Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

midnight_medusa t1_j80lla3 wrote

"Have a seat," she said, "Do you want any tea?"

"Trying to poison me are you?" Martha snaped, "No, I will be gone soon, once I get the proof I need."

The girl emerged from the kitchen a minute later with a steaming cup of tea.

"Suit yourself," she said lightly, as if defeated. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it's just us girls living here."

"I saw with my own eyes!" Martha said, "All those people arrived but they didn't leave!"

"Do you remember what most of them were wearing when you saw them?" the girl said. "Or any other details about them?"

Martha thought back to the people she had recently seen arriving. They were all smartly dressed, the women wore dresses and then men looked like Mark when he started his first corporate job. Now that she mentioned it, they had been dressed in older fashions. Martha narrowed her eyes.

"What are you saying?" she asked with narrowed eyes. The girl's gaze peeled away from Martha's and fell towards her steaming tea cup.

"I did a bad thing," she nearly whispered, "I-I dabbled with forces I should not have. The other girls haven't been home in weeks because of it and I can't afford this place without their help. But they couldn't live with what I did and I don't blame them."

"Stop talking in riddles," Martha snapped, "You truly take me for the biggest fool around. I know what I saw, I have pictures!" Martha took out her phone and turned the pictures towards the girl whose eyes washed over them briefly. The sides of the girl's mouth lifted slightly.

"My grandma used to tell me how people close to death could see ghosts." the girl gave Martha a pointed look as she took a sip of her tea. "I never believed her of course. But last week I accidently called upon a force that will kill me in a few days. And then the ghosts started to come. They watch me, taunt me, call to me, tell me strange secrets. I promise you Martha, there are only ghosts here."

She let her last words linger and the hair on Martha's arms lifted. She turned the phone towards herself but realized with a cold terror that there were no people in those pictures, just blurry backgrounds captured quickly.

"You mean besides you and me?"

A man walked into the room, the same man with the suitcase. He was almost blurry, or out of focus, or moving too fast for the human eye to catch. He removed his hat and Martha gasped, nearly falling out of her chair which would have been awful for her hip.

"Hello darling," Mark said. "I'm here to take you to the other side."

Martha looked helplessly back at the girl but she was now different. Her eyes were red and her skin pale.

"Like I said," the girl whispered, "There are only ghosts in here."

-End

(Edited to add the "conclusion" to Martha taking pictures)

57

iceariina OP t1_j85ghpi wrote

Wow. This is exceptional. Thank you for sharing your talent with me, and everyone else who read.

4