I'll always remember the sight that beheld me. I'll remember the smell of burnt out candles, the shadows dancing with the flashes of lightning, the thunder roaring mightier than any beast. I'll remember how cold it was, the pitter-patter of the rain on the windows, and her. My God... she'd most definitely burned into my memories like a blazing fire. How did this happen? How was she in my apartment? Why was she here to begin with? Questions spun around my head; I could hardly focus. The whole thing just seemed like a weird dream. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. I couldn't remember where I was or why I was there for a moment. I retraced my steps from the beginning. I lived in a one-bedroom apartment with a conjoined kitchenette-living room. It had one bathroom. No, that's not quite right. It had two bedrooms, one of which I used for a photography studio. And it wasn't a kitchenette-living room, it had a separate living room and kitchen. Yes, that's right! I can't even remember where I live... my mind is pretty rattled. What happened earlier that caused me to turn the lights off and rely off of candlelight again? To set a romantic mood perhaps? But I'm not interested in relationships right now. Wait... actually, I think it was a blackout. Yes, most definitely a blackout. There was a storm outside. I remember that I was cleaning out my photography studio for a photo-shoot I was going to work on tomorrow regarding vases or something for a home decor magazine. Or was it clothing for a fashion magazine? No, it was home decor. I can't seem to recall anything very well, given the situation. Luckily, I had a lighter in my pocket and I happened to like keeping candles in every room, so I decided to light the ones around my home. After I lit the ones in my studio, bathroom and bedroom, I walked out of the hallway leading to the living room and kitchen, noticing a faint light emanating from around the corner. I turned the corner. That's... that's when I saw it-I mean, her. I dropped my lighter, frozen in horror. There, dangling from my living room ceiling, surrounded by strange black candles that I didn't even own, was a young woman hanging by a noose that was looped unforgivingly around her neck. Her long, stringy, ebony black hair completely masked her face, so I couldn't see her complexion. She wore a white nightgown that flowed down her legs, cutting off at her knees. The sleeves of the gown flowed as softly as the skirt of the gown until they reached her elbows, abruptly cutting off in jagged rips. She wore no shoes and had very pasty white skin that illuminated a small bit the candles' light off of her arms and legs. I stood there in absolute shock. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. I couldn't move. I was absolutely paralyzed with fear. I just kept staring at her limp corpse, slowing swaying from side to side, illuminated by the black candles. Time almost seemed to be frozen. After what felt like an eternity of watching the girl's motionless body sway from the rafters, I snapped back into reality. I quickly dashed back into the hallway and towards the landline in my bedroom. I instinctively yanked it out of its charging dock, only to remember that it no longer worked because of the blackout. My cellphone wasn't an option; I accidentally had left it at a friend's house. Okay. I had retraced my steps up until this point. Lightning flashed outside, producing a short light source aside from the candles. I took a deep breath, looking or another source to contact the outside world. That's what I was trying to do, right? The adrenaline pumping through my veins began to fade and the reality of what just happened began to take hold. I started trembling and dropped the dead phone in my hand to the floor. I collapsed to my knees, still shaking with an ever-growing fear. A scream failed to escape from my lips, instead releasing a high-pitched whimper. Each time I attempted to stand, I ended up on the floor again, curled up in a trembling, weak-legged ball. I lay there with tear-stained eyes for what seemed to be an hour. After quite some thought, I decided to go back and face the sight that hung in my living room. Just as I was about to attempt to stand up once more, I heard something that chilled me to the bone from the living room. The girl, the dead girl hanging by a noose, was singing in an eerie, high-pitched voice. "How the moon shines, how the stars dance. So sleep, child, sleep in a dream-like trance..." the childlike voice sang from the next room. Oh God. "Let your mind wander into the night, and should these dreams give you a fright..." Shit. Shit, shit, shit. "Fear not, darling, I am here. To protect you and to wipe your tears..." I can't believe this. This isn't happening. "So rest easy, child, close your eyes. And sleep, my darling, through the night." That's... impossible. That lullaby was sung to me by my mother when I was a child. We wrote it together. As if the now demonic lullaby wasn't enough, the corpse in the next room giggled like a child. Suddenly, she let out a blood-curling scream, followed by a snapping noise and a loud thud. Without thinking, I dashed into the living room. The girl was sprawled out on the floor, the noose still wrapped around her neck. I could see her face now, but I wasn't sure of what I saw. Her face looked oddly familiar. I slowly drew nearer until I was kneeling near her body. I took a closer look at her face. Oh God. I scrambled to stand up, but instead I stumbled backwards, landing on my rear. This... This can't be. No! That's impossible!! NO! NO!! I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. The face... the face that stared back at me... God... no... the girl... The girl was... me. And at that moment, every candle in the apartment simultaneously blew out, leaving me in absolute darkness.