The Ghost Writer was the second story mixed in with poetry. This time all the written martial was done by myself.
chris ticehurst
The doors opened up to the house and three figure walked in with large suitcases. The first figure was a friend of theirs, his name Mark. He had short brown hair and was a short man. He carried the suitcases of his friends onto the room while they entered the lounge room.
“I like the house Joel. Don’t you like it?” the young girl asked her boyfriend.
“No I hate it,” answered Joel.
The young girl frowned at Joel and walked past him. Joel walked along the lounge room and saw some coffee.
“Hey babe you can make us some coffee to keep yourself busy,” Joel cried out.
The girl wasn’t too impressed with Joel’s remarks and made her way to make some coffee. She made the coffee for the men as Joel expected her of and Mark joggled down the stairs to the rent house and smiled at the pair. Rubbing his hands and thinking of something.
“We should hit down to the pub tonight. See what fun is there. Hey Joel, Ellen?” he suggested to them.
“Maybe why not hey babe,” Mark said to Ellen.
“Up to you guys really. I don’t care,” she answered them.
“Let’s go then Mark. Let’s get changed and get moving then hey!”
The three of them quickly changed into new clothes and left their house to the nearby pub down the road. They had stopped at this old town for a couple nights as they had been traveling around the countryside.
Joel entered the pub with his black suit and green shirt underneath. Ellen walked in by his side in a green silk dress and her black hair pulled back. They sat at the pub while they ordered their drinks. Mark overheard a conversation with some old pub drinkers about something interesting. He pulled his head closer to hear more of it.
“Ah mate that’s not fucking true. That castle hasn’t been touched for years. I mean fucking hundreds of years. You didn’t see nothing!” he said on of them.
“I did see it. There were glowing green lights mate in it. Like something was living in there. A freak of nature I tell you,” his friend told him.
It’s just a legend that’s all. Stories of a ghost master living in the castle. I mean nothing has ever happened there. The man died hundreds of years ago. You know that,” the man complained.
“Forget it. You don’t believe me!” he snapped and his friend sat up and moved away from him.
Mark saw his chance and nudged Joel and Ellen, “Hey come with me and listen to this,” he said to them.
“Hey mate I believe you. What did you see at that castle?” Mark cried out to him.
Joel and Ellen looked at each other and then listened in to Mark and the drinker.
“Well I saw this flashing green lights coming out of the castle. Legend says the man died about two hundred years and still lives there as a ghost master. However no one believes in that. It’s a myth,” the drinker said to the trio.
“Does it happen often?” asked Joel.
“Well only on random days. There are no special patterns. What are ya names people?” asked the drinker.
“I’m Joel and this is Mark,” answered Joel.
“I’m Elisabeth but people call me Ellen,” answered the girl.
“Nice to meet ya all. Are you all traveling or something?” he asked them.
“Yeah we are. Back to home,” Mark smiled.
Mark and the drinker kept on piling up the drinks and soon become the best of lads during the night. Joel and Elisabeth become bored with Joel and the drinker and went outside. The pair had walked far from the pub down the road towards an old graveyard. Joel turned to Elisabeth and kissed her. She smiled and leaned the tree as he niggled into her neck.
The skies grew darker and the graveyard wind picked up and the air became very cold. Joel and Ellen stopped and saw the graveyards lighting up in green shadows. Joel took her hand and walked over to the graves. While the pair was walking about, ghastly green eyed ghosts appeared and disappeared behind them. The coldness grew stronger again and Joel turned to Ellen and smiled.
“There are mysterious thoughts and moments running through our heads. The grounds are shaking Elisabeth and you can’t stop the rush!” Joel sung to her.
The ghosts circled the pair and followed them around the graveyard.
“The winds are blowing the wrong way and your heart tells the truth.”
The ghosts flashed in a ball of green fire and the pair screamed in fear and bolted deeper into the darkness. Joel bolted away from the young girl and left her alone with the ghosts. She saw the ghosts gaining on her and saw Joel at a gateway with a line of ghosts behind him. The gateway was blue and cold looking with a large shadow in the background. A greenly looking castle skies maybe.
“Watch out! The ghosts are coming. Look out! The ghosts are moving. Scream all you can, cause the ghosts are coming for you!” Joel cried out.
He quickly turned around to see the line as a ghost crossed into his body. He screamed in fright and started to throw up purple and green fluids from his mouth. He spins around on the spot as the young girl was frozen in her place. Joel’s eyes lighted up in a purple, he was taken by the ghost.
“Some wicked spells are in play baby and you know from the shadows that follow. That there is evil in the mix! And the leaves that die without a winter. They are cursed by the ghosts in play and you run from the shadows that hunt you!” the ghost screams at the girl.
She quickly bolts from her spot and the ghosts turned their heads in an inhuman way and followed her.
“Come run through these graveyards. Maybe you will be safe or maybe you’re entered into a horror of a time. The hairs are rising on your back and you see in my eyes the ground is shaking. Cause baby the ghosts are coming!” cried the cursed Joel.
Elisabeth ran from the ghosts and came to a dark and scary clearing where an old gate was left open. And from her eyes she saw the castle that the drinker told in his story. The green glowing castle! She turned around the ghosts were forcing her into the castle entrance.
“Watch out! The ghosts are coming. Look out! The ghosts are moving. Scream all you can, cause the ghosts are coming for you!” the ghost cried out.
The ghost crossed out from Joel and he fell to the ground in loss. The girl saw the group and they were chanting.
“Watch out! The ghosts are coming. Look out! The ghosts are moving. Scream all you can, cause the ghosts are coming for you!” the group screamed at the pair.
Suddenly a stuck of lightening shook the ground and the castle lit up in all it’s glory. The ghosts disappeared in an instant in fear of the castle and the young pair was left alone in the darkness of hell.
*
Joel became himself again and Elisabeth helped him up to his feet. The pair looked out to the doorway to the castle. Joel looked at Elisabeth and became angry and upset.
“I don’t need you to help me. That is a man’s job! Leave me woman. Come on let’s go in there and see who is causing this mess,” Joel snapped at her.
She was quiet and hung her head and followed him inside the castle. The door opened without much trouble and the pair saw large windows and painting that stood tall and powerful on the walls.
“They are characters from books. I have seen them before,” said Joel.
“Yes me too. Look there are statutes too. Look and see,” Elisabeth cried out pointing at one.
They walked over to a collection of them that lined up in the hallway area. One was a black gown character who simply read ‘Silver Knight, my friend in crime’. Another was a character dressed in a pure blue gown and holding his heart. It read ‘The Frozen Hearted’.
“Come on, who lives here?” Joel thought to himself.
“By the look of things this person was a writer when he died,” the girl answered.
“So a bunch of ghosts take over the castle. Nothing too bad I guess,” Joel remarked.
The coldness blows into the castle and a single white ghost quickly passes the pair and into another room.
“What was that?” Elisabeth cried.
“Something is in the house. There’s something watching us,” Joel whispered to her.
He told her to be quiet as he looked around the hall room with painting that started to watch the visitors to the castle.
“I can see the shadows that are played within the castle walls. I can see the candles that turn red to green. Can you see, can see my lover,” Joel sung out in the hall room.
“Yes I can see before my eyes. Oh let it behold before these eyes. For I can see there is a ghost in the house. A ghost in the house, a ghost in the house,” she sung back to him.
They past through more rooms with pictures of characters and scenes from books and poems and see blood running down the walls. Joel and Elisabeth look on in wonder and fear of it all.
“Wander through the blood filled rooms. But don’t let your tender soul take flight yet. For I can see too. There a ghost in the house. Shaking and running through these walls,”
“Yes I can see before my eyes. Oh let it behold before these eyes. For I can see there is a ghost in the house. A ghost in the house, a ghost in the house,” she sung back to him.
“Yes a ghost in the house. A ghost in the house. Ghosts in the house,” they said together and wandered deeper into the castle.
The coldness suddenly turned to heat and Elisabeth started to hear voices in the next room. She turned to Joel to find out what was in the next room. This time the doors were large and had a symbol of a large dragon on it. One that blew fire and ice, electricity and water. A magical one indeed.
“Can we open it Joel,” she asked him.
“Yeah sure. Let’s go in together,” he answered.
The two came to each side of the doors and pushed them open. To their horror the room was dark and black and there stood a single person in front of them. It was a skeleton dressed in a red robe and smiled towards them.
“What madness is this,” asked Joel to the undead creature.
“Welcome to a unique night. A night of eccentric proportions. Where weird things and strange moments, happen from time…to…time,” he boomed at Joel and Elisabeth.
He turned around as the lights came on and flash of lightening turned the room on. A crowd of ghosts, zombies and mummies were partying and dancing to the beat of a ghostly charm. The pair stayed close to each together as they wandered through the crowd. Everyone seemed to be waiting to come to the party. Noises of a name were heard around the room. Elisabeth saw stairs that went up to a higher level in the castle from both sides of the party room.
A figure appeared from the bottom doors under the top level view and the ghosts and zombies parted their ways to let the creature come to the middle of the room. Joel saw the candles that were high in the sky slowly turning red to green. Elisabeth turned from Joel and saw the creature appearing before her eyes. A young ghost dressed in a ripped white shirt and a black pants and black shoes and black hair that spiked up. His green eyes meet the girl and one of his hands was bare bone.
“There’s something in your eyes. That tells something about you I see. That you traveled far and wide to arrive in this haunted land. And your heartbeat is starting to race because your eyes lay upon me and now you are about to scream because I am here!” the ghost sung out.
The party started to dance and carry on straight after those words. The candles in flared in balls of fire as the ghost writer walked up to the pair.
“Oooh you shouldn’t come my dear and banged your curiously upon my door. And oooh you shouldn’t have come inside to cause these ghosts to awake and seal your doom!” he cried out.
Joel grabbed Elisabeth but a group moved him out of the way and cornered him. The ghost writer moved up to Elisabeth and looked at Joel.
“Now that you have come within these walls. Maybe I should tell you more of me. A ghost that lived for two hundred years and one that writes and writes and writes! Now let me see your face my dear. A young sleek black haired girl. With a touch of fear inside her eyes and an unknown terror about to strike you!” he said to Elisabeth.
The ghosts circled the pair and the ghost writer and they howled and growled at the moonlight.
“Oooh you shouldn’t come my dear and banged your curiously upon my door. And oooh you shouldn’t have come inside to cause these ghosts such a fright!” he cried out.
Elisabeth found a hole in the circle and ran for it and past the ghosts that were guarding her. The ghost writer turned to see the girl and stretched out his arm and the moonlight moved to the girl as a spotlight.
“And do you know what it means my dear. To be caught inside of here. Don’t you sleep or don’t you creep. You can scream all you want but you’ll never get out alive!” he cried at the girl.
The ghosts and zombies growled at Elisabeth and she ran into the next room leaving Joel alone with the crowd of beasts.
“Oooh you shouldn’t come my dear and banged your curiously upon my door. And oooh you shouldn’t have come inside to cause these ghosts such a fright!” the crowd chanted on the haunted dance floor.
The crowd suddenly stopped as the ghost writer pointed his finger at Joel on the ground. The music came to the screaming halt and all eyes were on the young man. “Who are you young human who dares to enter my house, my protection against your kind,” the Ghost Writer asked Joel.
“My name is Joel and how dare you scare my girlfriend like that. She is only a woman and can’t defend herself. You’re scared her off into your haunted castle. Where is she now?” shouted Joel getting back to his feet.
“Well this defenseless woman escaped from the hall room but you didn’t. How is that so?” the beast asked him.
Joel gave a cold look at the Ghost Writer and looked towards the doors to the side. He pushed a couple of mummies away and came to the door.
“You can try and find her. But this castle is known to play tricks,” grinned the Ghost Writer.
Joel ignored the ghost’s warning and went through the doors and disappeared from the hall room. The Ghost Writer turned back to his guests of the night.
“Go and have some fun. This is what it is all about isn’t it? I have things to watch over,” he said to his party and walked up the stairs thinking about the visitors.
*
Elisabeth had walked far into the castle and was pacing through a narrow walkway towards another room. Patterns of two dragons fighting glowed a blue light from the girl. She wandered into the next too see a single light upon a figure. The windows slowly opened and the wind blew in. Her dark black hair blew in the wind and her green dress shined in the night.
“Who are you stranger?” she asked the figure.
“A ghost, just a ghost in the house,” it answered.
“You were following us since we viewed your characters in your stories. Is that true Mr. Ghost Writer?” she asked him.
“I wander around a lot in my house. Yes I saw you two breaking into my house,” the Ghost Writer answered.
“We didn’t break into your house. A group of ghosts chased us into your castle. We had to hide from them. They were evil,” she cried.
“So you run into the most haunted castle in the land. Your night is not going very well I see. Tell me what your name is?” he asked.
“Elisabeth,” she quietly answered.
“Beautiful. I’ve always loved that name,” he said smiling.
He removed a glove off his hand to reveal his skeleton hand and reached out to her. She moved closer to him without thought and places her hand on his bare bone. The moonlight shone on the two of them and the Ghost Writer saw a disappointed face on Elisabeth.
“Sadness I see in your eyes. Tears of pain and wonder outshines the moment we have here. What has come over your heart tonight?” he asked her.
“It is Joel. He doesn’t treat me as an equal. I don’t love him,” she said without though.
“You don’t love him but you stay with him? Why?”
“He’s all I have for now. There’s nothing else in my life.”
The Ghost Writer was quiet and walked over to the end of the room leaving her in the light and him in the darkness.
“What about you? How come you became a ghost?” Elisabeth asked him.
“I don’t know. I was human long ago and lived as a writer. But death came to me as all do to others. But yet I never left this world. I was trapped all by myself. The angels came for the others but not for me,” he explained to her.
“Maybe ghosts are just people who didn’t fulfill their mortal life. Maybe there’s something you didn’t do or find?” Elisabeth suggested.
“I have done everything. There is no more to do. Your boyfriend is looking for you. Go and find him,” he said coldly to her.
Elisabeth lowered her head and the Ghost Writer put his glove on again. He walked over to her and pointed to the narrow hallway.
“He should be coming here soon and I wish not to see him. He is angry being.”
“Ghost Writer, you are a beautiful creature. Hasn’t anyone told you that?” the girl asked him.
“Your heart is telling lies. You must learn to hate me. Like everyone else does in this world. Go now!” he shouted at her.
She quickly moved back and the Ghost Writer’s eyes glowed green and she disappeared into the narrow hallway again. The creature was alone in the night again.
*
A third visitor came into the castle not too long after the party ended. He called two names in the darkness and wandered lost and alone.
“Where are you guys. I knew you might find this place yourselves. And hide it from me!” cried Mark.
Watchful eyes saw Mark moving towards the party hall room and he found the doors open. He noticed there was drink bottles everywhere and empty feeling inside it.
“I wish I was invited to the haunted party,” he muttered to himself.
A skeleton hand reached out to Mark and he screamed and ran around the corner of the hall room near some paintings of old. He slowly turned the corner to see the Ghost Writer looking around for him. He shook himself and kept out of sight.
“Don’t be shy. Come out and play. Don’t be shy I won’t bite. I only hunt down my prey and play with them a little. Torture them a little and let them go dead,” he cried out in the room.
Mark swallowed with difficulty and moved to another location of the room away from the Ghost Writer.
“So don’t be shy. Come out and play. Don’t be shy. I won’t bite. I’ll run my teeth across your neck and moan over your fresh blood,” he kept on calling out.
“I am shy. I don’t like bloody ghosts or anything undead,” whisper Mark to himself.
“So please don’t be shy. Do come and play. Don’t be shy I won’t bite. I’ll drain all your blood. All before your last breathe.”
Mark crossed over to the another location where the ground started to shake and the Ghost Writer rose his hand, “Don’t be shy, come out and play!” he screamed and growled.
An electric spark blew the room apart and Mark fell out of his hiding and rolled in front of the beast. The Ghost Writer put his foot on his chest and growled at him.
“Another visitor to my castle. Who is it this time?” he asked him.
“I’m Mark and I’m looking for my friends. Ellen and Joel,” answered the frightened human.
“Elisabeth and Joel. They were still alive the last I saw them. You should come with me and we will find them,” the ghost writer said.
He let me go and Mark dusted himself off and had a better look at the ghost.
“Lead the way ghost,” he said to him and the pair went off to find the others.
Elisabeth ran through the halls and different rooms and soon found Joel heading her way. Joel was still angry with the Ghost Writer when he arrived with him.
“What did he do to you?” he cried out to her.
She ran up to him and stopped in front of him, “Nothing. He’s a good person. He’s just doesn’t like many visitors to his castle,” she answered him.
“He is a freak. He is something you can’t trust,” he snapped at her.
“He’s like us Joel. Can’t you understand?” she cried back at him.
“You listen to me. He has poisoned your mind and you are stupid enough to believe him.”
“I hate you Joel. You are always like this. Telling me what to do. This is the end,” she shouted at him.
Joel pushed her to the wall and pulled back her hair. He was enraged by the Ghost Writer and now by Elisabeth.
“You listen to me bitch. You are mine and you can’t escape me! You will never get away from me. Do you understand!” he shouted at her.
He threw her to the ground and headed for the doors into the party room.
“Come with me now!”
He walked into the room when he saw Mark with the Ghost Writer. Mark saw he wasn’t happy and was upset.
“What’s going on?” he asked him.
“Get away from him. He’s a freak, a shadow of a beast!” shouted Joel at him.
“Well he hasn’t run his teeth across my neck yet so he hasn’t done anything wrong,” Mark joked to Joel.
Joel walked out and confronted the Ghost Writer and tried to push him.
“You want to fight now hmm? Come on you beast. Don’t twist Elisabeth’s mind.”
Elisabeth came out and ran to Mark and they hugged, “What’s going on Ellen?”
“Joel doesn’t care about us. He just wants to finish of the Ghost Writer. He was a human like us once!” she shouted.
“No he wasn’t. Look at him, this old cowardly writer who lives in a castle until the end of his days. It’s time to send you to hell!”
“No you can’t Joel. There’s a hidden heart in him. He is human. I believe in him,” Elisabeth cried out to him.
The Ghost Writer grew angry towards his visitors and watched Joel from the corner of his eye. Blood started to run down the walls and he struck Joel to the ground. Mark and Elisabeth watched in horror as the ghost picked up Joel and smashed him into wall over and over. Blood poured from his head and he become unconscious. He ran into the ground and looked at the group. He walked away towards the stairs and Elisabeth ran up to him.
“Where is your heart Ghost Writer? Listen to me please!” she begged him.
“I am not what you think I am!” he screamed at her.
He walked up to the top level and Elisabeth walked from below. Mark stood next to the injured Joel in fear.
The green lightening flashed wildly and the window smashed into pieces and the rains fell into the castle. The Ghost Writer looked straight at Elisabeth.
“The terror inside your heart, it screams because of me and the blood that runs down those walls. Is it scary my little dear? Or is it the intruders who are skinned and buried alive. It is the life of the undead…of my kind,” he sung from above.
He slowly wandered down the stairs towards Elisabeth and the blood hardens on the walls to create a new paint.
“For so long these castle walls have kept me safe from your kind. For they all intrude my lair and none come out alive. But you had your chances and you spied inside my study. Looking for a hidden human in vain.”
Mark saw shadows of ghosts appearing from the top sides of the main room where they sung as a choir, “Wow,” he whispered to himself.
“And do you see me in the darkness. Your ideas of a hidden heart trapped inside this twisted soul. Can’t you understand now, this is all I am. A shadow of what you really want me to be. I’m just a shadow of your dreams.”
The choir started to click their fingers and Elisabeth walked over to see them. The Ghost Writer made his way on to the floor again and watched the girl.
“A sweeten taste of blood and haunting magic and ghastly stories is really what I love. These candles turn red to green. This is not normal you see my dear. I live a life as an eccentric ghost writer.”
He wandered up to the choir and stretched his arm to wave over them, “Come around my demons, my ghosts and zombies and rejoice within the chamber walls. And we shall write of many screams,” he cried before turning to face Elisabeth.
“And for you my dear, I thank you. To have at least the heart and strength to try to get inside of me,” he slowly sung to her.
He walked up to the end of the room and the choir started to hum and the noise began louder. The ground suddenly shook and the lightening flashed again in terror.
“And do you see me in the darkness. Your ideas of a hidden heart trapped inside this twisted soul. Can’t you understand now, this is all I am. A shadow of what you really want me to be. I’m just a shadow of your dreams.”
The room started to go black as hell and Mark and Elisabeth could see a thing. Only a shadow of eye greens glowed in the night.
“Can’t you see now in the darkness! There is no hidden heart! A shadow of what you really want me to be. I’m just a shadow of your dreams…”
The room reappeared in the light and the Ghost Writer was gone. The choir was gone. All was silent in the castle.
*
A huge cry came from behind Mark and Elisabeth. The pair jumped at the sound and they turned to see Joel in pain. Mark came to try to help but he was badly damaged by the Ghost Writer.
“I’ll be fine. That beast, it’s trying to kill everything. Elisabeth doesn’t believe me,” he said to Mark.
“You did piss him off and we all broke into his place. These undead people think differently I guess,” Mark said to Joel.
“Don’t listen to Joel. He doesn’t care about anyone,” Elisabeth snapped at the two of them.
“What about you. You love that beast?” Joel asked her.
There was a pause in Elisabeth and she turned back at him, “Can’t you try to understand instead of your pre-judging?” she shouted.
The bloody Joel rose to his feet and his angry was peeking again and marched to the end of the room and looked around.
“Where is he? Did he run off again?” he cried at his friends.
“We don’t know Joel. You’re not in a state to fight him. He’s the undead. He’s impossible to beat!” Mark shouted at him.
Joel’s mind was made up and he was to battle the Ghost Writer no matter what. Even if he was impossible to beat or that he was the undead.
“I will battle him,” he cried out in the room.
At the cry of his voice a sword was thrown from the top level and landed at Joel’s feet. The Ghost Writer appeared with his sword and leaned on the stair rail.
“Come and battle if you wish. I will try and make this quick ending for you,” the ghost said to Joel.
He started to walk down the stairs with the sword in hand. Joel picked up his weapon and pointed it to the Ghost Writer.
“There comes a time when you must fight for your lives. To battle against the beasts of the night. Slain the ghosts that haunt our lives and break the evil around us,” Joel told his group.
“There is the evil before you. His ego is large and dangerous. He controls his lover and tells her who’ll she’ll love and who’ll she’ll hate,” the Ghost Writer sung out to Elisabeth and Mark.
Mark was holding on to Elisabeth when she broke free walked up to the pair and protested.
“Please don’t fight you foolish men before the stars tonight. Please don’t excite the graveyard ghosts or cause any pain tonight. Let the madness stop tonight,” she begged them.
She was ignored by the fighters in the night and they pointed at each other with their swords and sung together, “Let us battle the demons tonight. Cross swords and magic against the evil in the night. There is the evil you fear Elisabeth! For tonight the end is nigh!”
They smashed sword together and the battle began and Mark watched on in horror. Green flames appeared from the Ghost Writer’s sword and attacked Joel on the other side of the room.
“Please don’t fight you foolish men before the stars tonight. Please don’t excite the graveyard ghosts or cause any pain tonight. Let the madness stop tonight,” she cried out staying with Mark.
The choir burst out from the side walls and Mark fell to the ground surprised at it.
“Let us battle the demons tonight. Cross swords and magic against the evil in the night. There is the evil you fear Elisabeth! For tonight the end is nigh!” the room burst out singing.
The Ghost Writer crossed swords with Joel as he fell to the ground as Joel towered over him. His face filled with anger and madness.
“You have to die now Ghost Writer. For me!’ he cried rising up his sword.
The Ghost Writer smiled as he watched the clouds gather above the two of them. He rose up his hand and bolt of lightening came crashing down into the castle rooftop. It hit Joel and he blew apart into chucks of pieces. The Ghost Writer stood up again and dropped his sword next to Joel’s. Suddenly a second blast of lightening hit the Ghost Writer and he blew into the next room and disappeared from sight leaving Elisabeth and Mark alone.
“Ghost Writer, what happened? Where are you!” she shouted out.
“He got hit too. Shit. We have to find him. But where?” Mark cried out.
“We have to find him,” she cried pulling Mark along with him to find out.
*
Elisabeth and Mark came to a new room where a green and haunting garden existed. Strange and horrible plants existed and gave funny looks at their visitors. The girl saw the Ghost Writer at the end of the garden and told Mark to stay where he was. She was to go to see him.
“Ghost Writer, where are you?” she cried out in the garden.
“I’m here Elisabeth,” he answered her at the end of the garden.
“What happened? Did the thunder strike you too?” she asked the undead.
“Yes, it was the first time I felt pain in a long time,” he answered blankly.
“Are you hurt? Can I help you?”
“I’m fine. But I can help you. What happened out there needed to happen. It was his choice that he made and a fatal one it was,” he explained.
A tear came to Elisabeth’s eye. The stress of the night was pressuring her. The Ghost Writer turned around to hear her weep.
“Listen to me my dear. The pain will go away soon. Wash away those tears and dry your eyes and look at me. For I will keep you safe and warm in here,” he sung to her.
The plants leaned towards her to give comfort to her. She watched in amazement and looked up to the Ghost Writer.
“Be not confused by this. This is not a heart calling. But it is only the best a ghost can do. That slain your lover in the castle.”
Her head rose quickly and tossed her head at him, “Please excuse yourself Ghost Writer. He was never my lover. A coldness that grew so large. This castle, that battle. Made me see. What evil and heartless he was.”
“Listen to me my dear. Close your eyes and fly away. For you are all alone here. For tomorrow you will leave and the coldness will return to me. Just for now I will keep you safe and warm in here.”
There was small cry from the other side of the garden and the pair turned to listen to it.
“These plants, they don’t eat people do they?” cried a voice.
Elisabeth smiled to herself and looked at the ghost, “Mark’s getting worried. We better see him.”
The pair wandered through the garden and saw Mark eying the plants in the corner. He looked pleased seeing his friends again.
“I swear that one moved towards me. Bloody place I don’t like it,” he complained.
“Come on these plants wouldn’t hurt anyone. For a while that is,” the Ghost Writer said.
“Well let’s go to somewhere safer than hey!” Mark cried and walking off into the other rooms.
They walked down some dark and creepy paths and lead to a secret area where many dared not to come. Elisabeth and Mark saw a red glossy door half opened. The girl tried to see inside and saw a desk and many papers inside.
“I must return to my lair and writer more. Please explore the castle as their maybe some more fun with the undead later on. You will see,” smiled the Ghost Writer.
“They won’t eat me will they?” Mark asked worried.
“Oh shut up Mark. They won’t eat you. They are all friends of us now we know the Ghost Writer,” Elisabeth cried at him.
The two parted with their ghostly friend and wander throughout the castle on their own. The ghost wandered through his door and sat at his desk and dreamed to himself. He looked over to his book shelf and saw his booked glowed in the dark and looked at the titles.
“My children,” he whispered, watching them.
He grabbed a feather pen and started to write as the green candles gave him the weak light in his life. He paused and thought about his night of terror.
“There were days when I dreamed of dreams. That only the most distant star could find. I searched the world for a love. But the coldness of society locked me away,” he spoke softly to himself.
He looked up at the candles and his thoughtful eyes glared out the small window he had.
“In the days of my death, have I found someone to break me free? A beauty so young and so fair. Can I dream again?”
“Someone show me a sign. That this heart is saved, that a soul that cries of shame has been found in my darkness days,” he slowly sang to himself.
He reached out his hand and a book flew down to his hand and he opened it up to read. He paused again and looked at his page.
“When she sings to me I push her away but when the more I push her, the more I want her to stay.”
“Someone show me a sign. That this heart is saved, that a soul that cries of shame has been found in my darkness days,” he slowly sang to himself.
He lowered his head down and the wind blew the candles out and sent him into the darkness again.
*
The castle was slowly becoming darker and darker during the night. Mark and Elisabeth walked around the painting and studied them. The painted lightened and the scene in the picture started t play like a film. Dragons fighting, criminals running, discussions between wizard and many others the pair watched.
“I’ve never heard of this writer. Have you Elisabeth?” Mark asked her.
“No I haven’t. But these visions in his stories are wonderful. Rich in colors, his illustrators must have been masters in their art,” she spoke out.
Suddenly the characters in the paintings stopped their actions and looked towards the main doors of the party room. Mark and Elisabeth watched the paintings and slowly turned to the doors. A green steam was given off and leaked through the doors.
“After you?” Mark said to Elisabeth.
She passed Mark and stood next to the doors, “You have to come with me. Who knows what the castle and the Ghost Writer is up to,” she said to him.
Mark followed her and they both looked at the doors and looked at each other.
“I love the designs on the door,” he hesitantly said.
The wardrobe to the Ghost Writer’s lit up when his skeleton hand brushed along his clothes and grabbed a suit out. He looked over it and dusted it over a couple times.
“They shouldn’t have come into my land like that. They will the full power of the Ghost Master, the writer in the darkness!” he laughed to himself in his study.
The humans were pushing on the doors to open but they were locked for now.
“What’s wrong with this place? It’s falling apart!” Mark cried out.
“Maybe he’s hiding something?” thought Elisabeth.
“Why can’t he just let this all end!” he yelled out towards the door.
The character knight designs on the door lit up blue and they uncrossed swords and the doors opened. They walked inside to see a ghostly choir of children inside.
“What secrets you see inside, must stay inside. What secrets you see inside, must stay inside. Oh what eccentrics what despair. What has come over your hearts? The end is nigh, the end is here!” they sung at the pair.
They started to disappear as the other ghosts appeared in their place. The Ghost Writer had arrived. Mark watched a tall clock tower in the right hand corner striking another hour that had past.
“What’s happening now,” Mark said.
The Ghost Writer appeared in front of the group of ghosts in a blue Chinese dragon suit and dark silvery sunglasses. He gave a weird smile at everyone. He stared at Elisabeth and Mark and clicked his fingers. The other ghosts followed and as an army walked towards the humans. Elisabeth and Mark moved back worried and the Ghost Writer took off his sun glasses and stooped his foot and the ghosts stopped moving with him. As he moved a step closer to them, he stooped his foot and the other ghosts copied him.
“I wanna dance now!” stoop when the ground.
“I wanna scream now! I wanna right now!” his arms straight as a tree down his body. The heads tilted to their left and their green eyes flicked on and off.
“I wanna dance now, I wanna scream now, I wanna right now!” he yelled out as the ghost’s calls grew louder and louder.
The room exploded in ball of fire and the pair was thrown to the doors of the party room. A huge wind of power blew towards the Ghost Writer and his army’s way. His blue suit and the ghost’s ghastly ripped clothes blew in the wind.
“Ghosts are shaking, the chairs are rockin’. There’s an evil mind lurking in the dark. Don’t you look at me my dear. The longer you’re here, the worse it gets,” he cried out.
“Look into my eyes and your world begins to change and now you know the truth. This soul is out to kill.”
The music and the noise were loud and the pair watched the ghosts wander around the room. Elisabeth took off and ran up the stairs towards the Ghost Writers study room.
“Screamer, Screamer, Screamer!” the ghosts roared out.
“See the fire in their eyes!” the Ghost Writer cried at the pair.
“I think we should get out of here. He doesn’t want us to be here anymore!” Mark shouted at Elisabeth.
“No Mark! He uses song and dance to confuse his visitors. It’s through his writing and the illustrations of the paintings that truly reveal his heart!” she cried back at him.
The pair entered the opened study room and Elisabeth saw the title of his novels and his writing on his desk. She quickly went through the papers quickly and saw a couple notes.
“A soul that cries of shame has been found in my darkness days. He knows and understand like me,” she whispered to herself.
“Screamer, Screamer, Screamer!’ roared the ghosts and demons down on the death Dancefloor.
“We have no time to lose. What are we to do now?” Mark cried.
“Confront him!” she cried at him and ran out of the room.
The Ghost Writer turned to his fellow friends and raised his hand towards the humans.
“Look into my eyes and your world begins to change and now you know the truth. This soul is out to kill,” he cried out.
A sudden boom of a voice came from the stairs, it was Elisabeth, and “Do you have heart? Do you understand life as it was before your death?” she yelled out in the Dancefloor.
“A life of life is no one for me,” he cried back at her.
“But you know it. You write it so you must have known the life you left?”
“Some writings need neither experience nor knowledge to create it.”
“But you have the passion! You give a part of your soul each time you write. I see in your words. I feel it in my heart,” she cried reaching the bottom of the stairs.
“Such words won’t fool me Elisabeth. I am the undead, the unloved. It is what I have become and that is all I am today.”
“Even the unloved have feeling because they feel unloved in the first place.”
“I am a Ghost!” he roared across the floor and the other ghosts frozen in their places and watched on.
“From my birth to my death I have never understood the coldness of the world nor why my heart was never fulfilled by a true love. That is why I remain here. Haunted by loneliness and the gods above sent me to this castle to write forever under the green skies above. My heaven is here, all around the dead. That is where my dreams have taken me,” the Ghost Writer said in defeat.
Elisabeth’s eyes soften and Mark wandered off to the other ghosts and frowned.
“I don’t know what to say,” she said quietly to the Ghost Wrier.
“There is nothing to say. All is said and done.”
The death Dancefloor grew darker and green candles only gave light into the room. Elisabeth moved to the corner of the room and he Ghost Wrier was tiring. He leaned with his hand to the ground. His eyes turned from green to black and white, the coldness in the castle had arrived. A tear fell from the undead to the ground and the moonlight suddenly moved to Elisabeth as if from a force stronger than the Ghost Writer. The ghosts, demon, zombies paused at the moment. Mark stood still and didn’t want any more dramas tonight. The Ghost Writer slowly looked up at Elisabeth in the moonlight and the wind blew the ghostly looking green dress. Mark looked at the other ghosts as they were fixed on her.
“I come to you from the light. Bring you the promise of a new life. To share with you under the stars. Look beyond your assumptions and open your heart to me,” she sung out.
The Ghost slowly rose from the ground and his eyes changed color with word she sung.
“For you’re the beautiful soul I sing to tonight. A voice that breaks apart the darkness and the shadows that haunts your heart,” she moved next to the Ghost Writer and even bats and shadows stopped playing in the dark to watch.
“Hold out your skeleton hand to me. There is no more fear inside of me. Your soul outshines the creature you have become. Let me fulfill your one last dream and open up your heart to me.”
The creatures in the dark circled the pair as the Ghost Writer and Elisabeth started to slowly dance around the middle of the floor.
“For you’re the beautiful soul I sing to tonight. A voice that breaks apart the darkness and the shadows that haunts your heart.”
“Dance with me into this strange dream. Melt your sorrows with mine and let us cast them to the winds into the darkness tonight. For your beautiful soul I sing to tonight. A voice that breaks apart the darkness and the shadows that haunts your heart.”
The ghosts stood still and watched the pair stop in the middle of the room under the roof window above, “I come to you from the light. To sing to you tonight. Open up your heart and let your beautiful soul take flight.”
The clock tower from the room that could be heard stopped suddenly and the green clouds covered the roof window. Mark and the others watched on, time had stopped for the end of all dreams.
“I love you Ghost Writer,”
The ghost’s eyes widen when the clouds gathered above them. Mark looked above and his eyes told of danger to come.
“Elisabeth!” he shouted out in the room.
The lightening strike the pair in each other arms, the Ghost Writer knew the power was powerful and he stole a kiss from the girl. The lightening transformed into a green twister and out lashed the groups of the undead. The shielded themselves from the awesome power. The girl was seduced by the magic and madness of the moment. Mark was still standing still and thought about the Ghost Writer out loud.
“Past the castle doors and beyond the ghastly study, there lives a writer. In a land that mixes imagination and reality. His eyes ever so watchful. His skeleton hand holds her face and time has stopped to watch,” he spoke out blankly.
The green lightening poured out sparks and power towards the ghosts but they stood and took the damage to them. Mark and the ghosts then watched a white light beamed down through the roof top. Mark fell to the ground and the ghosts ran back to the walls of the room. The white beam was attacking the lightening and soon the white beam sucked up the lightened and the middle of the room was clear again. There was sign of Elisabeth or the Ghost Writer. Mark quickly climbed to his feet and saw there was nothing left.
“Did the lightening kill them? They died?” Mark cried in shock.
He wandered around the middle in sadness and wondered what happened to them. A painting in the corner of the room taped on the painting and Mark and the ghosts turned to see it. It was one of the wizards, however he was lone wizard and dressed in a brown jacket and had a wand in the jacket.
“I might be able to help you with that one,” he called out.
Mark quickly jogged to the painting and cried out, “Do you know what happened to them.”
“Well isn’t it easy to figure out?” he asked Mark.
‘No it isn’t. The lightening killed them, is that what you think?” he asked the wizard.
“No. The Ghost Writer finally fulfilled his final wish of finding a soul mate. The same last wish could have been for Elisabeth,” the wizard explained.
“And she died by the lightened?” Mark went on thinking.
“Yes sadly. The Ghost Writer stole that kiss so she wouldn’t have to become a ghost herself. I guess now they are in the afterlife. They live in the stars now together. Strange how one night can change you,” said the wizard.
“So that’s the end then. My friends are dead,” Mark lowered his head down.
The wizard leaned down from the painting and looked at him.
“Well someone has to look after the Ghost Writer’s castle and keep the legend alive,” the wizard said.
“Well I don’t have a job so that should do for me,” Mark said.
“Like the Ghost Writer said. No one comes out alive,” the wizard reminded him.
Mark just smiled to himself and looked at the ghosts and then turned back to the wizard.
“Can I just visit the castle and live somewhere else. I mean the dead people, I’m not racist but they’re dead!” he cried at the painting.
“We’ll give you your life only because you somehow helped the Ghost Writer. I saw that drinking drunk walking around the castle and graveyards,’ the wizard said.
Mark slowly walked past the paintings and saw the major doors to the graveyards open up and he went outside. The castle doors were closed and there was a present on the ground for Mark. He picked it up and it was a pen with the true name of the writer.
“So the mystery is solved. What a strange and weird night it was. But it was the perfect night for them,” he smiled to himself and slowly wandered into the graveyard and back to the house alone. He knew no one would believe him, only those in the pub or in places of the world where they believe in the undead.
