Tom dug in. There was a ragged doll that had lost an eye, a chocolate wrapper, a pink bow tie, a photo of the little girl and her mother, and a little plastic piggy bank. The girl crouched next to Tom and pointed at the piggy bank.
Tom pulled it out. The purple piggy bank was semi-transparent and Suzanne could see that there were some dollar notes and coins in them.
You want to give this to your mommy?” she asked.
The little ghost girl nodded in excitement. Suzanne's heart broke. She recalled begging for her own mother to stay, in exchange for all the money in her piggy bank.
Oh, God. She came back here just to give her mother her savings.
The little girl had travelled all the way to Suzanne's apartment just so she could give her mother her savings.
The ghost pointed to the photo too. In it, the little girl was still a baby and the woman was seen holding the child with a genuine smile on her face. It was probably taken during a happier time.
“It’s a beautiful picture,” Suzanne smiled at the little girl. Suzanne stood up and gently took the piggy bank from Tom’s hands.
“Let’s go little one,” she stepped out of the room and the little girl followed behind with a skip, happy to be able to gift her mother a present.
The woman was sober by now and was puffing yet another cigarette while she popped open a can of beer.
“Found what you were looking for?” she asked before taking a big gulp of the Heineken.
The little girl walked up to her mother and tried to hug her. But something about her touch made the woman drop her beer. She jerked up from her seat, surprising herself.
Tom came out of the room and saw the woman cursing at her wet robe. The beer had spilt onto it.
“Your daughter wanted to give you this,” Suzanne held out the piggy bank for the woman to see.
The woman’s eyes widened, recognizing the piggy bank. Her mouth went agape and the cigarette dropped onto the floor. She crushed it with her bare leg and grabbed the piggy bank from Suzanne.
“How…?” she could not finish her sentence.
“It doesn’t matter how we know. What matters is, your daughter loved you very much. And I believe she would have wanted a better life for you. I think you get my drift,” Suzanne said in a serious tone.
Tom was amazed at how well Suzanne was handling all of this. If he had been in her shoes, he probably would have torn the woman apart for being such a horrible mother. He thought of all those years of growing up without a motherly figure and how lonely it felt. And here this woman had the chance to love her baby girl but gave it all up for the sake of booze and men. He shook his head in disgust. The little girl sat at her mother’s feet while the woman stood there motionless.
“Here’s a photo of the two of you that she kept in her drawer,” Suzanne pressed the photo into the palm of the woman’s hand.
“We’ll take our leave now,” Suzanne motioned for the little girl to follow her. The ghost girl stood up, straightened her backpack, and tried to hug her mother. The woman blinked and looked down, but alas, she saw nothing.
Tom, Suzanne, and the little girl then turned to leave, but not before the little girl blew her mother a kiss.
And as they walked out of the house, Tom asked Suzanne, “Why didn’t you let her see her daughter?”
Suzanne looked down at the little girl, “The mother wouldn’t have been able to let her go.”
“Come, it’s time to send this little one-off. “
And with that, they brought the little girl with red shoes back to Suzanne’s apartment.
***
The woman slumped to her knees the moment Suzanne and Tom left, clutching the piggy bank and photo to her chest. Tears spilt onto the floor as she heaved between sobs. Memories of her little girl dancing around the house, drawing on the wall and playing with her beer cans came flooding back as she cradled the piggy bank, wailing and hitting her chest. Her only child was gone. And she would never get to see her grow up. There would be no walking her little girl down the aisle or seeing her have her own family. There was only a void in her life now. And no amount of booze or men would be able to fill the gaping hole in her heart.
As she cried, a dark mist started to take form at the pond behind her house.
***
It was almost dusk by the time the woman got up from the floor. She wiped away the tears from her eyes, swollen from all the crying. The weird duo who came to her house was right. She would make her daughter proud. She had a plan. She would clean up her act, and start life anew. One that would honour her daughter’s memories.
But just as she was about to head switch on the table lamp, the black mist seeped in through the window from her daughter’s room, slithered it way in and engulfed her. It forced open her mouth and pushed its way into her body as the woman’s eyes widened in horror, confusion, and pain. She grabbed her throat, gagging and choking at the same time, bumping into the coffee table next to her and knocking over the table lamp. The whites of her eyes turned black and her body started to wither like a mummy’s. The woman slumped onto the floor, gasping for breath, her body twitching wildly before she finally laid still.
The mist emerged from her very pores before taking a more solid shape and slithering away from the woman. It went away, looking for yet another victim. It needed more life force before it go to Suzanne Summers.
Horny Mike would come back the next day to find a dried-up corpse on the floor the very next morning.
Tom stood at the door of Suzanne’s apartment, seemingly not wanting to leave. He held onto the door, faked a cough and asked her one more time, “You sure you’ll be okay with little missy here?”Suzanne laughed. Surely he wasn’t that attached to the little ghost girl?“We’ll be fine. Her time has come. I’ll need to send her on her way.”Tom scratched the back of his head, “Well, alright then.”He bent down and looked at the little girl. He couldn’t see her face still, her features were all a blur, probably due to the drowning, but he smiled at her nonetheless. “You take care okay? You’re in good hands.”The little ghost nodded her head silently. He looked back up at Suzanne who stood right next to them.“Yvonne’s waiting for you, Tom,” Suzanne reminded h
It was nightfall, the moon shone brightly in a cloudless night and Tom stood in front of the Banks’ residence. Unbeknownst to Yvonne and Suzanne, he had been here before. But only as a guest. He had been invited to the Mayor’s ball the last Christmas as a guest and speaker. He had even chatted with William Banks that night and had found the man to be as charming as the media had made him out to be.“You look like someone I used to know,” William had laughed as they stood by the firewall, sipping Chardonnay while a violinist strode past them playing Last Christmas.Did I remind you of Yvonne? He thought to himself. Life would certainly have been vastly different had he grown up a member of the Banks family, and not just someone who bore the same surname.But what’s past is past. I’m here to say goodbye to him.Tom stepped up to th
D-Day - 1Suzanne had just stepped out of her shower when she heard her doorbell rang. She hastily grabbed her robe and put it on before heading towards the door. On the security screen was the face of Tom Banks. She glanced at the clock on her wall. It was past midnight.Didn’t we agree to meet in the morning? She thought to herself. She turned on the microphone.“Hey, Tom!” she croaked. Great. I sound like a frog.“Sorry to intrude. But um, can I come in?” he looked like a sad puppy. A hot sexy looking sad puppy.Heck, you can do more than come in…she thought before biting her lips.“Sure. Hang on. I’ll open the door.”She hastily tied her hair in a ponytail and tightened her robe. Her worn out robe had seen better days. She wished she had on
The dawn of a new day did not make way for the glory of the morning sun. Instead, what greeted Suzanne was a heavy downpour. One she had never witnessed before. The sky flashed with lightning and roared with thunder. If she hadn’t glanced at the clock on the wall, she would have thought that it was still midnight. But the shorthand of the clock had already reached 9.She groaned and sat up, only to see a sleeping Tom on the floor. He was curled up in a catlike position, the blanket had been kicked off sometime during the night. Suzanne smiled and bent down from the comfort of her bed to cover him with the blanket gently.They had kissed and touched each other the night before but did not progress further. Instead, Tom had held her in his arms as they talked. She wished Tom hadn’t been such a gentleman.She rose from the bed and tiptoed over to her office and almost let out a scream when she saw Yv
Yvonne waved to both Tom and Suzanne before she disappeared into the rainbow with the bearded man in white. And when the last of the light from the rainbow disappeared, Tom closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.Suzanne placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright?” she asked.He nodded, “That was beautiful.”He turned to Suzanne and pulled her into a warm embrace. He rested his chin on top of her curly dark hair as she nuzzled her face in his chest. “Will it be the same for everyone in the end?”Suzanne nodded, “Usually, yes.”Tom twirled a lock of her hair with his finger, “Usually?”Suzanne looked up, tiptoed, and kissed his cheek. “Some don’t get to go over the rainbow bridge. Some get sucked into the abyss.” She shuddered, suddenly feeling a sense of Deja Vu. Lightni
D-DAYIt was past midnight when Suzanne finally opened her eyes. She quickly sat up only to see Tom lying next to her, snoring softly. Lightning flashed, followed by the deafening sound of thunder. The protective seal she had weaved earlier was gone.Something’s out there, her eyes narrowed as she tried to adjust to seeing in the dark. She gripped her wand, Tom had not removed it from her grasp during her sleep. Good old Tom. She patted his head softly.She crossed her living room and went towards her front door. But before she could reach for the doorknob, the door started to rattle. The black mist started to seep in from underneath the door. It had finally come for Suzanne.What in the heavens? Suzanne had never seen nor felt such evil before.She quickly pointed the wand at the door and recited an ancient chant. The wand ext
The mist had finally won. It had entered the body of the strongest host. There was no stopping it now. The mist began to take over Suzanne’s body. First the body. It immobilized Suzanne. The mist could feel Suzanne struggling, willing herself to move, her every nerve demanding that her muscles react. Then the consciousness. The mist began to enter Suzanne’s consciousness as Suzanne lost hers. It went into Suzanne’s consciousness and saw flashes of Suzanne’s memories.There was Tom, his mouth grazing the base of Suzanne’s neck as his hand squeezed her breasts provocatively through her satin robe. Suzanne had moaned as Tom pulled back the edge of the robe to expose one side of her breast. Suzanne had gyrated her thigh against Tom, wishing for him to take her there and then. Such pleasure. Such ecstasy.Another memory appeared. This was of Suzanne and her grandmother at the nursing home. Suzanne was peeling a
Suzanne was at Tom’s apartment, going through her luggage bag for the umpteenth time. They were set to fly to the Maldives first thing in the morning and Suzanne was sleeping over at Tom’s place for the night. His apartment was closer to the airport. Plus she liked frolicking in Tom’s bed.That evening, Suzanne sat at the edge of Tom’s king-sized bed, wearing only Tom’s sweatshirt her little black underwear and a pair of orange socks. With one knee tucked under her chin, she went through the items in her luggage bag one last time. She had OCD when it came to packing for a trip. One time she spent a whole day just to pack a little tote bag for a trip down to Kentucky.The bedroom door was slightly ajar and she could see Tom watching the news in his dimly lit, but cosy living room. Suzanne never did like watching the ne
In a flash of blinding light, the bloodied circle from which Suzanne had pulled the dark figure into, exploded, sending a gigantic shock wave throughout the hill on which the mansion stood. It lifted everyone up in the air and for a moment, Tom felt as if he could fly. But he did not land gracefully. He landed on something hard and felt an agonizing pain shoot up his body. For all he knew, he could have broken his hip. Then everything faded to black.He had no idea how long he stayed unconscious but when he opened his eyes next, a smoky wind was blowing in his direction. The mansion was on fire. It had gone up in flames.With great difficulty, he sat up, only to fall back on his back. He looked down and to his horror, he saw that his stomach was bleeding. He had in fact been lying in his own pool of blood.“Stay still,” a female voice said. He looked up, it was the blonde woman. Her skin had miraculously healed. She pricked her finger and allowed her blood to dr
The dark figure was cunning. Yes, even in its weakened state, it knew that Suzanne and her friends were no match for it. It had been plunged with the ancient dagger; but alas, the dagger was not as powerful as the one Vlad had yielded.It rose from the ground once more, looming over them as the remaining strands of mist swirled voraciously around it, much to Suzanne’s horror.Through its veil of darkness, it could see Suzanne’s eyes widen in disbelief, as confusion glided across her face.From behind the being, the golden-haired woman crept up, ready to strike. Her reflexes were tremendous and her moves instantaneous but without the dagger, she was no match for it.It raised its hands and with an invisible force, it dragged the woman across the marbled floor towards it before she could even counter herself. She was savagely pulled into the enemy’s grasp and it crushed her by the shoulder before flinging her across the foyer and crashing
The voices were calling out to Suzanne. She couldn’t be sure if they originated from the abyss or from the hooded figure hovering at the door. But there was nothing soothing about the voices. Every sound that they made sickened her, making her feel as if maggots were crawling over the top of her skull and into her ears. She shook her head furiously but the sensation refused to go away.Focus damnit….“Suzanne….” the voice called out again. It was the same voice that had called out to her from the garden. And the airport. And in her nightmares.The voices were awful. She couldn’t comprehend what they were saying save for the calling of her name but she was pretty sure they were some kind of distorted incantation. All of a sudden, she had an avalanche of dark and alien thoughts. She did not like them, not one bit.She looked over to Tom who stood slightly hunched over, ready to pounce on the figure if need be.
Misty snakes slithered from the remaining figure’s cloak even as it screamed bloody murder. And the swarm of snakes began to crawl toward Vlad.He could have fled then, he could have abandoned Suzanne and her friends for the sake of his own life. But he was brave, even as the recognition of impending doom stared at him in the face.One of the misty snakes slithered up to Vlad and drove its fangs deep into his ankle. Immediately his skin seethed with pain as the venom began to travel to his heart. He tried to fight it off, but the dagger had gone up in flames and he had no tricks left to pull on this particular demon of the dark.Then another snake came forward, and still another, until soon Vlad could no longer stand. He crumpled to the ground, his body failing as a numb wave of a million daggers pierced his body and his head. With every breath he took, he heaved and coughed up blood.He never stood a chance. The vampire from the ancient of times began to die
As Thomas took his first step out from the safe haven of the golden threads, his short young life suddenly flashed before his eyes.He saw himself as a child, chasing after the autumn leaves on the streets. The other children had not wanted to play with him. Then he saw himself at his graduation with freckles and braces complete with cracked glasses, standing alone and smiling awkwardly at the camera while the rest of his classmates stood in the arms of their parents. He had been lonely then. The image was soon replaced by his first-day job as a library assistant at the Birmingham Library. He had felt at home there and was accepted by all the book-loving children who would share with him their candies and sandwiches.A smile appeared on his lips just then, and his vigour renewed as he stepped further out to face the rage of the black mist. With each step he took, a surge of determination began to flow through him, growing stronger and stronger, until it became an unsto
D-DAY-2 = DOOMSDAYVlad opened his eyes, his black iris now replaced by blood red ones. He was in killer mode and his senses were especially heightened now.“It’s here.”All around him, the clairvoyants spread out, forming a circle, each with a wand in their hands. The only people missing were Suzanne and Tom.“Where are Suzanne and Tom?” Thomas asked nervously. He was trying hard not to tremble but was failing miserably. And even though it was cold, he was perspiring heavily. He gripped his wand so tightly his knuckles turned white, wishing he had an ounce of the twins’ bravery.“They are coming down now,” the vampire said simply, both his eyes and ears alert. In all his years of existence, he had never met his match, and he intended for it to stay that way.***Moments before…Tom could finally look at Suzanne. In place of her black eyes were now her old
All around the world, the black mist retreated, slithering back into the shadows, putting an end to the overwhelming thunderstorms and blizzards that terrified everyone. The skies were clear once more, much to the joy of the people and soon, many came out of hiding, snapping pictures of the cloudless skies and taking selfies, posting them on social media to proclaim the good news.Everyone around the world was celebrating, except for the people of Seoul, Korea. For up in their skies, the black mist appeared, looming over the city, sending every last person who dared to venture out earlier scampering for shelter.A young man and his sister peeked out from their apartment window and snapped a photo of the mist as it headed for the Gangnam. In a matter of minutes, the photo went viral, sending a tremor of terror down the spines of all who saw it, for, within the mist, a shadowy face could be seen.It was the face of the devil himself.***The banging
Vlad the vampire had come.Suzanne immediately tensed up, “What are you doing here?” There was no welcome in her voice.Hans and Marcelino immediately whipped out their wands, surprising Tom. He was still not used to the idea that the metallic sticks could act as a weapon for clairvoyants.The snow crunched softly under Vlad’s feet as he strode across the lawn, his face in mocked sadness, “You hurt my feelings, Suzanne. I merely came to offer you my service, but I can see that I am not welcomed at your wedding.”Suzanne frowned, “What do you mean?” Her heart was thumping.A forever pause. Vlad had always loved a good audience.“I’m here to join you for the fight.”Tom blinked, “Excuse me?”From the side, Thomas whispered to the twins, “Is THAT the vampire Suzanne told us about?”One of the twins gushed, “He’s sooooo handsome!&
D-Day-3There would be no grand wedding. But it was fine with Suzanne and Tom. They had in fact opposed to having one. It did not seem right for them to celebrate when countless lives were lost by the minute.But the twins and Thomas were adamant about having a celebration.“Everything’s so bleak now, we can at least look forward to a joyous occasion with your wedding!” Thomas had pleaded, blinking at them like a little doe through his glasses.So Suzanne and Tom relented. The twins and Thomas spent one whole day yesterday just to create the perfect wedding arch out of dried flowers and twigs. They roped in everyone for a scavenger hunt around Hans’ mansion, looking for everything and anything that could be put to good use and to Suzanne’s delight, they all ended up having a snowball fight like little children.Thomas was right, the wedding did bring forth smiles on their faces.The twins fashioned a simple bouq