Jackie
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Jackie was sprinting as fast as her legs could carry her, running from monsters.
Gravel crunched under her feet, the mansion's shadowy form fading into the distance. Out of breath, Jackie stopped and bent over, heaving in and out, trying to breathe. Surely she could stop…for just a few…moments. As she rested, she looked up and gasped, sprinting off once more. A shadowy blob formed up from the ground, warping and cracking before it stood tall, staring at Jackie with white, soulless eyes.
She couldn't stop running, not as long as she was being chased by these terrifying creatures. Shadows that formed out of trees, out of rocks, out of anything. They morphed into and out of shapes, merging from one shape and into the next seamlessly.
Light bended around them, creating illusions of safety, pockets of light. The perfect camouflage. Jackie ran from every object she could, not knowing which one was a creature trying to kill her, or which one was a normal object. Could she trust even the ground beneath her feet, or was that fake too?
Even the moon above had a ghostly red glow to it, illuminating the forest in a light that looked like blood seeping across the land. The stars had all gone out, leaving a completely blank, black sky haunted by the evil red moon. It seemed to taunt her, daring her to run from its oppressive light and glare.
Jackie, trying to escape the moon's evil light, furiously ran into the woods, crashing through leaves and branches, tripping on roots. Sticks cracked under her feet, leaves crunched under her shoes, and who-knows-what else snapped because of her haphazard crash through the woods.
No animals were in sight, only the dark shadow creatures in the corners of her vision. They were watching her. Staring at her with bright, solid white eyes that stared into her soul, waiting for the right moment to strike. So many…so very many peered out at her in curiosity.
Primal fear and adrenaline coursed through her veins, fueling her to push harder, stronger, faster, through the woods. Her jog became a run, became a chaos of motion, the desperate struggle of someone escaping their inevitable doom.
Eventually, as was bound to happen, one of them lashed out at her.
This one was in the shape of vines wound around a tree. It had tendrils like some sort of octopus, reaching out and grabbing whatever moved. Jackie tripped on the vine, and it quickly wrapped and traveled around her. It first bound her legs together, then her arms and torso. Squirm as she might, it wouldn't let go. Finally, a vine wound its way up her neck, choking her life out in sharp breaths.
Other versions of shadows descended from trees or grass, melding out of the darkness into unique shapes. Wolves, squirrels, deer, as well as other creatures took shape in the bloody light. It reflected off of the black surface, making the creatures themselves look somewhat like thick, pooled blood.
Jackie stared at them, terrified. Unable to scream, or hardly breathe. She closed her eyes. Surely this was the end of her low existence. Was this really how it was going to end? Out of all the ways to go? Eaten by a group of shadows, never to be seen aga-
Jackie bolted upright in bed, in a cold sweat. Her heart was racing, so much so that it felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. Slowly, she forced herself to close her eyes and take deep, long breaths to slow her heart rate down.
Well, at least she attempted to do that. Instead, her breath shook as it went in and out, unsteady. Her mind kept circling back to the nightmare, forcibly replaying the scenes. Try as she might, the images wouldn't leave her head.
Her eyes flew open, and she scrambled into the dark to get to the desk. Instinctively, she snatched the desk lamp and turned it on, holding it close to her. Now, with the light on, she finally calmed down under its protective glow. She stared at the light of the lamp, telling herself she was safe. At least, she thought so.
When she had finally gained control of her breathing and trembling, she put the light down. Glancing at the bed, she realized that there was no way she was going to fall back asleep. Her heart beat faster even thinking about going back to sleep.
Jackie turned to the desk, opening her sketchbook. Sometimes, she found, drawing her nightmares down helped clear her head. It was like the trick she had read in books, after all. Write your thoughts on paper, then destroy the paper as you see fit. Except Jackie never destroyed her drawings, even the bad ones. The idea of shredding artwork made her wince. Who would ever do that?
Flipping to the next open page in the sketchbook, Jackie grabbed a pencil and sketched some light lines, letting the creative process overtake her. Graphite, colors, texture, shading. Every line is a part of something bigger, something grander. Each with a mind of its own. She drew straight, jagged lines for trees, and swooping unnatural shapes for the shadows, melding out of the objects. Jackie shivered as she drew the vine creature that had attacked her, remembering the feeling of not being able to breathe. Then she bathed everything in that evil red light.
The drawing was only half done when her eyes grew heavy and drooped. Perhaps it would be best to get some rest, but she really wanted to finish the drawing. She returned to it, shading in another few lines with a black marker.
However, she was drifting off before she knew it.
* * *
Jackie awoke to light streaming in through the window. The morning sun had risen over the forest, casting a soft orange glow. The tall trees cast long, towering shadows under the morning light, making the forest seem larger than it was. Colorful birds flitted among the branches of trees, chirping morning songs.
Jackie sat upright, stunned. She glanced over at the beautiful scenery, mouth agape. It really was pretty out here, in the forest. Wonderful colors, shapes, and textures combined to create a gorgeous scene. Jackie felt the natural instinct to capture it on the page, fingers twitching at the thought of holding a pencil.
She looked around to find her sketchbook, but found it already in her hands. They were covered in many colors and gray marks; she must have fallen asleep on it. Indeed, as she brushed her cheek with the clean back of her hand, it came away dirty with multicolored smudges and grime.
Then she realized, if it was already morning light, she had best get going. Grabbing a new set of clothes, she changed into them and headed down the stairs, adjusting her posture. Smells of something baking flowed through the rest of the house, and Jackie heard her father's voice from the kitchen as she drew near.
"Bacon?" he asked.
"Yes, dear." Mother said, proffering him her plate. Father scooped a few pieces of bacon off of the hot pan and onto Mother's plate.
She adjusted her posture to be straight and looked down. Jackie walked in and took a seat at the end of the table silently. Mother and father took seats at the other end of the table, next to each other.
"So…what do you think of the place?" Mother asked, picking at her food with a fork.
"It's…nice." Father replied, looking down.
Mother looked over, noticing Jackie was here, and got up to grab Jackie a plate of food. Father said nothing, looking down and moving around his food with a fork. Mother dropped Jackie off a plate with a single slice of bacon, sitting back down at her seat.
"What is it, dear?" Mother asked, noticing Father's mood.
"The place is in shambles," Father replied, shaking his head. "Dust on every surface, cracks in the foundations and walls, peeling paint. Heck, wouldn't surprise me if there were damn rats."
Ew, Jackie thought, rats.
"It will take a good amount of money to repair." Mother said.
"Susie, we don't have a 'good' amount of money. We'll lose the property to taxes within a few months, if we're not careful."
"No, we won't. I'm starting a new job in a few weeks, and we can pull from savings if necessary. It's a miracle my mother even wanted me to have this house when she died. She despised us with all that she had." Mother said, angrily stabbing the bacon.
"Yeah." Father said, running his finger along the table and wiping off the dust. He wrinkled his nose as he inspected the dust left on his fingers. Mother, who was watching Father with a grimace, turned to Jackie and sighed.
"You need to dust today." She said, "Grab the duster in the cleaning box and a wet rag, and get to it. It would be nice to have the whole bottom floor spotless by lunchtime."
"Yes, Mother." Jackie said obediently. She had learned it was best to do what her mom asked, as it made everything easier. Her parents had enough struggles to deal with financially, anyway.
She quickly shoved the piece of bacon into her mouth and swallowed. She wrinkled her nose in disgust, but said nothing. Bacon was gross, salty, and overly full of fat. She didn't understand how anyone could stomach it.
She got up and soundlessly pushed in the chair, walking off. She could still hear her parents conversing in the kitchen about renovating the place.
Jackie, once out of sight, shook her head. Couldn't they see? This place was wonderful, it just needed a good cleaning. Jackie had seen no cracks in the walls yet, and the paint on the mural in her room was uncracked. She wasn't so sure about the rats, though. There could definitely be rats. The thought made Jackie shiver. She hated rats.
She retrieved the green feather duster and a wet rag from some boxes in the entry. Then she made way to the room with the stairs. Setting the stuff on the ground, she took a few steps back to look at what she was working with. The walls were too tall for her to reach, so she might have to find a ladder somewhere. Other than that, it seemed a pretty straightforward job, overall.
Grabbing the tools, she dusted, scrubbed, and dusted again. The process reminded her of countless times she had scrubbed the walls back at the apartment. It had been small, only a few rooms worth of space, but it had been nice and quaint. She preferred it that way.
Jackie realized the homesickness was setting in. Despite having little space there, she wanted to go back and live in the shoebox sized apartment. It had been in the center of the city, next door to the library and all the places that she often liked to visit. Here, the next town over, was a thirty-minute drive. It would take forever to get a hold of some new books.
She also thought she should be happy to have such a large room all to herself, but it didn't bring her any joy. The room had too much silence to it. She missed all the sounds of living in a city. The cars driving by, honking as they pass. Various construction tools that made loud noises in the night. Even the dog down the street who always barked early in the mornings. She had never slept in past six o'clock in the morning because of that dog, even on the weekends.
Isn't it silly, she wondered, to miss a home where the next-door neighbors would keep me up all night with the TV?
Jackie giggled at the thought, remembering the cringe-worthy sit-com's that would play at odd hours. She wondered if the guy, Mr. Afton, thought the walls were soundproof, or if he really just wanted everyone to hear all that canned laughter.
"You missed a spot." Her mother said, strolling into the room. Jackie, almost instinctively, straightened her posture and turned around. Mom had scared her.
"Where?"
"There," Mother said, pointing at the wall. "And another one over there as well. Stay focused, and stop daydreaming in your head, please."
Jackie nodded stiffly and returned to the work with vigor, forcing out any thoughts of home. Or art. Or books. Or…wow. It was really hard to not think about anything in particular, especially when doing such a mundane task. So instead, she focused on the scrubbing. Up, down. Up, down. Up, down.
Mother lingered for a moment, scrutinizing Jackie's cleaning. Eventually, she sauntered off to her own room to do who-knows-what. Jackie slowed her cleaning to a more comfortable rate, slowly working around the room and the hallways outside. They were incredibly grimy and dusty. When was the last time it was cleaned, anyway?
Jackie cleaned all morning, lost in the motions. However, she paused when she smelt something cooking in the kitchen. Taking that as the cue to be done for now, Jackie left the stuff where she found it and took the same seat that she took at breakfast. Grilled cheese sandwiches were being toasted on a hot pan, melted cheese spilling over the sides of the bread and onto the pan.
Jackie's mouth watered, and she felt her empty stomach. Mother and Father sat down, digging into their sandwiches. Jackie watched, hungrily. The gooey cheese stretching out from the sandwich, the crispy toasted bread. She had to stop herself from climbing over the table and grabbing the sandwich right from Mother's hands. As Jackie was watching, Mother noticed, grabbing her a plate.
"Here." she said, setting down the plate. Jackie stared at it ravenously, picking it up in disbelief. When was the last time she had a fresh grilled cheese? Most of the time, what she ate was microwave dinners or leftovers. Something cheap, easy, and affordable.
"Thank you, Mother," Jackie said. "May I eat in my room?"
Mother waved her hand, and Jackie carefully got up and walked neatly out of the room, up the stairs, and to her room, cradling the sandwich. She entered, closing the door and leaning on it for a moment. She brought up the sandwich to her mouth and took a slow bite, savoring the flavor and pure warmth of the food.
A little while later, after completely devouring the sandwich, she returned to the drawing of the nightmare. Adding in minor details. The hardest part of the drawing was shading in the white eyes of the shadows. Nothing quite captured the soulless void, like in her nightmare.
Suddenly, something shifted in the corner of her eye. A dark figure, standing in the corner. Jackie stood up and turned, searching the room rapidly. In her rush, the chair fell to the floor, along with the cup of colored pencils. However, she did not care to pick them up at the moment, especially if someone was in her room.
"H-Hello...?" she said, though she could barely hear herself talk over her own racing heartbeat and thoughts. What if someone was in her room? What if it was like a murder or kidnapper, like in her books?
Nobody responded. Jackie slowly turned around, analyzing where someone in here could hide. There weren't many spots, but under the bed and in the closet were the most likely options. She quietly crept toward the closet door, her breathing quickened. She slowly reached out and laid her shaking hand across the cool metal handle. Forcing herself to take a deep breath, she flung it open with all her might.
Nobody was inside or under the bed when she checked. Jackie released the breath she didn't know she had been holding, though something still bugged her. She knew she had seen something. Perhaps it had just been a hallucination from staring at a single piece of paper for too long, especially because of the content of the picture. Jackie nervously laughed to herself, taking one last look around the room.
Frowning, she spotted a white spot on the wall in the mural. She approached it and saw a little chip of missing paint. Jackie ran over and grabbed her black pot of paint. She uncapped it, reaching in with a brush. Smiling triumphantly, she painted the little patch on the wall.
Suddenly, Jackie heard creaking outside of her door. She screwed the lid onto the paint jar, frantically looking for something that would make it look like she was cleaning. Her mother stepped in before she could, and gasped.
"Jackie…what are you doing?" her Mother asked, motioning to Jackie's hand, which was still tightly clutching the brush.
"Nothing, I was just-"
"Painting your walls? Jackie, we don't have money or time!" She rubbed her hand along the trunk of a tree, testing to see if it was still wet. Jackie furrowed her brow.
"No, mom, it was already there!" Jackie said, her anger rising. Mother stood with her mouth agape, shocked at how Jackie had talked to her. Jackie's hands immediately flew to her mouth.
"Out."
"But-"
"Out!" her mother said angrily, pointing out of the room. "I can't believe this. Where did you get enough paint?"
Jackie followed her Mother out of the room, leaving the safety of the painted forest behind. Guilty, she stared at her feet as they walked back to the kitchen, where Father was organizing plates into an overhead cupboard.
"Dear, our daughter painted her room's walls. What do you think we should do?" Mother asked, grabbing Jackie's wrist tightly. Father looked from Mother to Jackie with a pained expression, then shrugged. Mother snorted angrily, glaring at him.
"You're just as incompetent." Mother exclaimed. "How about this?" she said through gritted teeth. "I'm taking away your art supplies. Indefinitely. Focus, please. You know we don't have the money for this. I know you want so many things. But I need you to help and get out of your head."
"No! You can't!" Jackie exclaimed, pulling out of her Mother's tight grip.
"Oh yes, I can." She said, a small smile of victory appearing on her face. Jackie didn't know what to do. She had done no wrong! So she did the only thing she could think of.
She ran.
* * *
William bolted down the hall after Jackie. William thought, for being a dead guy, he did a relatively good job of keeping up with this spry girl. It seemed like she was intentionally focusing her efforts on losing anyone tailing her, ducking around corners or going through side rooms that eventually joined back to the main hall. Man, was she fast.
At last, she burst through a pair of large doors and wound up on the largest balcony the building offered. William stopped right behind her, jerking to a halt. The other ghosts were not far behind, with Henry stopping right beside William.
"I didn' expect the lass t' run like that!" Henry laughed, head raised high. His laughter abruptly died when he saw Jackie.
She had sat down and curled up into a ball by the very edge of the roof, dangerously close to falling off. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, falling onto her clothes and getting them wet. Her eyes were red and puffy, and choked whimpers were coming out of her.
"Oh, child." Selket said, staring sadly at Jackie. Henry simply nodded.
"I don't really like this," William said. Although her reaction to losing art supplies was petty and childish, her parents had flipped out more than they needed to.
William felt lost. All of his miserable ghostly life, he had never wanted to talk to a living person more. To comfort her, to help her. Remembering the night before, where he had "befriended" Jackie, he made up his mind and came up with a plan. However foolish and pointless that plan may be.
Setting his jaw, he walked over to the edge of the building and joined her, sitting with his legs dangling over the edge. Gaping, William realized how far up this was. Despite there being no real danger of falling to him, the height still shocked him and gave him a sense of vertigo. Four stories, he'd guess. This made him realize Jackie's position was quite precarious, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Silently, the other ghosts did the same, sitting around Jackie and observing the view. From up here, you could see over the trees, and to the mountains beyond. They towered over the landscape like sentinels, dusted with ice and frost at their peaks.
Time slowly crept by, the sun moving sluggishly across the sky. At some point, Jackie had stopped crying and watched the sky with them. For just a moment, William could pretend to be with a living person and be content just looking at the view. He smiled. It had been such a long time since he had felt this calm. His near constant inner turmoil was finally silenced, if only for a small amount of time.
The sun sank beyond the horizon, splattering the sky with vibrant colors. Then, as more time progressed, stars twinkled into existence. At first, only a few of the brightest showed up, before spiraling exponentially into a massive amount of stars. Purples and blues painted the sky, and William could see the milky way above. The views from here in the wilderness were stunning and breathtaking. Despite hating his life here, William could think of worse places to be trapped.
How long is she going to stay up here? William thought.
Jackie showed no signs of moving, still curled up in the fetal position with her knees tucked in. It wouldn't surprise William to see her sit here all night, as she was likely scared to go back inside. Although, upon further examination, she was grinning widely, looking up at the stars. William smiled too. He would count that as a win. Jackie closed her eyes and let out a deep, relieved breath.
That's when she fell forward.
She lost her balance, careening over the edge. She yelped as she fell off completely, eyes wide in terror. For a split second, Williams' eyes met hers, and he swore she could see him.
Before William knew what he was doing, he dived after her.
"Will! What are ye doing, lad?!" Henry shouted from above, though William paid him no correspondence.
Time seemed to slow, the air rushing past him as he fell. The exhilaration of free fall scared him, but he had to do something. It dawned on him that this was likely pointless, but he knew, deep down, he couldn't just watch. This poor girl didn't deserve to die like this. Full of determination and resolve, he plummeted to the ground.
Suddenly, a warmth spread through him. It shocked him and he involuntarily gasped at the feeling of it. It spread through his entire body, somehow condensing at the back of his shoulder blades, blistering hot. He felt a new weight settle upon his shoulders, and the warmth turned to nearly unbearable heat.
With little time to think, and only a few moments before impact, he reached out and grabbed her. Miraculously, his hands became solid, if for only a few seconds. They tumbled to the ground together, heads over heels, scraping and bouncing off of the ground. William banged his head multiple times, and his vision blurred.
When they finally came to a stop, William groaned, unable to move because of the blistering hot pain on his back. It obscured his thinking, and the only thing he could do was groan and mutter in utter pain.
Unable to handle it, he blacked out.