Ghost Tale
I walk these halls of the universe, weaving in and out of strange and bizarre lands. I have died but I am more alive now than when I was…
Monday Mash-Up Prompt
I walk these halls of the universe, weaving in and out of strange and bizarre lands. I have died but I am more alive now than when I was breathing…
I can’t remember how I died.
I float running through walls. Pain is held at bay, but I still feel an emptiness. A hole inside my heart deepens.
No one knows when I walk among them, no one hears me or feels me except when I want them. I know who I was ‘During’ and regret my worthless life. A criminal, a killer, and a thief, I was. Shame, I wear around my neck.
Traveling through time and space, I appear anywhere at will. Appearing at every moment in time experiencing all times and histories simultaneously, I weave in and out of stories and people’s lives. I wonder at the universe and its vast infinite delicacies. A tapestry hidden from us, stolen from us long ago by an ancient evil plotting our demise. But I was that evil, I was that violent creature destined for a second death and now I wander the world hopeless.
Stopping in a particular place in a lonely room sits a woman crying. It is here, now, that I find my true purpose.
Why? You may ask. Because now I know what I was created for. Not to scare or terrorize as I did in my previous life but to comfort. To instruct, and to encourage must be my role, but I do not know how since I have never done such things ‘During’ my life. The muscles that take long to develop and take much sacrifice to strengthen in my spiritual body never developed. So I stare bleakly at the woman sobbing in the corner.
I approach and make myself visible. “Please… it’s OK,” I whisper.
She stops suddenly and backs away terrified. “Who…Who’s there? Please don’t let it be him.”
“Who? Who is he?” I ask sternly full of compassion.
She sees me, eyes wide as she huddles, covering her eyes in fear and crying uncontrollably, “Please, please, stop it.”
Then I hear a door creak open and footsteps echo through the metal rusty basement walls. I go away in the shadows hiding myself from him.
A miserable, grimy skinny thug comes down.
“Who are you talking to?” I tense and then disappear completely.
“Just myself.” Quietly, she cries.
“Stop crying.”
“Please, Jimmy, just…”
“Don’t you say it. Be quiet. Everything’s gonna be fine,” he snarls with a nasty visage.
“Please, just let me go.”
“What’d I SAY!” Growling, he leaves a tray of food. “Eat.” He then quickly leaves, out of shame.
Again I show myself. “We need to get you out of here.”
She shudders forgetting she saw me earlier, “Who… Oh my God, I’m going crazy.”
“No, No, you’re not. I’m, I’m a… a ghost.”
Confused, she opens her eyes and then sees me, really seeing me for the first time. She reaches out to touch my face but it dissipates like smoke for a second and my form is blurry. Then as I pull away my shadow comes back to its original foggy form again.
“Come on, let’s go,” I urge her.
“I can’t…” She raises up her chained hands. I try to reach out and grab her hand but my form cannot grasp her soft skin.
But I try to concentrate closing my eyes tightly hoping against all hope that I might be able to get her hands free. I see a white light in my mind and suddenly I remove the chains from her wrists as she jumps up wiping her dirty face.
“Oh, my God, what… What’s your name?”
“Can’t remember, but… all I know is, he’s not far. Come on!”
“Can you walk through walls,” she asks wondering.
I smile for the first time in a long, long time.
“I can and more. So much more. Come on, I’ll show ya.”
Monday Mash-Up #33 challenge! Thanks, Jonathon Sawyer for the prompt!
Originally published at https://aaronmichaelthomas.com on October 12, 2023.