Beyond the Veil

Chapter 6

I felt a shred of shame in my heart as I watched the detective signal traffic around the home. I could see from here that he was still pale.

I didn’t mean to scare him.

Truthfully I hadn’t, I waved at him, waved, and the giant detective with a gun strapped to his hip bolted for the door like a child who just saw the boogie man. It didn’t help though when the entire lower portion of your body was invisible.

I saw him turn towards the house, his gaze lingering on the window I stood behind. It infuriated me on how he seemed to be able to sense me and yet was scared of me; I wanted to scream in frustration but refrained. There were other cops in the house, and I didn’t need to scare them in the even they were sensitive to me to.

I pressed my forehead against the glass and closed my eyes, wishing I could feel the sensation of the cold glass on my skin. It had been so long since I had felt something other than boredom.

Maybe I should go home and see Mom and Dad…

“Lock it up tight Mike!” My eyes opened, it was him, was he coming back in the house? I looked out the window and saw the spot he had once occupied was now vacant.

There was a loud bang as the front door was shut with a quickly following muted click, the lock. Straining my ears I could hear his partner chuckle, “Something the matter? Did you see that ghost Ryswick saw?”

“Very funny. Lock it up and lets go home for the night, there’s nothing more we can do here.” The detective’s deep baritone faded as he walked away, towards the squad car parked in the lane. There was a loud knock on the front door, the man named Mike’s voice carried through to where I stood at the  window, “Well, ghostie if you’re in there you scared the Cap that’s  plus to you.”

I know that he meant it as a joke, but I had seen the fear in the detectives eyes when he had seen me, guilt clamped around my stomach viciously. To scare people was one thing a good man doing his job was another, door to door salesman not included.

The lights flashed in the squad car as the engine started, should I go with them? To make sure there was no lasting effects of his seeing me?

I had heard of people who were so in tune with the world I walked in a sighting could be devastating for them; it could even sometimes put them into a coma!

The image of him lying on the floor of some foreign home unconscious spurred me to action. Drifting through the window I felt a slight tug on my body as I left the place I had attached myself to. The sudden drop in energy nearly made me turn back, but the engine in the old car purred loud as the gravel crunched beneath the reversing vehicle.

Come on Lacy, it’s only a few more feet. I hurled myself forward into the back of the car just as it pulled out the driveway.

I sat panting in a mixture of pain and exertion in the back seat, the two men oblivious to my presence. I clutched my ribs as the pain swelled, this is why I never moved, I had attached myself to the house for far too long. When a spirit did that, it was like a second skin.

And like a second skin it was just as painful too remove.

The men in the front seat were completely silent as they maneuvered the lamp post lit streets back to the station. The silence was deafening to me and I was exceedingly grateful when we pulled up under a light and let Mike out.

 The detective grinned half-heatedly when his partner waved goodbye and exited the car before driving off.

The stern expression he had worn in the presence of his fellow officer melted into one of extreme exhaustion as the dull lights of inhabited homes flashed by.

He sighed loudly and leaned back into his seat. I would have thought he was a sleep if it wasn’t for the movement of his hands on the steering wheel.

“I wonder if that was real.” He muttered thoughtfully under his breath.

Is he talking about me? I was curious but he didn’t say another word for the rest of the trip home, his home that is.