Chapter 56 #4
My body remained still, shaking in the cold as I waited for what felt like forever, before I dared open my eyes. I listened to my surroundings, hearing only my rapid heartbeat and breathing. Even still, I refused to move or lift my lids until I knew it was truly alone.
“Please be gone,” I whispered to myself, waiting a couple minutes. “Please be gone.” My eyelids slowly raised and I looked around. The room was still freezing cold, but there were no claw-like hands on my skin, no shadows, and no pale-faced woman in sight. I was alone.
What a relief.
My guard remained high, but my body eased a bit as I reached for the blankets and curled back into the bed.
It was hard to fall back asleep, seeing her pale face every time I closed my eyes.
So instead, I gazed through the fogged stained glass window, hoping sleep would come for me.
And as I waited, I noticed the same odd etching along the window from before.
How strange. I wonder what it could be…
I became fixated on understanding what it was as I touched my locket. The curious thoughts overcame me and eventually carried me away and into a light sleep.
That is, until the ghost returned.
Something reached under the blankets and snatched my ankle, startling me awake as my body was fiercely dragged from the bed and dropped onto the floor.
My spine and skull ached from the impact, and as I groaned and looked up, I was met with a menacing sight.
“No,” I breathed. The pale woman was now hovering over me, her hair snaking through the night like tentacles, adding to her bloodied appearance.
She seemed more demonic than ghost; a true embodiment of fear and horror, especially with those eyes… two colors.
No…not two colors.
I peered up at her. Her right eye was hollowed out and pitch black, while the other, her left, was fogged-out white. It was as if something were wrong with it.
The pale woman slowly moved closer and I gasped.
I tried to roll and crawl away, clawing at the wooden floor as I moved, but the woman only dragged me closer.
She flung me roughly onto my back and pinned my arms down with her sinister claw-like fingers.
I couldn’t move or escape. All I could do was gaze up at the ghost. And she was a terrifying image to behold.
I panicked and tried to scream, but as I opened my mouth, the ghost did the same, and I was met with a mouthful of black liquid, spewing profusely from the woman’s widened mouth.
It bubbled and poured into my mouth, trickling down my throat.
I nearly choked on the thick, slimy-like substance that reminded me of nothing but pain and suffering.
My stomach twisted and tightened as I tried to vomit and resist the dark liquid, but the ghost just kept wailing as she flooded me.
Tears rolled from my eyes as the woman’s claws dug deeper into my flesh, her gurgled scream piercing my ears as she continued to drown me in her darkness.
And for a moment, I thought I might die.
Please, anyone…help me. Make this end…please.
And just like before, the gurgling stopped, and the ghost suddenly disappeared with a flicker.
A loud cry and groan ruptured from my throat as I was flung onto my stomach, and vomited.
My body ached as I cried out. The liquid poured from my body and onto the wooden floor with my sobs, filling the room as I tried to process what the fuck just happened.
“Who…who are you?” I cried out with a hoarse voice.
My eyes burned from both vomiting and crying as I crawled onto my hands and knees.
“Fuck!” I lifted my head and looked around through watered eyes.
“Huh? Who are you!” My voice raised as I frantically searched the room and stumbled to my feet.
“Why are you doing this to me?” The ghost remained unseen.
“You can’t stay hidden from me! I’ve seen your face!
” I wiped my mouth and walked over to the bedpost, slipping on the black puddle as I gripped the wood.
“I’ve tasted your darkness and felt your pain!
You can’t hide from me! Show yourself!” I’d encountered ghosts and spirits before, wandering lost souls, and even my fair share of demons, but I’d never encountered something quite like this.
No, this ghost, this pale-faced woman, was something different.
And I was beginning to feel anger towards it.
“I said show yourself!” The ghost continued to defy me and remained hidden. “Coward,” I scoffed.
I waited a few more minutes before stumbling to the bathroom, leaving a trail of black liquid as I moved.
I flicked the light on and made my way to the sink and mirror, horrified by my appearance.
Black smears and smudges covered my entire body and face, staining everything—the sink, the bathroom wall, and me.
I clawed at my skin, horrified by whatever this liquid was.
I tried to wipe it away, but it only smeared.
“No, no, no.” I turned the faucet on and I began to scrub myself clean, frantically trying to remove the strange, ghostly substance.
It was stubborn, almost refusing to leave my flesh as I scrubbed harder and harder, rubbing my skin raw.
“Get off of me!” I didn’t stop until all the ghost’s liquid had been nearly peeled from my skin, leaving the porcelain sink stained.
My head slunk forward and I splashed the water across my face.
“Get a hold of yourself, Lucky.” I splashed myself a second time.
“You need to get some rest.” I listened to the water as it ran down the drain.
It was soothing, washing over my nerves as I breathed in and out.
My fingers played with the heart-shaped locket around my neck, feeling the engraved filigree as distant memories of myself and another began to warm me.
I smiled, the fear of this ghost haunting me fading away as the light of the dreamlike love took its place. “I am safe,” I whispered aloud.
After a few moments of grounding myself, I reached for the faucet handle and twisted it until the water turned off.
As my eyes moved away, the handle twisted on its own, squeaking as the water poured from the faucet again.
I stopped and looked back at the sink. “What—” I quickly turned the water back off and waited.
It didn’t turn on again. “Hmm.” I turned my back, and sure enough, it happened a second time.
“Stop it!” I rushed to the sink and turned the water off, but no matter how much I turned and twisted, the water kept coming.
“Seriously?” I messed with the faucet some more, but no matter what I did, the water continued to pour.
I was now past the point of being fearful of this ghost. And instead, I was annoyed.
My hands rested along my hips as I looked around the bathroom.
“Really? Water? You think that’s scary?” I scoffed. “Running water?”
I knew I shouldn’t taunt the ghost, but I was so tired and drained. And I had lost all patience.
“I don’t have time for this,” I muttered.
Just then, the faucet sputtered, and instead of water, the same black liquid the ghost had regurgitated into my body began to spew from the sink.
I’d be lying if I said seeing it didn’t instantly make me pause and second guess myself. It wasn’t a pleasant sight to see, but I tried to keep telling myself it was only water…or was it.
I glanced around the bathroom with apprehension as the lights flickered.
“Okay,” I whispered. “I’m going to go now.
You can keep doing—” I waved my hand around in the direction of the sink.
“Whatever this is, but I’m going to bed.
” I turned around and approached the bathroom door, but as I tried to walk past, the door slammed shut.
No.
I turned the knob, but it was as if the door had been locked from the outside.
No, no, no.
The lights continued to flicker, and the black liquid began to fill the sink, dripping over the porcelain edge and onto the floor.
I rushed over and frantically tried to turn the water off.
“No…stop! Stop this!” I felt the cold black substance as it began to pool around my bare feet.
“Please, make it stop!” I shouted into the flickering bathroom.
All my ignorant annoyance and taunting had left me standing in a cold puddle of darkness as I remained trapped in the bathroom with this ghost. I should’ve known better than to antagonize it.
“Stop this!”
The ghost remained unseen and unfazed.
I groaned and rushed to the pink guest towels, desperately trying to clean up the black mess along the floor.
The towels soaked the liquid up like a sponge as I continued to use them all along the bathroom floor and sink.
But despite how much I cleaned, more of the ghost’s vomit endlessly poured from the faucet.
I returned to the sink and gripped the edge.
My panic had overcome me and I didn’t know what to do.
A single tear slipped free and hit the overflowing sink as I slowly raised my head and stared back at my own reflection in the mirror.
“Please,” I begged quietly. The lights flickered some more, and I gazed into my own eyes.
“Please.” The apparition of the pale woman suddenly appeared in the distance behind me.
My irises moved to her reflection as we stared down the other.
“Why are you doing this?” She didn’t respond.
“Why?” The woman’s head tilted. “What do you want?” Still no response. “What do you want!” I shouted.
The bathroom lights shut off, leaving the room in absolute darkness. The faucet stopped, and the only sound left in the freezing bathroom was the sound of my staggered breathing. I clutched my locket with my hand, gripping the edge of the sink with the other as I tried to remain still.