A Spirit's Touch

Three. Something's not Quite Right

All was motionless and quiet. The glass appeared to be staring at her, the 'My' in My Beautiful Daughter was central with her eyeline and seemed to stand out but Judith could not figure out why.

Judith boiled the kettle ready for a fresh cup of coffee and returned to the living room. She needed to calm herself if she was going to sort herself and the house out.

***

Nothing else really happened that day; well, nothing that Judith had noticed. She spent the entire day unpacking boxes and placing the furniture she did keep into their new permanent homes.

She certainly had not noticed that she had closed the wardrobe door three times that opened when she was not looking.

The only thing she found odd was when her favourite cocktail dress had appeared on the floor near the wardrobe and not in it.

There were cleaning supplies left in the hallway that had been conveniently placed under the stairs. Judith has assumed she done it herself and simply had not remembered.

The day soon drew to an end, Judith was pleased with her unpacking efforts and had almost completely forgotten about the incident in the kitchen.

Her biggest achievement she felt was having a new TV ordered for the front room. She could not wait to get back into her Netflix shows as soon as possible.

She climbed into bed at around ten and switched on the iPad to browse her socials. Her phone data was becoming a worry, the WiFi was not due to be fitted for another two days.

Her eyes felt heavy fairly quickly and she knew sleep would come quick. She did not fight it and put the iPad down just ten minutes after switching it on.

Sleep had taken over just six minutes later. It did not take long to fall into a deep sleep and she would not awaken to any noise...

Or touch...

A coldness filled the room. Unbeknownst to Judith an aura passed over her sleeping body. She pulled the duvet closer to herself for warmth.

An unseen presence pushed down gently on the duvet and it slowly lowered away from Judith. She asserted very little resistance in her slumbering state.

The duvet was pulled down low enough so only her legs were covered. Judith felt the cold and turned on her side to curl up into a ball.

Soft pressure was placed on her forearm. Judith's face squinted but it did not disturb her peace.

The pressure rose up her arm like someone was gently stroking it. After a few moments the pressured touch rose to her shoulder and massaged her neck and back.

Judith let out a soft moan in response to the massage. The pressure lightly pulled on her shoulder, encouraging her to roll onto her back and she did so.

The unseen force began kneading at her shoulder again and down her collar bone over her pyjama top. It stopped moving at her breasts and began to knead harder on the soft tissue.

Two minutes passed in this position and the invisible hands began moving southward again down her stomach and stroking the shape of her slim hips.

When the pressured touches reached her waist it tugged at the hem of her pyjamas and began lifting the top up, exposing her stomach.

Suddenly Judith's consciousness was aware of something happening and she stirred in her sleep.

The prodding continued on her hips and the gentle rubbing on the flatness of her stomach as her top continued to slide slowly upwards.

This did eventually startle Judith, her eyes opened and she was quickly aware of someone touching her skin. She jolted upwards and reached for the lamp.

She frantically searched left and right but saw nobody. "Hello," she said nervously.

No reply, the room was silent. It remained silent until Judith muttered, "Just a dream, just a strange dream."

She fell back to sleep, although a little less easier than before.

***

Word count- 3649