TOUCHED

TOUCHED Part 6 of 10

Out of habit, I crouched, creating a smaller target as I reached into the small of my back to draw my partner from its 'Inside the Waistband" holster.

I didn't complete my draw stroke because I couldn't locate any threats. I didn't have a target.

Natural or supernatural.

As I stood, leaving my partner in the small of my back, Neil slowly backed into the wall opposite the large mirror and Alex glanced around us for the cause of Neil's scream.

"What the hell're you doing, scaring the hell out of the Corsair and me?" Alex chastised Neil.

Scaring the hell out of you, you mean.

Neil stuttered his answer. "I saw the wraith again. In the mirror."

What?

Alex and I both looked into the mirror, but all we could see were our reflections.

"I don't see anything." Alex commented.

After a few moments, Neil replied. "It's gone now. It just appeared after I set up my camera, floated through me and vanished. It was the wraith!"

"It passed through you!" I asked, alarmed.

"Yeah."

"See, you two." Alex boasted. "The wraith touched Neil and nothing happened to him. He's still alive."

"You're sure?" I asked. "The same wraith we saw in the other room appeared and passed through you?"

"Yes. In the mirror. It passed through me."

"And you only saw it in the mirror?"

"Yes."

"And only you saw it?" Alex asked sarcastically.

"You tell me, Alex? Did you see it?" Neil shot back. "Or were you too busy searching for hidden cameras which obviously aren't there?"

"Why would the wraith appear and disappear again?" I wondered out loud. "And why now? And why always Neil?"

"Because Neil imagined it." Alex answered.

At least now we know the wraith can't hurt us.

"Well, if you ask me, someone is having a good laugh at our..." Alex began and stopped in midsentence.

"Who's that?" Neil whispered.

Glancing down the hall in the direction Neil and Alex stared wide-eyed, I saw the woman approaching.

Oh, crap!

Drawing my weapon, I assumed a firing stance and pointed my firearm toward the woman walking down the hallway toward us.

No. Not walking toward us.

Floating.

In the presence of what I could only describe as a ghost, Neil, Alex and I all spoke at the same time.

"Don't move!" I shouted at the semi-transparent woman.

"It's the ghost of Esmerelda Lee!" Neil shouted in amazement.

"Where'd you get a gun?" Alex asked me, ignoring the floating woman.

Are you serious?

The apparition resembling the picture hanging over the fireplace of the late Esmerelda Lee floated directly toward us. All three of us moved out of the way as the "ghost" floated toward us and past us.

Watching in disbelief, the "ghost" floated away from us and through the closed door at the end of the hallway.

I ran after it.