Blink

"So I will ask you to do one thing for me Child."  Her voice was weak and dry; as if she'd swallowed a desert. She was almost gone and it was crushing me. 

"Stay or go, but please stop living in between. My heart is breaking." I selfishly thought.  I nodded though her eyes were closed; she couldn't see but my voice had been lost to sorrow.  There were no words for me to use.  I felt the cool dryness of her hand in mine.  Her skin so old and too smooth ~ already dead.  My chest hitched and the pain was almost too great to bear. I choked on the sob wanting to be strong for her; show her I wasn't afraid of her death.  I needed her know it was okay to go.  Her thumb soothed me as it slowly drew along my hand, then she gently squeezed.

"Do something for me." the whisper came again.

"Yes. Of course, Nina, anything for you." The tears spilled freely as I trembled.

"Don't blink.  When he comes to you at last, and he will. Don't blink. I want you to be safe."

"Who Nina? Who will come?" 

"He will find you after I'm gone and if you blink ~ and really see him,  it will be over. You will lose.  Just like me."  Her words came in tiny gasps almost hisses.  A cough rumbled through her chest and nearly folded her half.  I jumped to help her, ease her pain.

"Nina I don't understand. Who? "  Though in the back of my mind I had already dismissed the request.  The Hospice people warned us no I guess it's better to say they "coached" us about her death.  She would talk to people long gone.  She would itch and pull at clothes as if they were strangling her... This was her departure.  My beautiful Nina who laughed with me, told me jokes, snuck snacks to me when I'd been sent to bed without dinner, made me smoke an entire pack of cigarettes one after the other when she caught me "being cool"... she had been reduced...

"Don't " It came as close to a shout as her frail body would allow.

"Alright Neen.  I won't. I won't" I felt her slow, relax.  her body tried to sigh.  A thin smile crossed her lips.

"Good girl.  Promise me." she sounded softer now, less agitated.

"I promise Nina.  I promise not to blink."

"You're a damn liar." and she wheeze-laughed.

I kissed her head; breathed in her soapy smell and gulped it all in.  "I won't Neen. I won't I won't I won't." and I rested my lips on her forehead.  My tears fell again.  I just wanted at that moment to gather her up and run.  Run until she was healthy again.  Run away until the sickness was gone.  We could hide and get better and she could live forever.  

"We can't run Child."  came her words.  She always could get in my head.  "I lost.  It's time."

"Not yet Nina. Please don't go.Just a little while longer?"

"We only get to borrow hearts on borrowed time." she scooched down under the covers as if she was cold.  "But I'll leave you my heart.  Keep it for me."

"Oh Neeeeen." I felt the edges breaking away like a damaged glacier.  Her breaths were short, shallow, and spaced way too far apart. I closed my eyes and tried to brace myself.  Her hand relaxed. She was gone.  I buried my head in the blankets and let all the agony I'd hid while caring for her, watching her slip away and diminish spill out in sobbing gushes amongst her bedclothes.  I glanced up; eyes swollen and bleary, wanting to see what peace looked like.  I felt my mouth twist in disbelief and shock.

Her eyes were wide open.

I stood on wobbly legs and backed out of the room to call the nurse.  I needed to tell someone that she was gone.  I wanted someone to close her eyes.

That is all I really remember about my grandmother's passing.  The funeral was a blur filled with half-hearted thank you's, too many hugs, and insincere promises to get together soon.  I couldn't wait for it to be over.

After about two months, I had begun to wean myself off the sleeping pills and was trying to stand on my own again without my Nina.  I was lonely and angry at the hole she'd left behind.

Then He came; as she said he would.

Subtly at first because he needed me to be unassuming.  Certain that Nina had warned me, he waited until I was strong enough to dismiss and weak enough to fear.  Bumps in the night were ignored.  Moving or hidden objects were waved off.  In fact, I was even foolish enough to think Nina was playing tricks on me and letting me know she was watching over me.  The nightmares... they got my attention:  always violent with soul chilling laughter as backdrop music.  I was in car crashes. I was chased, murdered in countless ways.  I was burned alive, skinned.  I was tortured with devices unimaginable except in Hell.  I made more therapist appointments and gobbled pills.  I drank to numbness.  I became poor at my job and wept alone.  I cursed Nina.  And that was what he was waiting for.

His torture began with the opening of doors; all of them.  It came to be that I simply stopped shutting them ~ even my front door was known to be smilin wide at the world for days after one of his stop-bys.
The cold spots were not something I feared.  Paranormal activity was a passion for me regardless, so I simply dove in and swam half way to meet him; my doom.  The EVPs were benign to start.  They were misleading of course, causing me to sympathize and let my guard down.  I thought he was the lost soul of a young girl who lived in our old neighborhood years ago that was presumed to have drowned in the creek running next to our home.  The circumstances were suspicious, her body never found and a local man named Howard Bettingsworth was questioned but nothing was written after that.  The trail seemed to go cold after the church services performed by my Nina's own (much younger then) pastor. I researched it all ~ very well, even recalling the stories Nina had told me when I was little.  The girl's name was Margaret and she was never found. I even addressed the spirit as such.  He played along for a while; sometimes feigning sadness keeping me awake for hours with cries in the night.  Sometimes showing himself as a small delicate mist or a darting shadow.  I took bite after bite and swallowed his bait.

"Margaret" began to fine tune her show.  She only came to me at night; opening my closet door, looming as a shadow and whispering just beyond my hearing.  It bothered me but again in my naivety, I never sought the help I needed.  One night, my closet banged open and I felt a freezing rush as if someone had run toward me, stopped short and hung above my bed.  I sat bolt upright and peered into the darkness.  My room smelled of decaying meat and feces.  I gagged, leaped from my bed and dashed down the hall. My stomach churned and burned as sickness overwhelmed me.  then came the laughter I'd heard in my dreams.  It ambled through my skull and shook me to the core.  Spiked icy fingers clutched my head and forced me down into the toilet water.  I scrambled for breath and the handle to flush.  The water receded and I was able to gulp a few quick sprigs of air. At last I was released and slumped to the side of the bowl clinging to the shower curtain and wiping my face.  A heaviness shifted behind me.  The stench trailed in and wrapped around my body sending it back into heaves.  My spine quivered and my muscles went weak feeling something huge looming.  I turned to see him and blinked; bringing him fully into focus from the darkness.  

Its skin hung from its bones like carelessly shucked corn.  Countless bugs and worms seethed and pushed under blistered pockets of  flesh, causing wafts of stink to belch at me.  What could have been called arms were too long capped with almost dainty claws.  His chest was sunken and broken open. There were no organs per se but something in there was shifting anxiously.  Its face...caused me to scream and pass out.  I cannot remember. And you do not need to know.

When I came to, I was in my bed drenched in sweat. The sheets were made perfectly almost too tight but the bed had been ripped to shreds.  I was sunken down inside it, surrounded and drowning in memory foam.
After that it escalated.  I was constantly haunted by his laughter and watched helplessly as he infected my life and health.  I slept little, at rarely and despite visits to the doctors, treatments galore, I was dying; rotting from the inside out as if I had been buried alive. I sought help from God in our church and was rewarded but I knew it was too late.

"And so I will ask one thing of you Child." I heard the words and felt sawdust fill my throat.

The lovely young girl sat next to me as I had done long ago for Nina. 

"Yes Miss Carol." Her voice was soft and sad.  We had grown close; this neighbor girl and I.  Before I lost my battle, I wanted to warn her. maybe this time the words would be heard. Her hand held mine; soft and warm.

"When he comes to you.  Shows himself and he will... don't blink. Now I know you think I'm crazy.  But you will need your faith to beat him.  He was an evil evil man and he is only worse now."

"Who?" she shook her head.  I knew she couldn't believe I would tell her a ghost story NOW.... of all times.  but I had to; and I had to hurry.  I smelled him coming.  I heard him laughing.  

"Don't blink. Don't try to see. Just remember the story I told you that day in your garden."

"About Margaret?"

My heart soared.  She remembered.  Kids were so smart these days.  "YES" I coughed and almost threw myself from the bed.  Damn this weakness.  Curse that murderer.

"Miss Carol... this ghost of yours."

"Not of mine.  Don't patronize Child." I frumped and pulled away.

"No no no Miss Carol.  This ghost.  Do you know who it is?"

"Of course I do!" I hissed. This sent me to coughing and spitting up all sorts of unmentionables.  He laughed and hovered in the hall.  It was almost over.  I was so tired of fighting.

"Who is it?" her tone changed; sounded more soothing.  I relaxed but pulled her to me to whisper his awful name.

"Are you sure?" The deed was done.  He could not stop her now.  She had the knowledge to beat him and survive.

"When I was well, I went to a place he showed me in my dreams.  A place he tortured me when I slept.  I found Margaret's body."

"Did you tell anyone?"  

"I'm telling you. Now."

"Miss Carol.  Where? Where was Margaret."

"Think child.  Of what I've told you."

I felt the rush of cold and smelled something horrible.  he stood in the doorway seething with fury.  I sucked in my last breath and felt his ghastly claws invade my body; steal my life.  I welcomed it.  And I looked him in the face, even widened my eyes a bit so he knew I could see him for what he was; in life and in death; a monster.

I heard the young girl crying and felt her rest her head on my arm as I slipped away.  I whispered thank you in her ear but she didn't hear me.  I watched him turn to her and leer.  Hungry already for a next victim.  But she was stronger and smarter than I ever was.  She got up and looked around. He circled her.  I saw her wince and cover her nose.  Then she wrote his name.  She got on her smart phone and looked up the little chapel where Nina's pastor had tortured little girls all his life.  Nina had found the burial site after he had molested her.  It was a promise he made if she told.  She would end up like Margaret.  Nina kept the secret all her life and remained one of his favorites.  After he died, he wanted to make sure she kept her promise.

My strong little neighbor tapped the name like a curse.  "You're goin down so fast..." she said and spun in the room.  He danced around her. I heard him gasping, getting excited.  I tried to shush her and warn her but I was too far away to be heard.  "You like hurtin girls?  Your days are numbered preacher.  I'm comin so you better not blink."


I liked it.  This was fun.  It rambles a bit and I know it has my typical quick ending, but I like it all the same.  It feels good to write again ~ to want to.  I got this from a ghost story my grandmother told me.  I didn't use all of it so I will get to make something else down the road... I hope you had a good day and I want to thank you for coming over.  It's so nice to sit together again, isn't it?