I didn't know what had happened to me.

Really! What could have led to this?

There was this old lady, chasing after me, asking weird questions. What would she gain knowing the answers?

It all started on the First of November, a day to celebrate the death.

I was seating, enjoying my tea and reading some good science fiction. My favorite Sci-Fi e-zine just had published a day ago its new release on this prolific part of the web, the orange part.

I was just starting this particular short story about a creepy porcelain doll, or so I thought that would be the theme, when this old lady sat beside me and put her hand on my shoulder.

"Tag. You're it!"

I felt suddenly like in one of those surreal episode of Smith and Jones, where the guys and the luscious girl end up in a detour of the genre-iverse... really, really strange... and uncomfortable, indeed!

Then, she started asking those questions. The strangest? I felt compelled to answer; though I didn't want to. I didn't even know what I was saying anymore, as if I had been possessed by a playful ghost.

"If you could transform into any kind of animal, what would it be?"

I looked at her, dumbfounded, wondering where she was going with this. What would it matter to her to know it?

"... a dragon..." Those words coming from my mouth, I wasn't sure why, felt satisfying. I started imagining myself turning in a fiery breathing monster, clad in black and red scales, and torching the old lady to the bones. Perhaps she would stop asking her questions.

"One place you would never want to get lost in the dark"

She didn't even phase, continuing her introspection, as if she had been wired to ask and not even stop at the answers.

"... my mind..." My own mind could be scary sometimes, and I couldn't imagine getting lost in the dark within the contrived halls of my own imagination.

"Are you claustrophobic?"

I knew, now, that whatever I would answer, she would continue on and on. I just hopped this would stopped soon enough so I could go back to my reading.

Was I claustrophobic? Would taking the stairs rather than the elevator answer the question? Would freaking just at the thought of the closed slides in a water park answer the question? Just thinking of mine shafts, evacuation socks, or just a submarine hatch got me goosebumps... and not the pleasant ones!

"One thing that always creeps you out?"

She insisted with her questions... disturbing... why she wanted me to think about those things that made me uncomfortable, to say the least, was a wonder.

"...closed, narrow spaces... and anything that can be encountered in it..." Yup, my claustrophobia was the source of all my creeps...

"Biggest fear?"

Come on. With the last questions I was already shivering, lost in the dark, enclosed space of my mind... I was already quivering in fear, looking for the light...

"Ideal way to die?"

This question, somehow, drew me out of my scary head. It got to think some more, therefore to get out of the dark side of I... Ideal way to die? Is there really a way better than another? Probably leaving in a moment of bliss... like after enjoying a good meal... my inner dragon was already imagining the feast of the roasted old lady... Mmm... it wouldn't be too bad to die after eating the annoying creature... hopefully, it wouldn't be of indigestion.

"Any scars?"

Shall I count them? Many mishaps when I was a youngling, I didn't acquire my scales yet. Then, I had those two scars when I tried to reenact the famous Alien's spaghetti scene. Did you ever thought about how this specific scene was an apology of birth by C-section? Well... let me tell you I felt almost like it after the first one... though it was no monster that ended coming out of my innards... or perhaps?

"Fav scary movie?"

"Sorry Lady, I don't really watch scary movies... I am too much of a scaredy-cat for that... Just the music usually set me of." By then, I wasn't sure whether I was answering the questions anymore or I was lost deeper in the turmoil of my frightened self...

"Easiest way to scare you?"

Well... this one was quite easy to answer.

"Make any noise at night when I am the only one still awake. It doesn't has to be a big noise, just some small, inconspicuous one, and it will set me off. Add to that some changing light playing on the walls... and I am done for the night..."

"Last nightmare?"

Lady, how do you think it was so easy to answer the previous question? The dragon was started to feel hungry, and slightly angry also, seeing as all those questions where digging the hole in my mind even deeper. Would it stopped soon? If not, I thought that the World could end soon, in flame and with one less old lady roaming it...

"What are you going for as Halloween?"

Halloween was the day before... What did I do already? Oh, yes! I started to read my fav e-zine.

Why wasn't I reading it still?

"Do you believe in the supernatural?"

This last question had been the trigger the old lady shouldn't have played with. As soon as the words exited her mouth, a roar could be heard and I felt a bit warmer.

"... lunch time!"