Silencing Alice

*Alice*

The world outside my small window was alight with a rich amber glow as the sun slowly crept into the sky. Dawn and dusk were always my favorite time of day. Unlike the harsh sharp hues noon promised, the waning glow of the sun as it faded into darkness or bled into light was always full of rich colors. Every day was different. Would the sun rise with colors of ambers and burnt burgundy? Or would it awash the earth with shades of pinks and peach tinted blues? Sometimes, I think it was my desire to witness the morning sky that prevented me from just staying in bed all day and waiting for my time to die.

Vincent and Jerry were still asleep when I crept down the stairs and out the back door. I wanted to stay and enjoy the view from my window a moment longer but the spirit by my side kept sliding into view and demanding that I honor her request.

She wasn't able to tell me exactly what she wanted but the image of a white envelope placed in the crease of a book kept cascading in my mind. I knew that once I followed her to where she'd left it, she'd give me the image of who she wanted me to hand it to. The dead always did like to work the puzzle one piece at a time.

I followed her silently through the empty roads of town passing the occasional pedestrian on my way. I watched as the tangled mass of her curly brown hair caught the sun's light and gleamed with a copperish tint. When she turned to look at me, her almond shaped eyes crinkled at the corners as a smile curved her lips. People always had the misconception that ghosts were scary and often associated them with deathly pale skin and lifeless eyes, but really I knew it was just people trying to rationalize their fear of the unknown.

The spirit I followed stopped and glanced over her shoulder again waiting for me to reach her. When I did, she smiled again and then pointed at the small blue house we stood in front of. The peeling paint and the overgrown grass told me that whoever lived here had long since given up on caring for the house.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped onto the overgrown cobbled path leading to the front porch steps. The bottom step was broken and I had to grab onto the wobbly side railings to avoid the carnage and make it to the second step.

The ghost who guided me waited patiently by the door and when she saw that I was looking, she gently tapped the corner of her mouth while silently shaking her head. While most of my sprit communication came through images, the rest was like a mad game of charades. I think she was trying to tell me not to mind the clutter, in all honesty, you could never be sure with spirits.

When I went to ring the doorbell, she lightly shook her head and I knocked instead. After the fifth barrage of knocking, I heard stumbling around on the other side and slight cursing. When the door swung open, a large man with red rimmed eyes stood holding a beer bottle in one hand. He scowled down at me, his curly black hair a matted nest atop his head as he regarded me with a cool gaze.

"What do you want?" He asked and although I knew it was meant to sound hateful and demeaning, I could hear the hidden emptiness he tried to drown away with alcohol.

Out of the corner of my eye I watched as a single tear broke loose and trailed down the cheek of the spirit who led me here. This part was always the hardest.

Reaching into my pocket I pulled out a small note pad and scrawled out, 'I was a friend of your wife. She wanted me to give you something after she died.' It didn't take many images for me to understand that the ghost who followed me had died of cancer and that the envelope in the book was her last letter to her husband.

At this, he straightened up a little and looked me up and down. I knew what he was thinking, I wasn't the type of friend his wife normally hung around with.

'We met a couple of times at the hospital.' I wrote and another guarded expression crossed his face telling me that he was one of the difficult ones.

"Is this some kind of joke? Go back to school little girl." And before I could write anything else, the door was suddenly shutting in my face. I looked over at the disappointed look his wife wore and finally just scrawled out her message on a slip of paper before sliding it beneath the door. I nodded at the spirit telling her to stay around until he found the note and crawled back down the steps. If she showed up again then I'd know that he had disregarded the note and I'd have to keep trying. If not, then she had finally found peace and was in a better place.

I decided to take the long way home and cut through the park. At this time, vendors would be setting up their alluring displays and cooking up their appetizing food venues. They were normally flooded with customers at noon so I avoided those preferring quiet spaces to the loud activity of the crowd. It was early however, and the town was only just beginning to awaken so I allowed my feet to take me by their hustling stalls. I eyed them curiously as they began preparing for the busy day ahead and admired the simplicity of their everyday routines.

There was one stall vendor I paused at. At this stall, a man stood before a large bowl and twirled inside it a small stick. Fascinated, I took a step closer until I was able to peer into the depths of the bowl and see as sticky pink spider web tendrils that wrapped around the stick he twirled. Mesmerized I watched the stick in his hand grow fatter with beautiful pink cotton.

Noticing me standing there for the first time the street vendor cracked me a large smile, his black mustache lifting to reveal a row of white teeth. He pulled the stick from the cotton bowl and extended it to me waiting patiently for me to take it. I shook my head wanting him to understand that I had no money but he only smiled and said, "For you."

Hesitantly, I reached out this time and slowly took it from his fingers. I looked into his kind blue eyes waiting to see a trick there but only found a quiet happiness as I accepted his gift. Realizing he wasn't going to change his mind and take it back I smiled widely and tore a large piece off savoring the sweet taste as it melted in my mouth. When I turned away I could hear the loud whirring of his machine as he spun another stick of sugar and dye.

I was priding myself on deciding to take the long way home when I saw one. It was latched to the back of a man who stooped his shoulders as if he could feel the weight of the creature that fed off of his misery like a parasite. I watched in both horror and disgust as the shadow creature leaned down and whispered something in the man's ear. The shadow brushed the man's hair away from his ear and the man shuddered and lightly touched that side of his face as if he could feel the shadow there lurking on his shoulders.

I called them the shadow men. Unlike spirits they were never human. They take the form of swirling silver and grey shadows that take the shape of a man and cling to the backs of their victims. I'm not sure why they pick the people they do or what they constantly whisper in their ears but I knew that the shadow men weren't just bad. They were evil.

The man paused to tie his shoelace that had come undone and when he bent down, the shadow on his back twisted around and stared in my direction. It tilted its head to the side as if it was confused and I took a step back. They didn't have eyes but I knew that they could see me like I could see them. I barely noticed as the sugar coated cone I was holding slipped from my fingers and tumbled to the ground. I didn't wait for it to untangle itself from the man's essence and come search for me. I just turned and ran.

My heart hammered in my chest as I darted through town and desperately charged to my safe spot. I flung myself through the underbrush and between trees as I urgently searched for my hiding place. I didn't look back to see if the shadow man was following. I didn't want to see how fast it could move.

When I finally made it to my small haven, I glanced over my shoulder for the first time and was greeted by the quiet stillness of the forest. Not wanting to chance it I quickly slid in the tiny hollowed out space of a tree. It was a tight fit but I was small for my age. Squeezing my knees up to my chest I closed my eyes and tried to make myself as small as possible. I'd been coming here for years. Whenever I'd see a shadow man I'd come hide here for a few hours until I was sure that they had forgotten me.

I quieted my rapid breathing and tried to calm my rapid heartbeat afraid that the shadow man would hear it beat against my ribs. I wasn't only afraid of them because they weren't human. I was afraid of them because the first time I ever saw one it was latched on to my brother's back whispering things in his ear just before he killed my parents. Just before everything changed.

I strained my ears in the heavy silence, wondering if I'd hear it creeping through the forest searching for me. I bit my lip when I heard a twig snap and curled even tighter within myself. I could hear it I decided. Heavy footsteps as it grew closer and closer to where I crouched. I screwed my eyes shut hoping that if I didn't see it then it wouldn't see me.

My heartbeat picked up pace in my chest setting off like a sky rocket when the sounds grew closer. I waited in silent agony when the footsteps paused in front of my hiding spot and my heart climbed up my throat.

Deciding I couldn't take it any longer I forced my eyes open again. It was dark in the hollowed out space I was squatting in, but I could still see a bit of the outside world. A large shadow blocked out my light and I whimpered in surprise. Frozen in shock, my eyes were able to adjust to the new lighting and take in the stranger who crouched before me. I couldn't make out all of him but from the way his beautiful blue eyes sparkled and from the way his deep scratchy voice rattled the silence around us as it thundered from his large chest made me realize that he was human.

"Mate!" He breathed and it wouldn't be long before I realized that maybe he wasn't as human as I thought.