Abruptly, all the colours stopped. Everything went black. Slowly, the darkness before her eyes began to brighten, shade by shade, turning from pitch black to grey, until it was so painfully white that Mary’s eyes burned. She tried to close them but she didn’t seem to be connected to a body. She twisted and turned, trying to find some refuge from the pain. Suddenly, a dark shadow caught her eye. It was moving towards her at a lethargic pace, lightly drifting across the white. As it neared, it grew in stature, until it was towering over her, blocking out the light. Again everything went black. This time Mary screamed. She screamed with all the air left in her lungs.
Then she was awake, lying across the arms of her chair in a cold sweat. She was panting and her arms were numb. She stayed in that position, re-orientating herself for a few minutes. Just as her mind began to settle, the silence was broken again by sound of her doorbell.