Snippet #1230237

Juliette Marie Starling walked calmly down the hallway of her apartment complex, the walls grayish green, chipping away from age, surrounding her like an altered forest. Her face was an impassive, magnolia-colored mask, eyes, rich, chilling and frigid, locked solely ahead, stern in their piercing gaze as she moved gracefully, without a stutter in her step, towards the narrow, black door at the end of the seemingly everlasting hall.

Although her appearance was that of a composed, simple-minded human being, internally, she was truly disturbed; her mind was churning as fear snaked its way within her, clenching her chest, causing her heart to swell so that it felt soon enough too big for her rib cage, threatening to strangle her. She swallowed in a move nearly invisible, clicking her heels a tad faster as her thoughts circled around paranoia.

Subconsciously, she glanced behind her, seeing a stretch of lengthy hallway, dark, forbidding, overwhelming...

She sucked a breath in quickly, her stomach feeling unnaturally light, vision blurring slightly; for a moment, she felt as if she was going to fall, a wave of heavy dizziness enveloping her in a sudden motion. She remained upright, however, not pausing at all in her steps as her body moved on, almost as if in a dreamy haze, and, without her notice, she stood before her apartment door, glossy with black paint, reflecting her snowy white hair easily in its sheen.

Fumbling gently with retrieving her keys from the bag that dangled from her forearm, she silently yet hurried unlocked the door and, with as much calmness as she could stage, rushed inside and bolted the door in place.

The house was eerily hushed, all still... She was at least expecting the coffee pot to be brewing; her mother usually set it on before leaving for work, but Juliette didn't argue about it as she went to throw her purse on the leather couch and swiftly rush to her room.

Her room was larger than one would think in the seemingly tiny apartment building; walls flushed a dark violet, on which posters of bands and artwork were displayed in an appealing manner. A large bookshelf lined one wall, a 32" screen television propped on the back wall opposite her silk-cover bed, and a furry, matching purple rug was the centerpiece of the hardwood floor. She manuvered through the room with agility, right to the bookshelf, and went for the book spine she recognized the most;

"Decoding and Memorizing Mystics"

The words were scarred on the burnt brown, leather book, thick as a book could be and coated lightly with dust. She quickly flipped the cover open, sending dust particles to go flying through the air in a current like a fog, misty as she sat upon her bed and began to such the index.


There was someone following me...

She knew this with all her heart, explaning her great unease as she made her way home alone. She had left school campus for lunch and was debating stopping to eat or to just go to the apartment when she noticed a shadowy figure at the end of a nearby alleyway; she wasn't positive why, but watching that form made her heart sputter, causing her to become terribly frightened, gunning down the street for home. Many instances, as in stoplights and signs, where she continued to see the figure closeby yet again; even though she had blinked hard, trying to clear her eyes in cause of simple misconception, the figure never left her sight whenever she stopped the car. However, it was evident she was alone as she parked her vehicle in the complex's lot, but it returned as she left the main lobby and up the staircase.

She grew restless, just recalling the events leading to this moment, but regained her trainquility soon after, finally finding the part of the book she was looking for.

"Curses, Death Charms, and Morbid Casts"