Lady in Black. Yuliya Alpagut

straight at her.

      “Pain… Pain…” – was heard in the head of a woman. Eleanor closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them – the vision disappeared.

      The woman quickly got into the car.

      – Everything is good? – asked Marcus.

      – Yes, – she answered uncertainly.

      ***

      This Sunday was the same for everyone as always. For everyone, but not for Eleanor.

      The children went about their business. They met with friends, walked and had fun. Marcus played some kind of game in his mobile phone. Only there he felt like a real man. No one in this game knew who he was, what he looked like, his age and status… Absolutely nothing. There, Marcus was like a different person. Everyone thought he was a famous actor or some other popular person. And the man liked it. He tried to make people think that he was a “star”. Marcus wanted respect and recognition. He dreamed about it. He needed that. Maybe because he didn’t get it from his wife, or maybe because he was just sick. As the disease affects the cells of the body, the lie struck his soul. And it gave rise to all the big lies.

      Marcus felt like a man, a hero and a commander in his game. And, satisfying his spiritual needs for respect and love, there he was even a little happy.

      Eleanor sat in a chair on the veranda in the backyard and, watching her two cats and a dog, thought of the lady in black.

      ***

      After this strange vision in school, Eleonora tried not to linger at work anymore and leave with all the other teachers. If the woman did not have time to do something, now she took the work at home.

      So two weeks passed and everything seemed to be normal. Eleanor even began to forget about her vision. And now what happened seemed to her just some strange, terrible dream. “Maybe it was a dream?” – she thought.

      Ultimately, the woman came to the conclusion that it really was just a bad dream. She apparently fell asleep at work and black smoke, and the lady in a black dress she just dreamed. And the fact that she saw this strange woman there, not far from the church, was simply the fruit of her frightened imagination.

      4. Candle

      Saturday. Around midnight. Diana was going to a disco with her friends. Alice chatted with friends on social networks. Calib was watching TV. Marcus played his game in the phone. Eleanor lay in one of the rooms on the couch. Wearing her big glasses, she read a book under the dim lighting of a floor lamp.

      Suddenly the woman felt a strange cold. As if someone ran icy fingers over her face. She abruptly sat on the couch. The book fell out of her hands and fell on the floor.

      Eleanor looked at where this “someone” was supposed to be. But nobody except her was here.

      The woman looked at the small room several times as if she was looking for someone or something. She gazed into every shadow, but found nothing unusual.

      “It’s late… I’m just tired…” – glancing at the clock on one of the shelves of the bookcase, she thought.

      – I’m going to bed, – Eleanor said out loud.

      Taking a deep breath, she wanted to pick up a book from the floor, when suddenly there was a deaf bang and the light in the room went out, plunging the woman into total darkness. Eleanor screamed and jumped on the couch in surprise and fright. She began to look around, but nothing was visible. Absolutely nothing. It was so dark around that the woman did not even see her own hands. The dim light of the street lamp, which was supposed to penetrate into the room from a non-curtained window, also went out. It seemed that their whole small town “D” was plunged into darkness or she just blinded in an instant.

      – Marcus! – Eleanor suddenly screamed, – Marcus!

      After a moment, the door to the room opened abruptly. The woman jumped to her feet and looked in the doorway. There, in the dark, high above the floor, something shone. Eleanor staggered with surprise, surprise and fear, and held her breath.

      – Nora? Are you here? – Marcus’s voice rang out.

      – Damn, – finally breathed a woman, – You scared me!

      – It was you scared me! – said the man and came closer.

      He shone a flashlight on his mobile phone in her face. The woman automatically struck his arm, drawing the light aside.

      – You screamed so much, I already thought that someone was killing you here! – he said.

      – I was just scared, – confessed woman.

      – It seems all over the city turned off the electricity, – paying no attention to his wife’s frightened expression, Marcus said.

      – Where are the children? – after a brief pause, Eleanor suddenly asked.

      – In their rooms, – her husband answered her, – Disco for Diana, apparently, is canceled…

      – Yeah, – gasped woman.

      – Are you going to sleep? – Marcus asked.

      – A little bit later, – Eleanor answered him, – I will sit here for a bit. I need to think.

      – About what?

      – No matter. Shine on me, I’ll get the candles, – asked the woman and went to the closet.

      Marcus followed her.

      Eleanor took out a few candles and a lighter from the box. She placed them in the candlesticks and set them on fire.

      – Ok, you can go, – looking at her husband she said.

      – Thank you for allowing, – he said dismissively.

      – You are welcome, – she answered quietly.

      – I will sit a little on the veranda. I’ll breathe the fresh air, – Marcus told her and leaving the room he slammed the door behind him.

      – Sometimes you annoy me so much… – quietly, barely audible, said Eleanor when the door closed behind her husband.

      The woman tiredly plopped down on the couch and wanted to pick up a book from the floor, which she dropped before the lights went out, but it was not on the floor. Eleanor looked around the room for her book.

      – I do not remember that I lifted you, – she said out loud like a book could hear her.

      Suddenly something splashed next to her on the couch. Eleanor shuddered, turned and looked beside her. There, on the couch, next to her, lay her book.

      The woman stood abruptly. She looked at the most ordinary book as if it was not a book at all, but something terrible. She could not remember that she was picking up a book from the floor. Yes, and this slap… Like someone just dropped a book on the couch next to her…

      Eleanor suddenly felt cold again. It smelled like winter around. Woman scared even more. She wrapped her arms around herself and wanted to turn in the direction of the door to leave the room, but something seemed to stop her. She looked at the book again, and to her surprise and horror the book opened itself. The words on the pages began to fade until there was only one word “YOU”. Then the pages of the book turned over and all the words on them, too, seemed to evaporate. All but one: “SOON.” The book turned over the pages again and it all happened again. On the pages there is only one word: “DIE”.

      Eleanor in horror rushed to the door. But how much she pulled the handle, the door did not open. Door did not even shudder from the blows when the woman began to beat it with her fists. It seemed that it was not at all a thin wooden door, but a blank stone wall.

      “Help me!” – Eleanor wanted to shout out, but before she could open her mouth, in the room,