MicroHorror

“I feel unbearable guilt for what I’ve done,” Evelyn said through the darkness, standing at the foot of the man’s bed.

“Unbearable guilt,” said the sleeping man and then stirred a little.

“I would rather end my life than live with the guilt for another day.”

“End my life.”

She sensed a third presence, in the new way she sensed things. She spoke to it telepathically, so the sleeping man would not hear. “Who’s there?”

The voice that came back was female. “I am like you, just dead longer.”

Evelyn hesitated and then said, “What do you want?”

She felt the presence come closer. “What are you doing?” it asked. “Why have you not ascended?”

Evelyn considered lying, but didn’t know if she could lie to a ghost. “I shout at him all the time. He only hears me when he sleeps, and he only hears me when I speak in the first person.”

“That’s because he thinks he hears his own thoughts. But still, what you do is in vain. By the time he wakes, the thoughts will be stored in a place deep within his mind, where they cannot affect him.”

Evelyn had found that she did many of the things as a ghost that she had done as a person; they just didn’t affect the world. She sighed. “This man stole me from my home and brought me to this very room. He raped and tortured me for days, before he killed me. He’ll do it to other girls. I’ll not ascend until I see him dead.”

“Fine, but you have to do it right. You must place these thoughts in his head and then rouse him quickly, so they are still there when he wakes.”

“How?”

“Place the thoughts in his head and then shout the word that all people attend to most, the word that is different for most every person.”

Evelyn thought she knew what the ghost was saying. “But I don’t know his name. I can’t find it either, because my only two choices are to ascend or remain in the room where I died. And it’s not like I have hands to search through his wallet or dresser drawers. He speaks to no one in here, so I don’t hear his name uttered.”

They were both silent for a few seconds and then the presence said, “He is called Andrew.”

Evelyn, though pessimistic, felt a tinge of optimism too. “How do you know?”

“I told you. I’m dead longer, much longer. I can get things you can’t yet. Now do this, so you might ascend.”

Evelyn felt the presence leave. She spoke out loud. “I feel guilt for all I’ve done.”

“Guilt for all,” the man said back.

“I cannot bear to live another day because of it.”

“Can’t live another day.”

“I have to end my life.”

“End my life.”

As loud as she could, she shouted, “Andrew!”

The man on the bed gasped. He then sat up and looked around. She could tell he couldn’t see her. He pulled himself to the side of the bed. He looked down. He put his face in his hands and sat that way for about a minute. She worried that he was just tired, not guilt-ridden. Then he reached under the bed, pulled out a pistol, stuck it to the side of his head and squeezed the trigger.

She sensed his spirit leave his body in the new way she sensed things. “Burn in hell,” she said, and then she ascended.

• Copyright: © 2009 Joshua Scribner