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Ghost Story
by Dee Gilbert

Part 1: A Death

As the darkness of night settled in, the bitter wind howled through the village, leaving all who were out frozen. Yet again, another life was about to be lost.

A dark haired, young woman lay on the icy floor, covered in a blanket of snow, knowing her final moments were near. As she struggled to find her breath, she slowly repeated the name “Michelle”. Bright red blood slowly trickled down her pale white face. She reached out for a helping hand, but was unaware whether anyone was there as the thick fog made it difficult to see.

The tiny village of St Cyrus, on the coast of Scotland, had seen several unexpected deaths recently. No-one knew why, but many blamed it on the terrible winter weather, it was the worst they had seen in years.

Silently, she slipped away, in the arms of experienced police officer Darren Phillips. He knew nothing about her, not even her name. It wasn’t the fact that she died that hurt him the most, it was the fact he could do nothing to help her. The distance from which she fell from the bridge was far too great; he knew she wouldn’t make it as soon as he saw her. But that didn’t stop him comforting her.

He tried to keep her as still as possible, while reassuring her that everything was going to be okay, even though he knew it wouldn’t be. With the tiniest bit of hope, he slowly felt for a pulse. He knew she was gone, but he still believed somehow she’d come back. His fears were confirmed when there was no pulse or no sign on life within her body.

The unnamed female stranger lost her battle to survive. Tears, almost frozen to his face, fell from Darren’s eyes. He didn’t know the woman, but he felt her pain and suffering. That’s just the type of person he was.

Darren, the 34 year old police officer had been in the force for 15 years. He was extremely tall and often had to duck to get into rooms. His hair was light brown, and often he spiked it up, just to keep in with the teenage crowds. His eyes matched his personality perfectly. They were bright blue and often as bright as the sky on a summers day. They always seemed open and free, just like him, as he treated everyone to the highest standard and always welcomed anyone new into town. There wasn’t anyone he didn’t know and everyone respected him, they knew that with him that they’d get complete honesty.

For over a year now, Darren had been on his own, as a single parent looking after his son, his pride and joy, seven year old Cameron. The love of his life, his teenage sweetheart Emma, had died in a drink driving incident. Emma’s death, almost completely ruined his life, but he knew he had to stay strong for Cameron. Despite all the hate and anger Emma’s death had caused him, he didn’t blame the drunk driver responsible. He just hated the fact that she’d died.

The rest of the force turned up but Darren still refused to leave her side. “What’s her name Phillips?” the chief sergeant moaned as he pointed towards the now frozen, cold body. “Not sure yet sir, I’ll have a look through her pockets,” he replied while wiping away yet another tear. This was the part of the job Darren hated the most, the part where he found out their age and background.

He slowly moved her broken and bashed arm to the side. She had been dead for quite a while now and her usual colouring had changed. As more tears fell from his eyes, he pulled a sparkly pink purse out of her blood covered coat pocket. Worried about what he might find in the purse, he placed it on the floor and continued to search her pockets. He found what was once a stylish new phone but it was now completely shattered, an old bus pass and 37 pence in change. He could see there was something in her trouser pocket but he was unsure as to whether or not he should take it out.

Although he was upset and filled with anger he knew he had a job to do. He cautiously slipped his hand into her pocket and pulled out a child’s dummy. It was pale blue and it had several tooth marks on it.

He found nothing else in her pockets and returned back to the sparkly pink purse he’d found. He unfastened the clasps and found two pictures inside, one of an old man sitting by the seaside, and another of a tiny Labrador in a river. There was no money in the purse but instead several scrap pieces of paper with nothing written on them.

Behind the two pictures he found a membership card for a library. She could no longer be called “it” or “her”; she was now twenty-three year old Sarah Haynes. Apart from her name and age there wasn’t any other useful information . The card had expired several years ago and the library was all the way down in Dover. Darren was puzzled, he wanted to know why this young lady, Sarah, was in St Cyrus, and why was she so far away from what could be her hometown? And why or if she was alone? He placed the card on the floor as he thought there was something else behind. He was right, there was another piece of paper behind the two pictures.

It was worn and torn and it looked liked it had been through the wash a few times. Although it was hard to read, Darren had great eyes and he managed to make it out. It said:

 Sarah,

What was yours, is now gone!

She is no longer ours, she is mine!

Do not try and get her back!

If you do, I’ll make you sorry!

You can write ONLY!

Do NOT attempt to get her BACK!

 Simon

St Cyrus,

Scotland.

The rest of the house number and the road name wasn’t there, but this was no surprise as the paper was very fragile. So now the stranger, no longer unnamed, had some sort of reason to be in St Cyrus. Whatever it was that was taken from her, she came to get it back. Could her death have had something to do with this Simon? He did say he’d make her sorry if she came to St Cyrus, and she had. As Darren read the letter again, it hit him. The letter and the dummy were connected. Simon, had taken away her daughter and she wanted her back. In an attempt to get her back she’d died, but did Simon have anything do with that? Darren was going to find out.

Without thinking, Darren slipped the piece of paper into his coat pocket. This was an important piece of evidence and Darren had just removed it from the crime scene. Not only did he take the letter, he also picked up the dummy and put it in his pocket.

Darren usually did everything by the book, but this time he hadn’t. It was almost like he was forced into doing it, but no-one else was near him, not anyone he could see anyway. The chief sergeant returned to where Darren was kneeling down and asked him if he had found anything. Darren told him that her name was Sarah Haynes, she was twenty-three and there was no further evidence. He knew this was a total lie and a part of him didn’t understand why he was doing this. He was usually honest but today things were different. Everything he did was wrong, well wrong in the eyes of the law anyway.

The forensic team soon arrived dressed in their white head-to-toe outfits. They seemed to be joking over the fact that someone had died again in the town and one of the younger looking officers even laughed about how long it would be until someone else ended up six feet under. Darren heard every word of the conversation, usually he would remind them of the job they were doing and remind them that the dead body would have relatives somewhere in the world, but not today.

The thick fog started to settle and Darren decided it was time he called it a night. As the town’s police station was only small officers were able to stay in their homes rather than at the station. Everyone in the town knew each other, and the locals could just pop round to the officer’s houses if they had a problem.

Darren slowly walked over to his car, informing his colleges that he was heading home as he wasn’t feeling very well. His workmates were surprised as Darren had never gone home due to being unwell in his 15 years service as an officer.

He sat in the car for a few minutes looking at the rest of his workforce doing their jobs, knowing that he should still be out there. After a few moments he began to think he was letting the team down and he decided to get back out of the car and continue with his job, but he was unable to move. It was as if he was cemented to the chair and that he was surrounded by bricks forcing him to stay where he was.

Darren knew he was alone, well he thought he was. He couldn’t see anyone else or hear anyone else, but it didn’t feel right. The windows steamed up within seconds he hadn’t even started the car up yet.

He started to feel spooked out and began to doubt the fact that he was alone. He looked around the car, confirming what he already knew; no-one else was there. An icy chill slithered down his spine and the hairs on his arms started to stand up.

He pulled out the letter from his pocket and read it repeatedly. He already knew what the letter said and had made sense of it, but for some strange reason he continued reading it. Five minutes past, 10 minutes past and it was slowly approaching thirty minutes and he was still reading the letter.

All of sudden there was a loud knock on the car window. As the windows were still steamed he couldn’t see out, so he didn’t know who or what was there. He quickly put the letter in his pocket and turned on the car radio as if he was listening to it. He rolled down the window to find a college of his standing there with a confused look on his face.

“I thought you were going home Daz. Left us to deal with all the hard work, eh? She was in a bad way mate, oh yeah a terrible mess”, the young officer laughed. Still in his own thoughts it took Darren a while to gather himself back together, “Sorry what did you say?” he replied still in a daze. “Erm, don’t worry about it mate, I think you should go home now, you don’t look to good Daz”, he answered in a very soft tone of voice. “Are you trying to say that I’m not capable of doing my job now?” Darren snapped. “Sorry Darren, I never meant to offend you, I’m really sorry” said the young officer. Darren started the engine and drove off at a dangerous speed.

Part 2: Strange Happenings

When he knew he was out of sight, he slowed down but continued driving. He began to mumble the words of the letter under his breath. He pulled up outside his semi-detached house and started to picture the body of Sarah.

He turned towards the passenger window and written through the steam were the words “help Michelle”. He thought that he was just imagining it so he rubbed his eyes but when looked again, it was still there, except this time it was bigger. He lent over and wiped it of the window. He had now begun to sweat.

He jumped out of the car and ran towards the house. He unlocked the door and ran straight up to the bathroom. He filled the sink with freezing cold water and then stuck his head in there for five to ten seconds at a time, hoping that this had all been a dream. As he started to calm down he wiped his face dry and then threw his towel towards the washing, he missed. He walked over to the towel, picked it up and put it in the basket, yet again he missed. Darren began to get frustrated with himself, he picked the towel up once again and this time he stuffed it at the bottom of the basket to be sure it would stay there, and it did.

He slowly stood up straight and looked in the mirror. As he looked at the mirror he felt that same cold chill run down his spine. He immediately looked down towards his arms and, just like before, his hairs were standing on end. The sweat poured down his pale white face, he looked straight into the mirror, almost as if he was looking straight through it. Within seconds the mirror steamed up, and writing through the steam, said “help Michelle”.

“Who is she? Tell me and I’ll try and help, please just tell me what to do please!” Darren shouted at the mirror. The steam disappeared and with it the words went too. The early morning was now approaching and Darren knew he had to get some sleep, he had to pick Cameron up in the morning and take him to school.

Darren shuffled his way towards his bedroom, shutting the bathroom door behind him. His bedroom was only a few steps away, yet it took him a few minutes to get there as his body was completely drained of energy. He reached his bed, collapsing on it and falling asleep within seconds.

Darren jumped out of bed as his alarm started to ring at 6:30 am. He switched it off quickly, not wanting to hear the horrible noise it made.

But Darren awoke full of energy and bursting to find out what today would bring. As he opened the door his usually tidy bathroom was now a complete mess. The towel was now sitting in the sink, the mirror was on the floor and the washing basket was hanging where the mirror should’ve been. Darren couldn’t understand it; he knew he’d left it tidy before he went to bed.

He glanced down at the mirror and once again it was steamed up, but this time there was no words, just a picture of a dog. He ignored it and returned to his bedroom to get changed. He dressed himself ready for work and got on with his usual morning routine.

It was approaching 7:15 and Darren was supposed to pick Cameron up at 7:30. He knew he didn’t have long, but on his way out he noticed a plant beside the back door that he had intended to plant a few days before. Darren unlocked the back door and stepped up into the garden. Darren looked for a spot to plant the plant. He found a few suitable areas but he kept being drawn back to one certain place. He knew he was running out of time so he quickly got on with the job.

As he started to dig a hole he noticed that the soil wasn’t how it was supposed to be. There was sand. He didn’t understand what was going on, but he continued to dig. The more he dug the more sand he found and the more he dug the larger the hole got. The hole was now a lot bigger than he needed and there was no way you would have been able to plant something in there anyway as there was no soil. Darren glanced down at his watch, it was 7:25. He stopped what he doing, ran into the house, picked up his cars keys and went to pick up Cameron.

Darren drove his usual route, to pick up Cameron but everything was different. The streets that were unusually full of people trying to get to work were empty. When Darren arrived Cameron wasn’t standing outside the house waiting to see his dad. Instead of Cameron waiting for him there was a small black dog, beside the dog was a pile of sand.

Darren didn’t understand what was going on. He tooted the horn and Cameron came running out towards the car holding something in his hand. As he hopped in, Darren noticed that Cameron was holding a dummy. “What do you have that for?” Darren asked his son. Cameron looked at him without speaking. “I asked you a question Cam!” Darren shouted, but Cameron still didn’t answer. The window behind Darren started to steam up and written on it again was “help Michelle”. “Why have you got a dummy Cameron? I’m not going to ask you again!” Darren shouted and the words the steam cleared from the window. Cameron answered his dad “What’s wrong Dad? I just found the dummy on the floor when I took the bins out”. Darren looked relieved and asked Cameron to get rid of the dummy. He opened the window threw the dummy onto the floor. It landed beside the small black dog.

They arrived at the school and just before Cameron jumped out the car he said, “I want to go to the beach to find some shells and stones and I thought we could take one of the dogs from the kennels with us”. Darren didn’t understand why his son had the sudden urge to go to the beach in the middle of winter but he agreed.

As Darren began to drive away he started to sense that he wasn’t alone. For the first time in his life he actually believed in ghosts. He didn’t know why they were around him but he could feel a presence.

The more he drove, the colder he got. He began to shiver and was finding it very difficult to control the vehicle. He eventually came to a complete stop outside a small terraced house. The curtains were all closed and they looked very dirty.

Once again Darren felt that he wasn’t alone. He heard a voice whispering, he couldn’t make out the words but felt the urge to get out of the car and knock on the door.

Part 3: Finding Michelle

He slowly stepped out of the car and approached the door. A blast of wind hit him from behind, throwing him forward and into the front door. It crashed open and Darren was left lying on the floor, dizzy and confused. He scanned the bits of the house he could see, there were no carpets, the radiators were yellow, the floor was icy cold and needles for drug use were scattered around everywhere.

Darren was drifting in and out of consciousness and blood trickled down the left side of his face. Unable to move but able to hear, he heard the loud bark of a dog. A few moments later the noise of barking was soon overtaken by the cry of a child. The screaming, belting, lost, voice of a child.

In his blurred and dazed state he started to piece the events of the last few hours together as best he could. He believed the spirit of Sarah had come to him for help, trying to rescue her daughter from a terrible way of living. He now believed the writing in the steam was down to the ghost of Sarah. He also believed the sand he found in his garden, the dummy Cameron had, the black dog he saw, the empty streets, the old car not being there and the cold shivers he was having were all down to Sarah.

She was sending him a message. The empty streets seemed to resemble the sudden change in life once her daughter was taken and the emptiness she was feeling herself. The black dog and the sand were all Sarah too, reminding him about the pictures he found in her purse. Somehow things did fir together.

Cameron was the most important thing in Darren’s life and Michelle must have been the most important thing in Sarah’s life. Her last desperate cry for help was to find someone who only had the one important person in their life. She knew with Darren that she’d found that person.

It was starting to make some kind of sense to him and he realised he had to act quickly. He struggled to pull himself to his feet, and staggered along the corridor. He fell through the first door he came to. No dog or no child, just a room full of drugs. He continued his battle to stand up and crashed his way into the next room. Once again no dog, and most importantly, no child. A sudden rush of energy burst through his body as he sprinted up the stairs, hoping and praying Michelle was okay.

He crashed and tumbled his way through several other rooms but still no dog and no Michelle, just more drugs and needles. He fell to floor almost as if he had given up. But at the bottom of the stairs a face he could never forget looked up on him. Nothing had changed, the battered and bruised Sarah stood there next to Darren’s only ever love, Emma. The sweet soothing voice he loved to hear spoke to him “Darren you’ve come this far now believe in yourself”. With those final words the fragile ghostly presence disappeared. Darren screamed with heartache “don’t leave me again I need you”.

Now, the bloody figure of Sarah stretched out her arms to reach his attention. “Darren thank you for everything, you have everything you want within Cameron, including Emma, although you can’t see it yet. Believe in yourself and find safety and Michelle, you are truly one of a kind”. Sarah also disappeared after her words with Darren.

Following the shock appearances of Sarah and Emma he realised that he had something he needed to do before he would be able to find peace. He bounced onto his feet and went down the stairs in search of Michelle. As he reached the bottom another gust wind pushed him towards the back door, although this time he managed to keep his footing.

Darren ran out the back door to find that the sea cliffs behind the building were not far from the house. He slowly approached the edge knowing that Michelle could have fallen down. He looked down, trying to keep his footing. The small, black dog was gripping an edge of the cliff further down and was holding Michelle in its teeth by her trousers.

Darren lay on his stomach and stretched over to grab Michelle. He managed to get a slight grip on Michelle’s t-shit but wasn’t sure whether or not he should pull her, in case she slipped out of it. Darren knew he had to act quickly so with one final attempt he grabbed both the dog and Michelle and pulled them to safety.

As he clutched Michelle in his arms shouting and screaming echoed through the house and Darren knew something wasn’t right. Two stumbled into the garden, hurling abuse at Darren. “Give me back my daughter”, one screamed out. Darren looked on and knew that, no matter what, he could not hand Michelle back to him. “You’re drunk and full of drugs. Do you really think I’m going to hand over a child to you. Look at the house you’re bringing her up in” Darren belted back at him.

The second man reached into his pocked and pulled at a gun.

“Put that away now”, Darren stated. Pointing the gun towards Michelle, he laughed. “Give her to us or I’ll shot her, we either get her or nobody does”.

It seemed it would end there and then when the two ghostly figures of Emma and Sarah reappeared. The two drunken men, edged closer and closer to Darren and Michelle. Emma and Sarah seemed to be waving Darren towards them, he moved in their direction. Emma and Sarah gathered in a huge amount of air and blew at the two drunken men. Darren now understood that the sudden burst of winds he felt were Emma and Sarah pointing him in the right direction. The strong gust of wind blew the two men to the floor, knocking them out.

Darren didn’t know when the men would reawaken, so he waved goodbye to the ghostly figures while running through the house towards his car. He was now late for picking up Cameron from school

Just as he turned onto the school road Emma and Sarah appeared once again right in front of the car, forcing him to slam the breaks on. Just as he did a young boy run onto the road. It was Cameron. Everything that had happened that day flashed before his eyes and then he saw the day Cameron was born. Darren felt the pain and loss he would have felt if Cameron had died. He jumped out of the car and ran towards Cameron, picked him up and gave him the biggest hug ever. Just as he did a whiff of Emma’s perfume caught the wind and unaware of all the events that had happened that day Cameron said “Mum would be proud of you dad, you know how I know, because I’m proud of you”. Darren burst into tears and knew that he was lucky to have Cameron and that when he held him everything in the world was alright.