deep nail marks and took my hand back to see masses of blood. I got out of the bath; it was boiling hot and had burnt my skin. I turned the tap off and unplugged it. I went over to the mirror to look at my head. There was writing in the steam, "Tonight's the night I become you." I stared at it for a while; fear welled up inside of me I didn't know what to do. There was nowhere to run, to escape.

I wiped the writing off the mirror and looked at my head. There was blood all in my hair and my face was red from burns.

I crawled into bed after I had cleaned my head and calmed down from the shock of what happened. I had rang Ben, he said I was ill and should get a good night sleep as I was probably hallucinating. He didn't really understand me - he didn't know what was going on. I turned off the lamp next to me and floated off to sleep.

I jumped from my dreams into consciousness to the sound of a loud noise coming from the bathroom. The tap was on again. I turned my lamp on to wake me up. Water ran like a waterfall. I felt scared. Fear. I knew I couldn't just leave it. I flicked the light on. There was a huge puddle from the bathroom. Steam filled the hallway. I edged towards the door. The closer I got the more the humming grew. It grew louder as I got closer. I finally reached the door. I pushed it open. Heat hitting me hard. I walked into the bathroom. the curtain drawn over the bath. Water was thrashing down the side of the bath. filling the bathroom with steaming hot water. Steam poured from the sides of the bath curtain. The humming got louder. I crept towards the bath. It became a screaming hum. I was next to the bath. Eager Fear.

"For god's sake won't you leave me alone?" I yelled but the humming drowned me out. It was getting to late. "Leave me alone I've done nothing wrong!" I pleaded. The humming grew even louder.

"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?" I screamed. Pulled back the curtain. Mistake. There was a rotting body in the bath. The eyes opened. Deep black holes to hell.

The nails like daggers pulled me down. The water stung my body and burnt me. Pain. I was on fire with fear and pain. My skin pleaded.

"I said I'd get you. I want to be you. I will be with Ben again. You burnt my letter. I will burn you," It said the words scratched my ears. If only I had turned back. Suddenly I was gone. I heard loud cackling, but the laughter was my voice. She was in my body laughing. I floated of into a deep mist off black nothingness. Maybe I was doomed from the start.

And here I am now. In a black nothingness, not in my body. I'm in nothing. I don't have a body. It was my body, my body, now it's her body, her body.

Maybe I was doomed from the start.