A while back, I started writing a ghost story of sorts. For it, I wrote a prologue that I thought was rather spooky (I spooked myself while writing it, anyway). However, when I read it to my younger siblings, they did not find it all that frightening. So, I decided to put it to a vote: Do you find this prologue spooky? Let me know in the poll below!
When Ghosts Guard: Prologue
Tilda Cooper was pulled from sleep one night by a long, chilling howl. Nothing too unusual there; her neighbors’ dog was quite loud when it got riled by something. Except, wait. That dog had died six years ago. Tilda sat up straight when she heard a piercing scream.
“George!” she hissed to her husband. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” he muttered sleepily.
Another scream pierced the air, followed by the sharp cry of a wolf on the hunt.
“That!” Tilda replied.
“Yeah, I heard it,” George replied, already getting up and pulling on his bathrobe. “I’ll go grab the gun.”
“What do you think it is?” Tilda asked as she anxiously tailed her husband to the gun safe hidden in the closet.
“Dunno,” he replied, as another scream sounded, “but it sounds as if it’s coming from the Blacks’ place.”
“Oh, all those girls by themselves in that big place!” Tilda exclaimed. George nodded grimly and handed her a gun as well.
“I’m going to need some backup,” he told her. Tilda nodded shakily.
Another howl sounded as the Coopers raced toward their neighbors’ place. George flung open the gate between the two properties, hardly slowing as they crossed the fields beyond.
“Look!” Tilda exclaimed, pointing toward a rise. Three, now four figures were silhouetted atop it. They came tumbling toward the Coopers, running flat out as if their lives depended on it.
“Help!” one of them shrieked.
“What is it?” George demanded as the figures came nearer. Now they could be recognized as the four young women who lived in the old Black house. “What’s chasing you?”
“Oh, Mr. Cooper,” one of the girls, Kandace, sobbed.
Then one of the others, Juliet, shrieked. “It’s still coming!”
Tilda and George looked up to see the huge dark figure of a wolf silhouetted against the sky. It let out that piercing howl, then a loud, earth-shaking bark. George lifted his gun, then froze as the creature shifted, momentarily blocking the moon. Only it didn’t block it completely. The white crescent could still be dimly seen through its shoulder.
“Tilda,” George asked in a strangled sort of voice. “Are you seeing this?”
Tilda was helpless to do anything other than watch as the beast suddenly started running, straight for the group. Two of the younger women screamed. The sound of a shot broke through the night, but the creature didn’t slow.
“Run!” George shouted.
They ran. Tilda tripped over a gopher mound, but George grabbed her before she fell and pushed her onward. Still the creature pursued them, its cries growing ever closer. They were on the Coopers’ property now. None of them paused to shut the gate; by the size of that thing, it would have easily jumped it, anyway.
“Look!” Juliet paused and pointed back. “It stopped!”
Sure enough, the shadowy creature had stopped pursuing them. It stood in the gate, where it let off one last howl before slowly fading away, blending into the darkness of the night until it could no longer be seen.
“Did… did everyone just see that?” George asked.
“I saw it,” Tilda replied shakily. “I saw it!”
Suddenly Juliet wailed, rounding on the other girls. “I told you!” she shouted. “I told you you shouldn’t do it! And you did and you killed it and now we’ve gone and awakened an ancient evil and it will destroy us all!” She broke into loud sobs.
“Don’t be absurd, Juliet,” Fiona, one of the others, told her sharply, but she couldn’t hide the tremble in her voice.
“What is she talking about?” Tilda asked. “What did you kill?”
Juliet wailed again.
“Nothing,” Kandace replied harshly. “We didn’t kill anything! Juliet’s being ridicu–” she started sobbing as well.
“A ghost!” Florence, the fourth young woman, blurted out. “I’ve seen a ghost!” She collapsed into a faint.
And now, it is time to decide… is this prologue spooky to you?
Anna Petracci, Fantasy Author 