The Ghost Of Audrey Clarke

Abby's hand paused on the handle of the back door to her sister's house when she noticed the lights were off.

Then a piercing scream came from inside the house followed by running feet. The voice was clearly Julia's! Abby pushed the door open, turned on her phone flashlight and went into the kitchen.

"Julia?" She called.

There was no response, just silence. Abby used the flashlight to find her way around the house until she came close to the basement and saw the door was slightly ajar. Suddenly, the creaking of the floorboards made her raise the flashlight higher to see what it was that made the noise.

Her sister's face appeared in the bright glow of the flashlight and both women screamed at the same time from the shock.

"Hey! It's just me, Abby." She said quickly to calm her older sister. Julia was breathing rapidly and fell into her sister's arms. They hugged each other.

"You scared me!" Julia said. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean by 'what am I doing here?' I sent you a text saying I was coming over for the night. Why are you down in the basement? And why is your power out?"

"Something weird is happening to me, Abby and I don't know how to handle it. My power went out by itself. I was going to check the circuit box but the ghost of the other woman wouldn't let me."

Abby glanced at Julia, not sure if she heard her sister right. "What do you mean 'ghost of the other woman'?"

Julia pulled Abby down onto a sofa and narrated how she took the train to visit her friend two weeks ago. On her return, she boarded the train with a strange looking woman. Her skin was quite pale, her green eyes hollow and sad and she looked frail.

Julia took pity on her and lent her a shawl to cover herself against the cold winds. When they arrived at the station, she couldn't find the strange woman and that was the last she saw of her shawl.

"I came home, had a nap that day and dreamed of her coming into my house!" Julia shouted.

Abby looked at her sceptically. "It could just be a dream…"

"No, it's not! That's what I'm trying to tell you. I see her everywhere in my house, especially in the basement." Julia muttered, gripping her hair. Abby made her release her hair. "I don't want to be a basket case, Abby, but I know what I see. She's here," she whispered.

Abby glanced around the living room like she could actually see the invisible 'ghost of the other woman'. "Know what? I'll stay the night with you. You can tell me details of this woman on the train and I'll sketch. Let's see if we can find her."

"Sure?"

"Yes. Just to know if she's real or not."

That night the two young women came up with the sketch of a frail young woman and by the following morning, they went to see a private investigator. He started his search immediately on his computer system as the women sat in his office.

The PI revealed that the sketch was a matching image for one Miss Audrey Clarke, a twenty eight years old woman who died five months ago in a car accident. Julia and her sister were surprised.

"So she's real?" Julia whispered more to herself.

"How did you come about this picture? Is she a relative of yours?" The PI asked.

Julia shook her head. "No, we saw the picture and became curious…"

"Oh? 'Cause you and her kinda look alike," the PI observed, before punching some keys on his keyboard. "Uh-huh! Sadly she was survived by her partner, AJ Walker, a college professor."

The women glanced at each other in silence. The PI noticed the look. "Do you want information about this professor, maybe you can reach out to him?"

Julia covered her face with her palms and Abby stood up abruptly, startling the PI. "Thank you, Ed, for your help but we don't need to reach out to this professor. We know who he is."

"You do?"

"Yes. He is my sister's ex-husband and must have been seeing Audrey Clarke when the divorce was ongoing."

The PI rubbed his jaw awkwardly, realising the weight of the information he'd revealed to the women. "Sorry about this. The deceased was the other woman then."

"That she was," Abby said sharply, holding her sister's hands and gently pulling her up. They left the PI's office.

"Did you know about her?" Abby asked a quiet Julia.

"I did not know. He simply asked for a divorce out of the blue, packed his stuff and left."

"Now we know Audrey Clarke is the ghost of the other woman. But why does she haunt you?"

"That's the million dollar question, dear sister." Julia replied as they boarded the same train to return home.

Two seats behind them sat Miss Audrey Clarke, clutching Julia's shawl to her bony shoulders, her lips white and her teeth chattering like she had something important to say.

I hope you enjoyed reading this short piece. This freewrite is inspired by the prompt "ghost of the other woman". Join the Freewriters community to receive daily prompts, hosted by @mariannewest.