She Wrote What?

A Shattered Existence

August 3, 2012

An Excerpt From: A Shattered Existence

By ALICIA MCLEOD

Sleep was all I had been able to do for days. Who would have thought that a vacation, which was meant to be relaxing, could exhaust someone this much. My friends and I had just gotten back from a trip to Costa Rica. I had wanted to lay on the beach for the whole week we were there, but I ended up being dragged from activity to activity by my friends. I am not an incredibly fit person, so the strenuous activities like white water rafting, hiking and cliff jumping were quite exhaustive.

I was using the weekend of our return from paradise to fully relax and recuperate. I was allowing myself to drift in and out of sleep on the plush, worn-in couch in my living room. I rarely dreamed, but today was a major exception. The dream I had was indeed a strange one, because if I didn’t know any better I might think I was still awake. I was on my couch, just as in real life, but I was awake and staring down the hallway towards the bedrooms. What happened next ensured me that I was in fact dreaming, even though it felt so real. An apparition appeared in the spare bedroom doorway and began to drift down the hall toward me. It was hard to make out, due to the fact that it was quite opaque, but I could make out enough of the features to be able to tell that it was a middle aged man. There was no discernible body, it was more like a smoky, shapeless wisp. The face was quite handsome, even though it was colorless. The grey scaled features were easy to make out. His eyes, although lacking color, were like deep pools of black ink and expressed a profound sadness. They were quite beautiful and I held his gaze, spellbound. I wasn’t afraid, even though this was obviously a paranormal encounter and I had never experienced anything like it before.

The ghost floated toward me and hovered above the couch, staring down at me. He lowered himself down on me and began to caress my body; All I felt was a cool breeze, chilling me and causing goosebumps to pop up all over my skin. The spirit began to make love to me! At this point I was simultaneously afraid and excited. Something about the whole encounter felt so sensual and was so unique, that it had stuck with me even long after I awoke.

Over the next few weeks I thought about the dream, and the spirit of the man, frequently. I was ready to store it in my memory bank, one strange, lucid dream to reflect on from time to time, but something happened that wouldn’t allow me to.

This story will be continued and available to read in a future, printed anthology of a collection of short stories. Future notifications about the publication of this anthology will appear on this site, as they become available.