Ghostly chills... a bit of non-fiction from the past #RB4U #MFRWAuthor #RomFantasy

I've told this story to people in person when we get talking spooky stuff, but I've never actually committed it to the page, so I thought maybe a little ghostly tale might be fun. I'm going to write it like a mini-story, but rest assured this really DID happen to me. (The names of the people with me have been changed, obviously.)

The night was just starting to cool after the warmth of the Indian Summer day. The four people who'd been hanging out together were restless in the apartment, and one of the guys suggested they take a drive, just to get out. Maybe go for coffee or a drink. One member of the group was underage, so they settled on the coffeeshop.

The next hour was spent laughing and they decided on a walk in the local park. Fifteen minutes later, they were strolling the paths and trails. Officially the place was closed to visitors after 8 PM, but no one would stop them if they wanted to walk in the dark. It didn’t take long to find a nice secluded spot, and before long the conversation took on a challenging tone–the subject ghost stories and anything that might scare the girls. It didn’t take long. The rustling of the leaves in the sighing breeze, the sound of night birds and crickets chirping all added layers of awareness and heightened the ignited uneasiness the stories had awakened.

“Why don’t we leave, go for fresh coffee,” Jacqui suggested, glancing around when a twig snapped and something moved in the brush.

Kevin laughed and made a grab for her, eliciting a yelp of frightened surprise, before she got angry and slapped his arm, hard.

The other couple watched, then laughed when their friends started arguing.

“Come on, let’s head back to the car, we’re not supposed to be here anyway and security might find us,” the second girl said. Since it was her boyfriend’s car they were driving around in, there was no objection.

Half hour later with fresh coffee in hand, they were back on the highway.

“Where are we going?” Wayne tossed the question to the couple in the back seat as well as his girlfriend. When no answer was forthcoming, he headed out of town.

“Head to the Passage, I’m going to show you a really cool and creepy place out there.”

He looked at his girl. “How creepy?”

“Wait and see, this place is old and a friend took me out there for the first time years back, you’ll see,” she replied.

Following her directions, they were there in fifteen minutes. They parked and no one moved. The blackness was incredible and complete, despite still being in the city. Directly in front of the car was a huge slab of bone-white stone, rectangular in shape. Beyond it, an abandoned shack that had once been used by the power company. She told everyone to get out of the car, and when they did, they all shivered.

“Shit, it’s like the middle of Winter here!” Wayne complained.

“It’s always like this here,” she told him, staring at the open space around the lone building. The air was icy, and it crept under your skin within seconds. The stillness was even more unsettling. There should have been sounds of traffic, but there was nothing, only a silence that shouldn’t have sucked every bit of external noise into it.

Something moved near the little shack and Wayne grabbed her hand and told Jacqui and Kevin to get in the car. In less than a minute, he had the car in reverse and they were speeding away from the spot. No one said a word.

She stared out the window, and a sudden blast of cold kissed the back of her neck. She almost screamed when they sped past a tall figure on the side of the road. She had a split second of contact, and her stomach knotted. Eyes with no colour bored into her for a fraction of a second, and the impression burned into her brain. Over six feet tall, pristine white shirt, black pants, and cape like coat, stark silvery white hair that flowed over his shoulders... she turned and looked back as they passed him, and he smiled. She felt like a gush of Arctic wind blew through her entire body.

“Did you see him?” She shrieked in the silence of the car, and Wayne swerved, almost going off the road. Brakes squealed as he stopped the car and everyone looked back–no one saw a thing, but he was still standing there, watching her. And even with the distance, he was as clear as if he stood in front of her...

We drove to a church after that–for real. To this day, no one believes me, but it wasn’t a dream, I was wide awake and aware. That’s haunted me for years, and I never saw anyone who looked like that again. Mind you, just writing about it makes me shiver a little.

Images courtesy of MorgueFiles and Pixabay