Ghost Story

A short story I wrote for a flash fiction competition (850 words max.) on my campus. It was one of four finalists chosen for a second round. Based on the prompt "tell me what scares you".

It doesn’t take much. A creaking door here, a flickering light there, and residents are driven out within weeks of moving in. Once more, it’s my apartment. Just like it always was before. Fewer and fewer tenants moved in as the rumor got out that apartment 216 was haunted with a spirit who refused to move on. Everything had to be just right…and then she arrived.

I couldn’t phase her. Move something, and she’d put it back. She read by candlelight when I put out the lights, and fell asleep to music when the floorboards creaked. At first I attributed it to denial. Then, she began to speak to me. Gentle scolding, calling out to the empty room. Stop this, put that back. She was perfectly aware of my presence…and it didn’t bother her in the slightest.

“You don’t scare me, you know,” she’d say playfully. “Tell me, what scares you? Even ghosts must be afraid of something.” She didn’t expect me to answer. I didn’t, even if I could have.

Time passed, and I grew anxious. Restless. Waiting for that night.

There. The first snow of the year.

I watch as she fiddles with the old heating stove, turns it on, and sits down to the evening news. While her back is turned I switch off the stove, ever so subtly. It doesn’t take her long to notice that the apartment isn’t getting any warmer. She gets up, hugging herself, and twists the knob again. I twist it back as she pulls her hand away.

“Are you the one that keeps turning this off? Quit it. It’s freezing in here,” she scolds. She turns the stove on once more, returns to the couch, and soon dozes off, not noticing the gas leak. She won’t take the hint. I have to figure out some other way to tell her…

If I still had lungs I would smell the smoke. If I still had a heart, it would be racing. But I don’t, not anymore, and my sole task now is to make sure hers still beats. Flames erupt from the stove, and soon the curtains are alight. I look down, growing frantic. She’s still asleep. It’s happening again. The same exact way as before. I think of what I can do differently, and wonder if it’s already too late. She coughs faintly in her sleep, but the fumes have become too thick and I know that it isn’t just sleep anymore. The smoke alarm blares, but she doesn’t wake. She’s running out of air. I’m running out of time. Filled with dread, I tug at her sweater, toss anything breakable onto the floor�"shattering a glass, the vase, the lamp beside the couch. Nothing’s working, and I feel myself beginning to fade…no, I decide; this cannot happen again. It ends now.

“Tell me, what scares you? Even ghosts must be afraid of something.” I hear her voice in my head like an echo. The flames have spread to half the apartment by now, and the smoke is thick and black. I couldn’t scare her off. I couldn’t prevent the fire. What else is there? In those last moments, I have a final, desperate idea. I might disappear before I can save her, but I have to try. It’s why I’m here.

I’m afraid of the helplessness that I feel each time I fail. I’m afraid of being repeatedly sent back to witness the same numbered days. I’m afraid of watching myself die, over, and over, and over again.

So I possess my own body.

It isn’t easy, forcing my spirit back into its proper place through sheer willpower. Fading fast, I feel the physical sensation of my body once again. Breathe, I will. Move. The sudden pain causes me to cry out, which amounts to nothing more than a strangled groan coming from my burning lungs. MOVE. I cough and gasp, pushing myself off the couch, landing hard on the floor, and crawling on hands and knees towards the door. The handle is hot. I don’t let go. Force it open. Drag myself out into the hall. I can hear sirens outside, and before I pass out at the top of the staircase I will myself, with every last fading fiber of my being, to stay alive.

At first there’s only darkness, and I wonder if I haven’t broken the cycle after all. That’s what frightens me the most�"that even this effort failed me, and that I’ll be condemned to an eternity of witnessing my own death, only to repeat the same scene like a broken record when my attempts to save myself prove futile. That I’ll never move on from this world. That I was never meant to have another chance.

But then, as I wait, there’s warmth. Life. The sensation of one body and one soul, united again. After all, why would I be here if there wasn’t anything I could do differently?

I awake to bright sunlight through the window and the steady, audible tone of my beating heart. 

Reviews

[Ruth]

The concept is really wonderful.
Only thing is, I didn't really get it. So....the one turning it all off is her? She's the ghost, but her body is also the one moving? How does her body re-animate? Has she been a corpse sitting in the chair the whole time?

Otherwise, wonderful. Love the arc. Keep writing!

[Scrib]

Yes, she is both the ghost and the living person. My concept was a time loop, enabling them to both exist at once, although due to the two-day deadline I didn't have much time to consider the technicalities. Thanks for the review!

[Ali G.]

Amazing! Quite a different take. Really interesting.

[Scrib]

Thank you!

[Christina McFarlane]

With a word count cap of 850, you did a fantastic job. The story finished strong, but I would have liked to see a little more build up at the very beginning...but that would have only been possible if you would have had a larger word count to work with. Overall, I really enjoyed it. Such a creative take on the normal paranormal haunting story line.

[Scrib]

Thank you, I appreciate the review!

[matrixmark]

I like this new take on a ghost story.. clever i have to say. Deinately held my attention right to the end. I even questioned do ghosts fear anything.

What an intriging piece this is....a pleaant and fascinating read.

Kudos to you.

Mark.

[Scrib]

Thanks so much!

[matrixmark]

Your welcome...always good to read pieces which are different.

Mark.

[brownie2109]

This story is fantastic! it's such a different take on the ghost genre and I was drawn in from the beginning. I love the question at the beginning that sets up the story, and how the reader is left hanging onto that question until the end. Keep writing!

[Scrib]

Thank you!