Shadows, page 3
It makes her laugh, agreeing that I am, unfortunately, correct. However, it does nothing to take the weight from the realization that the shadow is in fact stalking her.
***
Days pass, and conversation picks up. We talk every morning before she leaves for work, and at night when she cooks she asks what my favorite foods were. I should be concerned that she spends more time with me than with the living, but I’ve become selfish when it comes to her.
She goes to change her clothes after work, and I give her some privacy, trying not to be a leering pervert ghost. Instead, I wait at the bottom of the stairs.
There’s a smile on her face as she moves to the top of the stairs. I see her foot is centered wrong on the step, but there’s no time to warn her. Gathering up all the energy I can, I fly up the steps and push against her falling form.
It works. So well that I have her pushed against the far wall, my hands pinning her arms, my chest pressed against hers.
I feel her.
Looking down, I find her staring up at me. At me. She is bewildered and… happy. An emotion, a pull, that I haven’t felt since I was alive, comes over me. I want to kiss her.
I lean down, placing my lips against hers. She responds in kind, a small moan escaping her beautiful mouth.
It’s short lived.
Everything fades and her arms fall limply from the wall where my hands lay still.
I step back, screaming in frustration and anger at my state. Tears form in her eyes, and I can’t even wipe them away.
Sliding down the wall I slam my head back against the plaster repeatedly.
Why? Why can’t I be alive? I just want to be with her, touch her, protect her.
In my periphery she moves toward the banging sound of my head and sits next to me.
“Please stop, Ben,” she begs, and I do as she asks. “Thank you for saving me.”
I turn and attempt to place a kiss on the top of her head. She shivers, so I think she feels something.
It was her usual clumsiness that nearly sent her tumbling. As I stare through the doorway, my thoughts change. The glowing eyes peering from the black outside the window in her bedroom make me believe different.
It really is stalking her.
I want to pull her into my arms and protect her from the unknown lurking in the dark. I’m afraid.
Afraid it will hurt her, or take her from me.
Then I realize—I’ve fallen in love with her.
I, a motherfucking ghost, am in love with the very much alive woman occupying the house that I’m haunting.
Could my death get any worse?
Oh, that’s right, and my love is being stalked by a massive black figure with glowing eyes.
We sit side by side, and if I was alive, I would feel the warmth coming from her soft body. Instead, she can’t even see how close we are, and all she feels is cold.
CHAPTER 10
After my epiphany, I’m lost in thought. Holly is still a bit shaken, I can tell, lost in her own head.
I stare at the board in front of me, the colorful letters beaming at me, and I absently move them around.
CAN A GHOST FALL IN LOVE?
I stare at the question that I’m only asking myself, and before I have the chance to move them back around, I hear Holly behind me.
Her brow scrunches, reading the words I hadn’t intended for her to see. “I don’t know. You’re the ghost. You tell me.”
I ponder it for a moment. Had I ever really known love when I was alive, besides the love for my family? Sure, there had been women I liked, but none made me feel the way Holly does.
I know I’m too drained for her to hear me.
I THINK SO
I move to stand in front of her. My fingers glide down her cheek and across her lips. She shivers, and I don’t think it’s all from the cold because her eyes darken slightly. Could it be true? Could a ghost and a living person really form this kind of connection?
“I think I love you too, Ben,” she says softly.
My soundless heart stops.
There are tears in her eyes, and her expression is pained. “Do you think if it kills me that we’ll be able to be together?”
I don’t know what to think or feel by her question. Part of me is elated she loves me and wants to be with me forever, but the other part is horrified she wouldn’t fight it in hopes we would be united physically. That she would let it kill her.
“Don’t look like that,” she begs. “I’m going to die eventually.”
I sigh, knowing she’s right, but not wanting her to die just to be with me. I may be selfish when it comes to her, but not that selfish.
We don’t talk anymore about her death, but I do tell her I love her and she hears it. Tears form in her eyes, and I see the love she has for me shinning in them.
***
A few days pass, and neither of us see the shadow again. I’m amazed at how my feelings for her grow day by day, and I use them to gain the strength to touch her, kiss her. Small at first, but one time I am able to gather enough strength and energy to wrap my arms around her waist and kiss her soundly. It’s almost rough, knowing it won’t last long and wanting as much of her as I can get. Her arms are able to wrap around my shoulders, and she says she can feel me—all of me—as I press into her.
It’s embarrassing to describe to her that my ethereal being reacts to her just as my body would have.
I watch the blush spread on her cheeks, her eyes darken, while her lips part, tongue peeking out to wet them. She is a goddess of lust and desire, and I groan, because I put that look on her face.
That night I am introduced to her battery-operated friend. It’s torturous to watch it touch her in a place I desperately want to: make her cry out, writhe, and, finally, come. All the things I want to be responsible for.
I hate my death so much on these days. If I were alive, I could hold the woman I love. Be able to touch her, kiss her, and make love to her. Instead, I’m stuck looking at what I want, and unable to touch what I want most.
I’m watching her read in bed when I see it out of the corner of my eye: the dark mass that has been missing these past days.
CHAPTER 11
I run to the window, just missing it as it moves away. I follow it from room to room, window to window, until I am in the living room, gazing out the bay window. The darkness is thicker than normal, the streetlights seemingly snuffed out.
I see the shadow then, its glowing orbs in the glass, only not on the other side—their reflection.
A chill runs through me, and my eyes widen as I turn around. The glowing eyes are staring straight into mine, the blackness obstructing my view of anything.
I can feel then that it is much stronger than I am, than I will ever be. I step back, moving toward the stairs, putting myself between it and her.
“What do you want? Why are you here?” I question it, trying to delay, to figure out any way to stop it.
“It’s time,” the dark figure’s low voice says.
“Time? Time for what?”
“Hers is up.”
I freeze, staring at its dark mass. It’s here to take her.
“A reaper?” My voice is barely above a whisper as the realization sets in.
“Time.” It repeats.
“No! Please, don’t take her!”
“It’s time. You will not stall me again,” it growls. Its darkness expands, moving toward me.
“No!” I scream as blackness surrounds me, dark tendrils grab my arms and legs, locking me in place.
“Time,” it repeats. “You cannot stop death.”
It creates a strange noise, scratching nonexistent nails against the glass panes of the windows to draw her out of the bedroom.
“Ben?” she calls out from the top of the stairs.
I want to tell her I made that noise, but I didn’t. She stares down the steps, straight at me, wide eyed. Its glowing eyes float behind her. A dark, skeletal hand reaches out and I’m helpless, forced to bear witness, as he pushes on her back, throwing her already precarious balance off. There is nothing I can do but watch in abject horror as her body tumbles down the stairs.
I hear everything, including the crunch of her neck as it breaks.
She comes to a stop at my feet, her eyes staring blankly out at nothing. Her body is twisted in unnatural angles.
I am about to scream, throw up, cry—I’m not really certain what—when I feel a hand on mine.
The darkness is gone, no longer trapping me, no longer anywhere.
I turn and see Holly standing next to me, her blue eyes shining as she looks up at me, a smile on her face.
Her gaze moves from mine, and I turn to see what has caught her attention.
The brilliant white is blinding, something I definitely wouldn’t have missed before, lighting up the house.
“Huh, all this time and I never knew I was waiting for an angel to guide me,” I say, smiling down at her.
She smiles up at me. “Can I keep you?”
My hand moves to cup her face. “Forever, my love. Forever.”
I lean forward and press my lips to her for our first real kiss. My being lights up as warmth spreads through, and everything comes together. I’m home. Holly is my home, my life, my existence.
My soul mate.
“Come on, let’s go,” she says, squeezing my hand.
We walk toward the light, hand in hand, heading to our forever, together.
Never did I ever think my death would turn out the way it did, but the love I have for Holly is transcendent. Nothing will separate us now. No more magnetic letters, or recorders. Just us. Forever.
The End
About the Author
K.I. Lynn is the USA Today Bestselling Author from The Bend Anthology and the Amazon Bestselling Series, Breach. She spent her life in the arts, everything from music to painting and ceramics, then to writing. Characters have always run around in her head, acting out their stories, but it wasn't until later in life she would put them to pen. It would turn out to be the one thing she was really passionate about.
Since she began posting stories online, she's garnered acclaim for her diverse stories and hard hitting writing style. Two stories and characters are never the same, her brain moving through different ideas faster than she can write them down as it also plots its quest for world domination...or cheese. Whichever is easier to obtain... Usually it's cheese.
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K.I. Lynn, Shadows
