Paranormal After Dark: 20 Paranormal Tales of Demons, Shifters, Werewolves, Vampires, Fae, Witches, Magics, Ghosts and More

by Rebecca Hamilton

  Sarah was immediately at her side, the broom in hand, and fell to her knees. “Did he hurt you?”

  Adelaide shook her head and stared at the store in silence. Crushed apples were scattered on the floor, along with shattered glass from a jar that had fallen from the counter. Entire bins were overturned. Broken eggs oozed from a countertop, dripping to the floor and clumping together with the spilled flour. Tears flowed freely down her face and a dull rage burned her soul at the thought of all the food they had taken. Why? For what reason? They couldn’t buy food like civilized people? They’d rather steal and ruin lives? God damn them all—let the scourge take them. Let their souls feed the Shadow Man.

  Sarah was sobbing, her hunched body wracked by her gasping. She leaned heavily against Adelaide. “I’m sorry, Addy. All the bread is gone.”

  “It’s okay, Sarah.” Adelaide replied wearily, putting her arm around her sister. “We tried.”

  “He pointed his musket at me. I didn’t know what to do.” She cried harder, the brave exterior she displayed only moments ago shattered like the jar. “I thought he might—”

  “But he didn’t. We did what we could.” Adelaide bit her lip, closing her eyes for a moment. Who was going to protect them now? “At least they didn’t hurt us. At least they didn’t get upstairs.”

  “They took Robert.” She whispered. “What do we do?”

  Adelaide’s mind raced. Every thought was jumbled, she didn’t even know where to start. Robert was gone. The scourge was ongoing—she didn’t want to leave the house and risk getting caught in it. She’d be helpless; the creatures could smell her, feel her. And there was nothing she could do to stop them. “We have to get him back, that’s what. I just…I just don’t know how.”

  “You’re the oldest now.” Sarah sobbed, pressing her palms to her forehead. Her voice was shrill, probably just moments away from a meltdown. “We’re in your charge.”

  “Don’t talk like that. Robert will come home to us, it’s just a matter of time. Look, I’m going to go upstairs and check Levi. You start to clean this mess.”

  Adelaide climbed the back staircase, taking two steps at a time. She had to remain calm or everyone else would fall apart. All she had to do was remain calm. Everything would be fine. We’ll be fine.

  “Levi.” She pounded on the bedroom door, only daring to speak as loud as it would take to be heard in the room. “Levi, open the door!”

  Adelaide heard the lock click and the door swung open. Levi stared at her with his serious blue eyes and exclaimed, “What happened? It sounded like one of those artillery pieces was down in the store.”

  “They took everything, everything they could carry. Robert’s been arrested, the store is in shambles—listen to me, there’s no time to waste.”

  “What?” Levi stared at her, his lips quivering. “What did Robert do?”

  “Addy…you need to come down here…” Sarah’s voice from the lower level was shrill, more a squawk than a yell. “Hurry.”

  Something in the tone of her voice made Adelaide shudder. In that split second, she made a decision; began to formulate a plan. “I want you to bundle Lizzie up as warmly as possible. Climb out the window in the back room and go down to Mr. MacGrogan’s house. Tell him what happened and tell him Sarah and I will be along later. Don’t stop for anyone.”

  “But Addy,” Levi grabbed her hand, “what if—”

  “You don’t stop.” Adelaide paused midway down the hall. “Wrap the flintlock in linen and bring it with you. Now, go Levi!”

  She picked up her skirts and rushed down the stairs. There was nothing in the world she wanted more than to not step back in to the store. She wanted to turn around and hide; to go back into the cellar at the Fecht’s house and wish it all away. A deep breath, it didn’t seem to fill her lungs. This didn’t feel like life anymore: this was a nightmare. She wanted it to end.

  Two armed Confederate soldiers stood in the middle of the room, their eyes locked on Sarah. Through the front doors, Adelaide could see two more guards on the stoop, one standing on either side of the threshold.

  “Haven’t you bothered us enough?” She snapped, circling around the counter and standing in front of her sister. “What more could you possibly want?”

  “We’re ordered to post guard at your store, Miss.” One of the soldiers, his face red from either sunburn or exertion, rattled the words off like he’d memorized them. There was no emotion, no sympathy. “General Jackson wants all stores in operation to be under guard, at least until everything in town is situated.”

  “Do forgive me if I am not excited by this order.” Adelaide put her hands on her hips. “As you can see, we’ve already met the ‘liberators’ of our town.”

  The other soldier tipped his hat. “I apologize for their behavior, Miss.”

  “We had muskets pointed at us, sir. And why? Because we live in this town?” Adelaide spit on the floor, glaring at him. “A mumbled apology doesn’t make up for two years of abuse—from both armies. Blue? Gray? You bastards are all the same.”

  “I’d watch your mouth if I were you, Yankee.” The red faced Confederate stared at her, his eyes filled with rage or lust. Both repulsed her. “Treason will get you hung.”

  Treason? It was laughable. She hadn’t pledged her allegiance to either army, except by force. In the end, she hated both and had no reason to support either side. Country. Whatever they were calling each other these days.

  Turning her attention from the soldiers, Adelaide leaned across the counter and yanked Sarah close to her. “Save what you can. We’ll burn the rest.”

  She nodded. “I’d rather face the dead a hundred times over than this.”

  Adelaide looked outside at the vegetable bins. The remaining goods would draw Rebels like honey drew flies. She’d certainly had enough of that nonsense. As she headed towards the door, one of the guards called, “Where are you going, Miss?”

  “To clean up the mess your comrades made. We need to eat, too, and I have to salvage what I can before it rots in the street. It’s bad enough we have to rot in this damned town. I’d rather not starve.”

  Neither man spoke, but instead walked to the back of the store, most likely either to stand guard or decide what they wanted to steal. Adelaide inwardly groaned. If any God was still listening to her, she prayed Levi and Lizzie crawled out the back window and got to Mr. MacGrogan’s house without being seen. Consequences, it seemed, were more dire than usual.

  The posted guards promptly stopped her the moment she stepped outside. “Where are you headed? It’s not safe to be outside, Miss, especially not a lithe girl like yourself.”

  Adelaide pointed to the nearly empty vegetable bin. One Reb nodded, but she noticed both stared at her as she moved to the bin. She knew their eyes followed her every movement; boring into her body as she inspected the wooden bin. It infuriated her. She was not some whore down on her knees for their pleasure—she was a citizen wronged by the Army who was supposed to save them all.

  The bin was thoroughly ransacked. Adelaide gathered a few missed potatoes and onions from the ground and placed them, along with the remaining, somewhat rotten, squash in her apron. With a huff, she stormed back inside, allowing the door to slam shut behind her.

  “Was there much left?” Sarah asked.

  Adelaide opened her apron.

  She groaned. “Maybe enough for a pot of soup…if we add several gallons of water.”

  The two soldiers remaining in the store headed to the front door. Before stepping outside, one stopped and turned back. “I suggest you women stay indoors today. It’s probably in your best interest.”

  Adelaide nodded. Damn him and his opinion.

  When they were outside and the door safely shut, she turned to Sarah and grabbed her arm. “We need to get out of here.”

  “There’s no way we can get out the front.” Sarah paused. “Did you send Levi through the window?”

  “Yes.”

  “I guess our only option is
to follow suit.”

  Adelaide dumped the vegetables in a basket and quietly followed her sister upstairs. Pulling her blue wool cape over her shoulders, she slid her hand into her pocket and squeezed her watch. Just in case.

  “Do you ever think we should have left? I mean…like staying was a mistake?”

  “No.” Adelaide fastened her cloak at her throat, casting a sideways glance at her sister. “Everyone else abandoned the Ferry. We’re all that’s left of the Six. We have a job to do.”

  “But we’re not doing it. We’re letting them just pass through town—we’re not even trying.”

  “That’s the way it has to be, Sarah. Trust me.”

  Her sister blocked the door, forcing Adelaide to stay in the room. “What happened that night at Roeder’s? Why are we just letting this so called scourge happen? These things are just walking past us. We’re not helping, we’re not protecting anyone. We’re just letting it happen.”

  Taking a deep breath, Adelaide yanked the hood over her head. “Are you ready?”

  “No. I want to know, Addy, this is ridiculous. We’ve abandoned everything we were supposed to save. You saw what happened to Rebekah. I hated that woman, I did, but she didn’t deserve that kind of death. Or after death. You let that happen.”

  “Because I made a deal.”

  “With who?”

  “The devil, the reaper, I don’t know.” Adelaide squeezed her eyes shut. “You have to trust me, Sarah. He said that it’s happened before, with every war this…this collection of souls happens. We can’t stop it. We can only stand by while it happens and let him take his fill.”

  “You doom them to death?”

  “My watch couldn’t save Rebekah. All I can do is protect us and wait this plague out.”

  “What if it was Thomas?”

  “I’m doing this to save Thomas.” Adelaide wanted to smack her sister. She just needed to listen, for once in her damned life, and do what she was told. Repeatedly.

  Sarah stared at her pointedly and, for a moment, Adelaide thought she was going to push the issue further. Instead, she simply pulled up her hood and motioned towards the door. “Let’s go.”

  They crept down the first few stairs and then Adelaide held her hand up to stop her sister’s descent. She paused to listen. There were no sounds coming from the store, it didn’t seem like the soldiers had come back inside.

  A few more steps.

  Only silence.

  At the bottom of the staircase, she edged to the door and peered into the main room of the store, trying to stay in the shadows as much as possible. It was just as they had left it—empty—but she could see the figures of the two soldiers on guard just outside the doors. If one man turned his head for just a moment, he would be able to see them at the window.

  That meant they’d have to hurry.

  She grabbed Sarah’s arm and pulled her over to the window. “Do you want to go first?”

  Her sister bit her lip, glancing from her, to the window, and back again.

  “Just go.” Adelaide dragged a crate over and positioned it under the window. Sarah stepped on the crate and then hoisted herself out the window. She moved so slowly, like she was struggling through a vat of molasses.

  Once her sister was safely outside, Adelaide glanced towards the front door one final time—just to make sure it was still closed—and then stepped onto the crate. It wasn’t until she was straddling the windowsill that she thought she heard a noise coming from the main store room.

  She froze.

  She heard the noise again, the distinct sound of footsteps. But the sound wasn’t coming from the store or the threshold. It was coming from the staircase.

  Something was upstairs. Whether soldier or spirit, it was coming.

  Grasping the edge of the sill, Adelaide swung her leg over the ledge and dropped to the ground. Before straightening completely, she grabbed Sarah’s arm and pulled her away from the window, motioning for her to stay silent. She wasn’t entirely sure what she would do if someone looked out the window; if they were seen. Her eyes stayed transfixed on the sill, watching, waiting for any sign of movement.

  There was nothing. No shout of the living, no tearing or ripping of the doomed dead. Adelaide scrambled to her feet. She didn’t want to assume getting out of the building was the easy part, but walking directly past posted guards was going to be substantially more difficult.

  Sarah seemed to read her mind. “I think we’ll be okay if we just keep our hoods up and our heads down. Don’t stop walking.”

  Adelaide hesitated for a moment and stared up at the immense cliff looming above them, topped with St. Peter’s Catholic Church. The area behind the row of buildings and the rock face was small and narrow. If it wasn’t for some previous tenant installing a window in the back, most likely for easy waste disposal, they would have been trapped in the store. It was like the noose that hung old John Brown—the war was circling tighter and tighter around the Ferry. Before long it would cut them off completely.

  “Addy, come on!”

  Adelaide followed her sister along the path behind the buildings, finally squeezing through the narrow gap between the rough cast stone building and the privies. Shenandoah Street was crawling with soldiers in gray uniforms; they swarmed like black flies around rotted meat. Mr. MacGrogan’s house was still a good distance away, she couldn’t even see it from where she stood. She wasn’t sure they could make it, even if they ran.

  But what other option did they have?

  Before Adelaide could force herself to take a step forward, her heart started pounding. Her pulse raced, bile boiling up in her stomach and throat until she felt lightheaded. Her hands shook. Her breathing sped up. She wanted to stop her sister: tell her this was a mistake. Out in the open, out from the supposed safety of the building, they were vulnerable to spirit attack. The soldiers—dead or alive—could rip them apart.

  The connection between her mind and her feet, however, was not complete. Each footstep felt numb, as if the ground had disappeared beneath her like fog along the riverbank. Adelaide’s eyes were transfixed on her shoes: she was too afraid to look up, in case one of those soldiers in gray was ready to stop them or, worse, she looked into the face of the dead.

  They skirted along the edge of Shenandoah Street, trying to blend in with the cliff as best as two diminutive women in blue and red cloaks could manage. To Adelaide’s amazement, they were getting closer and closer to the Presbyterian Church. Mr. MacGrogan’s house was just a little further down the road.

  The man’s voice seemed to come out of nowhere. “Where do you two think you’re going?”

  Instinctively, she grabbed Sarah’s arm. He’d probably been behind them the whole time. “We’re... we’re…we have to get to our brother.”

  He stared at Adelaide as if she was speaking a foreign language.

  “Please, help us.” Sarah pleaded. “Our brother was arrested, our store robbed. We didn’t do anything, we just need someone to help us.”

  The soldier looked suspicious, but before he could do anything, Adelaide saw Mr. MacGrogan and Levi running towards them. MacGrogan waved his arms to get the man’s attention. “Sir, these ladies are in my charge. They are on their way to my home, they’ve done no wrong.”

  The soldier motioned at Sarah with his rifle. “What is she talking about? Her brother being arrested?”

  Mr. MacGrogan huffed into his bushy mustache. “She’s speaking the truth. He was pulled right out of his store.”

  “He must have done something to warrant an arrest.”

  “He’s all we have left.” Adelaide let her hood fall away from her face and stared up at the man with wide eyes and a pouty lip. Sometimes, a man could easily be manipulated with doe eyes and a sweet face. She hoped he was such a man. “Can’t you please take us to him? We just need to know what’s going on and if he’s okay.”

  He stared at her for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he sighed loudly and said, “I can’t make that
decision, Miss, but I’ll ask my captain. I’ll see what I can do.”

  Relief washed over her. “Thank you, sir.”

  Without another word, he walked away from them and headed toward a group of soldiers standing next to the Market House. Adelaide was at too far a distance to make out any words he was saying, but he pointed in their direction numerous times and seemed to emphasize his point with frantic hand gestures. It started to make her nervous. He was drawing far too much attention to them.

  Mr. MacGrogan seemed to notice this as well. He crossed his arms against his broad chest and asked, “Have you given any thought as to what you’ll do if they don’t take you to Robert?”

  Adelaide didn’t have time to think about it, even if she wanted to. One of the soldiers approached their group and pulled his hat from his head. “Ladies. My corporal tells me your brother was arrested.”

  “He didn’t do anything.” Sarah blurted the words out in a rush. “He was trying to protect us.”

  The soldier held up his hands. “I’m sure it must have seemed that way.”

  Adelaide clamped her lips shut. It was that way. The soldier wasn’t there when it happened, how could he be a judge of what occurred in the store? Again, as always, it was their word against soldiers’ word. And townspeople were never believed. “Sir, we just want to see our brother. We want to bring him home.”

  “He’s been arrested. I can assure you he isn’t going anywhere.”

  Adelaide didn’t trust herself to speak. Sarah, however, was enraged. “Can’t we just see him? Surely you can permit us that, if nothing else, seeing as how your Johnnies ransacked our store. We have nothing left, sir, but our family. And most of them are dead.”

  He seemed to consider his options for a moment and then sighed loudly. No doubt he considered them a hassle, more paperwork he didn’t want to deal with. Looking down the street towards the Armory ruins, he brushed his sandy hair back and replaced his hat on his head. “Aye, against my better judgment, I’ll allow you that. But if either of you cause a disturbance, I’ll arrest you too.”

  Adelaide answered before Sarah had the chance to open her mouth. “Agreed sir, we won’t be trouble. There will be no disturbances or outbursts. I assure you.”