Creak

This is very last minute post, but the writer in me had to take up the challenge. Please enjoy the story below based on this image,



That spring could have been the best of my life. Warm and blue, with blossom smells and green lawns. It was a chance for me to take in the great outdoors and learn about the big world that I heard so much about but had never really seen.

Museums, parks, antique shops, the new town I now called my home had it all. In a former life these places would have held my interest, but not now.

The gate stole all my attention, the old broken buildings behind them calling out their history. Every time I came to it my heart would beat faster and my hands would shake, but I couldn't stay away. I had to know about that place. The secret of it haunted my dreams.

The day the wrinkled man stood on its lawn was the day my life would change. I had never seen anyone on the other side of the gate, and I was too curious to let it go.

"Excuse me, Sir? Do know about this place." I ventured in shaking voice.

The old man kept his back turned and his body ridged. It was clear he hadn't heard my call.

I cleared my throat and worked to make my voice the biggest I could muster. "Sir!"

He slowly turned then, really looking at me for the first time. My whole body reacted to the sight of him. My chest tightened, my hands turned sweaty, and goosebumps crawled over my skin.

He had no eyes, just endless dark pits that sucked you into eternity. His clothes where spattered red and torn. A lump caught in my throat as I forced myself to look at all of him. To confirm what I already feared.

For the first time in my life, I saw a ghost.

_________________________________________________________________

This post was part of the snapshot challenge over at Thumbin' My way.