Wendolyn Adelle Jones dreamt of a fire ghost when she was five years old. Her family heard all about the ghost from her delicate little lips and shushed her and told her it was all just a dream. Then when she was fifteen, the fire ghost came to her in a dream once more. When she was finished telling her mother and father her dream, eyebrows were raised.
"I think that you need some help dear. It is not normal to dream of these creatures that destroy our wonderful home and family."
"Your mother is right Wendy dear. We don't want you to think on it any further."
It just so happened that Wendolyn's father had influence in the medical circles, since he was a physician himself. So that very afternoon, Wendolyn was sent to a very well known specialist. At the end of the session, she did feel better, but only because he proclaimed her to be charming, clever, and very healthy mentally except for her strange dream. Obviously her parents expected her to continue to see him. She had other ideas.
The cab driver opened the door and she stepped out and handed him a twenty pound note. He was pleased by the tip, and gave her a nod of approval.
It was then that she heard a scream and looked up into the window of her mother's room. There was smoke coming out of all of the windows. Wendy ran in as fast as her feet could take her, but it was not fast enough to stop a huge crash of stairs from collapsing. Her parents were screaming.
At the top of the stairs stood a being all of fire. He stopped, turned and looked at her. His eyes were a strange color of orange, and his body made of blue fire. He laughed and headed back into her father's study. It was obvious that was where the fire had started. He shouted down to her.
"You won't stop me from my revenge little girl!"
Wendy screamed in frustration as the fire spread further down the stairs, blocking her path to the upstairs entirely now.
She ran back outside and screamed for help. Several of her neighbors ran forward from their houses now. She was encircled with panicked faces. She convinced them to come inside, but several of the men gave up trying to put the fire out. She tried to run up the stairs, but was blocked by a huge man and carried out with her arms pounding on his back.
Ten years later, Adelle Jones had left the name Wendolyn behind her, along with the innocent teenager she had been. In the short ten years since the fire, Adelle Jones had become the foremost expert in her country on ghost hunting. It did not matter how small the job was, or how incredibly tedious. Adelle would come. She had no other life but that of a ghost hunter out for revenge.
Each year, she uncovered clues. On the seventh job this year, she met a ghost that whispered of a leader of ghosts. It did not impress her until the ghost started to fade and at the last minute muttered "the fire ghost".
Several other ghosts she had recorded that year had mentioned the fire ghost. She was getting closer!
One day, a gangly young man tripped into her office, spilling coffee all over a map that she had painstakingly marked with ghost sightings of the type that she hoped would reveal the whereabouts of her mysterious fire ghost.
"Watch where you're going!"
"Sorry. Had to get to you quickly. My name is Jack."
"What can I do for you?"
She picked up her soggy map and sighed.
"I have a job for you if you would not mind leaving right now. "
"I would rather hear about it."
"No. You have got to see the footage I have. No one will believe me."
"Why didn't you just bring the footage with you?"
"Because the fire is still happening. I know where the fire ghost is."
"What? How do you know about that?"
"Ghost Fan Club gossip."
"We'll talk later. I'm ready."
She grabbed her equipment and they headed to her truck, which was already filled with everything they would need to record the ghost phenomenon.
They drove where Jack indicated and Adelle jerked to a stop in front of a still burning house.
"We won't be able to get close enough. This is a nightmare of people standing around gawking!"
"We won't have to get near. My house is across the street."
Adelle followed Jack inside, where Jack played his footage on his camera.
"Can you play it on your television or computer screen?"
"Yeah, just a minute."
He plugged everything up and then sat in front of his computer with her.
She leaned in and gasped. It was the same creature. It seemed to be looking right through the screen at her with those orange eyes!
"I know where it is."
"What? What do you mean?"
"I saw where it went when it left the house."
"Where?"
"I get to be a part of the published story."
"Fine. Just don't get in my way."
"So there is some reason why you are after it."
"It killed my parents."
"Oh. I'm terribly..."
"Stop. Save it. Let's go!"
Jack walked upstairs.
"Why are you going upstairs? We need to be going."
"I believe you were looking for me?"
That was when Jack turned into the fire ghost before her very eyes.
"I'll bet you never expected me to find you, did you Wendolyn?"
She dashed up the stairs, only to see him vanish before her. He appeared a moment later when she started exploring the rooms. She stopped before him.
"Why? Just tell me why?"
"It was part of an experiment Wendolyn. You see, ghosts have different levels of materialization, and we all study very hard to reach the ultimate goal, to be able to reach through to a human mind. That mind was yours. You created the fire, and also, what form I would come in. So the only person to blame Wendolyn, is yourself for the creature you see before you!"
"Oh stop. I am not guilty of anything. Spare me your explanation."
She lunged at him. He vanished again.
"So, you are a coward."
He appeared before her and touched her skin, scorching her wrist. She screamed in pain.
"This is too easy."
"Why are you doing these things?"
"Because I found out your father experimented on my family. Oh Wendolyn. You should see your face right now. Your father was not a saint. His experiments on his patients in jails were not the ones that were published. My mother was one of his experiments. She developed a horrible side effect. Pain, scorching pain. I was born a child affected with a disease that made it impossible for me to ever touch any human being. So when I died I decided that I would visit your family and they would pay the price. It is satisfying to see all of the people involved with your father's experiments suffer."
With that he vanished one last time.
It was the last time that Adelle heard her real name spoken for the next twenty years. In that time, she never forgot the fire ghost. She searched for him, had heard of others that had seen him, but no one would believe her story. She had no way to prove of his existence, or that he was out to avenge his mother's demise.
When Adelle was 60 years old, she was swimming in her pool. The fire ghost came to her then, and started a fire in her home. She watched it, and then remembered what the fire ghost had said about her creating it. She went to the same therapist that she had seen when she was only fifteen years old.
"Dr. Llemond, do you remember our session together all those years ago?"
"Yes, I have even recorded it."
"May I listen?"
"If you'd like."
So they sat down to listen. One part of the conversation startled Adelle. She heard the doctor say "If there is such a fire ghost, then why doesn't he do something to your father now?"
She motioned to him to stop the recording.
"Why did you specify my father?"
"Why not? Your father's experiments were controversial then, and now. He had a lot of enemies."
"Tell me doctor. Was your wife ever in jail?"
"How do you know that?"
Wendolyn stood up.
"Your son Jack. He's the one that did all of this?"
"My son died when you were only a child."
"Yes, I was a child of five doctor, when you created the fire ghost for your revenge!"
THE END
No comments:
Post a Comment