Clara's Halloween

Clara got up and slowly walked down the right side hall, she looked into the kitchen, it was old and as outdated as the rest of the place she'd seen but didn't see any way out. She made her way back to the lobby are but nobody else was around. She called out but got no reply so decided to look, already knowing what she'd find. She found Alex first, the same blank expression as the others, his lifeless body slumped against the wall, a single line of drying blood coming from his nose. She found the others in a similar state and with tears running down her face she ran back to the lobby and sat on the stairs crying.

Clara didn't know how long she'd been sitting alone for when the shadows moved. Her breath quickened and she looked all around her to see what was blocking the light or something but she was still alone. Suddenly, a figure appeared before her, Clara could see right through her but before she could inhale enough to scream it rushed at her.....

Clara awoke from her nap and screamed.

"What the fuck." She said aloud as she caught her breath. She had a sheen of sweat on her.

She went straight to the kitchen where her phone was charging, October 31st, 3pm. She drank a glass of water and called Jim, asked him to come over.

"Holy shit lady, you look like you've seen a ghost." Said Jim as Clara opened the door.

"I... I think I have." She replied. Jim held her close as Clara told him about the house.

"You're shaking, come on, you need a drink. Was it a bad dream or something?" He asked.

"I thought it was before but I've been to that house twice now. Everyone dies and I don't know how to stop it. The first time I went to the basement after everyone else was dead, I seen something then I woke up, the 2nd time I sat on the stairs and seen a woman but I could see through her, it rushed at me and I woke up in my bed again. I called you after the first time, told you things that were going to happen, you didn't believe me. Text Jane, ask her to call her cousin and ask for the address of the house she just got the keys to today, I'm going to write it down on the whiteboard on my fridge before you do, stay here."

A few minutes later, after a few texts back and forward, Jim had the address on his phone.

"Okay, now go look on my fridge." Clara said to Jim.

"No fucking way. She said her cousin freaked out, she had just got them like 5 minutes before Jane called her. What do we do? You said we all go there and we all die? How? Is there some guy with an axe hiding in the basement? I can bring my gun." Said Jim.

"I don't know, everyone we find is really pale cold after a short time and has blood running from their nose. Last night was the first time I seen anything else, I can't get her face out my head."

"You know none of them are going to believe us right? What if we don't go? I'll tell Jane we are not going, I'll knife Kim's tires if I have to but we'll stay at Jane's."

Clara calmed down a little, she made a few trays of food, her baking calming her more and was determined that her and Jim would manage to keep them away from the mansion. Their plan only held for so long.

"Clara, I don't care what you think about a house that there's no way you've been to but Lisa just texted me that she's scared and needs my help. I have to go. Stay here if you want but I'm going, Kim, will you please drive me, I've had way too many drinks for this bullshit." Said Jane.

"Then we all go, we all have to stay together, nobody splits up." Said Jim.

"Fine, fuck, whatever, let's go already." Said Jane.

Less than 45 minutes later Jane was kneeling beside her cousin Lisa's body again. Jane stood up and looked at Clara.

"Did you know this was going to happen?" She said.

"I... I've been here twice and both times we were too late." Said Clara.

"This is bullshit, lets get out of here and call the cops." Said Alex.

"The door is gone." Said Clara.

"What, how do you know, we've all been together as you insisted." Replied Alex.

The group all made their way to the lobby and as Clara said, the door was gone. Everyone was checking their phones for signals.

"You won't get a signal, there are no windows on either wing and nobody makes it far upstairs, there may be a way out through the basement, I brought a flashlight." Said Clara.

Clara led with the flashlight down the dark, narrow stairs, remembering the mirror that made her jump. She spun round at a noise behind her and screamed, her friends were being held off the ground by the neck, clawing and kicking at nothing they could see. They were all thrown in different directions, their lifeless bodies slumped against the closest wall. Clara looked to her left in time to see the woman rushing her....

Clara woke from her nap screaming.

"Jane, please don't ask questions, tell Lisa not to go to the house, she can freak out, call me crazy later, I'll gladly take her insults or labels of crazy but please trust me." Said Clara to her friend.

15 minutes later, Jane called her back.

"Clara, what happens in that house? Lisa was already there when I called her, she said her signal was bad but would call me back. Her phone is ringing out now."

"I'm so sorry Jane, it's already too late." Said Clara then hung up her phone.

Clara got dressed then got her container of gasoline from her garage and a box of matches. She drove to the mansion, ignoring her ringing cellphone and slowly walked up the steps, stopping to grab a large stone to wedge open the door. With the door held open she poured gas all over the steps and as much of the hallway as she dared walk down then reached in her pocket for the matches. She didn't hear the door slam or the brick move but the door was just gone when she turned around.

"Well fuck." She said and looked down at the matches in her hand.

"This won't stop him." Said a voice, it was the woman she'd seen before, she had appeared before Clara, she was too frozen in fear to scream. "I chose you because I think you can find a way, I'm sorry I can't do any more."

The gasoline Clara had poured suddenly caught on fire, Clara hadn't taken any matches from the box. Clara barely felt the heat from the explosion.

Clara woke from her nap with a deep breath.

Clara tried to burn the house down again, this time she poured her gasoline over the ivy covering the windows but she woke in her bed again before it could destroy the house.

She tried making fire bombs with sugar and gasoline like she'd read online but when she was pulled over for speeding the Officer smelled the gas and found her home-made firebombs and arrested her on suspicion of terrorism. She sat alone and silent in the holding cell and didn't scream when the woman appeared again.

"You can't destroy us Clara." She said.

Clara woke in her bed.

She tried to run, she got in her car and drove, left her phone behind and headed out of town but before she got too far her car died, gas needle still showing half a tank. She screamed when the woman appeared in her passenger seat.

"You are connected Clara, there is nowhere you can go, we will find you." A different voice said.

Clara woke in her bed.

After roughly 100 different ways of trying to get away, trying to destroy the house or running Clara had reached a point where she couldn't take any more. She ran herself a hot bath, took an extension cord from her garage and took her toaster into the bathroom with her. She sat down in the bath, took her toaster and dropped it in the water....

Clara stood surrounded by light.

"Am.... am I dead?" She asked but couldn't see anything but light.

"No but we don't have much time, I sent you back further, wake up Clara"

Clara jolted awake from her nap, she looked over at her clock, 10am, she'd went to bed at 9am. She remembered the light. Back.. Further. Clara jumped out of bed and grabbed her phone.

"MacAdam Realty, how can I help you?"

"I need to talk to Lisa please."

Later that night, Clara sat with her Vodka and red bull, trying to stay awake.

"I feel so bad, you were working so late last night and I had you bake for us. Thought you were going to try for a nap, you're like the Queen of napping." Said Jane to Clara.

"I don't know, had a bad dream and had to make sure it wasn't real." Replied Clara.

"Well Lisa is sure glad you called her, she said you're looking at expanding already, that's so cool." Said Jane.

"Yea, I still have to talk to the bank but I thought I'd get a jump on the location." Said Clara.

The friends talked and laughed for a while longer, Clara was beginning to relax in the kitchen when Lisa came to her with a bottle of wine.

"You need a refill my dear, no more vodka for you, this is good wine." Said Lisa.

As Lisa poured wine into a glass for Clara, Jane came into the room and kissed her cousin on the cheek. Before she could hand over the glass to Clara it dropped to the tile floor and smashed, sending glass and red wine everywhere. Lisa suddenly flew back against the fridge and was briefly held up by her neck then after a horrifying cracking noise she slowly slid down to the floor where she sat lifeless. Jane let out a blood curling scream, Clara just froze in terror. Kim was first to run into the room, she made it 2 steps before she was violently thrown against the wall and she too was dead before she hit the ground. Jim ran into the room and tried to pull Jane away but both of them were thrown across the room, smashed into the island counter then hit the wall head first, their blood leaving a trail down the wall where they fell. Alex watched in horror from the doorway, he shouted to Clara to run, she turned in time to see him being thrown against the frame, the blood from his smashed face spraying over his white shirt as he collapsed. Clara looked around at her friends lying dead around her and slowly sat down on the floor and began to sob. She only seen the legs of the woman in white this time...

Clara woke up in her bed in a cold sweat, she looked over at her clock, only an hour had passed since she tried to nap.

"What the fuck do you want from me." She yelled as she burst into tears.

Clara got out of bed and went to her computer. She didn't believe in the occult or things like that but searched for protection methods. After 3 more days she determined they not working and kept looking. She had been calling Jim to talk to but thought of something different this time and called Alex. It was Jenna who answered the phone.

"So, Jenna now thinks we've been fucking, sorry it took so long to get here. What has you so upset Clara, you're usually the level headed one of our little crew." Said Alex as he hugged Clara.

"I've watched all of you die about 200 times and I can't do it anymore. I need to find a way to fix it. I've tried running, I've tried fighting, I've tried doing nothing but each time you all die and I wake up in my bed re-living this same fucking day over and over. Turn on the radio, live show, hmm, 11am, should be Thriller, the DJ is going to say he met his wife when this song came out, the other DJ will say 'she wasn't in the video was she' and they'll both laugh then the next song will be Timewarp, the second DJ will say I'm not telling you who I met when this came out and they'll both laugh." Said Clara, a single tear running down her face.

They both listened and Alex sat with his mouth open when everything Clara said was right.

"I love this station, they pride themselves about always being live, never recorded and every year they have this Halloween bash. Last year they had a guest. I believe you." Said Alex.

"I hate this next track, please turn it off." Said Clara.

"H..how do we die?" Said Alex.

"Violently, horribly, sometimes I see it, sometimes just your bodies. You're really strong in a crisis, must be your old Army days kicking in. Kim panics, Jim tries to be strong but feeds off Kim's panic and crumbles, Jane yells and cries but freezes up. I tried protection spells, I tried salt, garlic and bunches of sage, you all thought I'd gone crazy when I tried it but it didn't work." Said Clara. She told him everything she'd seen in the house.

"What if it's something else and not a ghost that's causing this and killing us?" Said Alex.

"What else could it be?" Replied Clara.

"I read about a group thrown out of the community college for causing a city wide blackout, their leader was sent to jail for fraud but he told his investors he found a way to 'fix time', he got out a few years back but nobody really heard from him again. Didn't he live over there on Dakota hills where you were talking about?" Said Alex.

"That's way above my head, you're the sci-fi nerd." Said Clara, she looked over at the clock.

"You have to go in a few minutes but before you do, tell me something you've never told anyone, we had this conversation yesterday but not here, I met you at my shop." Said Clara.

"Why do I have to go?"

"Jenna is about to call you, she'll be crying her eyes out, saying she's going to kill herself if you leave her, call the Police on your way home, she has a knife."

Despite everything they'd already talked about Alex didn't believe her until his phone rang, it was Jenna. He said a few things to her then got up to leave.

"Wh.. when I was 14 I walked in on my older sister having sex with our much older neighbor. She was 19 and a bit of a whore at the time. I didn't know what sex was so I thought he was attacking her and hit him on the head with my baseball bat. He paid me $100 every week to not tell his wife about it and I never did. I've never told anyone." Said Alex then he left.

She met with Alex a few more times and came up with an idea to try and stop what was going on. She drove to the beach and sat down in the waves and closed her eyes when she seen the woman.

Clara woke up in her bed. She showered, leaving the radio off this time, she knew what was playing. She drove to the Mansion and slowly walked up the stairs. She felt dizzy by the time she rang the doorbell, she looked back but her car was gone and there was no ivy on the walls. A woman in a yellow dress answered and invited her in.

"We cannot talk long, I have something to show you then you must leave, I will be punished for showing you but I know what is going to happen and I want you to stop it." Said the woman, Clara recognized her as the woman in who'd rush her before she woke in her bed.

Clara tried to speak but felt like she was underwater.

"You are not really here, you cannot speak. When I bring you back again you must come here, behind this painting is a lever, turning it will open the door to the sub basement. Come, I'll show you where it is."

Clara followed the woman as she pulled the lever. A wall came up silently where the main doorway had been but the lever opened up a narrow door leading to a sharp winding staircase that led down to a corridor then another door. Inside the room a ball of light, almost like a disco ball, moved clockwise and seemed to pulse. There were wires and consoles everywhere, all leading to the ball of light.

"This has the ability to change time, my master has already used it to make himself very rich but it made him insane. He killed my sister and his wife but he doesn't know I worked out how to use it. He's coming, I have to send you back. Destroy this and you'll be free."

Clara jumped in fright when the man burst through the door. He had a look of rage on his face she'd never seen before and she instinctively stepped back away from him as he advanced. The woman in the yellow dress ran towards her and pushed her hard, knocking her off her feet....

Clara woke in her bed.

"Fuck." She said then got dressed, not bothering to shower.

She grabbed her fire ax from her tool shed then drove to the mansion, leaving her phone behind. The ivy and aging was back and she didn't feel sick when she climbed the steps. The door wasn't locked so she let herself in and quickly found the painting and the lever. The house almost seemed to shake but she ignored it and made her way down the narrow stairs. The lab was close to what she'd been shown but it was showing signs of aging, and dust on the consoles like they hadn't been touched in years. The ball still pulsed and glowed brightly, Clara squinted her eyes as she got close and swung the ax at it....

Clara woke in her bed, it was dark and it was raining outside. Her head hurt and she was naked, how she usually slept at night but something was different, she'd lived the same day almost 400 times and this didn't feel the same. Her phone read November 1st, 3am. She looked through her phone's pictures, a wild party with her closest friends but no mansion and just drunk people posing for her. A pile of her trays sat soaking in her sink and notes on what people liked. A voice behind her made her almost jump out her skin.

"Oh shit, sorry Clara, I heard a noise and came for a glass of water." Said Alex, trying not to look at Clara.

"I don't remember anything from last night, did I bring you home and have sex with you?" Said Clara, covering herself up with her apron.

"Uh, no, we were both hammered and you let me sleep on your couch, Jenna threw me out remember." Said Alex.

The next morning after a good night's sleep, Clara drank her coffee as she told Alex about being in a loop and living the same day for so long. When he laughed and said she made it up she told him about his sister and the neighbor, his face went pale.

"You know I had a sister, she died in a car wreck when I was 30, I have never told a living soul about that though. You're telling the truth about all of that?" He said.

"Yes, this is the first day I've been free for so long I keep expecting to wake up and it be Halloween again." Said Clara.

Before they could say any more they were interrupted by the doorbell.

"Clara Jackson? Please sign here, this is for you." Said a man, handing Clara a small package.

Inside the package was a letter, a pair of strangely tinted glasses and a piece of chalk. Clara read the letter.

"Grab the sledge from the tool rack in my garage and come with me please Alex." Said Clara as she put on the glasses.

Clara looked around her small basement, quietly said 'no fucking way' and put a small 'X' on the wall.

"Hit the wall with the sledge where I've marked please." She said.

"Are you sure, these walls are fucking expensive to fix." Replied Alex, Clara just nodded.

After 3 or four solid swings the wall cracked then broke outwards, spilling gold coins all over the floor. When they stopped pouring out Clara looked inside and pulled out a box wrapped in greaseproof paper. Inside was ownership papers in Clara's name for the coins and bearer bonds for $5million.

"Holy fuck Clara, these must be worth a fortune, what did that letter say?" Said Alex.

"I can't tell you but you all have a similar package waiting for you, mine is more since I lived through it all but we're all really rich. Lady Heron said she's sorry and hopes it makes up for all the times you died."

"But none of us remember that."

"Well if you don't want it let me borrow your house for a couple of hours, I'll pay for the damage." Said Clara with a grin.

"Oh fuck you, if I'm rich now I'll take it. Can I read the rest of the letter?" He said.

"Fine. My Dearest Clara, it has taken some time to arrange but I finally have you and your friends set up to receive compensation. Upon my passing these letters will be sent to each of you detailing where to find your gold. I will apologize to your friends for blocking their house sales too, I had my lawyers prevent them from ever selling, I know they should understand. Explaining what happened after you left will take some time, my master was a cruel and horrible man and after amassing his fortune he sought to find a path to eternal life. This unfortunately drove him insane and trapped him in the mansion in the form that killed your friends. When I discovered I could also use the device I went back and tricked him into signing the papers leaving everything to me. Time travel is confusing but please be assured he won't be able to harm anyone again and the Mansion is gone. Thank you for freeing me, I hope these riches will wash away the pain you endured. Lady Heron."