Something Halloween

Despite their intentions, Anon and Twilight had to visit the office for a rather important meeting. Anon had insisted he would do it by himself, but she didn't really want to be alone in the apartment. Besides, they might need her. She was, after all, the CTO. It wouldn't look right for her to miss such an important kick-off meeting.

They drove there in silence, except for some quiet music, and Twiligh took the chance to rest her eyes. That incidentally meant she didn't see anything upsetting outside, which was a plus. Hopefully the inside of the meeting room wouldn't offer any such distractions either. She just had to get through a few more days. There hadn't been a reply from Celestia or Cadence yet, but Twilight was pretty certain she almost had the counterspell figured out.

It was bound to work. It had to!

She opened her eyes briefly to see where they were and saw the welcome sign of their building. They made it without a hallucination, or a ghost sighting, or whatever it was. Twilight decided to call them 'visions' to save time.

She turned and smiled at Anon. "Maybe it's getting better on its own?" she proposed. "Maybe it was just stress?"

"I guess it's possible?" His research into the deaths she had seen has, as of yet, yielded nothing concrete. It was uncanny! She'd think it would be easy to look up news articles from a couple of decades ago, right?! Maybe that proved it was all just in her imagination? That would be the best outcome, Twilight thought. They were about to drive into the underground garage when an all too familiar sight caught her gaze.

"Stop! Stop! Just a minute!"

Anon obediently brought the vehicle to a rest on the sidewalk. Almost before they stopped moving Twilight was already unbuckling and opening the window. "She's back," she said glumly.

So much for it 'getting better'. The little girl from the other day was on the sidewalk again, jumping her hopscotch.

"Twilight, this probably isn't-"

She didn't hear what Anon thought because Twilight had absentmindedly closed the car door behind her. She walked over to the girl. "H-Hello again?"

The child didn't look at her, concentrating on her delicate footwork. Twilight studied her intently. Again the same frilly dress and bonnet. She had expensive-looking shiny black shoes and white stockings that went up almost to her knees, but that was only visible when the girl twirled and her skirt flew.

"Can you tell me your name?"

This time the girl looked over, shrugged, then went back to her game. It was disappointing - a name might help Twilight find out if what she was seeing was real or not.

She barely felt Anon's hand on her shoulder and it was a struggle to catch his words: "What is it? Tell me what you see."

There was no time for that. If the vision was repeating, the girl would be injured, somehow. Twilight hadn't seen exactly what happened the last time, but she was looking now, despite the queasy feeling in her stomach. What happened would be another clue to make their search easier.

"Twilight, talk to me!"

"Shh!" she hissed. "Let me watch." Her calm, confident tone helped and Anon fell silent. He stood beside the mare, but kept his hand on her withers and, no doubt, was ready to grab her if she did anything dangerous, like run into traffic again. Meanwhile, the child hopped and skipped through her chalk maze, completely unconcerned with Twilight's close scrutiny. The mare found herself holding her breath in expectation. Her heart was pounding and she heard the rush of blood in her ears as she waited. Something was going to happen, but she didn't know what. Not knowing what and when was the worst part. Her legs were trembling and for a moment she considered looking away.

The last time she hadn't seen what happened, but just saw the end result. Little girl lying on the ground, then sitting up. Reaching a hand up to her bonnet. Her fingers coming away red with blood. A stream flowing down her face. Luckily that was when Samuel Oswin touched her and brought her out of the vision. This time, despite Anon's warm hand, she would have to see it all.

It happened suddenly. Twilight didn't see where it came from, but a cinder block smacked into the pavement next to the hopscotch maze. With how fast it was going, it must have fallen right from the top floor of the building. A small piece chipped off and flew right at the girl, knocking her to the ground. The sudden violence of the event made Twilight jump and squeak in fright.

"You okay?!" came Anon's voice from far away, but she ignored it.

She rushed over to the child and stopped just short. She couldn't do anything, but it was still painful to watch. Once again, the girl sat up, looked around in confusion and lifted a hand up to her head. Once again the rivulet of vivid red stained her cheek and her clothes. It was both horrible and heartbreaking and Twilight's eyes were instantly filled with tears.

Maybe it had been a construction accident or something, or a brick from the building's top floor had broken off. She extended a hoof towards the child, knowing she couldn't neither help, nor comfort her.

The girl also reached out and gripped her around the fetlock.

It felt as if a bolt of electricity ran through Twilight's leg. She felt each individual finger dig into her flesh.

"H-Help me," the girl whispered, but Twilight was stunned by her terror.

The ghosts could touch her! They could speak!

They were real!

Softly, with a gentle sigh, the child fell back, the hoof slipping from her grasp. Twilight stood immobile, with her leg outstretched. She saw the blood stain on her fur, where the girl had gripped with her wet hand. More blood - now there was a big, vibrant, red stain spreading around the body.

"No..." she breathed out.

"-wake up!" The voice reached her as if from far away, but then hands picked her up and Twilight looked into Anon's face. "Snap out of it!"

She blinked, then looked around. The street was mostly empty. The chalk outline of the girl's game was gone, as was the fallen cinder block. There was no sign of the girl.

"W-What? Where am I? She d-died..."

"You're safe, but we're going inside, now," Anon demanded. He wouldn't take no for an answer and simply pushed her back towards the car.

Twilight, in her confused daze, let herself be led there, then climbed up on the seat. She watched Anon close the door, then kept her eyes on him as he walked around and got in the driver's seat. The car moved forward and she looked back to to the sidewalk before it slipped out of sight. There was no sign of the girl, nor the blood.

There had been so much blood!

"We're going right back home," Anon said.

That finally woke her out from her fugue state. "No, n-no. I'm fine. I'm fine!" she assured the man. Twilight leaned back and took a long breath. "I'll be fine. I just need a minute. I've seen this one already, it was just a shock seeing it up close."

She decided not to tell him that the ghost had actually touched her. This meeting was important. She couldn't change what happened and she would think about it later. In either case, her counterspell was nearly ready. In another day or two she would be rid of this problem and that would be that. No sense in getting too worked up over it. She hadn't yet seen any visions at the office - maybe that meant that no one had died in the building.

She could do a simple meeting - she was there mostly for show anyway, to put the fact that a pony helped run the company right out in front of investors and clients.

"Are you sure?" Anon asked, his voice painfully undecided. He parked and turned to look at her more closely.

Twilight made herself smile and laid a gentle hoof on his arm. "Anon, I'm fine. I just got surprised, but I'm okay now. I told you I've seen this one again. I can do the meeting. Let's get it over it and then go home, okay?"

He was swayed. The man sighed, then squeezed her leg. "Okay. You're right. We're already here anyway, might as well sit through this thing."

She smiled in relief, but he held up a finger. "Tell me the instant you see something strange, okay? We'll just say you're not feeling well or something."

"Okay, I promise!"

"Good. Need me to carry you to the lift?" His mischievous grin told her that he was joking.

She returned the smile. "Need me to buck you in the ass?"

They both chuckled, mostly out of relief. The terror of the moment was subsiding, but the worry wasn't going far, Twilight knew. She'd remember this in detail as soon as she was alone. She had to get rid of this spell!

As they rode in the elevator she lifted up a hoof to scratch her nose and froze in terror. There was blood smeared in her fur around the fetlock, where the girl had grabbed her. Twilight quickly hid the leg. If Anon saw it he would freak out. For that matter, she was freaking out herself! Her stomach felt queasy and her legs didn't feel like they would support her much longer.

As soon as they reached their floor and the door slid open, she hurried to the bathroom. "Be right there," she called over her shoulder at the confused Anon.

Maybe she could wash the blood off. What she couldn't wash off were the implications. It was all real. No more doubt. She burst into the ladies' bathroom. Thank goodness it was empty! Twilight locked the main door with a quick spell, just in case, then ran for the sinks. One of them was built lower to the floor, made especially for her comfort and she quickly pushed her hooves in and turned on the water. It came away crimson-stained. There was the sharp, metallic tang in the air.

The mare sobbed as she scrubbed. Pretty soon her leg hurt, but still she rubbed it. It took a concentrated effort of will to stop. The water was running off clear. Twilight shut the tap off and sat heavily on her rump, trying to control her breathing.

She looked at her terrified expression in the mirror. "Fuck! Pull yourself together, Twilight," she moaned. An idea struck her and she splashed some cold water on her hooves and then her muzzle. It helped a little.

A ghost - if that was really what it was - had bled on her! This was no longer just hallucinations. They could touch her, they could change things in the real world. Probably - the mare gulped in fear - they could hurt her. It drew a whimper from her throat.

She was safe in the building! Twilight clung to that fact and closed her eyes. The ghosts didn't appear in the offices! There was no other choice. She needed to pull herself together and somehow get through the meeting. It would take some acting, but what else was there? If she told Anon what had happened he'd just freak out. Very much like she had just done. It wouldn't help anyone. She would find the counterspell soon and then it would be over! No reason to worry the man. He couldn't help. In fact, he was more useful to her if Anon was calm and collected. She needed him in control and unafraid, just in case she became lost in another vision.

Twilight forced herself to take a deep breath. She would take a few minutes to gather her wits, then she would go do this meeting. After that she would keep her eyes shut on the ride home. At least the lady on the terrace didn't bleed. Also, so far, she had never come into the apartment.

Twilight wished she hadn't thought the 'so far' part. She looked at the mirror again. "You got this. Just a bit of blood! You can handle it! Go out there and get this meeting over with!"

Maybe the horror was receding from her mind, or maybe the pep talk worked. Twilight took another breath, stood up on shaking legs, and went out of the bathroom. Just before she opened the door she forced a smile to her muzzle. It wouldn't fool Anon, of course, but he would just think it was because of the vision down on the street. That was kind of true, anyway.

She really hated lying to him like that...