Lightning

Lightning

I used to love storms, the thunder and lightning lulling me into a state of utter calmness. At night the thunder would shake my room and it felt like I was being rocked to sleep gently by the earth. But now … I can’t stand them. I still have nightmares about what happened. And I can remember it like it just happened. But in reality, it had been two years. It was midnight; I was walking down the hallway towards the kitchen when the power went out. I had been reading scary stories on my phone and I had looked at one that said “If you’re reading this… it’s too late. She’s coming for you.” And it had a story of a girl who was afraid of thunder storms and was electrocuted when she got struck by lightning. Apparently she is a traveling ghost that follows really bad storms and if you’re alone at night your power goes out and she comes and electrocutes you so that you die just like she did. I don’t believe in any of those stories especially not when they’re from the internet. But being me I was still a little spooked. I shook it off and kept walking but when the lightning illuminated the room for half a second I could have sworn that I saw someone standing by the window in the living room. A small girl wearing a blue dress, with a purple bow around her neck. The lightning struck again and this time she was distorted, her beautiful silky looking hair turned into a choppy frizzy mess, her gown had spots on it that looked burned and it showed her skin underneath. Her skin was cut and bleeding in some spots, and charred and burning in others. I jumped back at the sight of her; she disappeared when the power came back on suddenly. I let out a sigh of relief … she was gone and I was safe again. I walked to the kitchen and grabbed blueberry bagel. Just as I was walking through the doorway into my room the power went out again, and this time I knew it wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. Whenever it goes out the second time it takes at least 12 hours to come back on. Fear shot through me and I spun around to the creaking of my floor boards behind me. I looked at m y bathroom and that was when the lightning struck a third time, there she was, looking at me through red eyes, like the blood vessels in them had popped. But when the light dissipated she didn’t go with it, instead she walked towards me ominously. I stepped back and ran the few steps into my room, and then I slammed the door behind me. As soon as I turned around and she was there, I froze in place. I couldn’t move, I was like a statue and my legs became useless. She reached out and grabbed my arm; it felt like a giant sharp piece of metal was being lodged into my upper arm. I screamed and tried to pry her small stiff fingers off of my arm, but it was no use I was already in her grasp I felt something cold spread through my veins. I felt it go through my torso; it was the most disgusting feeling. It felt like grainy mud in my throat and eyes. When it spread through me I felt all hope leave my now black and cold body. I managed to open my door and run through it, I kept running until I was out in my yard, the storm clouds were passing and it was almost over. But all of a sudden the only thing I could feel was a sharp pain all through my body.

I felt blood vessels popping, my heart beating a thousand miles an hour, and my skin burning as if I was being cooked in a fire. And all I could hear or see was thunder and lightning. I fell in the cold grass, feeling it tickle my skin as I was in agonizing pain. I remembered sitting in it with my mother when I was a child, I remembered playing at the park with my friends and falling in the warm long grass that summer. I focused everything into the memories of running and playing in the grass, I felt the cold dead feeling leave me as I lost consciousness and fell asleep. I dreamed of the lightning, I dreamed of dying and never ending pain and suffering of being a ghost stuck in this world.

I woke up the next morning to the feeling of the neighborhood cat sniffing my face, I slowly sat up as the cat ran off, and the events of the night before came rushing back in a waterfall as I got a migraine with it. I looked down at my hands and they were their normal pale peach skin color. I went back into my house and checked every room, closet, and drawer for a trace of that girl or anything related to her but found nothing. The only thing was a few black footprints that were made if dusty black burned skin. I am telling you this as a warning, do not read scary stories off of the internet; they are real and extremely dangerous. 

 Original work by P.H.