WRITING The red madam

redblood

Anxious Tomato Will Bite You!
Original poster
MYTHICAL MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. 1-3 posts per day
  2. One post per day
  3. 1-3 posts per week
  4. One post per week
  5. Slow As Molasses
Online Availability
Afternoons, evenings and nights.
Writing Levels
  1. Intermediate
  2. Adept
  3. Advanced
  4. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
Genres
Historical, fantasy, magic, horror, supernatural, survival, vampires, demons, pirates, mutants, ghosts, romance (FxF, MxM, MxF) (Romance should be part of the plot and not the whole plot in itself), etc.
Tuesday, June 1st

I'm not much for writing diaries, I don't really know how to start or what to write about, what's pointless and what's important. Should I write fifty pages or just fifty words? People say it doesn't matter since it's for yourself and no one else, but my mind doesn't work like that. I either have nothing to say or I need to write a novel about it. Well, today I guess it's time to write that novel. I just feel the urge to get it off my chest. I have this suffocating feeling that just won't go away. I should probably take it from the beginning.

A few days ago, on a way too hot for comfort kind of day, I was running some errands with my friend. I don't remember exactly what we were going to buy, my mind is a bit hazy like a fog has placed itself over that day. Tho I guess it doesn't really matter what I bought or where I was going. What is important is the woman I met. Actually, I didn't meet her if you want to be nit-picky about it. I just saw her. She was standing there staring at me.

I don't know who she is, I don't know why she was there, I barely even know what she looks like anymore. It felt so clear when I looked at her, a beautiful face with empty eyes, an elegant body perfectly framed in a deep red dress, long hair that seemed to come straight out of a L'Oréal commercial. I remember the thoughts I had of her at the time, but when I look back at her she's... faded. As if part of my memories is missing. All I can clearly see in my mind is that red dress and those deep empty eyes. I caught a glimpse of her and she was staring at me. Intensely. She was standing across the street just watching me, not moving a muscle. I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. We just stood there, watching each other for what felt like forever. Then, something grabbed me.

"What are you spacing out for?"

I turned my head, confused over seeing Jacob there. Of course he was there, we had gone out together. I apologized, explained that this woman was staring at me, but when I looked back she was gone.

"There's no one there." He told me, "come on, let's get inside before you get a heatstroke." He laughed, probably thinking I was hallucinating. But I know what I saw. She was real. She was there. For some reason, it bothers me. Why had she been staring at me like that? What did she want? No matter how hard I try I can't get her out of my head. I feel like I need to see her again. Just once. I just need to know who she is.

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Wednesday, June 2nd

I went back to the place where I saw that woman. Walked around for hours on the street but she wasn't there. It is the middle of the week so she's probably busy. Maybe if I go back during the weekend I'll be able to see her.

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Thursday, June 3rd

I feel sick. I promised myself not to go out until the weekend. I'm not obsessed. I have other things I can do while not searching for that odd woman. The memory is even more unclear now. Just a dress. I'm reading the description I wrote two days ago and it doesn't feel like my memory. Deep empty eyes? What did I even mean by that? I'm going to go back to doing healthy things. Like not obsessing over a weird woman I don't even know.

Thursday, June 3rd (Evening)
I... Suddenly realized that I've been sitting on my chair and staring out the window the whole day. I don't remember if I've eaten anything.

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Friday, June 4th

I know I said I would wait until the weekend but I felt restless. Just needed to take a walk. Then I ended up on that street again. Waiting. She didn't come.... I'm not a stalker... I think.

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Saturday, June 5th.

I couldn't sleep. So I went out... At 2 am. I promise I wasn't thinking about going to that place.... But I ended up there anyway. It just kind of happened. It was odd, standing there underneath a street lamp, not a soul in sight. I would imagine being out alone in the dark would be terrifying, but I didn't feel anything. I've never heard about any murders in my area so I'm probably fine. Then the oddest thing happened.

"You're up early." A voice I didn't recognize said.

One of the shopkeepers was going to work. I looked at my watch. 6 am. How could I have been standing there for almost 4 hours without noticing? I don't even remember what my reply was, I just went back home.


Saturday, June 5th (Evening)

I've been thinking about going back the whole day but my friend visited randomly. It was hard to say no. Apparently, I've been ignoring multiple text messages from her during the week so she got worried. I don't even remember getting any text messages. I'm looking at my phone now and seeing texts from my parents, unanswered calls and Jacob nagging me to babysit his kid so he can go watch football with the guys. And with football I mean soccer, but fuck it, it's a ball that you hit with your foot, every other country has the common sense to call it what it is! Either way, I'm busy. Gotta do the dishes, gotta clean the apartment and lots of other things. I've now been able to answer all my text messages and make a few calls. Guess I've been kind of out of it the last week.

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Sunday, June 6th

I slept tonight. But I had a dream of going to that street. When I woke up I was there. I guess I had sleepwalked. I was alone. It was 3 am. I went home immediately and got back to bed.

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Wednesday, June 9th

I saw her again! It wasn't even in the same place, so going there might have been kind of pointless. This morning I was going to a friend at the other side of town, which means I had to take the subway. Yay for crowded places and sweaty people. Anyway, I was standing there and suddenly I saw her. As one train rolled out of the platform, she appeared behind it. Staring at me. As if she had known I was there and waited for the train to leave. I yelled something to her, trying to be louder than the crowd. She didn't move an inch. Her face remained neutral.

Then, a man told me to stop yelling. I tried to explain that I tried to get that woman in the red dress to listen to me, but he just responded with "what woman in red dress?" He was looking right at her as he said it. Was he colorblind? She was right there. Suddenly her face changed. She smiled. It looked sweet but felt extremely hollow. Just like her eyes. Then the train came and I lost sight of her.

I ran into the train and looked out the window of it, but she was gone.

I've been looking back at my past description of her and I don't recognize it at all. She was thin, not very curvy, her hair was long, but not as pretty as I remember it, her face was not very beautiful, but still unique. She had that odd shape Angelina Jolie has. You either love it or you don't. Still couldn't remember her eye color even tho I wrote it down immediately on the train. All I remember is emptiness.


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Saturday, June 12th

One could think that since I haven't written in days maybe my obsession got better, maybe I stopped thinking about it. Truth be told, I have done nothing but think about it. I can't sleep at night, I stare out the window the whole day, I forget to answer text messages and calls and Jacob broke down my door to make sure I was alive when I didn't come to open it. I don't remember anything from the past days. I have small moments of thinking about the lady in red and then I just cease to exist for hours. Maybe I'm sick. I've been talking to Jacob and Samantha about it all. Jacob got me to call a psychiatrist so I have a meeting on Friday. He promised to come to get me and he has gotten a spare key in case I can't open the door. He's a good friend even if he's an idiot sometimes. I do have a spare key hidden in a pot outside the building like any other normal idiot would. Tho to be fair, I've never told him about it so maybe that's on me.

Samantha on the other hand came with very different ideas. She told me about some madam in red that stalked her victims until they killed themselves. Apparently some urban legend. This is what google tells me about it:

The red madam is a legend about a woman in a red dress that attaches herself to people. She shows herself to a person three times and if you give her what she seeks she will not let you go. After you've seen her, you must quickly look away. Do not look at her, do not speak to her and do not follow her. If you do she will see it as an invitation. Once invited she will drive her victims mad and they'll end up killing themselves. No one other than the person she has attached herself to can see her. The story most likely originated in a mental hospital during the early 1900s where multiple people with the same delusions of a woman in red had gotten placed. It is unknown from the records if they were placed there because of those delusions or if they were already there when they started and got the ideas from other patients.

Well, that's an uplifting read. Not even Wikipedia had any information about it, just some obscure website that tried to track down smaller legends that only exist in small areas. I was lucky to even find it. I'm guessing it's all bullshit. I'm just having some mental breakdown and it just happened to hit during the time when my vacation started. This was not how I wanted to spend my summer. Let's just... hope for the best with the shrink.


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Tuesday, June 15th

Guess who got hospitalized. THIS BITCH. I fainted in the middle of a busy street. All those times I wasn't sure if I had eaten or not, apparently, I definitely hadn't. I'm currently being pumped with fluids. Best day ever! I hope everyone can read the sarcasm. Oh wait, I'm the only one reading this. Nevermind then. Samantha and Jacob have promised to come over and make sure I eat twice a day until I get better. They're taking turns. I'm not feeling great about it, I don't want to be a burden to them.

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Thursday, June 17th

Samantha slept over at my place tonight. When she woke up during the night I was gone. She couldn't find me anywhere. She did call the police and explained that I had been mentally unstable lately so they were searching after me all night as well. Then in the morning, I was back in bed. Samantha woke me up while crying hysterically and asked me where I'd been. I had no clue. Guess I sleepwalked again.

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Friday, June 18th

Now comes the exciting psychologic evaluation everyone's been waiting for! Drumroll!

I HAVE DEPRESSION!

At least that's what she put on me for now. She also thinks I might have some other stuff, but they need to look into it more before actually putting any diagnoses on me. Am I really depressed? I don't feel depressed. Is it the kind of thing that as long as you have it you don't realize it but once it's over you can clearly see it? They were quick to give me pills at least, hoping it would make me more stable. More visits to follow! I'm being sent to specialists. Don't ask what we talked about during the meeting. I remember nothing!

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Saturday June 19th
Didn't see her
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Sunday, June 20th
Didn't see her
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Monday, June 21st
Didn't see her
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Tuesday, June 22nd
Didn't see her
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Wednesday, June 23rd

I woke up again, in the middle of the night. I wasn't at home. Jacob should be in my apartment, I wondered if he had noticed. My phone wasn't with me. For some reason, I was in a dark indoor parking lot. Shouldn't those be closed at night? How did I get in there? I could see fairly well even tho it was dark. As a walked around, trying to find my way out I noticed a shadow.

I turned my head and faced the person. It was her. Of course it was her. "Hey" I yelled. "Why are you following me?" I asked. Was it really her following me? Or was I following her at this point? A bit hard to tell actually.

She walked away from me. "No, wait." I ran after her. I grabbed her hand. "Talk to me!"

She turned towards me again, a beautiful and grotesque face turned to me. It was rotting. But it was also youthful and smooth. Both versions existed simultaneously without rhyme or reason. Her hair was curly and lifeful but at the same time, it was dead and straight almost looking as if it's molding. Her body was magnificently curvy but at the same time, there existed a version that was skinny as if starved for months. I couldn't tell if I was holding a full fleshy arm or a skeleton.

I let go and backed away.

The creature smiled at me.

Bony hands started grabbing me, not hers, but others, rotting children with the face of that screaming painting everyone likes to meme about. There were no eyes, just empty sockets looking at me while they grabbed onto my shirt and tried to drag me away. To where I don't know. Somehow I was able to get them off me and I ran. I ran and ran and I heard them coming closer and closer and closer until I suddenly ran into someone.

The policeman had seen me running and caught me. He asked me what was going on, why I looked as if I've seen a ghost. I pointed back at the children following me but.. They weren't there. I tried to explain everything to him but obviously he didn't believe me. Eventually I told him I did have a problem sleepwalking and we both agreed that it might have been a nightmare. He gave me a ride home. Jacob had just called the police about my disappearance so he was quite surprised when I showed up two minutes later.

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undated entry
They're here. I can hear them in the walls. They're scratching.

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Undated entry

She's staring from across the street. She wants me to come out. She looks like a tree, her skin is bark, her hair is leaves, her eyes are holes. What am I looking at?

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Undated entry

Scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratchscatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch scatch scratch scratch scatch scratch

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Undated entry

I'm molding.

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Undated entry

My body doesn't move. I found leaves in my hair. My body feels stiff.

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Undated entry

The nurse said I'm going to be fine. My skin is not bark. But she says it is. She says I'll be a beautiful tree. Just like her children.


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Undated entry

She's staring at me. The children are sitting by my bed. Rooting into the floor. I'm rooting. I'm stuck. I can't move.

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Undated entry

I'm a tree. Tree burns. Burn tree. Tree dies. Tree reborn.

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July 27th:

There was a fire in a mental hospital tonight. The staff suspects that one of the patients got hold of flammable materials. One patient passed away.
 
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