Death's Contest Entries

The Countdown - 2 (Creative Poetry and Short Story Contests!)

"CATHY?"

It took her a moment to realize that it was Jeremy's concerned voice from the other side of the door.

"Cathy, are you okay?"

She was still shaking so instead of answering, she reached out cautiously and unlocked the door, allowing the tall brown haired man inside who looked at her with his concerned blue eyes.

"Why'd you scream?" He asked her, closing the door behind him.

Cathy shook her head for a minute before answering, wondering whether she really had only imagined the head. It was possible with her wild and active imagination but this felt so real.

"I-I saw a...something."

He frowned. "Something?"

"I-It was a..."

He came closer to her, placing his warm hand on her shoulder. "You're shaking. What happened, Cathy? Who'd you see?"

"Something!" She replied, with wide green eyes. "It was a head. I-I saw it floating above. In the air. It had no body and I-"

He shook his head slowly. "Cathy," he started in a gentle voice, "you didn't see anything. It was probably your imagination again. You, yourself, know that you have a tendency to imagine things that aren't really there."

She felt herself close to tears now as she imagined the head with the dark eyes once again. "It was there," she said.

He regarded her for a minute before sighing. "Okay, okay. Well, I've had a long day so who's hungry?"

He attempted to smile before walking past her and into the kitchen. Cathy stood there, her shock disappearing by the second only to be replaced by anger and annoyance. Annoyance at the fact that he didn't believe her and anger because he was so calm about it when she was clearly freaking out. So she marched into the kitchen and glared at Jeremy, who was removing his jacket.

She folded her arms across her chest when he glanced at her. "What?"

Cathy stayed silent.

Jeremy who really had had a long day at work, sighed again and rolled his eyes. "Cathy, please. I'm not in the mood-"

"Not in the mood for believing me," she finished for him, her voice cold.

Jeremy clenched his jaw. She really was getting on his nerves now. "Are we really going to go through this?"

"Yes."

He stared into her green eyes hard, seeing no sign of surrendering anytime soon. And he was exhausted so he didn't want to have this conversation with her. True, he didn't believe her because Cathy always had a wild imagination so he assumed that this time as well, it was the same.

"You know what? I think I'm gonna eat out." And with that, he picked up his jacket again and walked by her without another word, leaving Cathy alone to dwell on her angry thoughts about Jeremy.

That night, as she tossed and turned restlessly in the bed, Cathy heard something and she looked up, expecting to see Jeremy return home.

What she saw froze her in her spot on the bed. It was that same head with the dark, unblinking eyes and again it seemed to float in the air just at the foot of the bed. She wanted to move, to scream, to do anything but she found herself unable to move.

Then just like that, it disappeared again and she sat there like that for minutes before her eyes fell onto a white piece of paper on her blanket. After hesitating, she finally reached out and grabbed it with trembling fingers.

The paper only had one thing written on it in a slanting, untidy handwriting.

5.