>>> I seem to be backed up on the image department this week. I totally rushed this image in twenty minutes… Oh and Happy Halloween! ty, DD<<<<
by David C. Daoust
She was a wisp of a girl. She wore her blonde hair short, above her shoulders. The little pink dress that covered her alabaster skin made her look pretty- made her seem soft. This was ideal, most nights. This night, however, was different.
She pulled a pair of pants from her overstuffed knapsack while kicking the pastel flats from her feet. She inserted one leg, then the next, and slipped them up under the dress, which she then pulled up over her head and cast to the side. She grabbed a dark shirt from the knapsack and pulled it over her head. She slipped on a pair of running shoes over her bare feet, and tied them tight.
Bouncing on the balls of her feet she let her arms swing loosely at her side. She turned her head side to side, listening for the crack in her neck and stretched each arm in turn, pulling them far to the right, then far to the left, and then pulled them straight up above her head as she stood on tip toe; Feeling the stretch through her spine. During all this her eyes watched the sun meet the horizon. She was waiting for sundown.
One thing she had learned in the two years since she had freed herself from the nightmare ‘Ghost Train’, was that her insidious father, the Conductor, was unrelenting in his pursuit of her. Fiend after fiend would seek her, hunt her. Night after night, she was ready.
Life on the other side of the veil was a lot different than she had ever expected, not that she had ever expected anything at all. Slipping through the veil was a complete surprise. No sooner had she realized she could do it- then she had done it.
It was another game to her back then.
A way too piss-off her half-life jailers. They were so weak. Her father had made her to be strong. He claimed he was the only one stronger. Yet the bars between them, when he made such claims, told otherwise.
The night she’d punched through the veil, she ran through the night, playing cat and mouse with his Outriders…game or no, she’d dispatched them before the sun came up.
That was when everything changed- when the sun came up.
Truly she did not even know what it was called back then, this great orb of light which cast the shadow and darkness away… Truly, she had only ever known shadow and darkness… and with the new day, new life- her form changed.
The ghost blue skin, glowing yellow eyes, they all changed. Changed her into a slip of a girl, a tiny little blonde in a pink dress. Okay, she picked out the dress later; it made her look pretty. A costume, maybe, she found it amusing that while all the people she’d met, in her brief time among the living, on this night, were all dressed up as monsters. Yet for her, her costume finally slipped away. As it does every night, as it just slipped away now, as the sun plunged below the horizon.
Her alabaster skin shifted with the loss of light, the haunting blue glow, which was so common beyond the veil, now emanated from her form. She knew her eyes were again emblazoned yellow.
She began at a light a jog, through the empty wood. She had intentionally chosen a place away from the living. The losses she had taken over the years had taught her, all too well, to keep any she may care for, as far away from her as she could. Especially on this night, for this night was Halloween.
The Outriders only came on Halloween.
On this night, they did not have to find her; the Outriders knew exactly where she was. The only thing she could control, was that she was alone when they came for her.
The sound of the engine could be heard first, a rip-roar unlike anything man-made. The sound chilled her to her bones- She knew exactly where the fuel for such contraptions came from. A sense of urgency filled her, her heart raced, she launched into a full tilt run.
The head lights appeared behind her, and she was right back in her fight.
There was that moment when she was right back where it all started, right back in what had once been a game to her, though that was before she’d been introduced to the fragility of human life. Now it was a nightmare.
Once she knew the fiends had a bead on her, mostly thanks to the gunshots that heralded the bullets whizzing past her head, she slipped into the heaviest shadow she could find, and leapt straight up into the limbs above.
The nightmare car came skidding beneath her as she positioned herself above. The cloaked figure of the Outrider within searched frantically, small hand gun at the ready…
She leapt down into the back seat of the old style convertible, and quickly wrapped her arm around the driver’s neck. She ripped off its ridiculous hat, and stripped the heavy long coat from beneath- the evil fiend dissipated.
They were spirits. They were bad ideas. They were just that one thing. They were a fragment of a life, a deed, or rather a misdeed; some random human’s act of evil against, whoever or whatever, it mattered not; the act alone gave the spirit form. That act brought it into reality. Now it was a reckless spirit cast upon the world to wreak havoc upon the innocent.
She took up the spirits discarded gun as she slipped into the driver’s seat. The spirits gaseous form followed both the coat and hat out of the vehicle- unable to rematerialize without them. She watched the shadowy figure reform in her rearview. It was but a silhouette for a moment- before it streaked straight up into the night air. She hated that part.
At least she had wheels now.
Two more automobiles appeared on either side, somewhat behind her. One tried to force her into a tree, crashing into the side of the newly acquired vehicle, as the opposite dropped back, behind her. Twisting in her seat her gunfire rang out; she forced the first to back off long enough for her to steer the car through the narrow opening available to her. The first automobile, however, crashed head on, the form dissipating as its clothing enveloped the steering wheel.
Too many down, too fast, she had to keep this up all night.
The pounding of hooves could be heard in the distance, seemed a might early, but who’s to say really, the Outriders only hunted her this one night out of the year, and this was only her second year of freedom.
The nightmare horses were not as easy to deal with as the automobiles that could be crushed, crashed, and taken apart, if not stolen… these were nightmares, actual ‘Night Mares’ and they were unrelenting… the creatures appeared as shadow, their riders though, appeared as desperadoes. Complete with cowboy hat, handkerchief covering the lower half of where their face should be, and a pair of six shooters they were fully prepared to unload into her.
She veered to the right, and just let the car spin all the way around in a u-turn.
The last automobile, unable to match her quickly enough, spun out and crashed into yet another tree. She witnessed its form streak into the air, and shivered.
The Mares however, were frightfully fast, and the clump of their hooves could be heard all around. The nightmare creatures had a way of blinking forward, rematerializing in different areas, it was hard to be clear on how many there were, exactly, especially while driving at break neck speeds. She fired shots over her shoulder, and fishtailed to try and clip one.
The bullet fire in return however, that shattered the passenger side windshield, and knocked the small hand gun from her hand- made her abandon all thought and spin the wheel in yet another direction.
She came to a road, an empty back road, and bounced up onto it. She welcomed the flattened turf as the previous jouncing and jostling about, through the rough wood, was a bit distracting. Yet she was unclear where it came from. She supposed it may be a trick, a new trick devised by her father… something did not add up.
The form of a house appeared in the distance, not just a house- a mansion. A huge wrought iron gate was there before she even registered that it should not be there -she had scouted the terrain- there was neither a mansion nor any gate here before. And yet the road itself was a mystery.
She was quickly overrun, more and more spirits were chasing her, something told her to make it to the gates, head to the gates and she would be clear… safe.
She barreled through the gates and spun the wheel within her grip; she slammed the breaks, only to find the gun, which had been knocked from her hand, pried under the pedal- she could not stop!
She crashed hard, directly into the wall.
She was dazed, and her stolen vehicle was out of commission. She found herself pinned within the now misshapen automobile. She watched as the horses all stopped at the threshold, they whinnied a nightmare whinny as they paced back and forth. They ignored their riders prodding them forward, onto the grounds.
Finally the spirits abandoned the stubborn Horses and walked through on foot, six-shooters at the ready. Dark forms streaked from the skies above to manifest those spirits that had lost their vehicles in the chase. She could feel their delight at her helplessness.
The edges of her vision were black and the world seemed to swim around her.
She did not know what she was thinking- Why did she think she would be safe within these walls? And yet, even as she thought these thoughts, the movement above the walls answered her.
The stone sculptures about the grounds, above the walls, and upon all the nooks and crannies of the old stone mansion, suddenly sprang to life. The Nightmares retreated fully, abandoning those within as the Gargoyles leapt from their perch.
The Vile Spirits found out, too late, why the mares would not enter these grounds. The stone forms attacked, grabbed them up like rag dolls and forced them down their gullets. The whole thing was mesmerizing to watch.
Suddenly lights came on within the mansion, and the sound of hounds barking could be heard within. The door opened, and a tall, stone faced man came out holding an old style lantern. Behind him a short stout man, with a heavy leather medical bag, hurried from within, Concern apparent on his face…
The sight of the eerie blue girl, pinned within a crashed ghost car, did not seem to phase him at all, nor did he even cast a second glance at the Stone Gargoyles as they suddenly leapt back up to their perches.
Yet behind them, far from the gate, even as she sat dazed, she spotted the mysterious red form, watching her from the distance.
“Well, hello there,” The man greeted as he examined her for injury, “I’m Prof. Goodwin.”
“Fiona, Fiona Hart…” she introduced herself.
“Yes, I know… it’s about time you found your way here,” The old stout man declared once it was clear that she was relatively okay. “Truly, I expected you two years ago!”
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