Writer Unblocked

By Rachel H Grant

A chill chased Melissa down to the library basement. As she flicked the light switch, shadows shunned her eyes. Century old bound journals grinned their triumph over time, kings of the archive, laughing at the long ago lives within their pages.

Melissa sighed. It was always cold in the basement. She had worked at the library for ten years, and it got colder here every year. It was unnerving being alone among the dust and the dead dreams.

One of the large bound journals fell over, the sound violent in the silent space. Melissa jumped. Why did items move or fall when she came here?

There were stories of a library ghost. Perhaps they were true.

The light flickered, sending shadows in to a spasm. Melissa shivered.

Then a hand touched her shoulder. She turned in alarm. There was no one there.

Hurriedly, Melissa filed the two large volumes in her hand, and retreated. As she turned off the light, the shadows became ominous.

Then she saw it. A glowing figure in front of her. There, but gone in a second.

Perhaps just the effect of the strange light and dark in there, shadows falling through the windows like the ugly sisters of light.

Melissa was relieved that she did not need to return to the basement in any hurry. As she climbed the stairs, the door behind her quietly clicked open. Darkness danced on the stairs, like hungry monsters trying to escape their dungeon.

Then light erased them as Melissa opened the door to the main library.

The next week, as she entered the basement, the open door behind her swung shut with a terrifying thud. This time, Melissa really jumped. The light flickered, then went out.

Her stomach writhing like a shadow, Melissa fumbled for the door. It would not open.

Then she realised she was clutching a shelf, not the door. A dim light dripped from the shaded windows. She found the door and opened it with relief.

Something touched her head.

She looked around. There was nothing there.

That night, as Melissa walked home, she kept looking behind her. She did not why. Shadows played with her heart, light and dark dancing within, a battle for belief. Believe in the shadows, acknowledge the ghost.

As she opened her front door, a hand touched her shoulder. Melissa stiffened. Her imagination was on fire, folly had stolen her mind.

That night, Melissa dreamt of sun sparkled lakes, and shadow filled forests. She turned in her sleep, a smile of surrender on her lips.

Then she heard it. A voice.

With a jolt Melissa was awake. However there was no one there. The house slumbered in peace.

Slowly she retreated once more to the shadows of sleep.

The next evening, Melissa decided to confront the shadows that were in her house and more and more in her heart. It was time for light! She decorated her stair banister with fairy lights, laughing as she did so. She did not believe in ghosts, she did not. The shadows would not haunt her. Even her own broken heart would not bewitch her, her dreams of a love years ago that could never be. No more ghosts, no meagre memories, a final goodbye to all demons as she switched on the merry lights.

That night, she turned in bed with a smile on her face. She danced with fairies in her dreams, the hunger for happiness in her heart finally satiated.

Then she rudely awoke as her body was shaken by icy fingers.

“Wake up!” The voice was real, it was there in the room with her.

Suddenly she smelt it. Smoke. Hurriedly she rose, racing down the stairs between the flames flirting with the banisters. Out of the house, she dialled the fire service. She always kept her mobile phone next to the door. Now she remembered why. She had always been afraid of fire.

Looking up, she saw a figure in her bedroom window. It waved, then was gone.

The fire service arrived quickly, and the damage to her house was not too extensive.

The ghost never returned, to her house or to the library. Melissa hoped she had found heaven. A final good deed that was the key to paradise.

She lingered in the basement at the library, seeking shadows that were gone. There was a thank you on her lips that would never be spoken. There was no one to hear. However in her heart, gratitude blossomed like a rose that could never die, a flower of forever, a thank you that had erased the shadows. It was time to dream again, the future was hers to rewrite. And as Melissa stared at the ancient journals, she decided to do just that.

Somewhere far away, a ghostly figure tended to her own roses, on the shores of the lakes of eternity. There were no shadows here, only the light of a sun that never set. A sky of reds and pinks kissed the earth, and its roses shivered in a breeze of better days. The figure looked at the sky, and smiled. She had found her forever.