It was Halloween night, and for the first time in as long as she could remember, Chloe had no plans. She'd just moved to Carmarthen, and she didn't know a single soul here. So, with nothing better to do, she decided to take a stroll around her new town.
She wandered aimlessly, taking in the sights, getting to know the place. After about half an hour of walking, she found herself downtown. She thought about going to see the castle. After all, what better time to visit a castle than on Halloween? A place like that was bound to have a good ghost story or two. She took out her phone and pulled up a map. Apparently, she was only about twenty minutes away.
Unfortunately, her map proved to be less than helpful. She found herself standing on the exact spot where the castle was supposed to be. It was the middle of a small town square, in front of a church. No castle in sight. Now, churches were fine, but it wasn't exactly what she was looking for tonight.
She turned down a few narrow, winding streets, trying to figure out where she'd gone wrong. After four or five of those, she was hopelessly lost. Even her map didn't seem to know what was going on. When she checked it, it insisted she was standing in the middle of an open field, which clearly wasn't true.
"Useless." she mumbled, shoving the phone back into her pocket.
Still, it wasn't a complete waste. She'd manage to end up right in front of an old bookstore that had been squished between two other buildings, almost as if it were an afterthought. Maybe she'd check it out. She could do with a nice, scary book on a night like tonight. Besides, Chloe never could resist a bookstore.
She stepped inside. The place wasn't exactly crawling with life. From what she could see, there was an old man, a woman with two young kids, and her. Not that it bothered Chloe. As far as she was concerned, it only meant that she wouldn't have to wait more than a few minutes to purchase anything. Chloe looked around the room vaguely, wondering where she should start her search for a nice, scary story.
There were rows and rows of books piled up on shelves that towered over her head. The shop seemed to stretch out in impossibly long rows, and in the back, she was almost positive there was a spiral staircase. Funny, the place hadn't seemed that big from the outside.
Chloe walked down the aisles, fingers lightly touching the book spines as she went. She wondered what was upstairs; she hadn't noticed a second floor when she was standing in the square. When she got to the end of the row, she looked up the stairs, trying to see what was there. It looked reasonably well-lit, but she still couldn't shake her strange sense of foreboding.
"Do it." she heard someone say from behind her. It sounded like a child.
Chloe turned around. The two kids she'd seen running around earlier were now sitting next to the cashier's desk, staring at their reflections in the mirrored side. One was about ten or eleven and the other no more than eight. Clearly, they'd gotten tired of their mother's shopping and were finding new ways to entertain themselves. Chloe watched them a minute, wondering what they were up to.
"Say it." the older one said, nudging his little brother.
"No, you do it." the younger one insisted.
"What are you? Chicken?"
"No!" the younger one pouted.
"Fine. We'll do it together."
The two stared at each other for a minute, as if trying to see who would back out first.
"...Fine." the smaller one finally agreed, arms crossed over his chest. But he didn't sound happy about whatever they were planning. Chloe found herself leaning against a nearby column, watching.
Slowly, the two turned to the desk's mirrored side. Then, in unison, they began to chant.
"Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary."
The two stopped chanting and held their breaths, watching the mirror intently.
Nothing happened.
"See! Told you!" the younger one said, as if he'd known it all along. "You have to do it in the bathroom. With the lights off."
"You wouldn't do it in the bathroom." his brother said dismissively.
"Would so!"
"Then prove it."
The two scampered off, and Chloe turned back to the books next to her. She wasn't looking for anything in particular, just browsing. But she found herself mysteriously drawn to those stairs yet again.
She walked up the first two or three steps before stopping. There wasn't a sign saying employees only, so why did she feel like maybe she shouldn't be going up here? She decided to wait a minute or two, to see if anyone would stop her.
No one did. So, she started slowly ascending the stairs, waiting for some employee to call out any minute that she shouldn't be going up there. But she made it to the top of the stairs without so much as a word from anyone.
If she thought the ground floor looked deserted, it was nothing compared to this. The whole room seemed impossibly big and was shrouded in an oppressive silence. The lights hanging from the ceiling didn't quite cast enough light to reach the floor, and she could practically taste the dust in the air. And was it just her, or was it colder up here? A chill went down Chloe's spine.
Still, she pressed on. She was too old to be afraid of the dark, and besides, hadn't she wanted some kind of spooky story? True, she'd wanted it more in paper format, but why not live a little? After all, it wasn't like anything bad ever happened in a bookstore.
She scanned the titles where she was. Unlike downstairs, where the books had been new and mass-produced, here they were much older and looked hand-bound. She'd never heard of any of these titles, but considering their age, that wasn't exactly surprising. She shoved her hands into her pockets – a habit she'd picked up when she was younger and would go shopping with her mum. Keep your hands to yourself, she'd always say, worried that Chloe would break something. Now, Chloe had a tendency to do it on her own whenever she was worried about the cost of something around her.
She wandered down the hall, further away from the staircase, just looking at the sheer number of antique tomes.
She was a little more than halfway down the aisle when a particular book caught her eye. It was bound in crimson leather with gold lettering pressed into it. She didn't recognize the title. Was that even English? Curious, she slowly took her hands from her pockets and pulled it from the shelf.
As soon as the book was in her hand, the lights went out. The room was shrouded in darkness. Her first thought was that she knew she should have kept her hands in her pockets. Her second thought was that it was now too dark to see where the staircase was.
"Hello?" she called out.
Silence.
"Hello?" she tried again. The hairs on the back of her neck were starting to rise, and she wondered if it was such a good idea to call out when she had no idea who could be there.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something move. She whipped around to face it, heart racing. There, at the end of the hallway, was what looked like a silhouette. She was almost positive no one had been there before.
"H... hello?" Chloe called out. She tried to sound brave, but she could hear her voice quavering. "Do... do you know what happened to the lights?"
Nervously, she started walking towards the figure. As she got closer, she could see that whoever it was seemed incredibly pale, with a thin face and deep, dark pockets where their eyes should have been. She didn't know who this was, but being with someone had to be better than standing alone in the dark. Right?
Whoever it was didn't answer. They just stared straight ahead – right at her. They stood concerningly still, and Chloe found herself slowing down until she was barely moving at all down the narrow aisle.
She was about two meters away when she finally realized that what she'd been staring at wasn't a person at all – it was her reflection off the glass in the window. Really, the orange Halloween shirt that the ghost was wearing should have been a hint.
"Oh, my god." she breathed, feeling foolish. She made her way down the rest of the aisle and placed her hand on the window pane. The reflection followed suit, just like any normal reflection would.
Chloe couldn't believe she was letting this night get to her like this. Sure, it was Halloween, and yeah, this place was kind of creepy. But so what? That didn't mean that monsters were suddenly running about, or ghosts were hiding in the shadows. It was just like any other night – there was nothing supernatural here. And she was an adult now; adults didn't get scared of these kinds of things.
She looked out the window, noticing that the whole street seemed to be shrouded in darkness. There must have been a city-wide power outage. And the fact that there were no lights outside was probably the reason her reflection had shown up as well as it had. See? There was a rational explanation for everything.
A movement in the window caught her attention. At first, she thought it was something outside. It took her a minute to realize it was a reflection of something moving behind her. Someone was in here with her after all.
There was a kind of creaking, moaning sound from somewhere down the aisle. Chloe froze. She tried to tell herself it was just her imagination, but she could swear the noise was getting closer.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She didn't want to look, but she had to know. Slowly, she turned around, dreading what she'd see. And when she did, she let out a scream.
Standing only a few meters away was a ghastly white figure with drooping dark hair and a crimson dress. Blood ran down her face, though Chloe couldn't tell if it was the ghost's or someone else's. She leered, showing long, sharp teeth. Her pointed nails dripped something onto the floor as she shambled closer.
Chloe took a step back. The specter took a step forward. Chloe backed up again, bumping into the window. The spirit continued its slow, shambling walk forward. Step by step.
Chloe couldn't move – she couldn't think. She was trapped, books all around her, window behind. Unless she was prepared to jump, there was no way out.
Still, Chloe turned to the window, desperately looking for a way to open it. She was only one floor above the ground – she might be fine. Or better yet, she could call someone outside for help.
She ran her fingers along the window, but she couldn't find a latch. And the groaning from behind her just kept getting louder and louder. Chloe looked in the window and saw the ghost's reflection just over her shoulder. Chloe turned around to face it. She would have rather done anything else, but there was no way she was going to let something like that creep up on her.
The spirit kept inching ever closer, raising its hand as it did. Chloe pressed her back into the window raising her hands above her face as she tried to prepare for the worst.
Then, without warning, the ghost lunged towards Chloe with a screech. The last thing Chloe saw were the knifelike nails raking across her face.
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