Spooks, Specters & Spirits Event - Real Life Encounter By Lily Luchesi

I’ve discussed my encounter with the Hat Man before, at length, when I was fourteen. In my life, I have witnessed numerous ghosts and unexplained phenomena as long as I can remember, but rarely did any but my mother witness it with me.
Until my boyfriend at the time visited us.
While he believed the paranormal was real, he doubted our tale about the ghost in our apartment (one of two at the time; perhaps one day I will tell the world about Katie, too).
My mother’s longtime friend for over two decades received the devastating diagnosis: cancer, terminal. He was only in his forties, and the American healthcare system caused much grief when they did not believe him when he said he was ill, thinking him a drug addict.
I had not met my mom’s friend since I was about four, at this time I was around fifteen, so it had been some time, but I spoke to him and saw pictures and home videos where he and his friends were at my family’s home, laughing, eating, and alive.
There was a tale my mother recalled often, the day she met her friend. It was at his band’s concert; he was a brand new drummer after the old one chose to quit. Mom walked into the backstage area to see someone brushing their long, silken black hair upside down to give it volume. The man stood, flipping his hair back, and my mother swore it was in slow motion. It felt like a bad romance film, she said. However, he was just as gorgeous as a romantic hero, and infinitely kind.
Ghosts do come back to visit their loved ones. My nonna did, my mother did, and mom’s friend did as well. He especially came around when we were playing VHS tapes (yeah, this was a while ago, when a VHS/DVD combo player was the norm in most households) that had his band’s music videos on them.
When I mentioned it to my boyfriend, he scoffed.
“You expect me to believe you summon this dude?” he asked, grinning like I told the funniest joke known to man. He believed in ghosts. He didn’t have a choice; often when we hung out, unexplained things happened around me.
“You don’t have to believe me. You’ll see when you come over this weekend,” I replied. Teenage me didn’t have a whole host of confidence, but I was certain of one thing: ghosts are often predictable. Especially the newly dead.
We spent a normal day in town, going to the mall, getting Slurpees, typical teen things. Mom picked us up and we went to our place, had dinner, then settled in the living room with the lights low to watch music videos.
I can recall we watched a HIM concert, some Iron Maiden, and Mom then put on her friend’s band’s VHS.
The way the living room was set up, it was a long rectangle and the couch was in the corner, coffee table before it, and the light from the TV across from it flooded the corner almost like a shadow puppet show would have. Our three silhouettes were clearly displayed across the beige paint job so common in middle America in 2007.
Mom and I saw him then. The fourth shadow of a person who was not physically in the room.
My boyfriend’s whole body went rigid next to me, no longer dancing in his seat to the music.
“Annie? Lily?” he asked, his voice high and tight, much higher than normal. He didn’t turn his head fully; only his eyes moved, glancing from me to his left, to the wall towards his right. As if moving would disturb the spirit.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“So, um, Annie’s friend…” He finally moved, trying to mimic the shadow. “Did he, um, did he do this?” And my boyfriend proceeded to pretend he was brushing his hair upside down, then flipped his head back up.
Just like the spirit did.
Just like Mom’s story, which she never told my boyfriend. He could never have known that specific movement to lie and say he saw the spirit along with us.
“Yep,” Mom replied.
“HOLY SHIT.” You’d think my boyfriend shouted, but the words were somehow at once a yelp and a whisper. “He’s right there!” He cocked his head towards the wall, eyes wide and unblinking.
“We are aware,” I replied, rolling my eyes a little. “Do you believe me now?”
Mom paused the TV, and the fourth shadow vanished now that the music stopped, which my ex also noticed.
“I’ve never seen anything like that except when I’m around you,” he accused.
Mom gave him a tap on the shoulder. “That’s your cue to know you should be extra nice to her.”
I smiled at him, brushing his shoulder with mine. “Yeah. I might get a ghost friend to make you need Viagara.”
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Lily Luchesi is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of the Paranormal Detectives Series.
Her young adult Coven Series has successfully topped Amazon's Hot New Releases list consecutively.
She is also the founder of Partners in Crime Book Services, where she offers a myriad of services, including editing.
They were born in Chicago, Illinois, where many of their stories are set. Ever since she was a toddler, her mother noticed her tendency for being interested in all things "dark". At two they became infatuated with vampires and ghosts, and that infatuation turned into a lifestyle. She is also an out member of the LGBT+ community.
When not writing, she's going to rock concerts, getting tattooed, watching the CW, or reading comics and manga. And drinking copious amounts of coffee.
Lily also writes contemporary books for adults as Samantha Calcott, and dark/taboo romance as S.L. Sinclair.

www.lilyluchesi.com