Pale Minds

~Just a Little Touch Of Madness~

As I tiredly roll myself towards my alarm, I smack it off the edge and it goes silent.

I pull back my thin curtain, only to find the world blanketed in a sheet of darkness. Strange I think to myself, My alarm is set for 7:30 AM. I reach for my phone that’s resting on my nightstand, and realize that thousands of people had texted me. Thousands.

I checked to see where the numbers had come from, only to realize that they were from all over the world. New York, Las Vegas, the UK, Salt Lake City, and many others had contacted me. But for what?

I quickly scroll through the messages, only to discover that they all said the same thing. Text after text, number after number. They all read, “Look outside, the moon is beautiful tonight.”

My heart was hammering inside my chest now, and I could hardly breathe. I start frantically searching the internet for anything. Anything that might help, maybe even some people who weren’t brainwashed already.

As I start to search up, “The moon” a tsunami of messages flood my phone, and they all say “No, you must look outside, Abby. Just trust us.”

I knew better than to listen to the foul words, and threw my phone across the room towards my mirror. As the shards of glass began to shatter, I felt time slow, and everything that I had broken,the mirror, my phone, the alarm, had started to reform, and my room had been put back together, looking exactly like it had last night.

I started to hear the now functioning device spewing out hundreds of different ringtones, and it received even more messages now. I couldn’t bear to look at them, as they all probably contained the same frightening words that seemed to plague me.

I needed to leave, but how? If I went outside, then I would have to look at the moon.If I went outside, hundreds to thousands of people might be waiting there for me. If I went outside, I would have to leave my family behind. My family-I needed to find them, to save them. I got down on my hands and knees and started to crawl through my house, down the hall, towards the bathroom, and finally into my parents’ bedroom.

As I reach for the light, I quickly threw my hand back, not wanting to draw attention to my house. Instead, I walk towards my mother’s side of the bed, and found her lying there, still sleeping. Only, something was off about her. Maybe it was just the way she was lying, flat on her back with her hands gently crossed over her chest, like someone had placed her there. Or maybe it had to do something with her hair.

I stare into them, contemplating whether I should wake her up. Finally, I made the decision and started to reach forward, but stopped dead in my tracks. I had realized what was wrong with her. Although I couldn’t see it before because of how dark it was, my ‘mother’ was blankly staring at the ceiling with her eyes wide open, and her mouth stretched into an inhuman smile.

Instinctively, I drop to the floor, and try to crawl under the bed, but then feel a powerful force rip me from under it. Expecting to see my evil mother, I had closed my eyes and braced for the worst. Only, when it didn’t come, I had opened my eyes again. And, to my surprise, found that I had been in my room again, same as before.

“What the h-” I was cut off by a sudden gust of wind slamming into my backside. I didn’t want to turn around, but something had compelled me to.

As I started to walk towards the sliding glass doors towards my balcony, I noticed a small figure standing by the window in the house next to me, but they weren’t staring at the moon, but rather, me.

I opened the doors and stepped out, feeling the cool warmth of summer spread over me. I looked up at the moon, and felt beautifully calm.

~~~~~~~~

As I watched in horror as the woman stepped out towards her balcony, I couldn’t help but feel sadness for her, as she didn’t have the willpower to save herself.

She tilted her head skywards, and stared at something that I could not, and started to slowly melt away. I watched as she smiled, and started to fall slowly and calmly, but before she could hit the floor, she was gone.