HER NAME was Cassandra Diaz.

Who she was, I wasn’t sure. I had always thought that she was just the sinister star of my bad dreams, but there was more to her than I bargained for. Later on, she would make me realize that the world I was in wasn’t normal at all, and despite my efforts to live a regular life, I was unwillingly placed in the center of the weirdness and cruelty.

All normalcy was suddenly thrown out the window.

My story began when I was running for my life into the unknown. My legs started to ache.
My lungs were on fire. I was ready to pass out. But I had to keep going. Trust me, I didn’t want to get involved in all of this, but I didn’t really have much of a choice.

Cassandra was right behind me.

Beams of light pierced through the dense trees, and choirs of distraught voices howled in the wind. Footsteps surrounded me, making it clear that I was at a dead end.

And that was when I heard her.

“Hello…”

I stopped dead in my tracks.

“Where are you?” Cassandra’s voice was shrill, almost like that of a little girl. “Come out, come out wherever you are…”

The air was cold. Crows cawed overhead. My heart pumped out of my chest as I tried to catch my breath, but that was hard to do trapped in limitless darkness.

“You can’t get away from me any longer,” Cassandra then mocked. “We still have to play!”

I stopped, looking around apprehensively even if I couldn’t see a thing, but that was a mistake. A sharp blow suddenly met my face, and I fell to the ground as a bright light shone in my eyes. I felt like I had just lost as Cassandra towered over me with a flashlight in hand, looking at me disdainfully.

Every time she made that face, I would try my best to look at her straight in the eye, showing her that her mere appearance did not disconcert me. But then, imagine looking at your own reflection in the mirror, and to your surprise, it moves on its own.

Cassandra was just like that.

We had the same dark hair and thick-framed glasses. I had a thing for sweaters, and it appeared that so did she. However, she always wore black, suiting the way she hang around me.

She was like a shadow that would never leave me alone.

“You seriously think you can keep running away?” Cassandra asked as she circled me. The sound of dried leaves and twigs wrinkling and snapping resonated throughout the woods. “You can’t keep hiding from me, Quinn…”

Suddenly, in the dim light, I saw several silhouettes peering through the trees.

“Who are you?” My voice shook. “And what do you want from me?”

“I’m from the past you left behind, you idiot!” Cassandra hissed. “And you’ve done some terrible, terrible things.”

I trembled. My head began to spin.  “W—what are you talking about?”

“Oh nothing,” she said in a singsong voice. “I was going to sit here and grieve, but that’s no fun.” She placed her hands on her hips. “Instead, I’m going to make sure that you pay for what you’ve done.”

I wasn’t ready for what happened next.

Despite not being religious, I had always believed in a Higher Being, someone who kept things in order. However, I would often think that this Higher Being had eventually left, leaving all of creation to shatter.

Cassandra was a horrific testament to that belief.

I watched in horror as her eyes turned into nothing but two gaping dark holes; it was like her skull was grotesquely being carved into. Nevertheless, she smiled from ear-to-ear, giggling as her mouth began taking the same dreadful form.

The sound of footsteps grew more and more deafening. I then felt the choking presence of hands reaching out to me. In my obscured vision, Cassandra lunged toward me, and a line of fangs was the last thing I saw.