GHOST 👻 (A Paranormal Romance)

Night Creatures

When we pull up to the my house, I see Julia's worried face is framed in the window. I assume she has been waiting up for us half the night when she meets us at the door with a rush of questions. "Where's Jerry? Why isn't he back yet?" Looking over our shoulders, she anxiously searches for his jeep in the driveway. When the moonlight illuminates her pale face, I see how wan she looks.

Dylan guides her to the sofa. He helps her to sit before gently breaking the news about what's happened. "Julia, I'm so sorry, Jerry's been in an accident. His jeep went off the road."

"Oh God, is he alright?" My grandmother clutches her chest as if she's in mortal pain. "I had a terrible feeling something happened to him." She takes deep breaths and tries to steady herself.

"Yes, he's at the hospital, but please don't worry. We'll take you up to see him right away." As I try to reassure her, I notice her face is deathly white. For a few minutes, I worry she might be having coronary, but Dylan's right. Julia's tough. Regrouping, she rapidly questions us with some of her old fire.

"Jerry's a good driver. He wouldn't go off the road in normal weather conditions. What really happened to him?"

Dylan looks at me meaningfully. "Lizzy and I thought we saw someone in the back of his jeep, right before the accident happened. A black robed figure."

Spotting my mother's diary in my hand, my grandmother's tone turns accusatory, "Was it someone you saw, or some creature that damned book conjured?"

"Honestly Julia, we don't know at this point." I try to position the grimoire out of her sight, so she can calm down, but her anger's increasingly directed at the spell book.

Venomously, she points at the grimoire. "That book's evil. It's a death magnet to whoever crosses it's path."

"We don't know the book was responsible for the accident, Julia." I try not to let her fear contaminate me. "We have to find out more about it's purpose. Don't worry, I'll put it somewhere out of the way to keep everyone safe." Taking a white table cloth from the linen closet, I carefully wrap it around the diary. I decide to take it upstairs, and replace it back in the attic rafters where I found it. A white cloth we've all said grace over is the closest thing to a blessed item I can think of to encase the book in.

"I'd prefer you to burn it!" I hear Julia shouting from downstairs."

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Later that night, Dylan and I take Julia up to see Jerry at the hospital. Her boyfriend's suffered a concussion, and one of his legs are fractured, but otherwise he's going to be alright. When we arrive back home, it's close to one a.m. Julia's exhausted. She immediately wants to go to sleep. The doctor's prescribed her a sleep aid, but she adamantly declares she won't be taking it. "If something wants to kill me in my sleep, I want a fighting chance." Huffing expletives, she heads off to take a bath before going to bed.

After we're alone, I share my thoughts with Dylan about the grimoire Julia adamantly wanted me to burn. "We can't destroy it, I think the book might be magic...it might hold the key to setting everything straight."

He nods in agreement. "Tomorrow, let's contact the person Madame Regina said could help us decipher the bloody thing."

Giving him a hug, I agree. "That's a good idea, Dylan. Whatever, or whoever tried to kill Jerry, what's to stop them or it from coming after us next?"

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Once Dylan leaves for the night, I'm too restless to sleep. It's a school day tomorrow so I pull out some homework and do a couple of chapters of trigonometry. Close to one a.m., my eyes start to close. Grabbing Julia's crochet throw off the recliner, I decide to sleep on the couch tonight. Around three a.m. a strange noise awakens me. Startled, I sit up on the cream colored sofa. Stilling my breath, I listen to see if I imagined the disturbing sound. The moon's disappeared behind a bank of clouds making the room pitch dark.

Blinking slowly, I look around the darkened living room. As I listen my eyes adjust to the lack of light. Julia likes to decorate in a white color palate using splashes of bright color. With the light decor the room is usually easy to navigate in the dark, but tonight the living room feels weighted with a strange murkiness. I squint holding my hand out in front of me. Although I'm waving my hand close to my face, I can't see anything except my fingertips in the inky blackness. I notice the temperature's dropped. Teeth chattering, I sit shivering in the cold room. Maybe I forgot to adjust the thermostat before I went to sleep.

Suddenly I hear it again.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

It sounds like there's an animal at the front door. One with long, sharp claws. I wish I'd asked Dylan to stay the night. Too late now.

Shakily, I stand up and then cautiously move closer to the front door. Everything's quiet again, but I know there is something outside. I can sense it. Holding my breath, I lean forward to peer out of the curtains. As I look outside, the clouds roll back. I muffle a scream. Silhouetted in the moonlight, a hunched figure, with long dirty hair cascading down it's back, rocks back and forth.

As I watch horrified, it raises it's arm. Once again, I hear it. Scratch, scratch, scratch.

It wants to come in.

Thank you for reading! 👻