by N. M. Howell
Okay, no old lady could move that fast. I paused mid-step, and tried to think what it could’ve been.
“Are you a ghost?” I called out into the vast emptiness of the dark room, feeling rather foolish. I had the ability to sense spirits, and I didn’t get the sense that there were any in the house. That didn’t necessarily mean that there were none, though. There were all sorts of things I didn’t know or understand about the paranormal community, and I wouldn’t even pretend to be an expert on things.
I waited for an answer, but big surprise, none came. As I reached closer towards the end of the hallway, I noticed a small band of light streaming from under a nearby doorway. I walked up to the door and pressed my ear up against it to listen, but there was no sound from the other side. I raise my hand and knocked three times, and waited. “Are you in there Mrs. Hemingway?”
Nobody answered, but I heard another creak from back down the hall where I came from. The sound made me jump, and I suddenly became aware that I was deep within someone else’s home without an invitation. I figured I should leave before I got caught snooping, and should probably come back in daylight, when the place wouldn’t be so creepy.
I began walking back down the hall towards the front door, but I froze in place when I heard a strange howling sound from the opposite end of the hall. My skin grew cold and clammy as I stood there in silence, listening to see if the sound would come again.
I took a timid step forward, but the floorboards creaked under the weight of my foot, and again, I froze.
The same sound came again, this time more quietly. It sounded almost like wind whistling through trees, but coming from the inside of the home. I couldn’t quite make out the sound.
“Is anybody there?” there was a distinct quiver in my voice. My nerves were on edge, and I was obviously frightened. “I’m just here to ask some questions for the local paper. The door was open, so I thought I’d come see if anyone was inside.”
And still no answer came, I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding, and proceeded to walk quite quickly towards the front door. The adrenaline coursed through my veins and I picked up my pace, eager to leave this creepy house behind.
Just when I neared the end of the hall and stepped into the entryway, the same shadow flew in front of me, and a small wind blew against my skin. I jumped back and screamed, the loud noise echoing down the hall eerily. I flung my hands over my mouth and crouched down onto the floor, looking around frantically to see what had just jumped in front of me.
I couldn’t ever remember being so afraid in my life. It was so stupid, because I knew in my heart there was nothing there that could hurt me. Still, I was scared witless. It was amazing what imagination could do.
I slowly pushed myself up and held my hands out around me, feeling to see if there was anything nearby. I could barely make out the room, let alone a flying object, and apart from the dim glow that came in through the front door from the street lamps for off at the end of the driveway, I was nearly blind in the darkness.
A howl sounded from right behind me, causing me to jump again, and without so much as a glance back, I took off through the entryway, slamming the front door behind me as I bolted down the winding driveway towards the safety of the streetlights.
When I arrived at the street, I leaned my shoulder against the lamp and caught my breath as best I could.
My body was still shaking from the adrenaline and the fear, but I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. A nervous, and almost foreign giggle erupted from my lips as I processed what had just happened.
“I’m a witch, dammit,” I tried to reassure myself. “I’m not afraid of spooky houses. Witches are supposed to live in spooky houses!”
The light above me offered a feeling of safety, and I continued to laugh frantically as I leaned against the cold streetlight. It was raining outside, and I really wanted to get home. I would have to go back the next day when the sun was up, and hopefully the woman would be home and able to answer some questions for me. I shook my arms out, trying to rid myself of pent up tension and negative energy. I finally pushed myself off the light, unlocked my bike, and walked it in the direction of home.
My legs were will shaking, I didn’t quite feel steady enough to ride my bike. As I walked, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was following me. I quickened my pace, but all the while I could sense the presence around me. A soft cracking noise caught my attention and spurred me to turn around, and I caught a glimpse of a shadow running past the dim glow of the light behind me. I gasped and stepped back, as my heart began to race again. I then hopped on my bike and sped off as fast as I could. I didn’t stop until I was safely in the house.
After slamming Mrs. Brody’s basement door behind me, I pressed my back against the cold surface of the door and slid down to the ground into a giant heap of a sobbing mess. I looked up into the room at the confused expressions of two of my housemates and Mrs. Brody looking down at me with concern.
“Bad day at work?” Rory asked.
I looked up at her with wide eyes and nodded. “Yeah, you could say that.”
Chapter 4
“Thank you," I moaned into the steaming mug of coffee Rory had handed me. The rich smell of the burning hot liquid soothed my nerves as I finally managed to relax.
Mrs. Brody was walking back and forth across the kitchen frantically, ignoring everyone else in the room. She wrung her hands together as she paced, methodically picking away at a finger nail as she paced.
Jane and Rory, two of my housemates, sat on the other side of the large kitchen table watching their small, frantic landlady as she paced. As Mrs. Brody walked towards me, I waved my hand the front of her face and snapped my fingers a few times, but she was too entranced in her own thoughts to even realize I had joined them in the kitchen. "Okay, so is anyone here can explain what the heck is going on?"
Rory frowned and fidgeted with her phone on the table. Jane looked thoughtfully from the phone to me and then back again, but held her silence. I watched, confused, glancing back and forth between my two housemates and my landlady, trying to figure out what could have possibly have happened to make everyone so strange and frantic.
"Okay,” I began. “Or just stay quiet. That’s cool, too.” Their silence was weirding me out after the day I’d had. I pushed my chair back and was about to go upstairs to have a hot shower and wash the stress away, when Jane finally held up her hands in surrender.
“Sorry,” Jane muttered. “Just, still processing things….”
Rory strummed her perfectly manicured nails on the wood surface of the kitchen table as she looked up at me. She finally shook her head as she caught my strange expression. "Never mind, River," she said as she forced a small smile across her pink glossy lips. “This can wait.” She batted her eyelashes and gave me that prize-winning smile she usually reserves for meeting men at the bar.
I rolled my eyes and waited for her to continue. Rory was one of those girls who spent more hours in front of the mirror getting ready than she spent out actually doing things. But, at heart, she was one of the most generous people I had ever met, so we forgave her the girly obsession with makeup and pretty clothes.
"Tell us about your day," she finally said to me. "Why did you come running in before? You looked he saw a ghost."
I couldn’t help but laugh at her. As a witch, seeing a ghost wasn’t typically a frightful thing. In fact, Mrs. Brody frequently had her spirit friends over for bridge night, although I hadn’t seen any of them for quite a while.
"I went to go see that massive house down the end of the road. You know, the one that's rumored to be haunted?" I finally took a sip of the coffee now that it had cooled someone, and nearly spewed it all out in front of me. It was bitter and I could almost chew the chunks of instant coffee that clumped together and floated around in the hot liquid. I slowly placed mug down as carefully as I could, as if it contained some sort of dangerous contents, and looked up at Rory with wide eyes, unsure wh
ether to laugh or cry. "What is this?"
Rory's eyebrows furrowed together in an adorable but confused expression. "Coffee?" she said to me, her voice as sweet as honey. Her eyes sparkled with mischief.
I pushed the mug away from me as I shook my head. "I don't know what that is in there, but it's not coffee."
Everyone at the table was silent for a moment, then a loud burst of laughter erupted from all our lips at the same time. We had evidently been holding in some pent-up tension, and it felt good for it to finally be released.
"I'm a tea drinker, River, okay?" Rory snapped as she crossed her arms and looked positively indignant. "You should just be grateful that I made the effort to make you a coffee instead of forcing a hot cup of peppermint tea down your throat, like a normal person would drink in the evening."
I rolled my eyes but couldn't help the grin that crept its way across my face. "I appreciate you making my coffee, Rory," I said somewhat robotically. It was a line I trained myself to say every time she offered me any sort of drink that sometimes resembled a coffee. Rory pushed the mug back towards me and I tried my best not to stare at the floating clumps of brown stuff in the mug.
When I first moved into the house last year, she would give me hot water and milk whenever I requested a coffee. I quickly learned to decline her offers. So, at least this was an improvement, and there was something somewhat resembling coffee in my mug. My nose crinkled as I sniffed the hot liquid. It didn’t smell like coffee, though.
I sighed and picked up the small spoon that had been set on the table in front of me, and reached out to stir the hot chunky liquid in the mug. I slowly pulled it toward me and lifted it for another taste test sip. I did my best not to spew it out and forced a small smile at Rory.
She laughed and shook her head. "Oh, don't drink it, you idiot."
I narrowed my eyes at her, and pretended to take another sip.
"So why did you come running in here like you were being chased by a monster?" Jane asked. She had been sitting back, observing mine and Rory’s exchange in silence. Jane wasn’t a very talkative person, preferring to be outside playing rugby with the boys over sitting inside chatting with us girls. But, even still, I knew she valued her time with us in the house. Jane was a smart, no-nonsense kind of person, and was great to have around when we needed to get things done. "You said you were at the mansion down the road?"
I nodded and continue to stir out the clumps in my coffee. "Yeah, I was supposed to do a story on the owner’s art collection. Apparently, it is something to see."
"And I take it you didn't quite make it?" Jane asked.
I shook my head as my eyes followed the swirling floaties in my coffee as they danced in circles around the edge of the mug. After a few moments passed and I didn’t answer, Jane let out a loud sigh in exasperation and reached out to grab the coffee mug from my hands. She then walked to the sink, dumped the contents down the drain, and rejoined us at the table.
“Hey, I was drinking that,” I said through a smirk.
"Serious talk now," Jane said as she placed her hands firmly on the table in front of her. "What's going on? Why did you look so spooked? You’re not one to get scared easily."
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as I tried to process what had happened earlier in the evening. I then groaned as I realized how stupid I was going to sound.
"Actually, you know what? Nothing really happened,” I laughed. “I went to the house after work, the door was open, but no one was home. I was inside for a few minutes before, and I'm embarrassed to say this, I got scared of the dark and ran. Something spooked me, then I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was followed home. There was a strange shadow that kept jumping around in the house, and…"
I stared off into space as my heart began to pound again at the memory of the strange shadow from the house. In hindsight, it could just as easily could have been a shadow cast from the light of my phone. I rubbed my eyes in exhaustion as I shook my head.
"And then?" Both Jane and Rory were listening intently and looked at me with worried expressions. Mrs. Brody continued to pace the kitchen muttering something under her breath, completely oblivious to the fact that there were three other humans in her kitchen with her.
I watched Mrs. Brody pace back and forth a few times before turning my attention back to my housemates. "I don't know, I guess I just got spooked by whatever it was that I saw. It was probably not even anything. Just a shadow from my phone. Pretty stupid, actually.”
"You’re not stupid, River,” Jane crossed her arms as she peered at me. "You saw something. Chances are there was something there.”
"What you think it could be?" Rory’s voice came out in a high squeak, and she looked excited and scared at the same time. She then paled. “You said it followed you home?”
I swallowed hard. “Not sure. I just had this feeling I was being followed, you know?”
The three of us sat there in silence, looking at each other for a long moment as I considered the possibility of what it could have been that I saw in the house. It was not a ghost, that much I knew. I felt some sort of strange tingle of magic in the house, but I didn't sense any spirits. Not of the regular sort, anyway. It could have been any number of strange things.
I sighed loudly and stretched my arms overhead as I fought back a yawn. “So, what was it you guys were talking about before I got here? Why did everyone look so upset?
Rory frowned at my question and glanced up to Mrs. Brody, who momentarily stopped her muttering and paused to meet Rory’s gaze. They stared at one another, their eyes wide with worry, as a heavy quietness consumed the room.
I could hear my own heart beat pounding in my chest as I waited for either of them to speak, and I was just about to say something myself to break the eerie silence when Jane finally spoke. “Apparently, Brett has asked Bailey to move in with him in Boston.”
My eyes widened with incredulity. “They’ve only been together a few months. Surely she didn’t agree?” Not to mention the fact she’d not mentioned this when we’d talked earlier. Maybe she had told me and I’d just not heard her? I’d been so preoccupied with those two men I could have easily have missed out this important bit of information. I then realized he probably asked her during their sushi date and she must have just texted Rory about it, given the strange looks she and Jane were giving the cell phone on the table. That was probably why he invited her all the way to Boston for dinner. That sneaky, sneaky man. My head felt slightly dizzy as I tried to process everything that had happened that day. I needed to sleep.
We all sat around the table looking at each other in silence, trying to come up with something comforting to say. Rory finally opened her mouth to speak, but we were interrupted by a loud crash and a howl as something smashed violently against the front door.
Rory, Jane, and I all screamed out at once and jumped out of our chairs towards Mrs. Brody. The three chairs fell and crashed on the floor as Mrs. Brody stepped protectively between us and the door.
"What the heck was that?" Rory’s quivering voice whispered. We all stood frozen, staring at the door. I couldn’t help but think that whatever followed me home was now trying to get inside.
I couldn’t bring myself to move. My heart thumped violently against my chest, threatening to burst through my skin. I held my hand against my chest and took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as I stared at the door. I was both confused and terrified at the same time.
Another eerie howling noise came from the other side of the door, but this time I was too paralyzed in place to jump. Mrs. Brody watched the door with narrow eyes and began muttered under her breath again. I watched her as the stood still, her hands writing together nervously like they had been before while she was pacing. Only when a third howl came from beyond the door did she snap back into reality and looked back at us in confusion. “Oh my, River. Dear. When did you get here?”
I looked at her with wide eyes, and couldn’t help the nervous laugh that escape
d my lips. "Been here a while, Mrs. Brody." She nodded, but still looked like she was in a daze.
The door crashed again, and it became evident that something was trying to get inside. This time I jumped, and Rory and Jane both wrapped their arms around me. Mrs. Brody turned and narrowed her eyes at the door, and with quick determination, marched forward with her hands balled into fists, her muttering growing louder and more menacing.
“What did you bring home with you, River, dear?” she called back to me.
“Uh…” I began, but didn’t know what to say. “Nothing intentional.”
Mrs. Brody nodded and raised her hands in front of her. "Nothing scares my girls," she muttered to herself as she stepped towards the door. We all held our breath as we watched her reach out and grasp the handle on the large wooden door that led to the backyard from her basement level kitchen.
Mrs. Brody took a deep breath and counted down from three. When she reached one, she pulled the door open, and an appropriately timed flash of lightning streaked violently across the sky, causing a massive shadow of a beast across the kitchen floor.
I screamed.
The girls and I strengthened our grip on one another. Mrs. Brody, our fearless landlady who is never afraid of anything, even stepped back a few paces and held her hand over her mouth. We were all shaking as we watched what we recognized as some sort of giant were-creature make its way into the kitchen.
Only, it wasn’t a beast, after all.
It was a cat.
I let out the breath I had been holding and the two girls erupted in a fit of nervous giggles. A big fat fuzzy orange tabby cat sat on the floor in the kitchen, looking up at me with big, glossy green eyes. The cat meowed loudly as we all stared down at the little fuzzy thing that nearly scared each of us to death. I stared down at it and shook my head, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry. My poor nerves had taken quite the beating that day.
