Toastmasters 2011 Ghost Story Competition

Out of this world

Out of this world...she was just out of this world. 

As the years move on, the memories come and go.

The house next door was empty for years... curtains drawn, dark and nobody ever seen. Strangely the garden was immaculate, green well kept with beautiful roses blooming all year round. The walls were brightly painted, everything perfectly in place.

One night in mid winter, an icy wind blowing from the south, I suddenly woke up at about 3 o clock. Something told me to look out and there then in the small hours of the morning, one by one the lights turned on. Yet not a living soul to be seen...

I woke up night after night and looked out. About 3 months later there she was! Clearly silhouetted in the window! Dark, brunette, about my age, smouldering brown eyes...almost like a gypsy.

Night after night she looked at me, later she even waved at me. She haunted my mind and my dreams.

She was out of this world...

I was just 12. Never saw her parents or anybody else, never heard a car parking, nothing. I did not tell my parents anything. It was too precious and my stronghold against the brutal onslaughts of life.

My life was hard and gruesome. Every day at school a never ending nightmare as everything possible went wrong. My only breach against my marks in maths and science, but that was too small to make a difference.

Being small, nerdy and ugly, my biggest fear was Paul the bully. My whole life centred around avoiding him, yet everyday on the playground he sniffed me out, kicked on my shins, nudged my in the stomach, while his friends laughed at me. No place to hide, life a misery, only to by highlighted  by the far way glimpses of her resting my soul and giving me peace.

Our house my safe haven, my place of peace with my loving parents paving my way and the midnight glances across the fence bolstering my failing mood.

Then, Christmas eve, my mother prepared a wonderful meal, die lights flickering on the tree, gifts displayed next to it. Disaster struck as the phone rang. It was the hospital, Grandma was admitted and in a serious condition. My parents left in a hurry leaving me staring at the flickering tree, alone...again.

The door bell rang, I foolishly opened, they stormed in, all four of them.

“You bastard!” they shouted with Paul leading of the pack. “Who are you to make a fool of us in the class? Who are you to always get the best marks?”

They threw my on the floor and kicked me in he stomach. The pain was unbearable.

“You little twit, this will teach you a lesson, you bastard!”

Blowing smoke in my face, the kicking and hitting seemed endless. I knew I was going to die.

Then...the door opened slowly, she walked in. No wrong, it seemed that she floated. She was dressed with clothing I never saw, black with a hood, strange, almost medieval... 

She was small, even smaller than me. She walked straight to Paul. The smouldering brown eyes glaring at him.

“What have we here?” asked Paul with a broad smile, “What a beauty! Just what I was waiting for!”

He stretched for her.

She did not say a word, took the 2 metre tall Paul by his neck, picked him up and held him above her head. She threw him through the door. He landed 15 meters away on the pavement in a screaming broken and bruised heap. Peter, John and Freddie stood petrified with fear. Slowly she took them one by one and they met the same fate.

She walked to me, bent down on her knees, pickup me up, dried my tears and held me close to her with kindness in her eyes. 

Slowly she turned her back to me and without a word walked out and disappeared into the night. 

I knew I will never saw her again, she remained a precious figment in my mind... she was out of this world.

Next door, one by one, the lights were fading out....