In the evening, do you ever feel a chill in the air, even inside, and wonder - was that a ghost? Amy used to feel that way often. As a child she used to see the entities, they would appear and talk to her, tell her their stories, but as she got older and her brain got busier, it was harder to focus on them, and eventually she stopped seeing them at all. Until the night she brought Jason home.
Jason had been flirting with her heavily for months, and after some arm-twisting she accepted a date with him, which led to them going back to her place. When he was in the bathroom a specter appeared before her, it was an older woman, maybe in her late fifties, early sixties, who warned her desperately to “Get the man out of your house. He’s dangerous!” Amy was in shock as the door to the bathroom opened and Jason reappeared, and the woman looked at her as she evaporated or disappeared or whatever happened.
Amy looked at Jason then, and all the heat and spark that had filled the evening and weeks previous was gone. She saw him plainly for what he was: a sociopathic, opportunistic brute who happened to be cute. She had let the flattery take her away from herself, which was obviously his plan. As he moved toward her, sex in his eyes, she smiled and stood and apologized for having brought him up, but that she was feeling like she had to stop the evening where it was. Jason balked and looked annoyed and disappointed, but she held firm, keeping it light and ushering him to the door with aplomb. “Let’s go out again soon,” she said, “I just have to turn it in now.” She was clear and sure, he could tell, and didn’t fight back, but she was proud for not hesitating.
Once out the door, she cleaned up for bed and as she moved into her bedroom the woman revealed herself in the corner. “He would have killed you. Dead dead dead,” and vanished again into the night.
October 4, 2022