It started one day as I was driving to grocery store. I cruised down the long wooded streets in my 911 Porsche, custom painted blood red with a black leather interior. The wind was whipping through my long blond hair as the radio blared Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”. As I looked into the rear view mirror to check my makeup I noticed a car cruising behind me. Getting closer and closer. I stepped on the gas and pulled away. The car kept up with a steady pace, but did not close in any further. I flicked my eyes back and forth from the road in front to the now pursuing car. I peered at the driver who was just a silhouette. There was something odd about them though. Where the head should be blocking the rear window was clear gap. The head seemed to be crooked, bent off to the right side. I looked forward and slowed as a cross section approached and the light turned red. As I stopped I kept my eyes glued in my mirror as the car approached behind me. The crooked figure did not readjust their head, they barely moved at all. The silhouette approached slowly and now filled my whole view. No matter how hard I tried I could not make out any details. Uneasiness started to set in and I clenched my steering wheel. The figure, with out eyes, seemed to looking right into me. As soon as the light flashed green I gunned it.
They did not pursue.
I brushed off the encounter as just a phantom of my imagination. I soon found that it might not be as simple as that. I gathered most of the items I needed from my shopping list and as I wrapped a corner and entered into an aisle full of pasta and sauce the familiar feeling from the car earlier entered me from the front. Down the long isle, with it’s rows tall to the ceiling fully stocked there was something peeking out just beyond the edge. A head it looked like. It was as if all the light was being sucked into its silhouette. It crested around the corner, unnatural and threatening. All I could do was stare, blinking, seeing if it would disappear from my vision. A few blinks and straining my eyes, the head dissipated, but the shock remained. My cell phone rang. I knew who it was and it was a call that I needed to answer.In private.
I payed for my items and walked back to my car then rushed out of the parking lot back to the main road returning to my house. I redialed the call immediately when I was on the straights and alone.
“It is finished?” I asked.
The voice on the other end answered “Everything is all set. Nothing will come back to you, the other half of payment to be due in one week when everything is settled”
“Excellent work. May I ask how?”
“Stairs, and well, the railing. The rail did a number to his neck. Strangest thing I have seen. An image that doesn’t leave soon”
“Well rest his soul, he is in a better place now, hopefully” a smile broke upon my lips.
“One week”
“You got it, one week” The phone clicked and licked my lips in satisfaction. Checking the rear view mirror I checked my make-up and lip stick. Gorgeous as ever,but not extremely wealthy, yet.
I rounded a right and pulled through tree shaded drives and hills to a private villa. It was modest with two stories and seven acres. Nothing like the estate that would soon be mine. The sun was hitting the hills and sending golden rays right through the trees at me. Saying good bye for the moment and releasing the night time sky above. I set a record of smooth jazz, grabbed a glass of wine and made my way up to the upstairs bedroom. The house was themed in light browns and golds. everything had a soft hue to it, dressed in light richness of Tuscany. I enjoyed the sense of the place, I had picked out most of the furnishings, but for the scale, the feeling of it. It was much to small. Much to primitive. Where was the floor to ceilings Renaissance paintings? The thirty foot crystal mirrors surrounded by marble and diamonds? They rested at the estate. The estate that my brother held.
Or did hold.
My Inheritance was not in my favor and my brother did not agree with exuberance that I demanded and needed. What was the point of life it you were not living it large? To the very best? Especially when it was with in grasp, when I had known it my whole life. I downed the glass of wine. I swung back and forth feeling the intoxication and laughed. It drowned out the jazz. I was wild, manic and filled with slight rage.
Then I saw it. Against the reflection of the upstairs window. The figure or the crooked figure stood or more rather floated in the hallway. It was so clear against the window that I didn’t even spin to look. I ran to the bath room. I slammed the door behind me, locking it and looked towards opening the windows so I could get out. As I fiddled with the windows I heard the door knob shift and spin.
Then I head the lock.
It unlatch with that mechanical thud.
I spun as the door creaked open and the silhouette appeared blocking the whole door way. It hovered off the ground slightly. It was a person. It’s head bent on it’s neck so severely that it was if someone had messed up the mold when they were made. I still couldn’t make out any features, it was still just a black mass, but then it came closer. Silently and then I - I - I
“Well she got a bit further then last time” Doctor Marshal sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger.
The nurse sighed and looked towards the clock on the wall “Yeah, we will get the whole thing out of her one day. At least I hope. I thought we really had her all there tonight. We sent her back to her room, but she has been complaining about something outside her window. She says there is a shadow waiting.” She shook her head “We never see anything outside the window when we check. It feels like we are losing her doctor.”
“I know, I know. The death of her brother must of hit her pretty hard.”
A shriek came from the hallways and screams came for the nurses. Doctor Marshal jumped up and sprinted to where the commotion was. As he turned the corner and entered the room the nurses were gathered around he saw her.
Brenda Mirth. The women he had just got done talking to.
She lay against the wall facing toward the large window in her room. He stepped slowly in front of her and blocked the window.
He looked. Really looked at her “My god”
Brendass head was snapped to the right in a inhuman angle. Her mouth frozen in a scream, eyes wide and a face etched with pure terror. Laying at the feet was a piece of paper. The doctor picked it up.
It read:
It was good seeing you again.
Love Mitchel Mirth
One day I was driving to dinner and was stretching my neck to one side. I thought that if the person infront of me looked at their rear view mirror They might see a strange sight. A person with their head angled to the side. What if they started seeing the this figure in other places?