Catherine Mesick's Blog

Here's a short story I wrote for Mother's Day.The Night Dragonby Catherine Mesick“Mom! I caught a fairy!”Marissa looked up. Her daughter was holding a Mason jar with three big holes in the lid. Inside the jar was a bright glow—a firefly.“That’s nice, honey,” Marissa said. “You should put a little grass in there. It might make your new friend a little more comfortable. Give him something to munch on.”Her daughter looked at her doubtfully. “It’s a ‘her,’ Mom. And I don’t think fairies like to eat grass.”“I’m sure you know best,” Marissa said.Dusk deepened into night, and before long, Marissa could no longer read her book.She stood up.“Ginny!” Marissa called. “Ginny, time to come in!”Ginny came running toward the porch, clutching her Mason jar. The firefly shone brightly in the dark.“Honey, you should let the firefly go now,” Marissa said.Ginny clutched the jar protectively. “She’s a fairy, Mom.”“Okay. You should let the fairy go, then.”“She wants to spend the night,” Ginny said. “I promised she could. I said I’d show her my room.”“All right,” Marissa said, holding out a hand. “You can bring her in tonight. But you have to let her go in the morning. Deal?”“Deal,” Ginny said.She took her mother’s hand, and the two of them climbed up the steps to the house.“Did you get her some grass so she’d have a nice place to sleep?” Marissa said.“I told you she doesn’t like grass,” Ginny replied.The two of them went inside, and Marissa locked the door.In the morning, Marissa went to wake her daughter.“Come on, sleepyhead,” she said. “I know it’s Sunday, but it’s time to get up.”She opened the curtains in her daughter’s room, and sunshine poured in.Marissa turned toward her daughter’s bed.Ginny wasn’t there. And her bed apparently hadn’t been slept in.“Ginny?” Marissa called. “Ginny?”She walked through the house.“Ginny!”Ginny was nowhere to be found.Marissa did a quick circuit of the neighborhood. No one had seen her daughter.Marissa called the police.Several hours later, the police had come and gone, and Marissa sat on Ginny’s bed, clutching her daughter’s favorite stuffed bear. Marissa had also called her own mother and the rest of her family. Her mother and her siblings were coming to stay with her, but they were hours away—all of them would have to fly in and then drive to her house.Until then, Marissa was alone.She looked down at the stuffed bear and then at the rest of her daughter’s room. Nothing had been disturbed—not a single toy or trinket was out of place—and there was no sign of forced entry on any of the windows or doors. But Ginny was only six years old. She could hardly have left on her own.Marissa tried not to think of what could have happened to her daughter.She continued to sit in Ginny’s room, and the day wore away. Soon dusk was coming on, and Marissa thought of how happy her daughter had been yesterday with her firefly.It began to rain just a little, and the last rosy rays of the sunset were extinguished.Marissa saw a tiny glow coming from the Mason jar by her daughter’s bed, and she stood up.The least she could do was set the firefly free.Marissa frowned as she picked up the jar.It was empty.Ginny had insisted that grass wasn’t necessary, so Marissa could see quite clearly that there was no firefly in the jar.But nonetheless, something in the jar was glowing.Marissa peered at it closely. There was a tiny pile of what appeared to be dust in the center of the jar. The dust shone with a soft, golden glow.As Marissa’s eyes grew accustomed to the light, she saw that there was a little, golden trail that led in a straight line right up to Ginny’s window.Marissa hurried over to it and threw it open.Sure enough, a glowing, golden trail led from the window, across the backyard, and on into the neighbor’s yard. The rain seemingly had no effect on it, and it didn’t appear as if it would wash away.Marissa grabbed an umbrella and her keys and hurried outside.As she ran across her backyard and then across her neighbor’s yard, Marissa had to wonder what she was doing. The glowing trail appeared to be a clue as to where her daughter had gone, but now that Marissa thought about it, there was no way that could be. No kidnapper would leave a glowing trail…unless her daughter actually had caught a fairy last night.Marissa swiped her hair out of her eyes and kept running—the trail was leading her to the nearby woods. She plunged into the trees and jumped over a fallen log and wondered if she was going crazy.Did she honestly believe her daughter had caught a fairy? Did she truly believe she was following a trail of glowing fairy dust right now? Common sense crowded in and told Marissa that she was hallucinating—she was just seeing what she wanted to see. She should go back home and wait for her family.But Marissa kept running.The trail led all the way to a little ring of mushrooms.Marissa stepped into it, and the forest promptly disappeared.She found herself standing in an open field. The moon was shining brightly overhead, and the rain appeared to have stopped. Close by was one towering tree, and clustered at the base of it were hundreds of tiny lights. Marissa could hear a murmur of soft voices.She stepped closer and kneeled down.“I told you she’d come,” said a tart voice.A little golden orb of light, a bit bigger than the others, rose up to Marissa’s eye level.Marissa saw with shock that a tiny woman was standing inside the orb.“I am Queen Cora,” the little woman said. “Welcome to my realm.”Though Marissa could scarcely believe she was doing it, she answered.“It’s nice to meet you, Your Majesty,” she said. “My name is Marissa. Have you seen my daughter? She’s six years old, and she’s missing. Her name is Ginny.”A look of extreme disapproval crossed the queen’s face, and she turned her head.“Arina, come here.”A tinier orb of golden light floated over to hover beside the queen. Marissa could see what appeared to be a little girl standing in the orb.Queen Cora turned to Marissa.“This is my daughter, Arina,” she said. She glanced at the fairy girl. “Arina, tell the nice lady what happened to Ginny.”The fairy girl began to cry. “It wasn’t my fault.”“Never mind that,” the queen said. “Just tell her what happened.”Arina looked up at Marissa tearfully. “I met Ginny last night. She said we could have a ‘sleepover.’ I told her I didn’t know what that was. She said I could stay in her room, and we could stay up all night and tell each other stories. Ginny said she’d never had a sleepover before because they were for bigger kids.”Arina began to cry again and couldn’t go on.“Arina,” Queen Cora said, “that’s enough of that. This is why we have rules against bringing humans here. Tell Marissa what happened to her daughter.”The fairy girl sniffled but went on. “So we had the sleepover, and I told Ginny that daytime is like night for us—that’s when we sleep. So I said we could go at dawn to my house and have another sleepover during the day. And then Ginny could go home at night.”“And then what happened?” Queen Cora said.“And then the Night Dragon grabbed Ginny!” Arina wailed. “Right after we came through the fairy ring! It wasn’t my fault!”“That’ll do,” Queen Cora said. “Go to your room.”Arina flew off sobbing. She disappeared into the giant tree.The queen turned to Marissa. “The Night Dragon has your daughter. I am deeply, deeply sorry.”“The Night Dragon?” Marissa said.“You in the mortal world would not be aware of this,” Queen Cora said, “but night comes because the Night Dragon swallows the sun at dusk. And then every morning she coughs it up again.”“I see,” Marissa said.“When Arina brought Ginny through the fairy ring,” Queen Cora said, “the Night Dragon was still roaming the realm, looking for things to eat.”“To eat?” Marissa said in alarm.“I shouldn’t have said that,” the queen said quickly. “I am quite sure the Night Dragon hasn’t eaten Ginny. But I am equally sure that she won’t give your daughter up easily. Human children are valuable here—they can be used for all manner of spells and incantations. I’m sure the Night Dragon has some use for the poor child. This world is a dangerous one for humans.”“Where is the Night Dragon?” Marissa said. “Take me to her! I need to save my daughter!”Queen Cora sighed. “I knew you’d say that—it’s what I myself would say. I will take you to the Night Dragon. And what’s more, I’ll lend what help I can. The dragon is surrounded by an aura that dulls my magic whenever I am near her—and it’s been getting worse lately. But what little magic I have, I’ll share.”“Thank you,” Marissa said.The queen looked at her. “I don’t suppose you brought any weapons?”“I brought these,” Marissa said.She held up her keys and her umbrella.“Not exactly a sword and shield,” the queen said. “But they will have to do.”The queen floated closer to Marissa.“Take my hand, and I will guide you to the Night Dragon’s lair.”Marissa stretched out a finger until it just touched the tiny woman’s hand, and then suddenly she found herself airborne.Moments later, they began to fly through the air.With the moon shining at their backs, Marissa and the queen flew over fields, forests, and rivers. Marissa scarcely had time to take it in before the queen brought them down to the ground again.In front of them yawned a great cave.“In there we will find the Night Dragon,” Queen Cora said. “Your daughter should be in there with her.”The queen floated into the cave, and her golden glow gave Marissa just enough light to see by.Marissa followed the queen and held her umbrella and keys out in front of her.She found herself hoping that the dragon was just as tiny as the queen.But she was not to be that lucky. Queen Cora soon guided her to a large, round, stone chamber. The queen blew some golden dust up into the air, and Marissa could see what looked like an enormous reptile sleeping on a pile of gold and jewels—it was most definitely a dragon. The creature was covered from head to toe with black scales, and smoke poured steadily from her two great nostrils. The beast’s eyes were closed, and beside her slept a small child.Marissa gasped. It was Ginny.She took a step forward.“Wait,” Queen Cora hissed. “The Night Dragon has eaten the sun and finished her prowling for the night. She should sleep soundly. If we are very quiet, we should be able to rescue your daughter without waking the dragon up.”The queen floated over to the pile of gold and jewels, and Marissa followed, taking as much care as she could not to make any noise.The queen guided her up the slippery pile of treasure, and Marissa reached Ginny without disturbing so much as a single coin.She scooped her sleeping daughter into her arms and began to climb back down the pile of gold silently.Ginny stirred and opened her eyes.She blinked for a moment, and then her eyes seemed to focus.“Mom!” Ginny cried. “Mom! There’s a dragon! Help!”The dragon’s eyes opened, and she turned her head toward Marissa and Ginny.“Mom!” Ginny cried. “Mom!”The dragon rose up on all four legs.“The child is mine,” the Night Dragon said in a deep, sepulchral voice.Marissa could feel the words vibrating in her chest.The dragon spun around, and the great tail slammed into Marissa and threw her and Ginny through the air.Marissa crashed to the ground and quickly moved to shield Ginny with her body. Queen Cora flew to Marissa’s side.“Ready your weapons,” the queen said. “I’ll lend what magic I can.”The dragon swung her tail again and struck Marissa and the queen a great blow. The two of them flew through the air and came to land heavily on the ground.Marissa could hear her daughter whimpering on the other side of the cave.“I told you the child was mine,” the Night Dragon said.She reared back and took in a deep breath, her vast chest expanding.“She’s going to breath fire!” the queen cried. “Use your weapons!”Marissa had just a moment to see an orange spark before she opened the umbrella and held it out in front of her.She felt something hit the umbrella, but the heat she expected to feel never came. Instead, she could see bright light flowing all around her but not touching her.“It’s working!” the queen cried. “The shield is working. Let’s get your daughter!”Holding the umbrella out in front of her, Marissa worked her way around the cave until she reached her daughter.“Get behind me!” Marissa cried.Ginny quickly scrambled behind her mother and the umbrella.“Follow me!” the queen said.The dragon continued to breathe fire on Marissa, but the umbrella shield held, and Queen Cora led them all out of the cave.Soon Marissa, Ginny, and the queen were all out in the open air. The Night Dragon followed them and rose up into the sky, her great, black wings unfurling in the light of the moon.The dragon’s eyes blazed fiercely, and she drew in breath to unleash more fire.“We’ll never be able to escape her!” Queen Cora cried. “We’ll have to fight back.”“How?” Marissa said.“Use your sword,” the queen replied.“What sword?”“The thing you brought with you,” the queen said. “The little, jangling thing with the ring. I’m not quite sure what you call it.”“You mean my keys?” Marissa said.“Yes—your keys,” the queen said. “Just hold them out like a sword.”The Night Dragon shot another blast of fire at the little group, and Marissa brought her umbrella up just in time. This time, she also held her keys out as if they were a weapon.Marissa felt something heavy hit the umbrella, and then she felt a warm tingle in her arm.The fiery blast from the dragon subsided, and then Marissa’s arm began to tremble. She saw the keys in her hand begin to glow, and she quickly dropped the umbrella.A stream of fire shot out of her keys and struck the dragon. The fire kept coming and coming, and before long, the Night Dragon turned and flew away into the night. Soon she was nothing but a dark speck against the moon, and after a moment, the speck disappeared.“Mom! The dragon is gone!” Ginny cried.Marissa collapsed on the ground.“I can’t believe we did it,” she said. She turned to the queen. “Thank you for using your magic to help us.”Queen Cora looked embarrassed. “I didn’t do anything.”“Of course you did. You turned my umbrella into a shield and my keys into a sword or a laser or whatever it was.”The queen shook her head. “I didn’t do anything. The Night Dragon’s baleful aura had its usual effect on me. I wasn’t able to lend you any assistance at all.”“But how can that be?” Marissa said. “These are just ordinary household objects. They don’t have any special power.”She glanced down at the umbrella and keys. They weren’t even warm—let alone singed.“I don’t know,” Queen Cora said. She glanced over at Ginny. “I’ve heard love can cast powerful magic. Perhaps a mother’s love is the most powerful magic of all.”Ginny glanced up into the sky fearfully. “Is the dragon really gone?”The queen floated close to her. “Yes, dear child, the Night Dragon has been vanquished—for now. But she has been vanquished before, and she always returns. We’d better get the two of you home.”Queen Cora stretched out both of her hands, and Marissa and Ginny each put out a finger to touch the hands of the tiny queen.Soon they were flying through the air, and before too long, all three of them floated into Ginny’s bedroom. The queen set them all down gently.“Night is fading, and I must be off,” Queen Cora said. “It was nice to meet you, Marissa and Ginny, and I hope you won’t be offended if I can’t invite you back to my realm again. Our world is too dangerous for fragile humans such as yourselves.”The queen floated up into the air.“Farewell.”Before Marissa or Ginny could reply, the queen had disappeared.Mother and daughter were seated on the bed, and Ginny crawled onto her mother’s lap.“Mom,” she said. “I really did find a fairy.”“Yes,” Marissa replied. “You really did find a fairy.”She ruffled her daughter’s hair.******************Thanks very much for reading!You can check out my books on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Kobo, and Apple.And stop by some time and hi on Facebook. [image error]

Hi everyone,I’ve got a flash fiction story here for you that I’ve just written. It’s a paranormal romance story about a magical train, and I’m going to try to do one of these flash stories every Friday. I can’t make any promises about the commas. [image error]

Book 4 of the Pure series, Ghost Girl, will be published on June 4! Read Chapter one below:Chapter OneOn the morning of my birthday, I woke early without any need for an alarm. Dawn was just a little way off, and I’d slept with the window open. The early morning was pleasantly cool, and I breathed in the fresh air contentedly. It was early October, but we’d been experiencing warmer-than-average temperatures, and I knew the high today was going to be about seventy-five.It was going to be a beautiful day, and I was having a party.And things had been very, very quiet.I knew my grandmother would still be asleep, so I went downstairs to have a little quiet time by myself in the kitchen.I made myself some hot chocolate, the old-fashioned way with a saucepan and milk, and then sat down at the kitchen table.As I sat drinking my chocolate, the ground began to shake, and I could hear the dishes in the cupboards rattling.I looked around, startled, and the shaking stopped as abruptly as it had started. I sat for several moments, gripping the edge of the table and waiting to see if it was all over.But the shaking didn’t return, and I began to relax. Earthquakes were rare in our part of the world, and I couldn’t remember ever having experienced one before. This one didn’t seem to have been too bad. The entire house had been shaken, but my hot chocolate had remained safely in the confines of my mug, and the salt and pepper shakers on the table hadn’t fallen over.I took a quick look around the house, and nothing seemed to be out of place—not a single book had fallen off a shelf, and none of the knickknacks in the living room had fallen over.I went back to the kitchen to put my mug in the dishwasher, and then I went upstairs to take a shower.As I walked into my room, I heard my phone buzz, and I hurried over to pick it up.There was a text waiting for me, and it was an exact duplicate of the one before it.Are you okay?It was from William, and his earlier text had come just a few minutes before.I answered quickly.I’m fine.You’re sure?Yes. I couldn’t help smiling.Ok. I’ll see you in a few hours.There was a brief pause, and then William texted again.Happy birthday, Katie.I smiled again and went to take a shower.By the time my grandmother got up, I’d already come back downstairs and had eaten breakfast. I was just putting my dishes away in the dishwasher when she walked into the kitchen wearing a white silk robe. Her long, silver hair was tied back in a braid that flowed halfway down her back.“Good morning, my dear girl,” GM said, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “Happy birthday.”“Thanks, GM,” I said.“You look more like your mother every day,” she said, touching a lock of my long, blond hair. She held it up for just a moment, and then she tucked it behind my ear. “Have you had breakfast yet?”“Yes. Sit down and I’ll make you something.”GM waved a hand. “No, no—it is your birthday. I should make you something. But since I am too late to do that, I will simply have a cup of tea. Then I will get ready, and we can go. We have a lot to do today.”“You really don’t have to,” I said. “It’s just my friends. We don’t have to make a big fuss for them. We can just do something simple for dinner, and that will be a lot easier for you.”“Nonsense!” GM said as she put the kettle on to boil. “I only have one granddaughter, and this is the only time you’ll ever turn seventeen. I shall make all the fuss I like.”I had to smile at this speech. “Yes, ma’am.”“It is no laughing matter,” GM said.“I’m not laughing,” I replied. “It’s just that I love you.”I kissed her on the cheek, and she shooed me away.“Hurry up and finish getting ready,” she said. “Be ready to leave in half an hour.”I still had to get dressed and run a comb through my hair, and by the time I came back downstairs, GM was waiting by the front door with her keys in her hand and her purse on her shoulder.We went out to her red sports car, and GM took off as soon as I had my door shut and my seat belt buckled.GM had a thing for speed, and she had a drawer full of speeding tickets to attest to that fact.We spent the morning getting our hair and nails done, and then we picked up our dresses and went to the party store to pick out decorations. After that, we went to the grocery store to buy ingredients for dinner, and finally we went to the bakery to pick up my cake. I’d hoped to bake a cake myself, but I had to admit that the cake from the bakery was really beautiful—a light, airy spice cake with cream cheese frosting. I’d never have been able to create something that fancy myself.Somehow we managed to fit everything into GM’s tiny trunk, and as we turned toward home, I received another text from William.This time, he was counting down the hours till dinner.GM saw me smile, and she glanced down at my phone.“Is that from the boy?”“Yes,” I said. “And you know his name is William.”GM made no reply. She simply pursed her lips and stepped on the accelerator a little harder.GM was not fond of William, but she tolerated him, and as William himself had pointed out, it wasn’t really her fault. Many people felt uneasy around William—it was a purely instinctive reaction.We reached home and began to carry our purchases into the house. Once we’d put everything away, GM and I sat down to lunch. After that, GM waved me out of the kitchen, and she got to work cooking and decorating. I wanted to help, but she insisted on doing everything herself.I went upstairs to do some homework, and I tried not to mess up my hair.Before I knew it, GM was calling up the stairs to me that it was time for me to start getting ready, and I took my dress out of the hanging bag it had come in.The dress was long and silver, and it was GM’s present to me for my birthday. She’d actually bought it about a week ago, but she’d also had the shop alter the dress so it fit me exactly. I slipped it on carefully, trying not to disturb my hair, and then I turned to look at myself in the mirror.The dress fit well, and I’d never owned anything so elegant before.There was a soft knock on the door, and then GM entered wearing a light gold gown.“You look lovely, solnyshko,” GM said.“Solnyshko” was GM’s pet name for me, and it meant “little sun” in Russian. It was a common endearment in Russia, where we’d both been born, but it just so happened that the term had another, more particular meaning for me.“Thanks,” I said as GM came to stand beside me. “I have to admit, I still feel a little bad about all of this. You’re doing a sit-down dinner and decorations, and then there’s this dress. We didn’t do anything like this last year.”“My dear girl,” GM said. She ran a hand over my hair, and I could see that she was wearing the necklace I’d given her at Christmas last year along with her usual cross.GM looked at me for a moment and then sighed—but it was not an unhappy sound.“Things were different last year,” she said. “I wanted to keep you safe. And then you’ve had so much trouble lately—so many strange things have happened to you. And there was nothing I could’ve done. I realize now that it’s better to celebrate what we have rather than fearing what could happen.”GM took a step back.“And in the spirit of celebration,” she said, producing a little white box that she’d been hiding behind her back, “I have this for you.”“GM—” I began.She waved away my protest. “Do not say it is too much. It is exactly what I wanted to do.”Inside the box was a silver chain with a little silver sunburst pendant.“Besides, it wasn’t expensive,” GM said. “A woman at the farmers’ market was selling them, and she only had the one. This piece is unique.”“It’s beautiful,” I said. I took the necklace out of the box and put it on.“As soon as I saw it, I thought of you,” GM said.“You thought of me?” I said.“Yes,” GM replied. “You were always such a quiet child. And now you seem bolder, brighter. Sometimes I swear you seem to be giving off sparks. I thought the sunburst suited you now.”I looked down at the pendant and pressed my hand to it. “Thanks, I love it.”GM’s tone became brisk. “And I’m glad you’re not wearing that ugly necklace he gave you. A handsome boy, I will admit, but he has no eye for jewelry.”The necklace in question—a roughly hewn iron cross on a plain leather cord—had indeed been given to me by William. But the necklace was not for adornment—its purpose had been purely practical. Iron was useful in warding off evil, and there was one evil in particular that the iron charm guarded against—a creature known as a kost. But I hadn’t been troubled by a kost in a long time, and I hadn’t worn the necklace lately.But since this was my birthday, and William was coming to my party, I had been planning on wearing it.Now, seeing how happy GM looked, I decided to keep her necklace on and figure out another way to wear William’s charm.Pleased with herself, GM went on.“Dinner is nearly ready if you would like to come downstairs and wait for your guests.”“Sure,” I said. “I’ll be right down. I just have to finish getting ready.”GM touched my hair one last time and moved toward the door.“GM,” I said.She stopped and looked back at me.“Thanks,” I said. “For everything.”“There is no need to thank me,” GM replied. “Tonight we celebrate what we have now.”After she was gone, I went to my jewelry box and got out William’s necklace. The iron charm was cool to the touch, and somehow looking at it always made me feel calmer and more peaceful. I held up the leather cord for a moment, and then I began to wrap it around my wrist—I would wear the necklace as a bracelet. Once I was satisfied with the results, I went downstairs.The aroma from the kitchen was wonderful, and I found GM turning off the oven and peeking inside.“The trick,” she said as I came into the room, “is in the timing. You want to get everything ready at the same time. It is no job for an amateur—it requires great skill. Luckily, I have that in abundance.”As GM straightened up, her eyes fell on the necklace I had tied around my wrist.“That’s not too bad, actually,” she said. “It’s even a little rock and roll, if I don’t sound too antiquated saying that.”“Do you need any help?” I asked.The doorbell rang, and GM waved me away.“No, no. I don’t need any help. Go and greet your guests.”I walked to the front door and opened it to reveal my friend Simon Krstic. He was blond, a little under average height, and of stocky build.“Hey, Simon,” I said.He stepped inside and gave me a hug. “Hey yourself, birthday girl.”Then he stepped back and gave me a wrapped package with a little green bow on top.“Oh, thank you, Simon,” I said, accepting the gift. “You really didn’t have to. I was serious when I sent out those emails saying nobody had to get me anything. Your presence here is gift enough.”“Of course I had to get you something,” Simon said. “You’re my favorite person in the whole world.”Simon moved as if he was going to hug me again but then seemed to think better of it.Instead, he glanced around. “So is what’s-his-name here?”“No,” I said.Simon brightened. “Does that mean he’s not coming?”“No—William’s coming. You just happened to be the first one to arrive.”“Oh,” Simon said. “Since no one else is around, can I ask you a question?”“Yes, of course,” I said. But I had a feeling that Simon was warming up to a familiar topic.“Are you happy with this guy? I mean really, honestly happy? Because it just seems to me that you’ve run into a lot of trouble since you met him. I have to wonder who his friends are.”“Simon—” I began.“Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “You don’t even have to say it. This really isn’t the time or place for this discussion. But we really do need to have a conversation about this sometime soon.”“Oh, Simon,” I said.He glanced at me as if noticing me for the first time.“You look wonderful, by the way.”“Thanks,” I said. “You know, I really don’t think any amount of discussion is going to help—”GM walked out into the hall at that moment.“Why, Simon!” she said. “So good to see you!”“Good to see you, too, Mrs. Rost,” he replied. “You look lovely as ever.”“You are too kind,” GM said. “And you are looking quite well yourself.”Simon looked down at his dress clothes and smiled sheepishly.“Thank you.”“Come on back with me,” GM said to Simon. “I want you to help me with something.”“Of course, Mrs. Rost,” Simon said readily. “I’d be happy to help.”I looked at GM in surprise as she waved Simon forward. As the two of them turned toward the kitchen, I turned to follow them.“No, no,” GM said. “You stay here. Attend to your guests as they arrive.”I watched GM and Simon disappear down the hall, and moments later, there was a knock on the door.I opened the door and found my best friend, Charisse, and her boyfriend, Branden, waiting on the other side.Charisse stepped in and gave me a hug, and a swirl of cinnamon came with her.“Happy birthday, Katie,” Charisse said. “I know you said we didn’t have to bring any gifts, but I made you some cinnamon rolls.”“Thanks,” I said, stepping back and accepting her tin-foil wrapped package. “You look gorgeous, by the way.”Charisse was wearing a soft peach-colored dress that perfectly complemented her brown skin, and her black curls were piled in artful array at the nape of her neck.Branden, by contrast, was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. He was very pale, and his long, brown hair flopped over his eyes. He was tall too—so much so that when he stepped in for a hug, the top of my head didn’t even reach his shoulder.“Happy birthday, Katie,” Branden said.“Thanks,” I said. As I stepped back, I felt the ground give a brief rumble.“Whoa,” Branden said. “Was that an earthquake, or are you just glad to see me?”“I think it was an earthquake,” I said.I glanced down the hall to the kitchen, half-expecting GM to rush out and declare that it wasn’t safe to have a party, but luckily, she didn’t make an appearance.“Is there some place we can put these?” Charisse asked. “I don’t want you to have to carry them around.”I turned back to see her tapping on the cinnamon rolls.“Yes,” I said. “Let’s go into the living room.”The two of them followed me in, and then Branden stopped to right a knickknack that had fallen on its side. Then we all sat down, and I placed the cinnamon rolls on the coffee table.“Ordinarily, I’d take these to the kitchen. But GM is up to something and doesn’t want me in there.”The doorbell rang then, and my other guests began to arrive in quick succession. My friend Bryony was first, shyly offering a wrapped gift as she tucked a lock of her light brown hair behind her ear. Next was Irina, beautiful and imperious, with olive skin and glossy, jet-black hair, and her boyfriend, Terrance—handsome, tall, and athletic, with a shorn head and brown skin that glowed with health.Irina offered me a beautifully wrapped gift, and I thanked her, but I sighed internally as she made no reply and went to sit down in the living room with the others. Irina and I had been friends when we were children, but we barely got along now. She’d once had a crush on Simon, and his lifelong crush on me had turned her against me. Though she’d clearly moved on to someone else, she still harbored a grudge against me. Our relationship had seemed to thaw a little a few months ago before refreezing again, but GM noticed none of that. She still saw us as the good friends we had been in childhood and invited Irina to everything.Terrance, for his part, greeted me warmly and followed Irina into the living room.The doorbell rang once again, and this time I opened the door on William.William was tall and lean, with dark hair and unnaturally bright blue eyes. His eyes were the only really obvious sign that he wasn’t quite like other people, but there were smaller, subtler things. He said people got a “feeling” around him that made them wary. I hadn’t noticed anything of the kind, of course. To me, he was the most beautiful person in the world.“Happy birthday,” William said, walking in and handing me yet another wrapped gift.“Thank you,” I said. “I love it.”William gave me the little, crooked half smile that I loved so much.“You don’t even know what it is yet,” he said.“Whatever it is, I love it,” I replied. “Any gift from you is special.”There was a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort, and I turned to see that GM and Simon had joined us.Simon was staring at William with ill-disguised dislike.“Well,” I said quickly, “now that we’re all here—”“I beg your pardon,” GM said. “Everyone is not here.”I glanced around. “But—”“No, solnyshko. Everyone is not here,” GM said. “I’ve invited one more person.”The doorbell rang once more, and I hurried to open the door.On the other side was a boy about my age. He had gray eyes, light brown hair, and a powerful, heavily muscled physique that was in stark contrast to his mild, friendly expression.The boy gave me an uncertain smile. “You are Ekaterina Wickliff?”“Yes,” I said.“Happy birthday, Ekaterina,” the boy said. His Russian accent was noticeable, but he spoke English very well. “My name is Vadim Stepanov. Your grandmother was kind enough to invite me to your party this evening.”GM came up to stand beside me. “Vadim! I am so glad you could make it.”“Of course,” Vadim said. “I am happy to make new friends. Thank you very much for inviting me.”“Vadim, this is my granddaughter, Katie,” GM said. “Her full name is Ekaterina, but we call her ‘Katie’ for short.”“Yes, I understand,” Vadim said. “Just like we say ‘Katya’ for Ekaterina.”He gave me a disarming smile. “It is a very pretty name.”“Thank you, Vadim,” I said. “Won’t you come in?”“Yes, yes, do come in,” GM said, waving him forward.The two of us stood back so that Vadim could enter.Vadim had very kindly brought a gift, just as everyone else had, and after his present was safely settled on the table with the others, GM ushered us all into the dining room.She had actually hung up a curtain, and as we drew it back and walked inside, I could see that the room had been transformed.The dining room was filled with gold and silver balloons with delicate, hanging streamers, and it was lit only by candles, also in gold and silver. The dishes on the table were gold, and champagne flutes filled with a pale, bubbling liquid—probably sparkling apple juice—sat next to every plate. On the far wall was a hanging banner that read “Happy Birthday, Katie” in silver letters on a gold background.“Wow,” I said.“Sparkles for my sparkling girl,” GM said, putting an arm around me. “Come, come, everyone. There are place cards. Find your name.”GM steered me toward the head of the table. She herself was seated in that spot as the hostess, and I was seated to her right. To her left she had placed Simon. And William was placed at the opposite end—as far from me as GM could place him.Dinner was already on the table, resting under covered dishes, and GM walked around to uncover them. She had made salmon, risotto, and sautéed kale.“I hope you don’t mind serving yourselves,” GM said, sitting down. “I’d considered hiring servers, and then I thought that that would be a little extravagant.”Everyone murmured polite approval of the arrangements, and then the food was passed around the table.Once everyone was served, GM raised her champagne flute in a toast. The windows in the dining room were wide open, and the curtains fluttered softly in a light breeze.“To Katie,” GM said. “Happy seventeenth birthday.”Everyone raised their glasses and repeated the toast. I smiled and raised my glass also.Then I sipped at the bubbly, amber liquid. It was definitely sparkling apple juice.“So, Katie,” GM said with an approving glance toward Vadim, who was seated next to me, “Vadim just moved here with his family, and he’ll be attending school with you soon.”“Welcome to Elspeth’s Grove,” I said to Vadim. “I hope you’ll be very happy here.”“Thank you,” Vadim said. “I like very much your charming town.”“Vadim’s uncle is my dad’s boss,” Irina said suddenly. She was seated down at the end of the table to William’s right, and her dark eyes rested on Vadim with something that looked like dislike.Vadim did not seem to hear her and instead seemed to have noticed Bryony for the first time.“Yes, Irina is correct,” GM said. “Vadim’s uncle moved here to take charge of the operation of the North American office.”“The North American office of what?” Branden said.“Pyrotechnics International,” Irina replied.“Pyrotechnics?” Branden said. He grinned. “You mean like fireworks?”Irina gave him a faint smile. “Fireworks are one type of application. But my dad’s company really works in research. They look for new ways to do things like mining and construction.”“Cool,” Branden said.William looked up suddenly, and his eyes darted to the window.I followed his gaze but didn’t see anything outside except the lawn and the soft mist that floated just above it.William stood up abruptly.“I’ve got to go.”GM looked up at him in surprise. “I beg your pardon?”“I’m sorry,” William said. “I have to leave right away.”He hurried from the room.GM looked over at me. “Katie, what was that?”“He probably got an emergency text,” I said quickly.“But he didn’t look at his phone.”“He has one of those watches,” I said. “You know, the ones that do everything? He probably got a text on that.”“Hmmm,” GM said, but she didn’t look convinced.I gave her a reassuring smile and took a nonchalant sip of water, but I was far from feeling reassured myself. William had senses that were much keener than those of ordinary people, and if he’d seen or heard something unusual, that was definitely cause for concern.“I’m sure he’ll be back very soon,” I said.“Hmmm,” GM said again.Dinner resumed, but I didn’t hear much of the conversation. I kept casting furtive glances out the window to see if I could spot what had caught William’s attention.And then I saw it.I caught a flash of white cloth and golden curls—someone was outside the house and was lingering near the window.I stood up quickly.“I’ll be right back,” I said.GM looked up at me. “Where are you going?”“I—just have to leave for a moment,” I said. I began to hurry around the table, and then I headed toward the curtain GM had hung up.GM looked after me in concern. “Are you ill, Katie?”“No!” I said quickly. “Yes! I—I’m not sure. I just have to leave for a moment. Please don’t follow.”“All right,” GM said doubtfully.I plunged through the curtain and ran for the front door. I wrenched the door open, and standing on the other side was a girl who looked to be no more than nineteen years old. She had long, blond ringlets and pale white skin, and she was wearing a white summer dress and silver sandals on her dainty feet. The entire effect was one of fragile, angelic beauty, but the girl in front of me was far from angelic—and she was much older than nineteen.Her lips curled into a smile when she saw me. “Hello, kitten.”I stepped out of the house and closed the door behind me firmly.“Hello, Veronika,” I said.I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from the house. Her bare skin was ice cold, and I very nearly let go reflexively. But I forced myself to hang on, and I guided Veronika down the driveway to the sidewalk—I needed to get her away from my friends and family.“What are you doing here?” I said.Veronika gave me a long look. “I came to see you, my dear.”I glanced around quickly. “Is William out here too? Is that why he hurried out so quickly?”Veronika smiled. “Oh no. I got him out of the way. He thinks he’s out tracking a vampire. That should give us just enough time.”I glanced down the street to my house. A heavy mist was settling over everything, but no one seemed to be following us.“What do you want?” I asked.Veronika stopped walking and gave me one of her unnerving stares.“The time has come for you to pay your bill.”I froze. “What do you mean?”Veronika smiled. “Surely you’ve not forgotten? I saved William’s life, and in return you are to give me whatever I want whenever I want it.”“I remember,” I said.“Well, now is the time that I want it.”“And what is ‘it,’ exactly?” I asked.“I want you to find the ghost girl,” Veronika replied.I blinked. “I don’t understand.”“There is someone out there making vampires disappear,” Veronika said patiently. “They are calling her the ghost girl. I want you to find her.”I stared at her in disbelief. “Veronika, that’s all over—you must know that. The ghost girl was rumored to be me—but I never did anything. And some others thought that the ghost girl was my friend Sachiko, but she never did anything either. She was just observing the incidents, and people happened to see her nearby.”“I do know this,” Veronika murmured.“And the ghost girl was just a myth anyway,” I said. “There was never a person going around doing away with vampires. It was the healing waters from the Tears of the Firebird. The water was getting into the environment and making vampires sick—it made them crumble into dust instantly. It was environmental—no one was doing it.”Veronika made no reply and simply continued to stare at me. I began to wonder if she was okay.“Veronika,” I said. “Can you hear me?”“Yes,” she replied.“The ghost girl thing is over,” I said again. “The Order of the Hawthorne stopped using their cures. The Tears of the Firebird aren’t getting into the air anymore. The disappearances have stopped.”“Slowed but not stopped,” Veronika said.“Oh,” I said. “I didn’t realize it was still going on. I’m sorry.”Veronika made no reply.“Unfortunately, those are probably residual effects,” I said. “There’s nothing any of us can do. We just have to wait until the environment is clean again.”“They aren’t residual effects,” Veronika said.“Veronika—”“They aren’t,” she said firmly. “And your theory about the Tears of the Firebird was wrong.”“Sachiko saw the effects herself,” I said.Veronika waved a dismissive hand. “It happened to a small degree. A few have been affected that way. But your friend has taken that simple explanation too far. Something much bigger is at work here.”“So you’re saying the Tears of the Firebird and the Order of the Hawthorne did not cause all those vampire deaths?”“No, they didn’t,” Veronika replied. “In fact, they aren’t deaths at all. They’re disappearances. Vampires are not crumbling—they’re being taken. Vampires are being spirited away.”“Then why have the incidents slowed down since the Order stopped using the tears?” I asked. “That would seem to indicate that the two are related.”“A coincidence. Like I said, a few deaths did happen that way. But most are not dead—they’ve been kidnapped.”“But—”Veronika suddenly grabbed my wrist, and her cold fingers felt like iron bands.“I’ve explained this.” Her eyes blazed into mine. “You’re wrong. And vampires are disappearing. I want you to find the one responsible.”Veronika’s icy fingers tightened even more. “You owe me. And if you don’t do this, I’ll take back what I gave to you.”Panic surged through me. “You’d take William’s life?”“I would.”“But we both know the ‘ghost girl’ isn’t real.”“That’s just a name,” Veronika said. “It doesn’t have to be a girl. I don’t know if it’s a man or a woman or a whole crowd that’s causing the disappearances. I just want you to find the person responsible.”“Why?” I said.Veronika released my wrist. “My Promised One is missing. He was taken in this latest round of disappearances.”“Your Promised One?” I hesitated. “Is that like your boyfriend?”Veronika’s lips curved into a mocking smile. “A Promised One is much more than a lover—much more than your human concept of a marriage partner. I suppose you could call it a soulmate—although it is really much more than that, and we are not supposed to have souls. We are connected on a level that you cannot comprehend.”“So you want me to rescue him?” I said. “What makes you think I can do that?”“You can go places I cannot,” Veronika replied. “Go to your friends. They surely know more than they are telling.”I glanced down the street toward my house. “My friends?”“Not your school friends,” Veronika said. “Your friends in the Order of the Hawthorne.”“The Order will just say the same things I’ve already said,” I replied. “They’ve stopped using the tears—the disappearances should stop eventually too.”“The disappearances are going down,” Veronika said, “because the ghost girl—whoever he or she is—is getting close to her goal. This is a fact. We will have no further discussion on this point.”“Veronika—”Her eyes flashed fire. “Do this, or I will do what I said I’d do.”“But—”“Do this or I take back his life!”“Yes!” I said. “I’ll do it.”Veronika seemed to relax, and she gave me a long look. “You will find the ghost girl?”“Yes, I will.”“You’ll do whatever it takes? Because I mean what I say. If you fail, I will take back William’s life. I don’t care how much you tried.”“What choice do I have?” I said.Veronika smiled. “Exactly.”“So would you like to tell me where I should start?” I said. “Do you know anything about who the ghost girl actually is?”“All I can tell you is that vampire magic is involved,” Veronika said. “So that leads me to believe that the ghost girl is actually a vampire herself. And while the practitioners of that art have always been rare, they are even rarer in these modern times than they were. Vampires—like ordinary mortals—no longer believe in magic.”She tilted her head and gave me an appraising look. “By the way, are the rumors true? Have you lost your ability to use the clear fire?”“Yes,” I said.“I suggest you get your powers back—you’re going to need them.”“Why? The clear fire doesn’t work on vampires. It only works on the kost.”“How do you know that’s all it does?” Veronika asked. “How do you know it doesn’t work on vampires? Or on other creatures? It may do more than you think.”“I—” I stopped. I couldn’t remember how I knew that. I certainly had never tested it.“Besides, even if it doesn’t work on vampires,” Veronika said, “it’s still a part of who you are. You shouldn’t hide from it. You shouldn’t hide from what you can do.”“I’m not hiding,” I said.“Oh, but you are,” Veronika said. “You’re both hiding—you and that boy of yours.”She stopped, and her voice grew softer. “But maybe I judge you too harshly. Maybe you were too young.”“You don’t know anything about it,” I said.“Perhaps not.” Veronika turned her head suddenly and looked away over the houses. “I should be going now.”“Wait,” I said. “How long do I have?”“However long it takes,” Veronika said. “Goodbye, Little Sun.”With that she vanished.******************Thanks very much for reading!You can pre-order Ghost Girl for only $0.99 on: AmazonApple (iBooks)Barnes&NobleKoboAnd stop by some time and hi on Facebook. 

Here is Part 5 of The Gray House Ghost. If you haven't read Part 4 yet, you can find it here.
The Gray House Ghost
By Catherine Mesick
Mike ran down the hall, and Rachel ran after him.The two of them reached the back staircase and hurried up it in the eerie green air.Mike continued to pound up the stairs, and Rachel followed him all the way up to the attic. Mike threw the door open, and once again, the two of them found a lantern sitting on the floor of an otherwise empty room.Mike stalked into the room. “I know you’re in here!”Rachel stepped into the room and glanced around. “Who are you talking to?”“I’m talking to the phony caretaker,” Mike said. “Only, this time I know who he is!”“Mike, you’re not making any sense,” Rachel said.Mike’s eyes darted to the lantern. “That ought to bring him out.”He kneeled down by the lantern and put his hands right on the metal top.“Come out and manifest yourself! You can use my energy!”“What are you doing?” Rachel said in alarm. “You’re going to burn yourself.”“I know who it is now!” Mike said. “I remembered that he had a birthmark. And this is no ordinary lantern—it’s what’s known as a channel object. You can use it to concentrate energy and feed it into the spirit realm.”“Mike, you—” Rachel began and then stopped.The air in front of them began to shimmer, and then slowly a man’s form appeared.It was the caretaker—but his appearance had changed radically from the first time Rachel had seen him.He still had white hair and a red birthmark that started on his chin and ran down onto his neck. But now his hair stood out from his head as if it was being supported by a breeze, and his eyes glowed with a wild, maniacal light. His skin glowed, too, as if he were lit from within, and he floated several inches off the ground.Rachel look a step back. “But you can’t be a ghost. We saw you only a few hours ago. And you were a regular person then.”Mike took his hands off the lantern and sat back on his heels breathing heavily. Remarkably, his hands were unburned.“He is a ghost, Rachel,” Mike said. “In life his name was Robert Green. There’s no mistaking that birthmark.”The ghost floated up several more feet in the air and hovered by the ceiling.“Get out!” the spirit rasped. “Get out of this house now!”Mike stood up. “Knock off the theatrics. We know who you are and why you’re here. We just want our friend back now.”The spirit glared at Mike and then slowly floated back down toward the floor. He remained above it, floating just a few inches off the floor.“How can you be a ghost?” Rachel asked. “You could open doors and carry a lantern. You were solid.”The spirit opened his mouth as if he would speak, but Mike jumped in first.“He used the channel object,” Mike said. “He used it to gain enough strength to manifest himself and to give himself the ability to operate in this house. That’s what the fireball was that knocked us out. It was his drawing energy into himself so he could enter the party and interact with it.”“Yes, that is true—” the ghost began.“And that’s also why he’s been luring people here,” Mike said. “He’s been stealing energy from them. He needs it for his fiendish plan.”Mike then raised both of his hands in the air. “Spirit of Robert Green, I command you to leave this place. I command you to release your prisoners and leave this house in peace!”“Now who’s being dramatic?” A smile quirked at the corners of the ghost’s mouth.“Robert Green—”“Yes, yes, I’m Robert Green,” the ghost said. “But I can’t leave—not yet. Maybe not ever.”“Did you really take people prisoner?” Rachel demanded.“Yes, mortal girl, I did,” Robert replied. “But I need them. And they are unharmed.”“Did you take my brother?” Rachel asked.The ghost eyed her. “It’s possible. I don’t know any of their names.”“You don’t know!” Rachel said. “Let my brother go!”“I can’t.”“Why are you doing this?”“For Emily,” Robert replied. “She is trapped here.”“For Emily—” Rachel’s voice trailed off suddenly. She turned to Mike. “The birthmark—that’s why it’s so important. I see what you were getting at now.”She looked back up at the ghost.“That was you,” Rachel said. “You said ‘Turn around!’ You were trying to get that man in the blue at the party to turn around—because he wasn’t you.”“I try every year,” Robert said. “This time I had so much power. This time I could make myself solid. I thought I could make her see that she and the whole town had mistaken me for someone else.”The ghost sighed and seemed to grow a little fainter.“Poor Emily. She always was a sensitive girl.”“So that was your blue coat?” Rachel asked.“Yes,” Robert said. “But that wasn’t me in it. If he would only turn around! Even with the mask Emily would see that the birthmark your friend so helpfully pointed out wasn’t there.”“Why was some other guy wearing your coat?” Rachel said.A look like shame spread over the ghost’s face.“Because by that point it was one of the few things I had left to give away. I gambled away my money, I gambled away my horses, and I even gambled away the gold signet ring my father had given me. And in the end, I even gambled away Emily’s life.”The ghost of Robert Green closed his eyes, and a spasm ran through him.“I’d put up the coat in a bet several weeks before,” Robert said. “And I’d lost it. It really was quite a fine coat. My mother bought it for me in New York, and no one else had one like it. Emily was really taken with it—she said she loved it on me. When she had her dress made for the Halloween party, she wanted it to be blue just like my coat.”“So you lost the jacket,” Rachel said. “And this other guy wore it. And when he went around town in it, people thought he was you.”“Yes,” Robert said. “And he was in love with one of the maids at our house. People thought I was secretly meeting up with her in town.”“Why didn’t you just tell people what was going on?” Rachel asked.“I couldn’t!” Robert cried. “The shame was too great. I’d lost a fortune—and the potential dishonor to my family name haunted me day and night.”“You could have told Emily,” Rachel said.“No!” Robert wailed. “Emily was the last person I could have told. I feared she would leave me. And, like many a gambler, I believed I could get it all back. I just needed one lucky streak. Then I would get back my money and my possessions, and no one need know what I’d done.”Robert shook his head sadly.“And then, of course, I’d give up gambling. And that night, I had my plan for redemption all set up. I managed to get credit, put up a hefty IOU, and then bet it all. I would have won big if the cards had gone in my favor. But I lost, and I ended up with a crushing debt I had no hope of ever being able to pay.”“And that’s why you weren’t at the Halloween party.” Rachel said.“Yes,” Robert replied. “I was slumped over by the well in town when Eli and Henry found me—I was busy feeling sorry for myself. Then they dragged me back to the house and sat me down in the kitchen. I sat there, just staring at the lantern on the table. It was that lantern there, actually.”The ghost nodded at the lantern on the floor.“And I continued to sit there,” Robert said, “just staring while Emily’s life ebbed away. They carried Emily upstairs to Mary’s room and called for the doctor. But nobody told me. And then eventually, the sound of crying broke through my selfish haze. I went out to find out what was going on, and when I heard the news I ran straight up to Mary’s room—but by then it was too late. They tried to stop me from seeing her. But Emily lay there in death as beautiful as she had been in life. And now her spirit is trapped here in this empty house.”“But Emily isn’t trapped,” Mike’s voice broke in. “I’ve listened to your story, and it’s a sad one. But there’s a reason why you can’t influence what happened at the party. This isn’t an intelligent haunt. Well—except for you. It’s a residual one. It’s just trapped energy and emotion—it can never change. Emily’s not here.”“Emily is here,” Robert said. “It’s true that that event never seems to change. But that’s not the only event here. There’s also the spirit portal, which my own sad travels created, and then there is the presence in Mary’s room.”“That’s just the other end of the spirit portal,” Mike said.“No!” Robert said sharply. “The portal does end in that room—but Emily is still there, too. She’s never been able to leave Mary’s bedroom, and so the room is still there, just as it was in the moment when poor Emily’s mortal eyes closed on it for the last time.”“She’s not—”“She is!” Robert shouted. “Her presence is there. I just don’t know how to reach her.”The ghost crumpled and sat on the floor.“So you’ve kidnapped all these people,” Rachel said, “and you’re using their energy to try to contact Emily.”“Yes,” Robert said. “It all collects in this lantern. Using it creates all the wind and the energy surges—they look like fireballs. It gets rid of the dust, too. This is probably the cleanest haunted house in the world.”“But using their energy didn’t work for you,” Rachel said. “So why not just let them go?”“I can’t,” Robert said.“And by ‘can’t’ you mean you won’t?” Mike said.“I can’t,” Robert said. “Not yet. I know I failed at the party. But I have to keep trying to contact her tonight. This night—the night on which she died—is the one on which her suffering is the greatest.”“And yet you don’t mind making others suffer,” Mike said. “Those people you’ve imprisoned haven’t done anything wrong.”“They aren’t suffering.” The ghost looked around at Mike. “They are well cared for. When I am in my physical form I look after them, and this house is in good condition.”“They’re still prisoners,” Mike said. “They’re still trapped. That’s bad enough.”“They are unaware of their surroundings,” Robert said. “It all seems like a dream to them. And their discomfort is of a short duration. It is nothing compared to the years of torment that Emily has suffered.”Mike turned to Rachel. “I say we free them ourselves.”“I won’t let them go,” Robert replied, “and you’ll never find them without my help.”“What do you want from this anyway?” Rachel asked. “Do you want forgiveness?”The ghost rose up again and floated close to Rachel.“No—I don’t ask for that. I just want Emily to be free. I want to break her spirit out of its cycle of torment. I did not cheat on her, but I did a great wrong to her nonetheless. I couldn’t control my gambling, and I let it take over my life. I just want to let her know that she is loved, that she always was loved and that she doesn’t have to spend eternity in the darkness. I want her to know that she can move on.”“And you’ve stayed here all this time,” Rachel said quietly. “Just trying to get that message to her?”“Yes,” the ghost said.“You aren’t seriously listening to this, are you?” Mike said.Rachel turned to look at him. “Maybe we could help.”“Help?” Mike snorted.Rachel turned back to the ghost. “If Emily is free, will you let everyone go?”“Of course,” Robert said. “If Emily leaves, then I will leave, too. And my power over my—guests—will be broken. They will wake up and can leave as they wish.”“It’ll never work,” Mike said. “There’s nothing we can do. We’ll never be able to contact Emily.”“I fear your friend is right,” Robert said. “The two of you know nothing about the spirit world. There’s no way you can help.”“I know plenty about the spirit world,” Mike said.The ghost shot a glance over at Mike. “You cannot do what I have failed to do.”“What do you need?” Rachel asked. “More power? It occurs to me that you didn’t kidnap me or Mike. Does that mean that you don’t need any more energy?”The ghost shook his head in what looked like weariness, and Rachel noticed that he had begun to fade a little more. “No. I figured that the energy expenditure required to trap the two of you was not worth it. I would spend more to trap you than I would gain once you were added.”“Well, that’s good to know,” Rachel said. “What if I volunteered?”The ghost shook his head. “At this point one—or even—two—people would not make much of a difference.”The ghost grew dimmer still—as if in despair. “I don’t know what I need exactly—a power surge, perhaps. But I don’t think even a hundred people would be enough. I need an extraordinary amount of energy to break through to where Emily is.”Rachel glanced down at the lantern. “What happened to bring you here?”“Your friend brought me here,” Robert said. “When he touched the channel object directly. All the energy the object drew from him allowed me to manifest myself again after I’d expended most of mine trying to contact Emily.”“What if I did that, too?” Emily asked. “Would that give you another surge?”The ghost blinked and something like fear spread over its face. “No—you can’t do that. It’s dangerous—even life threatening. You must have noticed how your friend—”“Mike,” Mike interjected.“You must have noticed how exhausted Mike looked after he touched the lantern,” the ghost said. “Touching the channel object directly actually drained him of his life force—the energy that keeps him alive. My—my guests are not doing that. The channel object is absorbing their radiant energy—it’s the energy they already give off and lose every day of their lives. They aren’t losing anything. The channel just works with their natural processes.”“So you draw the line there,” Mike said. “You don’t mind taking people prisoner. But you won’t actually steal their life force away. Glad to hear it.”“But would it work?” Rachel asked. “If you drew directly on my energy would it be enough for you to contact Emily?”“You can’t actually be considering this,” Mike said.“I am,” Rachel replied.“Are you crazy?” Mike asked.“No,” Rachel said. “I’m trying to save my brother.”She turned to the ghost, “Would it work?”Robert looked grim. “I don’t know. It would certainly drain you of a lot of energy. There’s a very good chance you wouldn’t survive.”“You don’t have to do this,” Mike said.“He’s my brother!” Rachel said. “I’m not leaving him behind!”Rachel’s shout echoed in the empty house. All three—the living and the dead—were silent.“It might not work,” the ghost said quietly. “One person might not be enough. The energy I need—”“What about two?” Mike said quickly.The ghost looked at him. “What was that?”“Would two people be enough to get you what you want?” Mike asked.The ghost bowed his head. “With two people, it might just be enough. But it would be a terrible risk to you both.”“Mike, you don’t need to get involved,” Rachel said.“Yes, I do,” Mike replied stubbornly.“Justin’s my brother,” Rachel said. “I have to do this—we’re family.”“And he’s my best friend,” Mike said. “He’s like family to me, too.”The two of them looked at the ghost.“Do you want to do this now?” Rachel said.The ghost looked sadly at them both. “Are you sure about this?”“We’re sure,” Mike said.“Then all you have to do is step forward and reach your hands out to the lantern,” Robert said. “I thank you from the bottom of my soul. And I hope your sacrifice won’t be in vain.”Rachel and Mike glanced at each other and then kneeled down and placed their hands on the lantern.As Rachel’s fingertips touched the warm metal, she felt a tingle run through her, and then all at once the world went completely silent, as if she had suddenly lost her hearing. A deep chill ran through her and spread all the way through her fingers and toes and up into her scalp. Rachel had a feeling then that her hair was standing on end, and the chill seemed to run all the way through it and out into the air.Rachel turned her head in the terrifying silence, and everywhere she looked, all she could see was bright, blazing light. She squinted her eyes against the glare, and she thought she could make out a dark form, human in shape, to her left. In front of her was a luminous, silver shape, also human in form, that was floating in the air. The silver shape seemed to be at war with the bright, golden light all around it. The silver shape fought to grow brighter, and the glow fought to keep it dim.Rachel found that her breathing was becoming ragged, and she tried to draw in a deep breath, but a heavy weight on her chest made it impossible. She continued to struggle to breathe.Then, as if at a great distance, came a faint cry.“Emily!”The silver shape began to grow brighter and brighter, and Rachel felt the chill in her body deepening.“Emily!” cried the voice again, and it was louder this time. “I am here! Listen to me, Emily! I know you know my voice. I am your own true love, and whatever else I have done, I would never forsake you!”The voice rose in intensity. “Emily! Hear me!”Rachel felt herself sinking, and she began to grow dizzy. She thought she had slipped to the floor, but she couldn’t be sure, and as she gazed upward, she thought she saw a wisp of blue, like a silky ribbon, wind its way into the glow.“Emily!” cried the voice, and it was even louder than it had been before.“Robert?” This was a new voice, and it was shaky and thin—as if it hadn’t been used in a long time.“Yes, yes, it’s Robert!” cried the stronger voice eagerly. “It’s me! Please listen, Emily. I love you!”“You—”“I love you, Emily, and I never stopped loving you. Not even for a moment.”“You never—you never—” The voice wavered. “Then why did you—”“I didn’t, Emily, I didn’t,” Robert said quickly. “That wasn’t me.”“But—”“It wasn’t me!” Robert said. “But this is me now. I love you, Emily!”“Oh, Robert,” Emily said.“Emily, I love you,” Robert said. “I always have loved you, and I always will love you.”The whole world seemed to stop then, and Rachel found that she couldn’t breathe at all.She reached for something to grab onto, but her hands met only empty air.The silver light glowed brighter suddenly and then began to dim. The golden light began to dim, too, and Rachel was left in darkness.Then suddenly, the weight lifted from her chest, and Rachel could breathe again. She took in several gasping breaths and welcomed the feel of the cold, clear air. The oppressive silence was also lifted, and Rachel was grateful for the return of her hearing.But the darkness remained. Rachel realized she was lying on the floor, and she pushed herself to a sitting position.She could hear creaks and groans and breathing—people were moving in the dark.“Who’s there?” Rachel asked.“Rachel, is that you?” said a voice.“Mike?” Rachel said.“Yeah. Just a minute. I think I’ve still got my flashlight.”There was a click, and then a beam of light appeared in the darkness. The light moved across the floor, picking out a dark, broken lantern, and then it landed on Rachel and travelled up to her face.“Mike,” Rachel said in protest.“Oh, sorry,” he said. He lowered the flashlight.“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said a man’s voice from out of the darkness. “What’s going on here?”Mike turned his flashlight toward the sound, and the light revealed a cluster of people either lying on the ground or struggling to sit up. The light also revealed that the room was much bigger than it had appeared to be at first, and wherever Mike turned his flashlight, he picked out more people.“But this room was empty,” Rachel said.“Apparently not,” Mike replied.“There’s way more than ten people here,” Rachel said.“I guess more people went missing than we realized,” Mike said.“So, what? Robert used some kind of ghost magic to hide everybody?”“Ghost magic?” Mike smirked a little.“Then, what was it?” Rachel asked. “Why didn’t we know they were in here?”Mike glanced around. “Maybe there’s another channel object in here. That’s the only thing I can think of—whatever it is, its power has been broken.”“So is it over?” Rachel asked.“I think so,” Mike said. “I think we’re all free.”“Hey, turn on the lights!” someone cried.“There’s no electricity in here, dummy,” came the response.Mike continued to pan his flashlight over the crowd, and against one wall, he lit up a big pile of equipment. Sitting by the equipment, blinking in the light was a boy with a familiar face.“Justin!” Rachel cried.She hurried over to him and gave him a hug.Mike followed her and kneeled down, setting his flashlight on the ground so that it pointed up, sending out a shaft of light.“Rachel, Mike,” Justin said. “What are you guys doing here?”“We came to find you,” Rachel said.Justin glanced around at the dark room full of people.“Have I been missing for a while?” he asked.“Not too long,” Mike said. “But long enough that it was obvious something was wrong.”“So, what happened?” Justin asked.“We’ll explain everything soon,” Rachel said. “But first, I think we should get everyone out of here.”“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Mike said.While Rachel helped Justin to his feet, Mike turned and addressed the group.“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, something unusual has happened here tonight. This will be a little hard to explain, but since you’re all paranormal investigators, it should be a little easier to explain to you than it would be to normal people. But explanations should probably wait until we’re all out of here.”Mike turned to Rachel, who had come up to stand beside him.“How do you want to do this?” he asked.“Let’s get everyone out in one long line,” Rachel said. “You can lead them at the front, and I’ll bring up the back and make sure everyone is out.”She switched on her flashlight. “Luckily, I found this in the corner.”“Okay,” Mike said. “Works for me.”It was Rachel’s turn to address the crowd.“All right, everyone, let’s get everybody standing, and help anyone who needs help getting up. Some of you have been in here longer than others. This is Mike. You’ll be following him out of the house to safety. I suggest you leave your equipment here. You can come back for it in the daytime.”People began to shuffle to their feet, and there was a chorus of groans and much stretching of bodies. Soon Mike stood at the head of a line, and the people kidnapped by the spirit of Robert Green began to file down the stairs—some of them being supported by their friends.Once the last person had left the room, Rachel swung her flashlight in an arc around the room to make sure that they hadn’t missed anybody. As she did so, the light picked out a small object that glittered.Rachel walked over and picked it up, and she saw that she held a little glass music box—its inner workings plainly visible through its clear sides.She turned it over and found a tiny metal plaque next to its winding mechanism. The plaque read: From Robert to Emily.Rachel considered winding the music box up for just a moment. Then she quickly thought better of it and set the music box back down on the floor.She cast one look over the room and then stepped outside and closed the door.Mike and Rachel led the group slowly down the stairs and out through the front door. Once everyone was safely outside, Mike and Rachel warned everyone against going inside again and then began to ferry everyone back to town in their cars.By the time all the prisoners were returned to the safety of civilization, dawn was just beginning to show its first light.Rachel and Mike stood by their cars in front of a hotel. They had just taken the last group of people inside, and their work was finally done. Mike’s car was empty, and Rachel’s held only her brother.“It’s good to see the sunrise,” Mike said.“Do you think Emily moved on?” Rachel asked. “Do you think she’s really free now?”“I think so,” Mike replied. “But I do wonder about Robert.”“You think he’s still there?”“No, I think he moved on with Emily,” Mike said. “But I wonder about what he told us.”“Which part?” Rachel asked.“Well, kind of the whole setup,” Mike said. “With us. Not trapping us and letting us see the Halloween party. He said he didn’t grab us because it wasn’t worth the effort at that point. But I’m not sure that’s true. I think he wanted us to see everything—I think he was hoping if we did, we’d volunteer to help him. Just like we did.”“You think he tricked us?” Rachel asked.“Maybe. I don’t know—if he did, it was a heck of a gamble.”“Well, he was a gambler,” Rachel said.“But not a good one,” Mike said.“Maybe this was a last-ditch effort,” Rachel said. “Sort of double-or-nothing. And even a bad gambler gets lucky sometimes.”“Yeah, I suppose that’s true,” Mike said.He looked around.“I guess we should be getting home.”Mike seemed oddly reluctant to move, and he glanced over at Rachel several times.“So, see you around?” he said at last.Rachel stepped up to him and kissed him on the cheek.“Why did you do that?” Mike asked.“Thanks for helping me save my brother,” she said. Mike looked down and then laughed sheepishly, and his blush was as rosy as the dawn.-------------------------------------------Thanks very much for reading!
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Here is Part 4 of The Gray House Ghost. If you haven't read Part 3 yet, you can find it here.
The Gray House Ghost
By Catherine Mesick
Rachel looked around the room—it wasn’t nearly as bright as it had seemed at first. But it was definitely no longer dark, and flashlights weren’t necessary. The room was comfortably lit like it was dawn or dusk, but the light wasn’t coming from outside. The room was suffused with a soft, green light that seemed to be coming from the air around them. The world outside the window was still dark, and when Rachel looked at Mike, his skin looked unnaturally pale, and his eyes stood out large and dark in the green glow.But despite the strangeness of the light, they were still definitely in the same place.“How can this be the spirit portal?” Rachel asked. “We haven’t gone anywhere.”“Spirit portals only flow in one direction,” Mike replied. “You can start at the well in the town square and end up here, but you can’t start here and end up at the well.”“So what happened, then?”Mike glanced around in the eerie green air. “Well, my best guess is that we’ve slipped through into the spirit realm. We’re still in the same place, but we can see what’s happening on another plane of existence.”“Is that common with spirit portals?” Rachel asked.“No,” Mike said. “This situation is very unusual. But I think everything in this house is unusual.”He took a deep breath.“I think we’ll need to be careful. We’re in a place now where we can see spirits.”“And does that mean they can see us?” Rachel asked.Mike shut off his flashlight and flashed her a grin.“They can always see us,” he said.They stepped out into the hall, and they were immediately hit with a bright, blazing light. The light pulsed and then disappeared. Moments later, a breeze picked up that quickly turned into a strong wind. The wind caught at their clothes and pulled at Rachel’s hair so that it swirled around her face.Soon a roar sounded from the lower levels of the house, and Rachel turned just in time to see what looked like a ball of fire flying up the main staircase toward them.“What is that?” Rachel cried.But before Mike could reply, the fireball slammed into them, and everything went black.
“Rachel! Rachel!” hissed a voice in her ear.Rachel opened her eyes and looked around. She was lying on the floor, and the air around her had an odd greenish tinge to it.“Mike?” she said.Soon Mike’s face loomed into view.“Rachel, are you okay?” he whispered urgently.“Yes, I’m okay.” Rachel sat up. “What happened?”“I don’t know for sure,” Mike replied, “but I think we got hit by a mass of pure energy. Something was vacuuming all the energy in this whole area up into itself. But it seems to be gone now.”“How long were we out?” Rachel asked.“About two hours,” Mike said. He cast a nervous look at his watch. “In fact, it’s almost midnight.”“What’s so special about midnight?” Rachel asked.“That’s when the spectral Halloween party goes on.”“But that’s just shadows and whispers, right?”“It is in the regular world,” Mike said. “But we’re in the spirit realm now. I have no idea what could happen.”Moments later, soft music began to play, and Rachel and Mike hurried over to the balcony at the top of the stairs. Some instinct made both of them crouch down below the rail.The sound of mingled voices soon rose up to them, and as they watched, shadowy figures began to appear on the floor below as if they were walking out of a mist. The figures soon seemed to solidify, and Rachel and Mike could see men and women milling around below them. All the guests wore sumptuous clothes and masks, and they walked around talking, drinking, and laughing—a party was clearly in progress.At a signal from the conductor, the band in the corner struck up a lively tune.The guests moved to the side, and soon the room was clear for dancing.The gentlemen approached the ladies with small courtly bows, and then couple after couple stepped out onto the dance floor.Before long, the room was filled with swirling couples, and the soft sound of rustling silk could be heard whenever there was a lull in the music. Light from oil lamps and candelabra glittered on the fine jewelry of the women and on the sequined masks of dancers of both sexes.One woman in a particularly fine gray gown that matched her hair, stood apart from the crowd and looked over the dancers anxiously.Apparently not finding what she was looking for, the woman turned away from the crowd and hurried up the stairs toward Rachel and Mike.The two of them froze as the woman reached the top of the stairs and stopped right next to them.But the woman didn’t even glance in their direction. Instead, she clasped her hands together and took a deep breath as if gathering herself.The woman hesitated a moment longer and then approached the bedroom in which Rachel and Mike had found the spirit portal.The woman raised a hand and knocked tentatively at the door.“Mary, dear, are you still in there?” the woman asked.“Yes, mama,” came the faint reply.“Are you well, dear?”“Yes, mama, quite well.”“Mary, you’re missing the dancing,” the woman said. “And you know this party is as much for you as it is for your brother.”“I know, mama. I’ll just be another few moments.”The woman hesitated again. “Speaking of your brother, do you know where he is?”“I believe he’s in town,” Mary said. “But he should be along presently.”Mary’s mother frowned. “In town? Robert’s been in town a lot lately. Is everything all right with him?”“Yes, mama. I believe he just had some business to attend to.”“Well, all right,” the woman said. “I hope he hurries. Emily will be here soon. We’re lucky that she happens to be late tonight.”“Yes, mama,” Mary replied.The woman started to speak again but then thought better of it. She turned and walked back down the stairs, her face a mask of worry.Shortly after the woman rejoined the party, soft footsteps ran along the hall from the other direction, and a girl of about sixteen hurried up to the closed bedroom door. The girl was wearing a plain dress and an apron, and she tapped lightly at the door.“Miss Mary,” she whispered. “It’s Ada.”The door flew open, and a young woman of about eighteen or nineteen with an elaborate set of blond ringlets and a rose silk gown looked out.“Did they find him?” Mary asked urgently.“Yes, miss,” Ada replied. “Joseph just returned—he ran all the way back. They found him in town.”“Where is he now?” Mary asked. “Is he here?”“No, miss. Mr. Robert is still in town. Eli and Henry are trying to bring him back now. Joseph said he was in a bad way.”Mary pursed her lips. “Was he drunk?”“No, miss. But he lost a lot tonight. Joseph said he’s really broken up about it—he’s not in his right mind at the moment.”“Where’s my mother now?” Mary asked. “Can you see her?”Ada tiptoed to the balcony and looked down to the party below. Then she hurried back.“Mrs. Green is talking with the minister’s wife.”“All right,” Mary said. “Thank you, Ada. Let me know as soon as Robert gets here. And make sure Eli and Henry bring him in through the back. Don’t let anyone see him come in.”Ada turned to go, and Mary called her back.“Ada!”“Yes, miss?”“Get someone to watch out for Emily, too. As soon as she gets here, bring her into the small parlor and let me know. I’ll tell her Robert’s sick or something.”“Yes, miss.”Ada ran off the way she had come, and Mary closed her door once again.Shortly after Ada disappeared down the hall, the front door opened.A girl with a well-dressed set of brown curls and an exquisite blue gown walked into the room with a small group of people surrounding her.The girl removed her equally exquisite blue wrap and turned a pretty smile on the servant who stepped forward to receive it.But the girl’s expression changed as she looked over the crowd. Her wide, dark eyes scanned all the faces in the crowd apprehensively, and the hand that held her sequined mask shook.Another young woman in a glittering gown stepped forward to give her a warm embrace, but the girl returned it perfunctorily, her eyes still on the crowd.With a glance toward her mistress's door, a little maid in white darted toward the girl in blue.But Mrs. Green noticed the girl at the same time and moved toward her with a smile.“Emily!” she said, holding out her arms in greeting.The little maid glanced toward Mrs. Green and froze in her tracks.Emily and Mrs. Green embraced, and then Mrs. Green stepped back and placed her hands on the girl’s shoulders.“Why, Emily, you’re shaking. Are you quite well, dear?”Emily looked up at Mrs. Green, and tears began to fall from her large, dark eyes.“Robert’s not here, is he?” Emily’s voice was tremulous.Mrs. Green glanced around quickly. “No, dear. But he was just delayed a little longer in town. He’ll be here very soon.”“No, he won’t be!” Emily said, her voice rising. “Robert’s not going to be here. And what’s more, he doesn’t love me!”“Emily,” Mrs. Green’s voice was soothing.“It’s true, mama,” Emily cried. “Oh, how I wanted to call you mama. But now that will never happen!”The other guests turned to stare. Emily’s voice was rising shrilly.“What a thing to say, child,” Mrs. Green admonished. “Of course you’re going to call me mama. You and Robert will be married at Christmas, and then you and Mary will both be my daughters.”Emily pulled away. “No! Robert doesn’t love me. He’s in love with one of your servant girls!”“Why, Emily!” Mrs. Green said. “What a terrible thing to say! Whoever could have given you such an idea?”Mrs. Green darted a nervous glance at her guests. Many pairs of eyes were now staring at them, and some of the couples had even ceased their dancing.“Everyone knows!” Emily cried. “Everyone! It’s all over town!”Mrs. Green put an arm around Emily. “Come along, dear, we’ll go up and see Mary. She’ll put this foolishness out of your mind.”She began to lead Emily up the stairs.Emily giggled hysterically. “And of course I’m the last one to know. Oh, how everyone must have been laughing at me.”“Hush, dear,” Mrs. Green said. “It’s not true.”“It is true!” Emily cried. “Everyone knows! I told you.”Emily and Mrs. Green were rising steadily toward Rachel and Mike.“It’s not true,” Mrs. Green said again. “Talk to Mary—it’s not true. Mary will tell you.”“If it’s not true, then where is he?” Emily demanded. “I’ll tell you where he is! He’s with her!”“Nonsense.”“And if it is true, do you know what I’ll do? I’ll jump right in the river!”The two of them reached the top of the stairs and stood a few feet away from where Rachel and Mike were kneeling.“You must not say such things, Emily. You mustn’t allow yourself to get in one of your states,” Mrs. Green said.She suddenly brightened. “And for no reason at all. Look, there’s Robert over there. Can’t you see him in his best blue jacket?”Mrs. Green pointed to a shadowy corner on the floor below. A dark-haired young man in a blue jacket and a black mask was leaning close to a young woman also in a mask.Suddenly a strong wind picked up, and it flew past Rachel and Mike and down the stairs. But though the wind pulled at Rachel and Mike’s hair and clothes, it didn’t disturb a single candle or costume at the party, and the guests seemed to be completely unaware of it.The wind surged even stronger than before, and it now seemed to swirl around the young man below.Along with the wind came a sound—a deep, booming voice that seemed to fill the entire house.“Turn around!” the voice commanded. “Turn around!”The young man in blue leaned close to the woman, and their lips met in a kiss.The wind whipped up harder and harder, and Rachel’s hair began to fly around her face so fiercely that she couldn’t see a thing.“Turn around!” the voice cried. “Turn around!”“That’s him all right,” said another voice—much more faintly—Rachel thought it sounded like Emily.“Emily! Emily! Stop!” cried another voice that sounded like Mrs. Green.There was a piercing shriek then, followed by other screams.The wind seemed to whip itself into a frenzy, and then suddenly, it was gone.Rachel looked around. The lights, the people, and the party had all gone. The house was empty and still and once again bathed in an eerie greenish light.“What just happened?” Rachel asked.Mike’s face was grim. “We just got a reenactment of this house’s most traumatic event—and it was combined with an intruder.”Rachel frowned. “What do you mean by an intruder?”“Someone is trying to change the things that happened here,” Mike said. He stood up. “Come on. I think we can still catch him.”-------------------------------------------Thanks very much for reading! I'll post Part 5 next week.
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Here is Part 3 of The Gray House Ghost. If you haven't read Part 2 yet, you can find it here.
The Gray House Ghost
By Catherine Mesick
The two of them started toward the house again, but this time, Mike motioned Rachel toward the back.“I’m not sure we should risk going in through the front door again,” Mike said. “Let’s see if there’s another way in.”There was indeed another entrance at the back of the house, but Mike took a long look at a set of double doors that were set into the ground.“You want to go in through the basement?” Rachel asked.Mike nodded as he stepped over to examine the basement doors. “Going in this way will put us as far as possible from Mr. Caretaker up there. We can search the house systematically from bottom to top, and with any luck we’ll be able to avoid that guy.”“Are you serious?” Rachel said. “You really want to go into a haunted house through the basement?”“This is by all accounts a benign haunting,” Mike said as he eased one of the basement doors open. “That’s why the disappearances are so strange. Something has gone wrong recently.”He shot her a sly glance. “And anyway, I thought you didn’t believe in haunted houses.”“I don’t,” Rachel said.“But?”“It just seems like a good principle to follow—even in a house that’s only allegedly haunted.”“Interesting,” Mike said, giving her a long look.Then he opened the second basement door and stepped gingerly down the wooden steps.Rachel followed him.The basement was large and empty and just as free of cobwebs and dust as the rest of the house had been.Rachel shone her flashlight over the cavernous room, and the light picked out a wooden staircase against the far wall. Other than that there was nothing of interest in the room.“Do you see the spirit portal in here?” Rachel asked.Mike went over the basement carefully with his flashlight.“No—I don’t think it’s down here. I’ve never seen one before, but I’ve heard there should be a visual distortion around it. And I’ve got a good eye for paranormal phenomena. I’ll know it when I see it.”“Good to know,” Rachel said.“But you know what I did just realize?” Mike glanced back at the basement doors, which still yawned open. “That guy definitely isn’t the caretaker.”“Why do you say that?”“Because nothing’s locked up. The front door, the basement door, the attic—they’re all unlocked. He’s not actually taking care of anything.”“Maybe he’s just—” Rachel began.She stopped. She couldn’t think of a logical reason why the house should be unlocked.“Whatever’s going on, he’s in on it,” Mike said.He began to move toward the stairs.“Come on. Let’s go quietly. We don’t want that guy to catch us again.”Mike moved stealthily up the stairs, and Rachel followed him.At the top of the stairs was a door—unlocked like the others, and Mike opened it cautiously. Rachel and Mike stepped out into yet another empty room, and their flashlights picked out no distinguishing features.“What do you suppose this was?” Rachel whispered. “A kitchen maybe?”Mike simply shook his head.The two of them moved on into the next room.“So what’s the story here?” Rachel whispered. “Why is this place haunted?”“We should do as little talking as possible,” Mike whispered back. “We don’t want to attract any unnecessary attention.”“I just want to know what I’m supposedly up against in here,” Rachel replied. “Just tell me the short version.”“Okay,” Mike said. “I can understand that. So, you probably know already that a prominent family named Green lived here for generations. In the 1880s the Greens’ son Robert, the heir to their great fortune, became engaged to a young woman named Emily Stanhope. The two were said to be very much in love, and they planned a Christmas wedding. And then there was a big masked ball here on Halloween, and there were also rumors by that time that Robert was cheating on Emily with a servant girl. And when Emily saw Robert and the girl apparently kissing in a corner, she threw herself off the second-floor balcony onto the main floor below and killed herself right there at the party.”“That’s awful,” Rachel said.“It was pretty tragic,” Mike said. “And it caused a huge scandal. The Greens packed up and left after that. They didn’t sell the house—possibly because nobody would touch it. And it’s been vacant ever since. As far as the haunting goes—supposedly lights are seen at night, which is very odd because there’s no electricity in this house, and the rumor is that every Halloween that fateful masked ball is reenacted. The guests reappear in the main hall, the dancing begins, and then the ghost of Emily Stanhope throws herself to her death. The reports say the display is mostly shadows and whispers, but there are those who say you can hear a very audible scream.”“That’s really sad,” Rachel said. “Are all those spirits supposedly trapped here?”“No—none of them are trapped here. It’s not an intelligent haunting—it’s residual energy. It never changes, and you can’t interact with it. It’s just the same scene played over and over again. That’s why these disappearances are so disturbing. Something else has moved in here. And the new entity, whatever it is, appears to be malevolent.”“Great,” Rachel said. “And that’s what my brother walked into?”“Unfortunately, yes,” Mike said. “And whatever is here is likely to be at its most powerful tonight—that’s when the energy that naturally occurs here is at its strongest.”The two of them continued on through the house without finding anything. Then they came to the enormous front room through which they had originally entered the house. Rachel shone her flashlight over the grand staircase and the still-impressive parquet floor.“Is this where it happened?” Rachel asked.“Yes,” Mike replied. “Right around midnight. And this is where the haunting still occurs.”They went over the huge room carefully, but Rachel found nothing unusual.“Anything?” she asked Mike.“No,” he whispered. “I guess it’s time to move upstairs.”Rachel and Mike started up the stairs, and their ascent was mercifully free of creaks and groans.At the top of the stairs they found a balcony that overlooked the lower level, and just beyond that was a long hallway lined on either side by closed doors.While Mike walked down the length of the hallway, Rachel paused and opened the nearest door.The room was empty as usual, but as Rachel shone her flashlight into it, she imagined for just a moment that she saw the bedroom of a young girl. She could see a bed with embroidered linens, a bureau with perfumes and trinkets, a full length mirror with an ornate stand. And over by the window, a pair of lacy curtains fluttered as if moved by a breeze.“Do you see something?” whispered a voice by her ear.Rachel turned to see Mike standing beside her.She glanced back at the room—it was empty once again. The spell had been broken.“It’s nothing,” Rachel said. “I was just imagining things.”“Maybe not,” Mike said.He pushed the door open a little wider and stepped inside.He shone his flashlight over the entire room and then came back to Rachel.“What did you see?” Mike whispered.“A girl’s bedroom,” Rachel replied. “I saw furniture. I even saw curtains over by the window. It was just my mind playing tricks on me in the dark.”“No, you might have seen something,” Mike said. “There could be residual energy here just like there is supposed to be downstairs. Residual energy is kind of like an impression—a moment frozen in time. That could be what you saw.”“Can that help us?” Rachel asked.“If there’s energy around here, it could be a sign that the portal is close,” Mike said. “We should keep looking.”Their flashlights picked out a communicating door on the far side of the room, and they walked over to it and pushed it open carefully.Inside was a small room with several holes cut into the floor. The ends of pipes peeped out through the holes, and Rachel figured that those pipes had once led to plumbing—the room had likely been a bathroom.Mike stepped inside and shone his flashlight over the room.“Wait!” he hissed. “I think I see something. There was a flash by that pipe. It could be the distortion we’re looking for.”Mike crept closer and leaned down.“Yes! I see it. It’s silver and it’s moving—”Mike suddenly stumbled backward and placed a hand over his mouth as if to stifle a cry.He ran into Rachel, and the two of them tumbled toward the open door and fell to the floor.“What is it?” Rachel whispered. “Did you find the spirit portal?”Mike jumped quickly to his feet.“No—I—no.”Rachel hurriedly got to her feet also. “Then what was it?”Mike swallowed. “It was a silverfish, okay? Don’t laugh. I can’t stand them—it’s kind of a phobia.”An involuntary tremor ran through his body.“I’m not laughing,” Rachel said.“What?” Mike said.“I’m not laughing at you,” Rachel replied. “I don’t like them either.”Mike looked at her. He could see her expression was serious.“Oh,” he said. “So false alarm, then. No portal in here.”They walked back into the first room, and Rachel quickly turned her flashlight toward the window.“There it is again,” she said. “By the window. I thought I saw something fluttering like a curtain.”Mike turned his flashlight to the same spot.“There’s nothing there now. Maybe it was just another insect.”Rachel frowned. “But I could have sworn—”She walked over to the window and put out her hand.“It was right here,” she said.Something shadowy flitted nearby, and Rachel quickly turned toward it.“There!” she said. “There it is again. It definitely looks like a curtain.”She reached out for it again.“Wait!” Mike said sharply. “Don’t touch it yet! I think you might have found—”Rachel felt her hand close around something soft and delicate, like a feather. In the next instant the room was flooded with light.She turned around.Mike had disappeared.“Mike?” Rachel said. “Mike?”Her voice began to rise with alarm—it wasn’t normal for a person to disappear.“Mike, where are you?” Rachel said.A moment later, he appeared by her side. Mike blinked his eyes several times and then looked around as if dazzled by the light. Then he saw Rachel and started in surprise.“Whoa. Good to see you again,” he said.“What’s going on here?” Rachel asked. Mike smiled. “Congratulations, non-believer. You just found the spirit portal.”-------------------------------------------Thanks very much for reading! I'll post Part 4 next week.
     You can check out my books here.
     And stop by some time and hi on Facebook. :)

Here is Part 2 of The Gray House Ghost. If you haven't read Part 1 yet, you can find it here.
The Gray House Ghost
By Catherine Mesick
“Rachel?” said a voice in a whisper.Rachel shielded her eyes against the glare. “Who wants to know?”The flashlight moved so that it was pointing upward, and Rachel could see a tall, lanky frame outlined against the light.“Rachel, it’s me—Mike.”“Mike?” Rachel said. “What are you doing here?”“The same as you,” Mike whispered. “I’m looking for Justin. And you might want to keep your voice down.”“Why?”“Just trust me.”“Fine,” Rachel whispered.“Have you had any luck yet?” Mike asked.“I’m pretty sure he’s up in the attic,” Rachel replied. “There’s a light on up there—you probably saw it as you drove up.”Mike hesitated. “Yeah, I saw it.”“You don’t think it’s him?”“I don’t know,” Mike said. “I hope it is.”Rachel turned on her flashlight and started up the stairs again. “Well, we’d better go look.”The two of them climbed up through the dark until they reached the last flight of stairs. Then they climbed the few steps up to the topmost level. The attic door stood before them with a thin sliver of light showing out from underneath it.Rachel reached out for the old-fashioned crystal doorknob, and Mike moved suddenly to stop her.“Wait!” he hissed.But she was already turning the handle, and the door to the attic swung open easily.Inside the room was a lantern sitting in the middle of the floor. Otherwise, the room was empty.Rachel and Mike stepped into the room.“Do you think he was in here?” Rachel whispered.“Maybe,” Mike replied.“You don’t seem very surprised to not see him here,” Rachel said. “What did you think was going on up here? Did you think it was pranksters?”“No.” Mike seemed oddly reluctant to go on.“Mike, what’s going on in this house?” Rachel said.“You don’t know?”“No, I don’t.”Mike cast a nervous glance over at the doorway. The attic landing yawned black and cavernous beyond it.“Do you mind if I close the door?” Mike asked. “I don’t like the idea of someone sneaking up on us.”“If it makes you feel better,” Rachel said.Mike shut the door and then sat down by the lantern.Rachel sat down opposite him. “I’m guessing you have some idea what’s going on with my brother.”Mike ran his hands over his face and then looked over at Rachel.“Okay,” he said. “So you haven’t heard about the disappearances?”“No,” she said.“It’s about ten people so far,” Justin said. “And they’ve all disappeared into this house.”“What?” Rachel said. “That’s not possible. I would have heard if ten people had gone missing from our town.”“They haven’t gone missing from our town,” Justin replied. “They’ve gone missing from all over the country. Ghost hunters from all over have come to investigate this house. And they haven’t been heard from since then.”“I think I would have heard about that, too.”“Not necessarily,” Mike said. “They disappeared one at a time. And no one can prove they came to this house—after all, no bodies have ever been found. We just know this is where they were headed when they disappeared.”“Then where are their cars?” Rachel asked. “If they came out here and disappeared, their cars should be here at least. There’s no other way to get out here.”“There’s the spirit portal.”“The spirit portal?”“It’s by the old well in the town square. All you have to do is walk through the portal in the right frame of mind, and you’ll be transported here. And you need to know it’s there in the first place.”“I see,” Rachel said.“And all the investigators parked at their hotels in town and then walked over to the spirit portal. Their cars were found abandoned at the hotels.”“And you believe a spirit portal is a real thing?” Rachel asked.“Of course it is,” Mike said. “How else do you think all those people got over here without cars?”“Why weren’t they seen?” Rachel asked.“What?”“Why weren’t they seen disappearing into thin air?” Rachel asked. “If people carrying ghost-hunting equipment walked up to the old well in the town square and then just vanished, wouldn’t somebody notice that?”Mike sighed softly. “That’s part of how spirit portals work. There’s always an area of localized distortion around them. They actually generate a channel that enters the spirit realm—you travel through that to the next human world destination. A lot of people are frightened and disoriented by spiritual energy—even when it’s positive. So they just tend not to look. And like I said, there’s localized distortion—and that affects human senses, too.”“And what would create something like that?”“Strong emotion,” Mike said.“I see,” Rachel said again. “So you’re saying ten ghost hunters—”“Paranormal investigators.”“Paranormal investigators—with all their equipment walked up to a well and were magically—”“Spiritually.”“Spiritually transported to the Gray House,” Rachel said.“Yes,” Mike said.“And I assume my brother took that route also?”“Well, yes,” Mike said. “The town square isn’t that far from the high school. And he also didn’t want anyone to know that he was coming here.”“Why not?” Rachel asked.Mike turned his head suddenly.“Wait! Did you hear that?” he hissed.Their voices had begun to drift up in volume, and Mike quickly brought his back down to a hoarse whisper.“I didn’t hear anything,” Rachel whispered back.“I’d better go check.”Mike stood and walked noiselessly to the door. Then he switched on his flashlight and opened the door carefully.Mike shone his flashlight up and down the landing and then returned to the room, closing the door behind him.“I thought I heard footsteps,” Mike said.“But no one’s there?” Rachel asked.“No one I can see at least,” Mike said.He sat down again.“So why didn’t Justin want anyone to know that he was coming over here?” Rachel asked.Mike cast Rachel a furtive glance. “Well, he didn’t want you to know because he thought you would think it was silly. And he didn’t want me to know because I would have told him it was way too dangerous.”“What?” Rachel asked. “Filming a ghost-hunting show?”“No,” Mike said. “Justin changed his mind after he realized what was going on here. He wasn’t planning a show anymore. He was planning a rescue mission.”“He what?” Rachel’s voice rose above a whisper, and Mike quickly shushed her.“Keep your voice down,” he hissed. “We’ve got to keep a low profile while we’re in this house.”“Don’t we want Justin to know we’re here?” Rachel asked.“Justin, yes,” Mike said. “The spirits—no. The word is that spirits are luring people here and trapping them—possibly so that they can use their energy to manifest themselves.”“Okay,” Rachel said, rising. “We have different opinions, but we both think Justin is here somewhere. Since we’re already at the top of the house, I’m going to search each room from top to bottom until I find my brother. You can come with me if you like.”Rachel switched on her flashlight and moved toward the door. Mike quickly went after her.“Yeah, you’re right. We should find Justin. But let’s be careful. So far the spirits don’t seem to be too aware of our presence. I’d like to keep it that way.”“So we’ll be careful,” Rachel said. “It makes sense to be careful in an old house anyway.”She reached out for the antique crystal knob but was startled to see that it was turning on its own. A moment later, the door was flung wide open, and a man with white hair and a red birthmark that ran from his chin to his neck stood outlined in the doorway.“What are you kids doing in here?”Both Rachel and Mike jumped back, startled.“Who are you?” Rachel said.“Who am I?” the man sputtered. “I’m the caretaker. Who are you?”“We’re—” Rachel began.“We saw the light,” Mike said quickly, gesturing to the lantern, “and since it’s Halloween, we thought we’d come up and see what’s going on.”“Well, there’s no party up here,” the man said.“We thought the house was abandoned,” Rachel said. “We didn’t know anybody was still taking care of it.”“This is private property,” the man replied. “And our arrangements are none of your business.”“Sorry we intruded,” Mike said, edging around the man. “We’ll be going now.”“Wait,” Rachel said. “We’re looking for—”“Some Halloween fun,” Mike said. “And this clearly isn’t the place for it.”He grabbed Rachel by the hand and pulled her around the man and out onto the landing.The man said nothing and simply glared at them.“We have our own flashlights,” Mike said. “So we don’t need you to escort us down the stairs or anything. We’ll just show ourselves out.”Justin flipped on his flashlight and dragged Rachel toward the stairs.“I already have my flashlight on,” Rachel said.“We can use both of them,” Mike said quickly. “Good night, Mister-whatever-your-name-is.”Rachel glanced over her shoulder. The door to the attic was already shut.“Come on,” Mike said, tugging on Rachel’s hand. “Let’s get out of here while we still can.”“We haven’t found Justin yet,” Rachel protested.“We’ll—uh—we’ll look for him outside,” Mike said.He continued to hurry down the stairs, and Rachel focused on trying to light his way so he didn’t stumble in the dark.Soon they had made it all the way down to the ground floor. And then they were out of the house and running across the porch and down the stairs.Mike threw himself against his car, which was now parked next to Rachel’s, and leaned against it, panting.“What was that all about?” Rachel asked as she joined him. “Why didn’t you want to ask that guy about Justin?”Mike took in several big gulps of air and then seemed to calm down. “I don’t know. The guy just gave me a weird feeling. And he’s a caretaker in a house that doesn’t actually have a caretaker. It just seemed to me that whatever’s going on he must be in on it.”“Oh,” Rachel said. “I thought maybe you thought he was a ghost.”Mike’s eyes widened, and he turned to stare at her.“He wasn’t a ghost, Mike,” Rachel said. “He opened the door. I don’t think ghosts can do that.”“Yeah,” Mike said. “That’s a good point.”“Besides, how do you know the house doesn’t have a caretaker?”“Everybody knows the house is abandoned. The Green family left, and nobody owns that place.”“How do you know someone didn’t quietly buy it?” Rachel asked.Mike shook his head. “There’s no one to buy it from. Anyone who is staying at that house is actually a squatter.”He cast a glance up at the light that still burned in the attic.“Whoever that guy is we definitely can’t trust him.”“That’s not going to help us find Justin,” Rachel said.“I know.” Mike rubbed his hands over his face. “I just—don’t know what to do at the moment.”“What about this spirit portal?” Rachel asked.“What about it?”“Where does it lead? Does it go inside the house? Or somewhere nearby? If we find where the spirit portal is, we’ll have a starting point for where Justin went.”Mike perked up. “Yeah—that’s a good idea.”He smirked a little. “So you’re saying you believe in spirit portals now?”“No,” Rachel said. “But I assume Justin did. For all I know, he just ran like crazy until he got here. But if he thoughthe was arriving at a spirit portal, and that’s a place we can go, then that’s good enough for me.”Mike looked at her for a moment. “Skeptical yet open-minded. Interesting.”Rachel looked back at him, and his gaze left her feeling a little light-headed.She quickly looked back toward the house. “So do you know where the spirit portal is?”Mike looked toward the house also. “I believe it’s in there. One of the earliest investigators uploaded video of their arrival. They were in a big, empty room—so they were definitely inside. But it was night, and the only light came from their equipment.”“You couldn’t tell what room it was?” Rachel asked.“No,” Mike said. “But I don’t think it was in the attic—we were in there long enough, and I didn’t see any sign of it.”“So we’ll have to search the whole house?”“Afraid so.”As they looked up at the house, the light in the attic went out.“And that just made our job a little more difficult,” Mike said.-------------------------------------------Thanks very much for reading! I'll post Part 3 next week.
     You can check out my books here.
     And stop by some time and hi on Facebook. :)

Here is Part 1 of my new Halloween story, The Gray House Ghost...
The Gray House Ghost

By Catherine Mesick
���And so I���m going to go check out the house.���

Rachel looked up from her phone. She hadn���t really been listening to her brother, but he had her attention now.

���You���re going to what?���

���I���m going to check out the house,��� Justin repeated. ���I���ll set up an investigation there over Halloween. I���ll do my first show about it.���

���I don���t think you should go,��� Rachel said.

���Why not?���

Rachel looked at her brother���sixteen years old and he thought he knew everything.

���I think it���s too dangerous,��� Rachel said.

���How could it possibly be dangerous?��� Justin asked. ���I thought you didn���t believe in any of that stuff.���

���I don���t,��� Rachel said. ���But the place is supposed to be haunted, and every weirdo in town will be over there that night. Besides, the building���s really old, and it may not be structurally sound.���

Justin rubbed his chin ruefully. ���You make a good point about the place maybe being mobbed.���

���So you���re not going?���

Justin said nothing and simply looked gloomy.

���I know you want to get your web series started,��� Rachel said. ���But I don���t think that Halloween at the Gray House is the time or the place to do it.���

Justin didn���t reply to that either, and Rachel was pleased with herself for having talked her little brother out of an unwise enterprise.

So when she came home a week or so later on Halloween night to an empty house, she wasn���t unduly worried.

It was seven o���clock. Rachel had gone to school that day and then to the library���it was a Wednesday. Her parents, she knew, were meeting with friends then going to a Halloween party. Her brother had been in the habit of stopping by a friend���s house lately, but he wasn���t usually out any later than six.

Rachel figured Justin and his friend had simply gotten more caught up in their ghost-hunting talk than usual.

She looked for what her mom had left her in the fridge for dinner, and after microwaving some lasagna, she sat down on the couch with her plate and a big bowl of candy to wait for trick-or-treaters.

Soon a steady stream of children in costumes came by the house, and Rachel frowned when she looked up and realized it was eight o���clock. Justin still wasn���t home. Then another half hour went by, followed by another. By nine thirty, Rachel was genuinely worried. She left the bowl of candy outside for the later trick-or-treaters to empty and then hurried up to her brother���s room.

Any half-hearted hope she might have had that Justin had been hiding in his room the whole time was dashed when she opened the door to find a dark room with the curtains still open.

The familiar outline of Justin���s things stood out starkly in the artificial light from the street���it was clear that the room had been empty for some time.

Rachel went to her brother���s desk and switched on the light. The spare white surface of the desk was empty of paper, and the whiteboard that hung on the wall above it was suspiciously free of any of Justin���s usual notes in blue and green. Rachel quickly got out her phone and dialed Justin���s friend Mike.

���Hey, Rachel.��� Mike answered right away. He was a year older than Justin and was actually a senior like Rachel.

���Hey, Mike,��� Rachel said.

���What���s up?���

���I was just wondering if Justin���s still with you?���

���Justin?��� Mike sounded surprised. ���He didn���t come over today. He said he had to go straight home after school���he had some stuff to do.���

���Oh,��� Rachel said.

���Is everything okay?���

���Yeah,��� Rachel said. ���Everything is good. Just thought I���d check. I know where Justin is now. Thanks.���

Rachel shut off the call abruptly.

She did indeed know where Justin was���her stubborn brother had gone over to the Gray House.

Rachel thought briefly of calling her parents to let them know where she was going, but she quickly nixed the idea. She didn���t know what her parents would think about it, and she didn���t want to get her brother in trouble.

Instead, she grabbed her car keys and ran out the door.

The trip over to the Gray House took about twenty minutes, and Rachel wondered if Justin had walked all that way or if someone had driven him over. The house sat on a lonely stretch of road and was surrounded on both sides by fields. There were no other houses or businesses nearby, and the local buses didn���t operate this far outside of town.

Rachel pulled the car up the long, dusty drive that led to the Gray House and parked in front of it. She was relieved to see that there were no other cars around, and she had to admit to herself that she was wrong about the locals flocking there on Halloween night. They had more common sense than she���d given them credit for.

Rachel got out of the car and stood looking up at the house. It had a wide porch in front, and the building itself was a bit ramshackle. The original house had been built in colonial times, and later generations had added on bits and pieces, the largest of which was an entire wing that had been added during the Civil War���it had nearly doubled the size of the house. The Gray House was named not for any of its owners���but rather for the color of the house itself. The house had actually been built by a once-prominent family named Green, and members of the Green family had lived in it until about the 1880s. Rachel remembered vaguely that the family had moved out suddenly without ever selling the property after some sort of tragedy. The house had been left to fall into ruin and disrepair, and its sad, abandoned appearance combined with old rumors about the Green family had conspired to create a belief amongst the locals that the Gray House was haunted.

But haunted or not, the house was undoubtedly old, and Rachel eyed the porch with some wariness.

A light suddenly turned on in the attic, and Rachel sighed. That was probably her brother adjusting his ghost-hunting equipment. She switched on the flashlight she���d taken from the glove compartment and stepped up to the porch.

The span of floorboards between the steps and the door suddenly looked very wide and treacherous.

Rachel started forward gingerly, and she managed to make it all the way to the door without incident. The floorboards didn���t break, and they didn���t even creak.

Rachel reached out for the old-fashioned handle, and she wasn���t surprised when it turned easily, and the door swung open. She knew Justin had gotten inside, and since the house was abandoned, there was really no reason to keep it locked.

Rachel shone her light on the big, empty front room, and she walked slowly and carefully through several more rooms. Though the house was completely devoid of furniture, it wasn���t very dusty, and there weren���t even any cobwebs. The floors and walls were intact, and there were even a few decent-looking chandeliers hanging from the ceiling in a few rooms. It almost looked as if someone had been taking care of the place.

���Maybe they knew how to build them back then,��� Rachel whispered to herself.

She returned to the front room, which had a massive staircase, and after examining it with her flashlight, she decided it looked safe enough to use.

She began to climb it.

Rachel had briefly considered calling out her brother���s name, but she knew she was too far below the attic for him to be able to hear her, and something about the empty, well-preserved house seemed to compel her to silence.

She had just reached the first landing and was about to start on the next set of stairs when she thought she heard the front door open and close below her. Once again, she very nearly called out her brother���s name, but she soon thought better of it���it was probably the locals finally showing up for some Halloween troublemaking.

Rachel turned off the flashlight. Maybe they���d just dare each other to walk around a little and then go.

She continued on her way up the stairs, stepping carefully and quietly in the dark.

But she soon heard heavy footsteps on the staircase below her, and a moment later she saw a flashlight spotting the way ahead.

Rachel flattened herself against the wall and hoped that the intruder wouldn���t see her. But the heavy footsteps came even closer, and soon the flashlight shone full on Rachel���s face.

*You can read Part 2 here.*
-------------------------------------------
Thanks very much for reading!
     You can check out my books here.

     And stop by some time and hi on Facebook. :)

Here is Part 1 of my new Halloween story, The Gray House Ghost...
The Gray House Ghost
By Catherine Mesick
“And so I’m going to go check out the house.”Rachel looked up from her phone. She hadn’t really been listening to her brother, but he had her attention now.“You’re going to what?”“I’m going to check out the house,” Justin repeated. “I’ll set up an investigation there over Halloween. I’ll do my first show about it.”“I don’t think you should go,” Rachel said.“Why not?”Rachel looked at her brother—sixteen years old and he thought he knew everything.“I think it’s too dangerous,” Rachel said.“How could it possibly be dangerous?” Justin asked. “I thought you didn’t believe in any of that stuff.”“I don’t,” Rachel said. “But the place is supposed to be haunted, and every weirdo in town will be over there that night. Besides, the building’s really old, and it may not be structurally sound.”Justin rubbed his chin ruefully. “You make a good point about the place maybe being mobbed.”“So you’re not going?”Justin said nothing and simply looked gloomy.“I know you want to get your web series started,” Rachel said. “But I don’t think that Halloween at the Gray House is the time or the place to do it.”Justin didn’t reply to that either, and Rachel was pleased with herself for having talked her little brother out of an unwise enterprise.So when she came home a week or so later on Halloween night to an empty house, she wasn’t unduly worried.It was seven o’clock. Rachel had gone to school that day and then to the library—it was a Wednesday. Her parents, she knew, were meeting with friends then going to a Halloween party. Her brother had been in the habit of stopping by a friend’s house lately, but he wasn’t usually out any later than six.Rachel figured Justin and his friend had simply gotten more caught up in their ghost-hunting talk than usual.She looked for what her mom had left her in the fridge for dinner, and after microwaving some lasagna, she sat down on the couch with her plate and a big bowl of candy to wait for trick-or-treaters.Soon a steady stream of children in costumes came by the house, and Rachel frowned when she looked up and realized it was eight o’clock. Justin still wasn’t home. Then another half hour went by, followed by another. By nine thirty, Rachel was genuinely worried. She left the bowl of candy outside for the later trick-or-treaters to empty and then hurried up to her brother’s room.Any half-hearted hope she might have had that Justin had been hiding in his room the whole time was dashed when she opened the door to find a dark room with the curtains still open.The familiar outline of Justin’s things stood out starkly in the artificial light from the street—it was clear that the room had been empty for some time.Rachel went to her brother’s desk and switched on the light. The spare white surface of the desk was empty of paper, and the whiteboard that hung on the wall above it was suspiciously free of any of Justin’s usual notes in blue and green. Rachel quickly got out her phone and dialed Justin’s friend Mike.“Hey, Rachel.” Mike answered right away. He was a year older than Justin and was actually a senior like Rachel.“Hey, Mike,” Rachel said.“What’s up?”“I was just wondering if Justin’s still with you?”“Justin?” Mike sounded surprised. “He didn’t come over today. He said he had to go straight home after school—he had some stuff to do.”“Oh,” Rachel said.“Is everything okay?”“Yeah,” Rachel said. “Everything is good. Just thought I’d check. I know where Justin is now. Thanks.”Rachel shut off the call abruptly.She did indeed know where Justin was—her stubborn brother had gone over to the Gray House.Rachel thought briefly of calling her parents to let them know where she was going, but she quickly nixed the idea. She didn’t know what her parents would think about it, and she didn’t want to get her brother in trouble.Instead, she grabbed her car keys and ran out the door.The trip over to the Gray House took about twenty minutes, and Rachel wondered if Justin had walked all that way or if someone had driven him over. The house sat on a lonely stretch of road and was surrounded on both sides by fields. There were no other houses or businesses nearby, and the local buses didn’t operate this far outside of town.Rachel pulled the car up the long, dusty drive that led to the Gray House and parked in front of it. She was relieved to see that there were no other cars around, and she had to admit to herself that she was wrong about the locals flocking there on Halloween night. They had more common sense than she’d given them credit for.Rachel got out of the car and stood looking up at the house. It had a wide porch in front, and the building itself was a bit ramshackle. The original house had been built in colonial times, and later generations had added on bits and pieces, the largest of which was an entire wing that had been added during the Civil War—it had nearly doubled the size of the house. The Gray House was named not for any of its owners—but rather for the color of the house itself. The house had actually been built by a once-prominent family named Green, and members of the Green family had lived in it until about the 1880s. Rachel remembered vaguely that the family had moved out suddenly without ever selling the property after some sort of tragedy. The house had been left to fall into ruin and disrepair, and its sad, abandoned appearance combined with old rumors about the Green family had conspired to create a belief amongst the locals that the Gray House was haunted.But haunted or not, the house was undoubtedly old, and Rachel eyed the porch with some wariness.A light suddenly turned on in the attic, and Rachel sighed. That was probably her brother adjusting his ghost-hunting equipment. She switched on the flashlight she’d taken from the glove compartment and stepped up to the porch.The span of floorboards between the steps and the door suddenly looked very wide and treacherous.Rachel started forward gingerly, and she managed to make it all the way to the door without incident. The floorboards didn’t break, and they didn’t even creak.Rachel reached out for the old-fashioned handle, and she wasn’t surprised when it turned easily, and the door swung open. She knew Justin had gotten inside, and since the house was abandoned, there was really no reason to keep it locked.Rachel shone her light on the big, empty front room, and she walked slowly and carefully through several more rooms. Though the house was completely devoid of furniture, it wasn’t very dusty, and there weren’t even any cobwebs. The floors and walls were intact, and there were even a few decent-looking chandeliers hanging from the ceiling in a few rooms. It almost looked as if someone had been taking care of the place.“Maybe they knew how to build them back then,” Rachel whispered to herself.She returned to the front room, which had a massive staircase, and after examining it with her flashlight, she decided it looked safe enough to use.She began to climb it.Rachel had briefly considered calling out her brother’s name, but she knew she was too far below the attic for him to be able to hear her, and something about the empty, well-preserved house seemed to compel her to silence.She had just reached the first landing and was about to start on the next set of stairs when she thought she heard the front door open and close below her. Once again, she very nearly called out her brother’s name, but she soon thought better of it—it was probably the locals finally showing up for some Halloween troublemaking.Rachel turned off the flashlight. Maybe they’d just dare each other to walk around a little and then go.She continued on her way up the stairs, stepping carefully and quietly in the dark.But she soon heard heavy footsteps on the staircase below her, and a moment later she saw a flashlight spotting the way ahead.Rachel flattened herself against the wall and hoped that the intruder wouldn’t see her. But the heavy footsteps came even closer, and soon the flashlight shone full on Rachel’s face.-------------------------------------------
Thanks very much for reading! I'll post Part 2 next week.
     You can check out my books here.
     And stop by some time and hi on Facebook. :)

Here is Part 4 of The First Storm of Spring. If you haven't read Part 3 yet, you can find it here.And if you're ready to go, Part 4 starts now…The First Storm of SpringBy Catherine MesickGarrett stood for several moments uncertain what to do.He didn’t want to fire up the staff for fear that Subee was nearby and would get hurt.But standing still was agony—as was the fact that he could see and hear very little of what was around him.And then he saw it.Just beyond the haze that surrounded him, Garrett could see a twisting mass up in the air floating toward him. It was vast and dark and shot through with faint hints of sickly green light. At the same time, Garrett could feel a chill creeping around him, wrapping around his body.Subee had said that he wouldn’t be able to see the evil spirits, but he had a feeling that that was exactly what he was looking at.Garrett stood transfixed, watching the dark green mass as it rotated slowly in front of him. The mass was surely too big to fit inside the house, and as Garrett watched it, a disturbance seemed to roil it from within. Smaller masses spun themselves off from the larger one and floated beside it, twisting and writhing on their own.Garrett squinted at the new masses, trying to make out what was going on, and he could see within them flashes of what looked like claws and teeth. After another few moments he could see what looked like long tendrils of hair that fluttered as if supported in a breeze. There were flashes of eyes, too, and Garrett could see that the strange creatures appeared to be bound together by some invisible force at their middles.The evil spirits seemed to be woven together in bundles.The bundles suddenly shot off on their own, leaving the larger mass behind, and Garrett was jolted out of his reverie.He could feel that the air around him had grown significantly colder, and he was startled to see his own breath escaping his lips in little puffs of vapor.Garrett quickly swung his staff around and sent a jet of flame through the fire barrier toward the large, twisting mass before him.The mass reacted instantly, and it rumbled ominously with a tremor that Garrett could feel rather than hear. The air around him suddenly grew warmer, and he swung the staff around his head and brought it down toward the mass again, sending another jet of flame rolling over it.Suddenly, he felt a blast of cold air at his side, and he turned to see one of the spirit bundles floating close to the barrier, reaching its many claws out toward him.Garrett quickly trained his staff on the floating bundle.The entangled spirits recoiled as a jet of flame rolled over them, and out of the corner of his eye, Garrett could see another spirit bundle fast approaching from the other side.He hurried to fend off the new bundle with a fiery blast, and no sooner had he done so than he felt another wave of cold wash over his back.Garrett realized Subee was right: the best way to combat the evil spirits was to walk around the perimeter of the barrier, sending out jets of flame as fast as he could to ward off as many evil spirits as possible.And so Garrett got to work, patrolling the barrier with the great source flame at his back—attacking spirit bundles when he saw them and just barraging the immediate area with fire when he did not.The temperature inside the barrier soon became insufferably hot, and Garrett’s hair and clothes became drenched with sweat.He took that as a sign that things were going well.Soon his whole world became fire and effort, and Garrett lost sight of everything else.But as he worked, he gradually became aware of the central mass still hovering and roiling outside the barrier. Garrett couldn’t always see the mass depending on where he was standing, but every time he did pass it, he noticed that it never seemed to grow any smaller. In fact, it actually seemed to be getting bigger.Garrett began to wonder if something was wrong.He couldn’t see any sign of Subee, and he couldn’t see any sign of the house, or the storm, for that matter. All he could see was the fire he guarded and the masses of spirits that waited to attack.Garrett began to scan the outer darkness for any sign of Subee. But she was invisible to his eyes.Fear soon stole over him, and he lowered his staff. He needed to find out what had happened to her.Garrett hesitated for just a moment, and then he threw himself across the barrier to the outer world.He immediately wished he hadn’t done so.On the other side of the barrier, a storm raged, and Garrett could see nothing but the heavy, driving rain and hear nothing but the howling of the wind. Even the evil spirits had disappeared. And the fire that Garrett had guarded seemed to have been swallowed up by the storm.He felt a flash of panic, and he quickly glanced up at his staff. But Garrett saw to his amazement that the plume of fire at the top still shone and flared brightly, and rather than being quenched by the rain, the flame had actually created a barrier against it—it was the only reason, in fact, that he was able to see anything at all.And as Garrett listened to the fierce raging of the wind, it occurred to him that the flame was protecting him from that, too. Otherwise, the powerful hurricane should have flung him through the air.But Subee was nowhere to be seen, and Garrett had completely lost sight of the central fire. And though he knew he should find it and go back to guarding it, he also knew he couldn’t do that.He would press on until he found Subee.Garrett plunged forward into the storm.At first he saw nothing, and then he stumbled badly as his feet left level ground and ran up against an incline. Garrett remembered that there was a small hill in the lot behind Subee’s house, and that a huge pile of old cypress trees downed in previous storms had been dragged up there to get them out of the way. The resulting pile had made the little hill into something of a town high spot, and Garrett quickly scrambled up the hill and began to climb the heap of old trees.The cypress trees were gnarled and tangled and heavily soaked with rain. Branches and bark came away in Garrett’s hands, and he had to keep shifting the fire staff so as not to drop it. He lost his footing once or twice, too, on the slick trees, but at last he came to stand unsteadily at the top of the pile.Garrett held the staff high over his head, trying to create as much space to see as he could. The fire created an arc around him, completely shielding his face and body, and he looked out into the storm from his perch. But all he could see was a solid wall of gray, driving rain.Garrett turned slowly in a circle, peering intently into the murk, and as he did so, he caught a quick flash of orange—a faint spark—out in the seemingly endless gloom. The spark disappeared as quickly as it had come, but Garrett was sure that he had seen it.He scrambled back down the slick hill of trees and mud and headed straight toward the spot where he had seen the spark.The way ahead was a solid wall of dark gray, but Garrett was sure of his direction.He trudged on through the violent wind and rain, and the spark did not reappear.And then he heard a low roar—it was different from the howling of the wind and somehow profoundly below it—as if it came from a depth that was impossible to plumb.Garrett hurried toward it.After a moment, he passed through a bank of fog, and he was startled to find the ground beneath his feet was now dry. The buffeting from the elements had also died down, and as Garrett looked around, he realized that the great central mass of spirits—the one that had spun off all the others—was looming over his head, slowly rotating and shot through with faint flashes of a sickly greenish light.No wind or rain broke through the mass of spirits, and the mass seemed to have created a bank of fog all around itself like a border—the fog was slowly rotating along with the mass, and it gave every appearance of having been drawn out of the storm by the mass itself.Something squelched under foot, and Garrett looked down to see what looked like a heap of brown seaweed. He looked around and saw more of the brown heaps—they seemed to fall strangely into a line.Garrett followed the line of seaweed heaps, and the trail led him to a tall column of dark cloud that rose all the way up into the mass of spirits—small sparks were shooting out of it.Garrett rushed forward and plunged into the cloud.Inside was a hollow space, and he found Subee standing in the middle of it. She was holding her fire staff in one hand.As Garrett watched, she plunged the staff into the cloud above and then pulled out a section of it, which trailed around the staff like wisps of gray silk. Then with one swift motion, she threw the section of cloud to the ground and quickly captured it under her foot. As soon as she did so, the section of cloud turned into a small bundle of spirits.The bundle’s many claws scratched at her feet, and its many eyes flashed angrily, but Subee calmly brought the fiery end of the staff down on the bundle.As the flames engulfed the little writhing mass, it disintegrated, leaving a heap that looked like brown seaweed.As the spirit bundle collapsed completely, Garrett thought he saw the barest hint of green vapor rise up into the air and dissipate.Subee reached up with her staff and pulled out another section of cloud, and though her face looked calm as she did so, Garrett could see that she was actually trapped herself.A segment of cloud trailed down from the main body above and wound around her arm, effectively holding it in place, frozen by her side.Several more segments trailed down and had hold of her long, red hair, making it difficult for Subee to turn her head, and Garrett saw with horror that a new trail of cloud was descending and snaking rapidly toward her.This one was heading for her neck.Garrett ran forward and turned his fire staff at the segment of cloud, sending out only a thin tendril of flame for fear of burning Subee.Garrett watched, relieved, as the trail of cloud quickly withdrew, and he swiftly turned the bright flame on the other trails of cloud that held Subee’s hair and arm. Soon she was free, and she whirled around to face Garrett.But before she could say anything, the cloud around them seemed to gather itself. Suddenly, two thick trails of cloud shot out. Garrett watched in horror as one of the trails wrapped around Subee and lifted her off the ground.Before he could react, the second trail wrapped around Garrett, and he, too, was lifted off his feet. Moments later, he was flying through the air, and he hit the ground heavily.It seemed to Garrett that he must have lost consciousness, for he was suddenly aware of the fact that he was awake, and he couldn’t figure out exactly where he was.And then he felt the cold, hard ground beneath him, and he saw hazily above him a large rotating mass shot through with green. Garrett tried to sit up, but he found that he couldn’t move.“Subee,” he whispered.As if that one word had summoned her, Subee suddenly appeared in his line of view. Her face was hovering near his, and he could see that she had two metal sticks that were topped with fire.Garrett recalled that he had had a stick like that once, too.“You would have been safe inside the circle,” Subee said. “Why didn’t you stay there?”“I couldn’t see you,” Garrett said. “I had to find out what happened to you.”“Why?”Garrett smiled. “I knew when I first saw you that there was no one else like you.”“There is no one else like me,” Subee said quietly.“I know,” Garrett said. “And that’s the very best thing about you.”Subee stared at Garrett for a long moment, and he found himself staring back into her dark, unreadable eyes.Soon all he could see were those eyes, and it seemed to him that within their depths was all of eternity.Subee drew back abruptly, and she swung one of the fire sticks around in front of her. Then in one swift motion, she pressed the fiery end against his arm. Pain tore through him, and Garrett smelled something that he feared was the scent of his own flesh burning.A moment later, Subee disappeared.Garrett managed to raise his arm, and he stared at the thick black patch of charred skin that Subee had given him with her burning staff.Another wave of pain rolled over him, and he let his arm fall back to the ground.Soon Garrett saw a bright ball of flame hovering in the air, and for just a moment, he thought he saw Subee standing in the middle of it whirling both fire sticks in a circle over her head.Then Subee vanished from sight, and all Garrett could see was wave after wave of fire rolling off that central ball of flame.The waves kept coming, and Garrett could feel their deadly heat. Soon everything around him was fire, and even the great twisting mass of spirits with its eerie green lights disappeared—it seemed to have been completely consumed by the fire that now roared in his ears.The fire kept coming, and soon Garrett’s entire body was engulfed in flame.There was no longer any pain for him—just unbearable heat and heavy pressure on his chest that made it impossible to breathe.The whole world was alight—there was only brightness and heat and suffocation. When Garrett closed his eyes, he knew that he had become flame.
At some point Garrett’s eyes opened. All he could see was darkness. He had a memory of flames, and he moved suddenly, trying to escape them.But his body was pinned firmly down, and Garrett found that he couldn’t move at all. Even his fingers seemed weighed down by an invisible force.Soon he heard shouts—voices of other human beings nearby—and he tried to call out to them. But Garrett found that his voice was as frozen as his body.“There’s a big section of wall over there,” cried a voice. “We should try moving that.”“There’s also a big piece of roof over by his car,” cried another voice. “He could have taken shelter under that.”Garrett chuckled to himself. So that was why he couldn’t move—a house had fallen on him.“Mark my words,” said a third voice. “We’ll never find him. He was swept into the swamp—and the swamp keeps her own.”“Come on,” said the first voice. “Come over here and help me move this.”“You won’t find anything,” said the third voice. “We haven’t found anything yet.”“Just help me move this.”Garrett felt the heavy pressure on him shift just a bit. Then it began to slide sideways. The feeling was more than a little disorienting in the darkness.“I see a foot!” cried one of the voices. “Get this thing moving! I see a foot!”The sliding continued, and soon Garrett felt a pleasantly cool breeze swirling around him. More sliding brought light filtering down to him, and before long, Garrett found himself staring up at a tranquil, blue sky.Remembering the fire, Garrett swiftly put his hands up to his face. But his skin felt healthy and unburned—gone, too, was the pain.“We found him, boys!” said a voice that Garrett now recognized as belonging to Sheriff Walt. “Let’s get that ambulance over here and get him out of there.”Soon Garrett was in an ambulance riding back to the hospital. He had surprised and alarmed everyone by sitting up and climbing out of the depression he’d been wedged into under his own power. All of his rescuers had urged him to be careful and to sit back down, but Garrett had stood with them and chatted amiably until the ambulance had arrived.Then he’d climbed into the ambulance, much to the amazement of the EMIs, and he’d sat down on the stretcher before they’d even had a chance to wheel it out.The sheriff had climbed into the back along with him and had sat down on a small bench that lined one wall.As the ambulance moved off, the sheriff leaned back and ran his hands over his face. Then he leaned forward and set them on his knees.“You were lucky,” Sheriff Walt said.“I know,” Garrett said.“No—you were really lucky,” the sheriff said. “You got wedged in between two sturdy sections of concrete, and over that was laid what I thought was a piece of wall—but it was actually a piece of the big, flat roof from the post office. The concrete kept you from going anywhere, and it was high enough to catch the section of roof and keep it from crushing you. And then the roof prevented anything else from falling on you. You had a perfect little storm cage there.”Sheriff Walt looked at him sharply. “And there’s not a mark on you.”Garrett said nothing. He could still remember how the flames had engulfed him, and he didn’t have any idea how he’d survived that.“What were you doing out there anyway?” Sheriff Walt asked.Garrett glanced up at him in surprise. “You sent me out to find Subee and bring her to a shelter if she hadn’t left.”He felt a sharp pang as he thought of Subee. He remembered now how she had left him.“Subee?” Sheriff Walt said. “Subee who?”“Subee Cantor. She’s the only Subee in town.”“I don’t know any Subee,” the sheriff said.“Of course you do,” Garrett said. “Everybody knows Subee. You know, Snake Lady? But people shouldn’t call her that. It’s really not fair.”Sheriff Walt shook his head. “I know everybody in town, and I don’t know any Subee.”He stood and knocked on the window that overlooked the ambulance’s cab. The window promptly slid open.“Either of you fellas know a Subee Cantor?” the sheriff asked.“Subee?” said the driver.“Yeah,” said the sheriff.The driver shook his head. “No.”He glanced over at his seatmate who replied the same way.“That’s what I thought,” the sheriff said. “Thanks, boys.”The window slid closed again, and the sheriff sat down in his seat.“I see what’s going on now,” Sheriff Walt said, glancing at Garrett, and Garrett thought he could see relief in his boss’s eyes. “You didn’t get out completely unscathed. You’ve suffered some head trauma—possibly had some hallucinations. I’m sure it all seemed very real to you. But I can assure you that there’s nothing to worry about.”Sheriff Walt’s voice had grown kindly and paternal.“You’re good man, Garrett, and I’m not surprised that your hallucinations would take the form of someone you had to rescue.”His eyes darted to Garrett’s arm.“When did you get a tattoo?”Garrett looked down at his arm and then turned it over.On his forearm up by his elbow was a gold leaf—it looked just like the mark that Subee had had on her own arm.Garrett ran his fingers over the mark lightly.“She said it would protect her from the storm,” he said.“What was that?” Sheriff Walt asked.“Subee gave it to me,” Garrett said. “She left her mark on me.”“I see,” Sheriff Walt said, and he smiled as if he were humoring a young child.“I had a feeling about her once,” Garrett said.“You had a feeling about this Subee?” the sheriff asked.“Yes,” Garrett said. “I had a feeling about her, and I turned out to be right.”“And what does that mean?” the sheriff asked.
Garrett smiled. “It means I have a feeling she’ll be back.” -------------------------------------------Thanks very much for reading!
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