A Ghost Encounter: My Time with Simon "Ghost" Riley

Part Twenty-Nine: After the Nightmare

Where am I? What is this place?

I'm sitting on a couch. I'm trying to feel it but I can't feel anything. My hand slips through the couch.

What?

I look around the room puzzled. I'm in a house and it looks...familiar.

But there's nothing on the walls: no painting, no pictures, no nothing.

The house is disheveled.

The ceiling is short, it almost looks like it's closing in on me.

The floor is flooded with water.

"Hello?" I call out with no answer in return.

I feel anxious. My heart is beating and I can hear it clearly—loudly—like its sound is being echoed throughout the room.

What the hell is going on?

I get up from the couch and step onto the wet floor. The water rises to my ankles.

I start exploring the house and I notice something: no doors except for one down the hall.

Huh, my room was down the hall when I was a kid.

So I start making my way to the door.

It feels like I'm walking in place, it's taking forever for me to get there, but when I do I can hear the sound of crying from inside.

It sounds like a child.

Panicked, I try to open the door but it's locked.

Shit.

So I start kicking the door, trying to break it open, and eventually I do.

There's a little girl. She's crying, sitting on the floor, curled up in a ball in the corner of the room.

Poor thing.

I walk over to her and place a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, sweetheart. Are you okay?" I ask.

She takes a moment but then she looks up at me with a tear-stained face.

Huh? I-it...it's me.

And she points behind me.

A strong sense of doom and fear wash over me as I slowly turned my head to see a tall looming man. It's my stepfather.

He starts morphing into a creature—something unknown, something sinister.

I cover little me to protect her and stand in a fighting position, but my body feels weak. It's almost like my body is made of jelly.

He's turned into a huge monster now and I don't think I can take him on.

Just as he's about to attack I wake up.

I scream out and sit straight up in bed.

I'm hyperventilating, I can barely breathe, and tears are streaming.

Ghost wakes up and rushes to me.

"Hey. Hey." He gets on the bed and places his hands on my shoulders. "What's going on?"

I don't answer. I can't answer. I'm too busy gasping for air.

Ghost places a hand on my cheek and wipes my tears.

"You're alright. Everything's alright." He tries to soothe me.

I'm trying to calm down but everything feels too much.

"I-I..." My breath hitches. "I- he was there...and then-" I can't contain my tears.

"Shh. Shh. It's alright." Ghost grabs me, pulls me into his body, and cradles me in his lap, holding me in a warm embrace.