• Vanessa Mireille stood on the stage, looking out into the darkness beyond the lights. She stood with her arms at her sides, her expression calm. The stage lights were bright, nearly blinding, yet it didn't bother her; Vanessa was used to it. She had been in the spotlight for years as a singer. Crowds and stages were her life, and she welcomed the pressure. In fact, she loved the heat which beat down on her from the lights above. It was exhilarating; the hush of the crowd as they waited with baited breath for the concert to start, the lights which shone only on her, the feeling of every eye in the room being on her.

    She took a deep breath in through her nose, out through her mouth. The crowd seemed to stop breathing all at once, waiting for her to begin. With another quick breath, Vanessa closed her eyes and began. As she sang, the notes lifted high into the air, piercing the silence and leaving the audience breathless. Her voice lowered and rose to the beat of the music. As she finished, there was silence for a moment before the crowd broke out into thunderous applause. The applause she knew she deserved. The young woman heard the occasional cheer, and she allowed herself to smile, just a faint lifting of the corners of her mouth. With graceful movements, Vanessa bowed. Her smile grew as she bowed again, lowering her torso further in a deeper bow. The crowd continued to applaud, the sound of so many hands coming together at once was almost deafening.

    Suddenly, the lights turned off on the stage, leaving her in a darkness similar to the one she'd seen beyond the lights. Throughout, the applause continued and Vanessa looked around. Never in all her years had they done that while she had still been on stage; the stage crew was under direct orders to leave the lights on until she began her departure from centre stage. Someone would definitely be hearing about this and perhaps someone would be fired. She spun on her heel in a fury and began to stalk off stage when the lights in the big room turned on. She glanced over her shoulder to toss a smile at her fans, lifting a hand to blow them a kiss.

    Vanessa froze at what she saw. The room was empty, though she could clearly hear the sounds of people's laughter, the clatter as they prepared to leave. She stared out into the room, her mouth agape. Her eyes were round as saucers and she could feel the hairs at the back of her neck standing on end. She ran off into the corridor behind the stage. Clearly someone had to be here, the lights had to have been turned on and off. Vanessa firmly believed there was a logical reason for all this, and someone would pay for frightening her.

    After searching backstage, fear had well and truly grabbed a hold of her. She had not found anyone backstage, nor had she found anything which led her to believe anyone had ever been there. Vanessa hadn't found any personal objects, all the rooms empty of clutter as well as people. The sounds of chatter rang in her ears, and yet she could see no one.
    "Hello," the young woman called out, her voice high and brittle. Vanessa could hear it echo through the hall and she waited a moment with her blood pounding in her ears before she realized no one was answering. She sped up her pace, her heels clicking against the hard surface of the floor as she made her way to the exit.

    Vanessa found herself in the auditorium, the door slamming behind her. Vanessa searched around frantically. The chairs were in neat little rows, all the cushions were folded up. The floor between the rows was extremely clean. Yet through all of this, the chatter continued. She could make out excited commentary about the concert Vanessa had just finished, plans being made for another weekend's excursions, and farewells of friends who were going their separate ways to their homes. Yet, she could see no source of the voices.

    She felt a chill rush over her. Something was wrong, but she didn't know what it was. The petrified singer kicked off her heels, leaving them behind her. The sound of her feet echoed off the auditorium's walls, unbearably loud in her ears with all the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

    The doors rattled beneath her touch as she shoved the door with all her might, yet it refused to budge.

    "Come on... come on," she pleaded under her breath, moving to the next door. It shook with the force of her attempts to open it, but it did not open. Vanessa tried one more time before she spun around, searching for another way out. She spied one on the other end of the auditorium and she ran for it, tripping over her feet. The singer stumbled, using her arms to catch herself, to block her face. Somehow she regained her balance, and continued on to the next door. Then the lights went out again, a hush fell over the voices in the crowd and she gasped, turning hurriedly towards the stage where the lights had turned on once more.

    She stood in horrified silence as she heard her own voice coming from the stage. It echoed eerily through the room, sending shivers down her spine. The voice did not sound human, it sounded like something out of a horror film. It sang the same song as she had done previously, and once more the crowd burst into applause moments after the voice stopped. Vanessa turned again stumbling through the dark room towards the illuminated exit sign. More than ever, she knew she had to escape. Something definitely wasn't right.

    Vanessa reached the door just as the lights went on in the auditorium. She reached for the handle as she heard a crash behind her. The young singer looked behind her and jumped as she saw people where there had been none before. Suddenly, the room was full, and all eyes were on her. She relaxed slightly, before noticing that they were not normal people. They were see-through, though the view wasn't completely clear, their skin appeared almost charred; in some places Vanessa thought she could see bone. The panic returned.

    "What is going on," she demanded, pushing against the door without turning away from the beings in front of her. Again, the door did not budge. The crowd smiled, their faces contorted in horrific parodies of human expression.

    "Join us," they whispered all as one, their mouths not moving as they did so. Her eyes darted between the different people as they began to approach, backing away into the door which still would not open.

    "You cannot escape... there is no way out."

    Their voices were raspy, and it reminded her of the hiss of a snake. It was as though they were not used to speaking, and every word seemed to be a struggle. It had the same echoing effect as the voice she had heard earlier from the stage.

    "Please," she begged, tears filling her eyes. "I want to go. Please... please... please."

    The crowd laughed cruelly at her pleas, continuing to close in on the terrified singer.

    "You must join us. There is nothing you can do... nowhere to go..." she heard their voices rasp. She could not make out where they were coming from in the crowd, each voice was from a different part around her, yet they were all shaking their heads in unison.

    "Not this time, Vanessa," one lone voice said.

    The way her name was said was full of malice. Vanessa could not think of one reason why these creatures would hate her so much. She did not remember seeing their faces before, could not remember wronging them.

    "What have I done?" she screamed at them, her voice shaking as much as she was. Her hands curled into fists as she lifted her arms to defend herself. They were barely a metre away from her now and she could feel a chill coming off of them.

    The young woman shivered involuntarily, and then she saw a flicker of colour in the corner of her eye. She turned her head to the side and gasped. Red and orange licked the walls, burning them up as if they were nothing. Then she saw smoke, the heat waves rising and blurring the air. The figures cackled. "Yes, burn," they purred in unison. "Burn to the ground... And there shall be nothing left..."

    She screamed as the flames burned brighter, closing in around her. Suddenly the strange people were the least of her worries and she spun back to the door. The frightened woman frantically pushed against it with all her might, but to no avail. She felt the heat closing around her as she struggled with the locked door, and began to choke on the burning air. Through the crackle of the flames, she could still hear the chanting.

    "Join us... burn..." they said in a harsh whisper, repeating the words, their voices getting louder and louder with each repetition, and then she crumpled to the ground.

    "This was your fate, Vanessa," a voice hissed in her ear as the life fled from her body. "This was how it was supposed to end..."

    He laughed. Cold and merciless.

    Vanessa remembered this. She remembered fire... Agonized screams of pain and terror. The heat of flames.

    Burning.

    Darkness.

    She remembered waking up in a bright room. In a bed. People poking and prodding her.

    "There was a fire, Vanessa," she remembered her mother saying. "After your concert... there... you were the only survivor. It's a miracle that you're still here..."

    She remembered the confusion she felt at those words, and that she had remembered none of what had occurred that day. Yet it was slowly coming back now.

    Suddenly her mind blanked as she felt the strange man shake her.

    "You can't cheat Death," he said, his voice low and icy. Vanessa couldn't make out his features, and though she knew she should be afraid, she felt nothing.

    In her mind she could remember hearing voices. They beckoned to her, called her name. She remembered walking in a trance, and the next thing she knew, she had been looking out from the stage.

    "I would have got you eventually; I always win. Now you know that."

    Now she knew she was going to die here, like she should have done in the fire. Death wanted her and the dead hated her.

    "You're one of us now, Vanessa," the dead cackled. "Finally you've joined us... there was no escape."