“What do you want? Why are you still here?” I asked, my breath hitching in my throat. “Why won’t you leave me alone?”
“I’ve got help now,” she replied.
That was the first time the little girl had ever spoken to me. She smiled and giggled, like my terror and fear were just one big joke to her.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I ran from the room, doing anything I could to put some distance between me and her. There was only so much evil I could handle at one time. She’d reached her quota for today.
Stumbling down the hallway, all I could think of was reaching my parents. The little girl was following me, still giggling.
By the time I reached my parents’ room I was breathless and shaking with absolute terror. They both turned to look at me as I rushed for them, concern written in each one of their features.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” Mom said, reaching for me and wrapping me up into a hug. Over her shoulder I could still see her. Her laughter had died down as she returned to her usual staring.
“Can you see her?” I asked, pointing at the doorway where the little girl stood. She held up her hand to point back at me. “She’s right there. Please tell me you can see her.”
Mom and Dad both looked at the doorway before exchanging a glance. Dad stepped closer to me, placing his hand on my shoulder. “There’s nothing there, sweetheart. You have to remember that.”
My head was shaking like it had a mind of its own, my voice lost in frustration. Nobody had ever been able to see her before, not in any of the houses we’d lived in. She was as plain as day to me, almost as real as a living human but with a shimmery glow around her form.
“Come on, Pen. Let’s make a start on dinner. We can have pancakes tonight, you love pancakes,” Mom soothed. I wished I could have taken some comfort from her but there was no way I could.
The little girl was real.
They had to believe me before it was too late.
* * *
Dad sat with me in my room while I fell asleep that night. He promised he would only leave once I was sleeping peacefully. It was the only way I could possibly stay in my room.
I must have fallen asleep at some stage because I was awoken with a start hours later. My alarm clock had just ticked over to midnight.
Midnight. Otherwise known as the Witching Hour.
My room was completely dark except for a single moonbeam casting a shadow on the floor. The full moon sat stubbornly in the sky. I sat up quickly as I realized what had pulled me from my dreams.
Noises were coming from outside my room. Someone else in the house was making a racket, loud enough to cut my sleep short.
They were the usual sounds I was accustomed to. Something rattled, something else banged. My parents never made that much noise in the middle of the night and Bea should have been tucked up in bed.
The room was freezing cold even though it was the middle of summer. I pushed back the blankets that I’d pulled over myself in my sleep and stood. The wooden floorboards made my feet tingle with the sudden cold.
I crept over to the door and opened it slowly, my eyes constantly scanning for the little girl. I couldn’t see her but that didn’t always mean she wasn’t there.
The hallway outside was dark but I could still hear the banging noises. Going back to bed and ignoring it wasn’t an option. There was no way I would be able to sleep now.
Each step I took down the stairs was tentative and careful. I prayed I was wrong and I would find my parents putting up family pictures or rearranging furniture. Maybe they had a serious case of insomnia and couldn’t sleep.
The light in the living room was on, spilling its orange glow into the foyer. Shadows moved in the light, it had to be my parents. I was getting all worked up for nothing.
I rounded the corner.
And froze.
It wasn’t my parents in the living room. Sitting on the couch were four skeletons, two larger and two smaller. Pieces of skin were hanging off their bones, their ribs just black hollows.
They had no heads.
And they were alive.
The skeletons moved, their bones shifting and turning like any living human would. The loose and decomposed skin stretched and contorted with their movements.
They were watching television. At least they would have been if they had heads. The screen was nothing but static, flickering grey and white and emitting an unnatural sharp hum.
The four turned their bodies from the television to me, the bloody stumps of their necks oozing black liquid. I’d never seen anything more terrifying before.
It took a moment for me to realize the scream I was hearing was coming from me. I backed away from the living room and bolted up the stairs. I needed my parents, I needed them to see what was going on. Even if they couldn’t see the little girl, I was certain they would be able to see the grotesque skeletons.
I took the stairs two at a time, never moving faster before in my life. I rounded the top banister and sprinted toward my parents’ room.
Bursting through the doors, I had to catch my breath before I said anything. “Wake up–”. The words died on my lips.
Their bed was empty.
I checked the bathroom, then the closet, and then under the bed, just to make sure. They weren’t anywhere. I ran for Bea’s room, hoping the three of them were all in there and safe. I would worry about their concern and disappointment in me later. Right now, I had to find them.
Bea’s room was empty. I checked her closet too, making sure they weren’t all playing some kind of horrible trick on me.
“What are you going to do now?” The too-high pitched voice of the little girl made me snap around to face her. She glowed brighter now, as if somehow strengthened. My skin broke out in goosebumps.
“What did you do with them?” I demanded. The quiver in my voice was apparent with every word I spoke.
“Don’t worry, you’ll join them soon.” She started giggling again and my blood ran cold. Her voice was suddenly amplified as if it were everywhere all at once. It was all I could hear as it flooded my senses and made me dizzy.
I couldn’t think straight and I couldn’t see properly in the darkened house either. A part of me knew I needed to get out of there but my body wouldn’t cooperate.
The little girl was everywhere.
A loud bang shook the house. I could feel the vibrations through my feet. It sounded ominous and foreboding, a warning sign that I needed to get the hell out of there.
I ran for the stairs but the little girl blocked my way. The only other escape route was through the window of Bea’s room. I bolted for it, ready to jump out the second story window just to get away from whatever was in the house with me.
My fingers pried at the windowpane but it wouldn’t budge. I clawed at it, trying desperately to open the window so I could escape.
Even though it was icy cold in the house, a sheen of sweat was covering my skin from the fear and exertion. My fingernails all broke as I scratched endlessly at the window that would not open.
I was trapped.
And then it got even worse.
* * *
When the little girl said she wasn’t alone now, she wasn’t joking. All I did was blink once and the whole room was filled with ghosts.
They were crammed in to every available space, all with their hollow eyes staring at me. Their faces were twisted with maniacal grins, their focus solely on me.
I recognized them.
They were all in the main street yesterday. They weren’t townspeople, but dead spirits. They had learnt to follow me, even then.
I couldn’t see anything apart from them as they crowded me. Bea’s bed, her closet, even the walls were impossible to see. The ghosts groaned and grumbled, nothing but nonsense coming from their mouths.
I tried to scream for help but I couldn’t. My mouth merely flapped open and closed, my voice lost somewhere in the sea of spirits.
They mocked me with their sound, laughi
ng at my horror like it was nothing. All I knew was that they were trying to get to me. I had a feeling once I was caught my life wouldn’t last much longer.
All of a sudden there was another loud bang. The crowd stopped for just a moment before they parted. Bea was standing in the doorway, so small it was heartbreaking. A rush of relief flooded through me.
I rushed toward her, the ghosts following me the entire few steps it took to reach her. Bea was staring at me, her eyes fixated on nothing but my face.
“Bea, thank goodness. Where were you? Where are Mom and Dad?” I asked, all the words spilling from my mouth all at once.
She didn’t answer so I repeated the questions. I placed my hands on her shoulders, making sure she knew how important it was that I had the answers I needed.
“We have to get out of here, Bea. Are Mom and Dad outside? Is that where they are?”
Bea continued to stare. For the first time I realized there was something different about her. “Bea?” I shook her, trying to get rid of the glazed look on her face.
Her eyes met mine as she cocked her head to one side. “We’ve got you now,” she said. Except, it wasn’t her voice speaking. It was deeper, louder, definitely not the voice of a child.
I took a step back from her as her lips quirked up into the evilest grin I had ever seen. “No, not Bea. What have you done to her?”
Bea laughed as the little girl stepped next to her. They emanated an evil aura that I couldn’t get away from. Everything they were screamed only darkness and horror. I felt the coldness of their glares, every hair on my body standing on end.
They started walking toward me, their hands linked together like they were friends. I backed up, matching them with every step they took.
“No, Bea. Please, no. Don’t.”
I hit the wall, unable to go any further. The window was still unmovable and the door was now further away than ever. The corridor the ghosts had left for them closed over, trapping me in completely.
My mind raced while I tried to think of a way to get out of there. The little girl and Bea were talking now, chanting underneath their breath in a language I didn’t recognize.
There was only one thing I knew for certain.
They were going to kill me.
* * *
“No!” I screamed, throwing up my hands and putting every last piece of energy I had into that one word.
The little girl had haunted me for two years. We had travelled all over the country to try to get away from her. My parents had spent thousands of dollars. Bea and I had to make countless new friends at new schools – only to move again the minute we did.
I wasn’t going to take it anymore.
“None of you are going to scare me any longer!” I sounded like a madwoman but I didn’t care. All I could think of was getting rid of them, forcing the little girl to stop torturing me.
The little girl and Bea exchanged a glance and smiled, sharing a conversation I couldn’t hear.
I slumped against the wall as they took another step closer. I closed my eyes but it was worse when I couldn’t see them. At least I knew where they were with my eyes open.
There was no way I could stay there. Apart from the evil girls, all the other ghosts seemed transparent. I didn’t doubt they could touch me if they really wanted to, but I had to take a chance.
This time I did close my eyes.
And then I ran for the door.
Coldness shivered through my body, making every part of me shudder. I could feel their bodies like a whisper as I passed through them. My feet moved like they were stuck in quicksand, making the door impossibly far away.
I kept going because I didn’t have much of a choice. When I opened my eyes again I fixed them on the door. Bea had left it open and my sole goal was to get through it.
Chancing a glance over my shoulder, the girls were following me. They weren’t running – they didn’t need to – they simply walked after me, their hands still linked together.
Finally, the door was in front of me. I barreled through it and ran for the stairs. It no longer mattered where my parents were, all I knew was that I had to get outside and away from the ghosts.
The little girl had never followed me off the property before. She always remained on the boundaries, no matter how small or large.
But, then again, she’d also never spoken before.
My feet stumbled as they tried to get down the stairs too fast. I grabbed onto the banister to stop my fall down the remaining stairs.
The light in the living room was off now, the skeletons no longer watching television. I gave the room only a fleeting glance before I lunged for the front door.
It was locked.
I tried everything I could to open it, including throwing a chair at the surrounding windows – it merely bounced off, almost hitting me in the process.
The girls had me pressed against the wall with nowhere to go. Fear that I never knew could be experienced raced through me. I didn’t even think to cry or have my life flash before my eyes. My body was reacting with a stone cold freeze.
Bea stepped backwards one step, the little girl dropping her hand. Her eyes were cast downwards, as if she were deferring to the little girl in a submissive pose.
The little girl glared at me, her expression so smooth and unfeeling. She didn’t regard me with anything other than distain and amusement. She hated me, she had to the way she’d made my life a living nightmare.
She started growing. At first I thought it was just a trick of my eyes, but she was definitely getting bigger. She grew to my height, then my father’s height, and then she was so big she could touch the ceiling with the crown of her head.
The face of the little girl stretched and contorted. Her skin was twisted as if her bones were trying to break free from inside. She was nothing but sharp angles and sickening black shadows.
There was nothing resembling human in her when she’d finished her horrifying transformation. She looked like she had escaped from Hell and was on a mission to kill everything in her path.
Her eyes glowed orange, set deep into what should have been her face. The rotting skin hanging from her figure was flapping as if she was caught in a wind tunnel. The atmosphere grew so cold I started shivering, my teeth chattering together.
Evil rolled off her in waves.
My brain screamed to move, to do something so that she didn’t kill me. I was certain that was her intention, this moment was two years in the making. She wouldn’t lose her chance to finish with me now.
I forced my body to move, told every limb to fight back and do whatever I could to save my life. The little girl already had the upper hand, I couldn’t let her have any more advantage.
My hands clasped around the only item I could reach – an umbrella stand. I picked it up with both my hands and threw it at the ghost.
It passed right through her.
How on earth was I supposed to fight a transparent spirit?
As panic truly gripped me in its hold and threatened to shut down my body, the necklace around my throat started to burn with heat.
My fingers closed around it, feeling the warmth radiating from the pendant. It was a gift from my grandmother, given to me when I was even younger than Bea. It was a rose with a crystal in the bud. I wore it every day because I loved it so much.
Before I could pull the heated necklace off, everything flashed white.
* * *
The white was so bright my eyes had to squint to stay open. I could only make out shapes rather than actual objects. Bea was still there, I would always recognize her form.
When the white finally faded away, we were no longer alone. Standing on both sides of me was a wall of ghosts, all shimmering with the white glow around their bodies.
I recognized them, too.
My grandmother, grandfather, nana, pappy, my uncle John, and just about everybody else we had lost in our family were standing shoulder to shoulder with me. The only one I didn’t recognize was
the man directly by my side.
He wore brilliant white wings.
My guardian angel.
I didn’t have time to stare at them in awe. We had to fight and we needed to do it quickly before the little girl took them all away again.
They ploughed into the fray, the white lights fighting the dark shadows of what was once the form of a little girl. My family of ghosts surrounded me, forming a protective shield so the evil spirit couldn’t reach me.
The little girl roared with anger as she fought back. Arms and legs were thrown around so quickly it was making me dizzy trying to keep up with everything happening. It was all just a swirling mixture of the good and the evil as they went to battle for my soul.
I’d always been close to my grandparents, and absolutely devastated when they grew old and passed over into the hereafter. Seeing them now, they were back to their old selves except that their bodies were repaired, they looked younger, and they could fight like nobody’s business.
My guardian angel held a long sword, wielding it with crazy skills and using it to slice at the little girl. They were both impossibly large, almost filling the room just with their ghostly forms alone.
The angel delivered a heavy blow to the little girl’s twisted head.
She went down.
Everybody attacked, the white light finally having the upper hand as they took her out. The entire room lit up with the incandescent light of their auras. I could feel the goodness again, knowing they had finally put a stop to the evil that was pretending to be a little girl.
She made one last bellow before she disappeared all together.
The atmosphere instantly lifted. It had been so heavy before and now it felt warmer and lighter. They’d really done it. They got rid of the little girl forever.
The lights returned to normal, every single bulb in the house turning on at the same time. For once, they didn’t flicker. They remained on as the house settled back to normal.
All my ghosts turned to face me, including my guardian angel. They had a serene smile on their faces as they stared for just a moment and then blinked out.
Spectral Tales: A Ghost Story Anthology Page 9
