By Paula Bianchi –

Lucy stood there waiting for an answer to her question, with Ava and Dobson by her side, but this short and stocky man just smirked at them. His jeans and black t-shirt were thread bare and caked in grease and grime, which matched his greasy shoulder length, dirty blonde hair.

“I want an answer right now.” Lucy demanded, as she stepped in front of this ghostly intruder and towered over him.

Wasting no time, Lucy quickly let herself tune into this unsavory soul. She instantly heard his name, Carl, then, she witnessed some of the horrific things he did to women, while he was alive.

“You need to go right now, Carl.” Lucy informed him. “You’re not welcomed here.”

“I ain’t going nowhere.” Carl snickered. “I found me a pretty little lady who’s missing her Mama something fierce. It’ll just be a matter of time before she’s mine.” He took a threatening step towards Lucy, and when he did, Ava and Dobson stepped in front of her for protection.

Carl laughed as he stepped back away from them to give them their space.

“I saw you with your hands-on Emma’s, while they were using that Ouija board, and you were pretending to be me.” Lucy got the creeps just thinking about it.

“Funny. I don’t remember seeing you there, but then again, I was too busy trying to be the lucky one to get to the board first.” Carl said, feeling quite proud of himself.

“There’s no way we’re going to let you attach to my daughter.” Lucy stated, as a matter of fact, in the sternest tone she could muster.

“I don’t wanna attach to her. I just wanna have a little fun with her, is all.” Carl shrugged his shoulders, then ran his fingers through his greasy hair, but the gleam in his eyes looked evil.

“We’re not going to let you stay here. This is our house, and you’re not welcome here.” Lucy tried her best to be threatening as she tried to loom over this creepy guy.

“The moment your precious daughter put her fingertips on that pointer, she opened the door and invited me in, and I don’t plan on going nowhere.” Carl stood firm and determined.

Lucy tried to push Carl out of the house, but it was like pushing a brick wall. The more she tried to push the more ridged he became as he grinned a wicked grin at her. Then, she noticed a crackling sound like electricity, and it was growing louder with her exerted energy, while trying to push him out.

Suddenly, Carl reached out and gave Lucy a shove sending her flying across the room.

“Wanna try that again, Little Lady?” Carl challenged her, as he mimicked the stance of a wrestler.

Ava put herself in between them.

“This is your last chance to leave here and never come back.” Ava warned him.

“And just what do you think you can do about it?” Carl laughed in her face. “This is my house now, and if you’re nice to me, maybe I’ll let you three stay.”

“No. I believe you’re the one who’ll be leaving.” Ava informed him. She turned to Lucy and gave her a little wink. Looking back at Carl, she yelled, “Ben! Intruder!”

Out of nowhere, Ben came flying into the room and tackled Carl, which sent them falling through the floor and down into the kitchen below where Michael and Emma were having dinner.

Lucy, along with Ava and Dobson, quickly followed them, and when they entered the kitchen, Lucy couldn’t believe what she was witnessing.

Ben and Carl were wrestling around the room falling through Michael and Emma, while they fought, and they fell through anything else that was in their way. The energy of their fight was creating a highly charged current in the air.

After the energy amped up in the room, Lucy suddenly saw the familiar misty, grey cloud appear, and it was hovering next to the light fixture above the island. To her surprise, it looked a lot bigger than the last time she saw it, and she could see that it was still growing bigger as she watched it.

Now, Ben and Carl were really going at it, until, their spirit form looked like two balls of energy swirling around together. At one point, Ben’s white energy and Carl’s greyish black energy, were swirling around so fast that it made them look just like a ball of ying and yang floating through the air.

The more they fought; the bigger the misty, grey cloud grew because the air was full of static electricity. Then two things happened at the exact same time.

As Ben and Carl were, yet again, rolling through the kitchen island, their energy caused Emma’s glass of soda to shatter, and at the same moment, the misty, grey cloud caused one of the globes, from the light fixture, to explode causing glass to shower down upon Emma and Michael.

“What the hell?!” Michael yelled, as he and Emma jumped back away from the island. Both of them just stood there staring at the glass dumbfounded.

Lucy watched as Ben’s energy suddenly grew brighter, then, he used every bit of energy in the room to finally push Carl through the kitchen wall and out of the house.

Ava, Dobson, and Lucy ran to the window and saw Ben continuing to fight as he pushed Carl’s energy out of the backyard as well. Once Ben had pushed him to the sidewalk, Carl just disappeared.

“Are you okay, Emma?” Michael asked, before he fetched the paper towels from under the sink.

“Yeah. I’m okay, but that was really weird, Dad.” Emma looked a bit shaken.

“Well, it’s a good thing we were already finished or that would’ve ruined our dinner.” Michael said, wiping up the soda, with the broken glass.

Emma got the broom and dust pan from the laundry room to help her dad clean up the mess.

Lucy looked above the island at the broken light fixture. She was not surprised to see that the misty, grey cloud was gone too.

“I’m a little freaked out, Dad. Why are these things breaking in our house?” Emma asked, in a shaky voice.

“I don’t know, Honey, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out.” Michael tried to sound fearless, but Lucy could feel that he was every bit as anxious about what had happened as their daughter was.

Finally, Ben slipped through the wall and back into the kitchen.

Lucy ran to him and gave him a big hug. “Thank you so much.” She said, squeezing him as tightly as she could.

“I wish I could say it was over, but that greasy devil can come back at any time on account of Emma playing with that Ouija board.” Ben told them.

“There has to be a way to keep him out.” Lucy pulled away to look into Ben’s eyes, but she wasn’t happy with what she saw. She could tell, with one look, that they weren’t aware of how to keep Carl out either.

Motioning to the three of them, Lucy ushered them out of the kitchen, away from Michael and Emma, and into the living room.

“Are you okay, Ben?” Lucy wanted to know. “Can Carl come back?” She asked.

“Oh, that was nothing.” Ben waved off her concern. “I’m all good, but if Emma touches one of those confounded Ouija boards again, he’ll be back for sure. He can also just linger around the house waiting for a chance to come in again.” Ben laid it out.

“I’m sure there has to be a way to keep him out. Maybe I should call Remy, so we can get some answers.” Lucy watched them nod in agreement.

“Remy!” Lucy called out. “Please come. I need your help.”

“Don’t be discouraged, Dear, if it takes him awhile to come.” Ava reminded her.

“That’s true.” Lucy said, remembering how long it took him to come the last time she called him, so she decided to change the subject. “Did you guys see the misty, grey cloud over the island?”

“I sure did.” Dobson piped up.

“I did as well.” Ava answered.

“I think it broke the globe on the light fixture.” Lucy shared.

Without warning, a beautiful iridescent bubble, with a rainbow of colors swirling around it, came floating down through the ceiling. They all watched as the bubble grew and grew in size, until it popped, revealing a beautiful woman dressed in a shimmering white toga with gold sandals on her feet that laced, in a crisscrossed pattern, up her leg.

Her curly, blonde hair was gathered on the top of her head except for one curl that came down around her neck. But Lucy couldn’t believe how striking this woman’s eyes were because they were the most beautiful shade of green that Lucy had ever seen before.  

“Hello.” The woman said. “My name is Sondra. I am your spirit guide, Lucy.” Her smile lit up her beautiful face. “Remy sent me because he knew you really needed him, but he was in the middle of something important and couldn’t leave.”

Come back next Tuesday for my next installment of, Lucy in the Afterlife, to see how Sondra schools Lucy about wandering spirits. Thanks for visiting. Hope to see you again next week. Bye for now.

Email: Remyel@hotmail.com

If you’d like to read Lucy from the start of her story, click the 3 lines in the bar above for a link to my Lucy in the Afterlife category. Once you click on it, scroll down to the first installment called: The Beginning.

Stay safe and sheltered.

Picture courtesy of: Pexels