Welcome to my offering for The A to Z Blogging Challenge 2018.
My theme this year is Ghostly Inspirations:
a collection of spirits that have been prompted by my encounters with places and times. Some are spooky, some more about atmosphere. I'll be describing each inspiration and the phantom that came to my mind, and then I will share a drabble, which I hope will entertain. :)
Disclaimer: The places and experienced I have used for my inspiration are real, but my ghosts and drabbles are complete fiction, linked to nothing and no-one, alive or dead. When writing about my inspirations, I may have changed names and obfuscated specific details to 'protect the innocent' :).
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J is for Juxtaposition
Inspiration:
A group of us once travelled to Knokke in Belgium for a holiday and we stayed in a friend’s family apartment that overlooked the beach. That apartment was up a few flights of stairs, or there was a lift, only this lift was somewhat old-fashioned and tiny. More than one person in the lift and everyone had to get friendly and not care about personal space. This close proximity made me wonder about travelling in that lift with a not so living visitor, life next to death.
Ghost:
A group of us once travelled to Knokke in Belgium for a holiday and we stayed in a friend’s family apartment that overlooked the beach. That apartment was up a few flights of stairs, or there was a lift, only this lift was somewhat old-fashioned and tiny. More than one person in the lift and everyone had to get friendly and not care about personal space. This close proximity made me wonder about travelling in that lift with a not so living visitor, life next to death.
Ghost:
It was Winter in Knokke and all the rich people who owned the seafront apartments were enjoying places much more exotic and warm. Elise had been hired by the caretaker to clean all the flats from top to bottom. She’d taken the keys from him just as he too was heading off on a warm winter break, and had begun ferrying her cleaning equipment up to the top floor in the tight little elevator the place had. It was taking more than one journey, because she could barely fit her and the vacuum cleaner in the lift, let alone her sponges and mops and bucket.
On the second trip, the lift screeched and came to a sudden halt. Elise called for help, there was no alarm button in the old-fashioned contraption. She called, she screamed, she begged, but there was no-one to hear her.
The caretaker found Elise’s mummified body in the broken elevator three weeks later.
On the second trip, the lift screeched and came to a sudden halt. Elise called for help, there was no alarm button in the old-fashioned contraption. She called, she screamed, she begged, but there was no-one to hear her.
The caretaker found Elise’s mummified body in the broken elevator three weeks later.
~
Stuck
The lift door closed and the elevator’s background whir started steadily. Yet, only a few seconds later, it became a shriek and the lift jolted to a halt.
The lights flickered. Penny swore. They went out. Penny choked on her breath: she hated small spaces. Holding her own panicked breath, the small gasp behind her was like a gunshot. She spun and plastered herself against the metal cage door.
A low moan and Penny’s skin chilled. A shift of material like someone standing up and her heart skipped a beat.
“Welgekomen.”
Penny felt the whisper on her cheek. She fainted.
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The lights flickered. Penny swore. They went out. Penny choked on her breath: she hated small spaces. Holding her own panicked breath, the small gasp behind her was like a gunshot. She spun and plastered herself against the metal cage door.
A low moan and Penny’s skin chilled. A shift of material like someone standing up and her heart skipped a beat.
“Welgekomen.”
Penny felt the whisper on her cheek. She fainted.
~
Other paranormal and spooky stories by Sophie Duncan.
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Thank you so much - now I shall think of this every time I get in a lift :P Great story.
ReplyDeleteTasha
Tasha's Thinkings - Movie Monsters
I'm always here to oblige ;P
DeleteOh sure, just make me more paranoid about riding in elevators. =P
ReplyDelete~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
My A to Z’s of Dining with IC
Patricia Lynne, Indie Author
I seem to be having that effect today :)
DeleteI'm taking the stairs - even if my wheelchair takes the lift.
ReplyDelete