I wake in a terrible fright. There is somone banging on my front door and screaming with a piercing shreak. “Help me, please! Somebody help me!”

I race down the stairs almost twisting my ankle as I hurridly unlock the padlock. As I’m turning the handle a woman barges in, speaking frantically and pulling at her matted black hair.

“Call the police! lock your door! they are coming!” The woman pleads.

“Whos coming? What’s going on?” I’m barely half dressed and feeling disorientated. Is this a dream? Who have I just let into my house?

I try to rest my hand on her shoulder to calm her but she almost knocks me out as she swings her body away from me. It certainly jolts me awake.

“Ok. I need you to calm down and tell me what’s going on” I say to her sternly. “I’m going to call the police but first, what is your name?”

She doesn’t respond to me. Instead she’s scratching at her face and looking around the house as if trying to locate something she’s previously left here. She turns to me with a look that frightens me to my core.

“They are you coming for you to now, there’s no escaping them, it’s too late” and she laughs in a hysterical panic.

She speaks as though she’s possessed by something. Her fingernails are chewed right down to the quick leaving almost nothing left to them. Blood stains and small paper cuts cover her small fragile body head to toe. I don’t even think she’s fully aware of where she is. I’m feeling a little frightened but I don’t believe this woman is really all there and what she’s saying is all that true. Perhaps the people chasing her are the ones in her mind.

I move slowely, carefully around the woman to the the kettle and where I keep my knives. I am trying not to frighten her more by any sudden movements but she doesn’t seem to notice my presence anyway. She’s speaking in tounges and seems oblivious to her surroundings.

“I’m going to make you a cup of tea, peppermint ok?” I turn to face her but suddenly she’s pressed up against me, a warm metallic smell expelling from her mouth. “It’s too late now, they’re coming” she learns closer towards me, reaching for the knives I was trying to protect myself with and with one swift motion she draws the blade across her throat, her blood splattering my face as her weightless body collapses to the ground.