Spooks, Specters and Spirits Event - Excerpt From Haunted By The Past By S. K. Gregory

CHAPTER ONE
​
The fog curled around him as he walked, attempting to envelope him. On any other day, it wouldn’t bother him, but now…
Picking up the pace, he headed for the house, hoping to get inside before it got worse. It was eerily quiet out here, not even birdsong broke the silence.
While he welcomed the escape, he did not like the lack of noise. With nothing to distract him, it left him alone with my own racing thoughts. Thoughts he wished to avoid.
The house loomed up out of the fog and he paused to take it in. He was lucky to get it on such short notice, but when they saw his offer, they were only too happy to allow him to rent it out for the month.
I just need some time to rest and come to terms with what happened.
Clutching the handle of his suitcase tighter, he glanced around, almost expecting something to lurch out of the fog at him. A ridiculous notion, but after what happened back at home, it had made him jumpy. All he needed was to rest, kick back with a good brandy and collect his thoughts. This would pass.
Walking up to the house, he searched his pockets for the key. Setting the suitcase down, he patted my coat down. What had he done with it?
Somewhere in the distance, a fox screamed and he nearly jumped out of his skin. Taking a breath, he scanned the fog. What was it doing out at this time? It had to have been a fox, he had heard many of them at home, but this one sounded slightly different. Almost like a woman screaming, but different.
Enough foolishness, get inside the house.
He finally located the key and unlocked the door. Hurrying inside, he closed it and made sure to lock it. Nothing was getting in through there.
Feeling somewhat better, he turned and took in the house. A large foyer stretched out before him. To the right lay the sitting room, the left the parlor. The house was dimly lit as the shutters had been kept drawn to prevent thieves from looking inside.
Before all of this, the dark had never bothered him, but now he had taken to keeping a candle lit by his bed at night. A childish act, but he needed something to soothe his frayed nerves.
Leaving his suitcase by the stairs, he stepped into the sitting room and opened the drapes to let some light in. Due to the fog, it didn’t do much to break through the gloom, but it gave him enough light to start a fire.
Once it was crackling away, he went in search of a drink. He discovered a bottle of brandy in a sideboard and poured a generous measure.
Removing his coat, he settled down in a chair by the fire. A few sips into the brandy and he finally started to relax.
Everything he saw must have been the product of a fertile imagination, nothing more. Ghosts did not exist. They only existed in stories designed to scare children. And he was not a child.
A scream came from outside, closer than before.
He jerked up, looking toward the window. Had the fox come up to the house? Perhaps it was sick or injured. That might explain why it was out.
Curious, he got up and moved to the window. The fog was practically at the glass now. There was no hope of seeing the fox unless it was right under the window. Still, he leaned forward, trying to make out anything that might be out there.
A dark figure passed through the fog and he leaped back. That was no fox. It looked like a person. A woman to be exact.
Spooked, he shut the drapes and moved back to the fire. It was just his imagination.
And yet, he worried what would happen when night fell once more. 


Out Now - Available At All Major Book Retailers