VANISHED (#1 in the VANISHED series) #NaNoWriMo2019 ✔

t w e n t y - t h r e e ✔

"Yes... I... can..."

The answer chilled Arielle to the core. All the resolve she'd built seconds prior; the chanting in her head, the repeated encouragements, Jade's soothing voice, and Stella's bravery... gone. All that had helped her put one trembling foot in front of the other; vanished. Melted through the floor. Drifted off in the wind.

"I-I... have to go, you... ghost! Let me out!" Her calf muscles, once tight and firm, turned into pudding.

"Let's... talk..."

"Talk?" Arielle scoffed and crossed her arms, sensing the goosebumps already there grow bigger and send more tremors along her skin. "You've been spooking me for days and trying to make me die for my answers, and n-now... you want to talk?"

The familiar yet unwelcome and uncomfortable breeze that guided her there began to manifest before her, at the top of the stairs. It swirled around and around, forming into the outline of a human body; no features, no colors. Only a vague, feminine-like shape to prove its existence.

"Ask... questions..."

"You want me to—" Arielle blinked as she tucked her elbows to her sides. "Questions. Questions?"

I need those mirror shards.

She'd planned to dash downstairs, make a run for it, punch that mirror as many times as needed to break it. Heck, she already had bloody hands and scarred palms, so what would a few more scratches mean? But it appeared more obvious by the minute that this thing—Arielle refused to even think her name, wondering if it brought on some sordid curse—wouldn't let her go easily, and projected to freak the crap out of her first.

Fine. Ask questions, find an alternative to divert her—then run.

"O-okay," she said, setting her fists on her hips but struggling to keep them there with how her arms trembled. "What are you? A ghost? A figment of my imagination? Or a sick joke?" For an instant she imagined a group of rugged forest-dwelling hunters who lived up the way and prided themselves on spooking stranded passersby. Picking them up at the rest-stop, drawing them over with some fancy wind-blowing trick, one of them sneaking into the bushes to mumble instructions.

She'd seen enough crazy crap on TV to think it might be real; but then how would they make the wind take on a human form? That part eluded her.

Stella was sure of what she felt and saw. It was real. Ghosts... are real.

The twisted whisper took a while to come through, as if it mulled over its answer. "Ghost... no joke..." It was louder this time, with a hint of a rasp in its timbre.

Arielle scratched her right wrist, where a squeezing sensation had begun. Not like the cold touches from earlier, but like hands had wrapped around her tight, to pull her elsewhere, yet without the actual tug. "Okay... and you're..." She gulped, reluctant to say the name, but sensing she had to, "Penny, right? You were with us in Charleston... you followed me... why? Why are you doing this? S-scaring me?"

The gust swooshed a little quicker, like a tornado, drawing in dust particles from the banister and the floor. "Know... too... much..." A tree whipping outside in the actual wind banged its branches against the upper window, causing Arielle to gasp. A momentary flicker of moonlight further revealed the glowing human outline of the tornado-ghost.

"Know too much?" Arielle pointed at herself. "Me? What do I know? Nothing, dude. I have no clue what's going on, or if any of this is real, or if I'll make it through the night." She tipped her head back to look at the ceiling. "And I aslo have no clue what I'm doing here! I should be driving home, mourning Stella, still mourning Jade, not... not in here with you, the one I was told to avoid!"