Darkwood Falls Paranormal Investigators Book One: The Dead Truth

Chapter Eleven

"The muses are ghosts, and sometimes they come uninvited." - Stephen King, Bag of Bones

     I banged my fists on the door, screaming and crying.  "Help me! Please!"

     Why wasn't anyone coming to help me?  Why wouldn't they unlock the door?

     "Help me!" I screamed again.

     Help didn't come this time.  Nick was not on the other side of the door to come to my rescue.  The door remained locked while I continued to sob, knowing the bloody-neck-lady was coming to get me.  I was afraid to look back, afraid to look down those stairs because I knew I would see her.  I knew she was coming.  Why wouldn't they open the door?  I had been a good girl all day long.  Why wouldn't they help me?

     "Shawn?  Shawn!" I heard a distant voice.

     Someone was shaking me.  It had to be bloody-neck-lady.  She finally got me.  I was only nine years old and I was about to die.

     "Noooo!" I screamed.

     "Shawn!"

     I heard my name again.  My eyes flew open and I instinctively started trying to shove off whomever was shaking me so hard.

     "Stop!  Stop!  You're okay!" the person said.

     It took a moment for my sleepy eyes to focus.

     "Nick?" I gasped.

    His hands were grasping my shoulders, his blue-green eyes looking down at me in concern.  I was shaking violently, but that wasn't his doing anymore.  It was the aftermath being thrown back in that basement with the bloody-neck-lady, even if only in my mind.

     "Where the fuck am I?" I said, clutching my chest and trying to catch my breath.

     "My apartment, remember?  You were having a nightmare.  Was it about that spirit?"

     "The basement door wouldn't open.  I was stuck in there with the ghost.  I couldn't get out," I said,  still breathing hard.

     "The basement?  Don't you mean the closet?" Nick said.

     "Huh?  Oh, yeah.  The closet.  Of course that's what I meant."

     There was no reason to get into all that with him.  Nick didn't need to know about that basement.  No one did.

     He removed his hands from my shoulders.  "Are you okay?"

     "Yeah," I said, taking a few deep breaths.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to fall asleep.  How long was I out?"

     "First of all, there's no reason to apologize.  Second, you've been sleeping for about six hours now."

     "What?!" I said, looking around for a clock nearby.  I didn't see any on the wall, but I realized if Nick had a clock, it would probably be among the left-over food items on the table or the papers and cups in the floor.  I glanced in those areas, but saw no clock among the wreckage, so I gave up the hunt.

     "Why didn't you wake me up?  I'm basically a stranger sleeping on your couch," I said.

     "You're not a stranger.  I knew you needed sleep.  Oh, and Brandon called, by the way," Nick said, holding up his cell phone.  "He wanted to make sure we hadn't murdered each other since he knew you were coming over here."