Dust choked your lungs as you closed the front door behind you, the wood protesting as it creaked shut and sealed you into the expansive home with a wash of splinters and rot.

All you had to do was last the night...and all your friends would stop making fun of you. Ghosts weren't real after all! The tales of the Glowing Spector were all just a myth! A legend! A fabrication! Something told by the older kids to scare the younger ones into amusing fright.

You jumped as a drift of wind moved a nearby curtain.

A...and you were certainly no kid anymore. You were grown up! You were going to middle school after summer vacation was over after all!

Still, you could not help but shake the sensation that you were being watched. Though the dark corners of the room had nothing within their shades of umbra, the feeling failed to dissipate.

No, it was nothing!

You shakily gulped.

Maybe walking through the house would help to calm your nerves. Make for a better story for everyone when you eventually got out. Yeah, yeah! that's what you would do.

Lighting a small lighter, you began your journey into the unknown.

Footsteps echoing on the dry wooden floors, you kept your eyes glancing cautiously around as you slowly peered around each corner. The house was truly a marvel to behold! Paintings lined each wall, some holding bucolic scenes while others displayed people of great stature. While most of the furniture had been covered in white sheets, those ones that had been left exposed showed a style about them that reminded you of your grandmother's taste in stiff uncomfortable chairs.

Maybe this wasn't so bad! Nothing was here after all!

But that feeling failed to leave you. If anything, it was growing stronger.

Your heart thumped in your chest as you began to look behind you in fright. Shadows danced at the edges of your vision, each one a terrible beast that faded as soon as you focused on them.

Maybe this was a bad idea...but you couldn't just leave. Not without being called a coward for the rest of the school year!

Unless...

If you brought out a souvenir then maybe everyone would be wowed by your bravery instead!

Spitting out a cobweb that had been strewn between the frames of a door, you brought your lighter up as high as you could to try and see what the room you had just entered held.

What you noticed immediately was a large desk surrounded by shelves and shelves of books. A study? There was not much interesting about the space, the books holding titles that seemed far too complex and most everything else being, for a lack of a better term, too 'grown-up' to really be interesting.

Except... something glinted up on the desk where the moonlight from a nearby window touched.

Casting wary glances left and right like a small child looking to avoid the ire of their parents, you scampered up the groaning chair to get a better look at the shining object.

It was thin and very dirty. Setting the lighter off to the side for a moment, you used your shirt to rub away at the grime that had collected on the otherwise unimpressive stick.

Unimpressive until you saw a yellow metal shining through...

It was a gold pen! Now this was a find! Everyone would surely be jealous of your treasure! You would have to demand respect from them all now!

Giggling in glee, you barely noticed when a white hand brushed past your shoulder...

Yelling in fright you scrambled over the desk and landed with a rough thud onto the other side. There! Behind where you had been was a glowing white figure!

It seemed to fade in and out of your vision as you watched wide-eyed. Blue rings were wrapped around its ears and it watched you with pale yellow and red eyes.

"H...e...I...n...t..chi...ou"

It was mumbling something in a whispering voice that you could only just hear. The words a faint mist upon your mind that only vaguely resembled speech.

Not that you were going to stay and see what it had to say!

Righting yourself with the speed of a panicked rabbit, you dashed off into the depths of the house, gold pen clutched tightly in your hand.

Did you come from this direction? No, what about that one?! You sped down the mansion's empty halls, trying to retrace the footsteps that you had taken previously. Confusion clouded your efforts and you soon found yourself in unfamiliar areas. Paintings that had previously seemed regal stared down at you with contempt while the white-covered furniture leered at you in passing.

Which way was it to the front door!?

Pausing for a breath, your heart hammering in your chest and your lungs gasping for air, you tried to mentally retrace your internal map. Maybe if you doubled back to the last hallway...

A white face pushed itself out of the wall in front of you and you yelled in fright as it reached out!

"He...I'm...n.t...t...ing...u"

The words it spoke were clearer now, much like a pond whose ripples were beginning to fade, but still, you did not wait for it to reach clarity. Not with that awful clawed hand reaching towards you.

Screaming you ran back to where you had come. No choice now, this had to be the way!

Flashes of eerie white crackled at the edges of your eyes as you ran. The ghost was following you. Reaching out for you. Wanting to devour you...

Loops and turns and corners all blurred together as you dodged the persistent specter.

There! There it was!

Bulging from the dim darkness was the front door! Its grimy wood a welcome sight to your tired feet.

Running full-stop, you grabbed at the handle of the door and pulled!

Nothing. It jiggled slightly but refused to budge. Had it become stuck when you closed it?!

You could hear that silent whisper behind you. Banging at the door you screamed for help, dropping the golden pen down onto the floor.

"HELP HELP!" You yelled out, your small lungs only capable of a few yells before your throat tightened up from the persistent choking dust.

Dropping to the floor, you stared up at the faded glowing entity bearing down on you. Its hand still reaching out to you, its chilly fingers just a few inches away.

"He...I'm....n...t...tou...ou"

"Please! I'll give you back the pen just don't hurt me!" you scream out as you thrust your ill-gotten gains forward, blinking back tears.

Ignoring your cries, the ghost's hand drifts past the proffered treasure...and stops just as it reaches your face.

Then it boops your nose.

Like a recording dug up from an old chest, the ghost spoke in a crackling distant voice.

"Hehe, I'm not touching you!"

---

A fun Halloween picture commissioned some time ago, I've always preferred ghosts to zombies, skeletons, or even vampires. There's just a certain grace to the ephemeral and the tragic stories that their white whispers hold. While I personally hope to never see a true ghost, I think they are a fascinating subject and one worth mulling over from time to time.

Just what do you do if you are a traveler of the veil between physicality and oblivion? The mist your shroud and a black curse your voice? Just what do you do when you are left as an empty nothing? A concept doomed to rot in an untouchable expanse?

I guess scaring a mother****er is an option!


Art by  Hashire

Rygone belongs to  Rygone