The Girl From the Other Side - Prologue

The lamp on the nightstand flickered. Again...and again. Macie sat up in bed, hugged her knees, and let out a quiet whimper. Her eyes, bulged with fear, darted between the many shadows hiding in the corners of the room. The bathroom door opened itself by just a crack, the creaking noise grating Macie’s nerves. Arthur had oiled the hinges twelve times over the past week and it never creaked when one of them was opening it. But at night, when the door crept open on its own like this, it was another matter entirely. When the lamp flickered yet again and the room submerged into absolute darkness for a split second, Macie stilled, swallowing back a bloodcurdling scream. She definitely caught a glimpse of a lone figure standing by the window, but as always, when the light came back on, no one was there. Of course there was no one there. Nothing was happening here! Ghosts? Haunted houses? Ridiculous! It was an easy thing to believe during the day. But when the sun disappeared below the horizon and the lights turned themselves on and off in the house, one by one, the idea of ghosts suddenly became much more real. Macie and Arthur had changed the lightbulbs. They‘d had an electrician examine the wiring throughout the house. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Perhaps they were just turning the lights off themselves without even realizing it, like an instinct, an automated reaction? That was the electrician‘s explanation. But Macie couldn’t help but notice how nervous he was. How he kept looking around and over his shoulder the whole time he had been inside the house. He‘d even refused the coffee and bagels she had made earlier and was visibly relieved to finally leave Eastmeadow Manor. The house had been cheap and beautiful and Arthur claimed it was in good condition for it’s age. Ghosts? Who the fuck cares about scary stories when you can get your hands on a property for this price? It was perfect. Right by the lake, the perfect distance from town. One of the neighbors was a friendly old lady and the other one kept mostly to himself. No loud parties or marital arguments. Wouldn‘t you buy it? The lamp went off. Macie squealed in horror as she smacked Arthur’s shoulder. How could he be sleeping through this?! She quickly reached for her phone and unlocked the screen. The dim blue light did very little to illuminate the room, but Macie definitely saw her this time. A girl in a simple white nightgown. Long dark hair, a sad smile on her face. It was merely a split second, until Macie blinked, then the girl was gone again. “Arthur! Wake the fuck up, you idiot!” Her dumb husband groaned but raised his head and squinted around. “What?” “I saw her! It’s happening again! The light won’t come back on!” The growing panic made her voice sound strangled. Arthur grumbled something but reached for the lightswitch on his side of the bed. Nothing happened. Macie had managed to turn on the flashlight feature on her phone and was now pointing it all around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Their wedding photo had fallen off the wall, again, but that had happened so often that Macie no longer paid attention to the loud thuds of the frame hitting the hardwood floor. The bathroom door moved again, the horrible screeching sound made Macie wince. Arthur frowned and reached into his nightstand drawer. “This might have been a silly game before now,” he said to the room in a surprisingly steady voice, “but it ends tonight. I have a gun!” Macie’s eyes widened at the sight of the revolver in his hand. “You either stop what you are doing, right now, or you are not leaving this house alive!” A girly giggle sounded from the bathroom. “You think this is funny?!” Still holding the gun, Arthur slipped out of bed and walked closer to the bathroom door. “You are trespassing on private property! I have every right to-” Macie’s phone died. It made no sense, it was fully charged just a few minutes ago and now it was simply dead. The giggle got louder and the door opened fully, the impenetrable darkness inside revealing nothing. “Macie, call the police.” Arthur’s voice was shaking now. Squeezing the dead phone in her hand, Macie shook her head, not realizing that Arthur couldn’t see her. “How?” The word came out as a horrified squeal. The girl was by the window again, her outline visible against the dim light coming from outside. She wasn’t moving, only standing there, her white nightgown reflecting the Moon’s light. Sounds of scratching and tearing kept coming from inside the bathroom before another sound made Macie whimper. Footsteps. Bare feet plopping on the tiles, getting closer to the door. “W-why?” Macie whispered hoarsely, her eyes fixed on the girl by the window. She didn’t want to see whatever it was that was coming out of the bathroom. “Why are you here?!” The girl shrugged and took a few soundless steps forward. The sound of the gunshot was deafening in the small space, but the only thing that was affected when Arthur pulled the trigger was the window. It shattered, pieces of glass tinkling across the front porch roof. The girl’s shoulders went up and down in a quiet sigh. The thing in the bathroom wailed. It was a heart-wrenching sound of agonizing pain, fear, and desperation, a sound that almost had Macie losing her mind. Screaming in horror, she darted out of the bedroom, stumbled down the stairs, and reached for the front door handle, terrified that it wouldn’t open. That’s what always happened in horror movies, right? Another set of footsteps stomped down the stairs and Macie cried out, but it was just Arthur. The door opened without issues and they both ran out of the house, not stopping until they were on the main road that led through the neighborhood. Macie’s feet were bleeding, she must have cut them on the gravel on the driveway, but she didn’t care, relieved that they had made it out alive. “We are selling that house!!!”

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Jessica stood by the broken window, watching poor Macie and her husband stumble through the driveway. “Guys,” she sighed, “did you really have to do that?” Two other girls appeared behind her, emerging right from the bathroom wall. “What good is being a ghost if you can’t haunt anyone?” The shorter one said with a mean smirk. She was wearing the same white nightgown as Jessica, they both were. Not that it was a fashion choice. “I know, but still…” It was a pointless argument they’d already had several times before. Jessica watched Arthur wave at a passing car. He exchanged a few words with the driver before he and his wife got in. The car drove away and Jessica desperately wished she could do the same. “What?” The short girl floated up to hover a few inches above the floor before making an elegant backflip. “Boo!” she giggled. “Come on, Jess, don’t be such a stick in the mud. We might be dead, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun!” The other girl nodded, but kept her mouth closed which Jessica was grateful for. Delanie had somehow lost the ability to speak when she‘d died and could only make horrifying squeals and screams. “I didn’t have that much fun, Emily,” Jessica frowned. “He shot me!” “Girl,” Emily rolled her eyes, “you are dead. You can’t get shot.” “Maybe, but it was still weird.” Yes, of course Jessica knew that the bullet wouldn’t harm her, but having someone point a gun at her wasn’t a pleasant experience either way. “Couldn’t you have kept it down a bit for a few more days? They had Netflix! I haven't finished watching Stranger Things yet!” Delaine chuckled soundlessly then disappeared into thin air. Emily just floated around the room, hovering over the bed. “Sorry,” she pouted. The puppy eyes on that angelic face of hers, framed by lovely blonde curls, were simply irresistible. “Honestly, I was hoping they would last longer.” “Nobody lasts after hearing Delaine scream.” “I didn’t know she would join in, she usually stays away. Come o-o-on, Jess.” How could anyone remain angry at Emily after seeing her apologetic expression? “I’m really sorry. I know you get bored when the house is empty. I’ll try to entertain you before the next family arrives?” Which could take years. “Please, don’t,” Jessica groaned playfully. Emily might have been quirky, impulsive, and annoying sometimes, but she was Jessica’s best friend in this dreadful place. It was hardly Emily’s fault anyway. She was barely fifteen years old when she‘d died, not a great baseline for a responsible ghost. And she had been stuck in the house for over twenty years already, as opposed to Jessica, who has only been serving her twelfth year of their eternal sentence. “They probably deserved it. They were horrible people,” Jessica declared as she crouched to look at their wedding photo. Two beautiful people with wide, bright, smiles. “I know!” Emily agreed, floating over to join Jessica and maneuvering herself to hang upside down from the ceiling. They all could do that, but Jessica preferred to stay in the upright position. Even the thought of such air acrobatics made her non-existent stomach churn. Emily scratched her nose. “But do you really blame her for sleeping with the gardener? Her husband was horrible in bed!” “Right? All those pretended orgasms! How did he not notice?” Emily shrugged. “Most men don’t know shit about female bodies. At least the gardener knew where the clitoris was!” Jessica burst into laughter. “He most certainly did!” Yes, they’d often watched people have sex. They watched them do everything. Being dead was incredibly boring and since they couldn’t leave the property, they were stuck with observing the daily lives of those people who lived in the house. And occasionally having fun haunting them. You make do with what you have. Now they were stuck in an empty house, waiting for the next unassuming family to move in.