Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
She was also wearing her Doc Martins and a classic Lost Boys t-shirt. There was no need for a jacket. She’d left the frosty weather behind in New England. Here in Tampa, even at the end of October, it was still hitting the high eighties during the day and barely dipping into the seventies at night. The air was muggy with humidity and Sam was already feeling sticky and hot.
She glanced at her phone and saw that it was edging past eleven—she needed to get started! Raising her phone, she began her live-stream.
“Hi goulfriends, this is Ghost Girlie, coming to you live from an abandoned mental hospital,” she said to the camera. “Not going to tell you where I am exactly, but let’s just say it’s a very haunted location.”
She began wandering through the empty halls, the soles of her Docs crunching on shards of broken glass, panning her phone around as she went.
“I don’t see any spirits yet, but I sense them,” she told her audience. “So many bad things happened here. They—”
Suddenly she heard what sounded like footsteps behind her. Whirling around, she confronted…an empty hallway filled with shadows. Damn, this was getting creepy even for her!
You must have imagined it. Stop jumping at shadows—keep going! You need to find at least one spirit to talk to!
Sam would have thought that the halls would be crowded with them—more than one person had died here, she was sure. Yet she didn’t see anyone until she pushed her way into a room at the end of the hall.
“This must have been some kind of treatment room,” she said, talking to her audience as she panned the phone around. “There’s some kind of table here—it’s fixed in place so there’s no moving it.” She pointed the phone at the empty table. “And I see equipment—looks like electrical wires. I wonder—could this have been an electro-shock room?”
The evidence seemed to support it. And then she saw it…a lone spirit in the corner of the room.
“I see someone,” Sam said softly, speaking into the phone. “You guys won’t be able to see her, but I can—it’s a girl and she’s crouching in the corner as if she’s afraid.”
Slowly, she approached the spirit. It looked like a girl of about eleven or twelve, Sam thought. She was huddled in on herself in the corner, wearing an old-fashioned hospital robe—the kind that tied in the back but always kept flapping open.
Sam frowned, feeling sorry for the poor girl. What a terrible outfit to be stuck in for all eternity! To feel so vulnerable and helpless and half undressed always—what a nightmare.
“She must have been a patient here,” Sam murmured into her phone, keeping her voice low so as not to scare away the spirit. “She’s dressed in a hospital gown. She only looks to be eleven—twelve at the most.”
She edged closer, walking slowly—she didn’t want to seem threatening.
“Hi there,” she said softly, leaning down to get closer to the girl. “My name is Sam—can we talk?”
13
R’ORN
“Warrior, arise at once!”
R’orn was woken from an uneasy sleep by the loud, feminine voice speaking in his ear.
“Huh…what?” He sat up and looked around the darkened sleeping chamber uncertainly. He was back aboard the Mother Ship in his own suite, trying not to think about Samantha. He—
“Did you not hear me, Warrior? I said get up! The female I sent you is in grave danger!”
“What?” R’orn stumbled out of bed, still looking for the source of the voice. “Who’s there? Who’s speaking?” he asked, because the room looked completely empty.
“It is I—the Mother of All Life!” the voice proclaimed. As it spoke, the room filled with an overwhelming presence. It was undeniably feminine and as heavy as a boulder. R’orn felt himself being bowed down as its weight pressed down on him.
“What? You mean…the Goddess?” he gasped, falling to his knees as he looked around him wildly. “I…I don’t believe in the Goddess!”
“And yet I did you a favor and sent a female to you anyway!” the feminine voice thundered in his ears. “But what did you do with my gift? You threw it away! You left the human female, Samantha, at the mercy of the predator that stalks her!”
“No, I didn’t!” R’orn protested. His Atheism had fled and he was rapidly becoming a believer. “Please, Goddess,” he begged. “I told them to send her another Protector—she should be safe!”
“She is NOT safe!” The Goddess sounded seriously displeased. “This very moment she is alone and unaware that her death is near. Warrior, you must go to her at once!”
“But it’s nighttime on her part of the Earth right now!” R’orn protested. “I should send someone else!”
“Warrior, do you proclaim yourself a coward?” the Goddess demanded.
R’orn straightened up—as much as the massive weight of the divine presence pressing down on him would allow.