The Relucant Medium - The Final Chapter

"Brandon?," I half whispered. There was no response. "Brandon!" I yelled and turned on my knees. He was leaning against the passenger door of the car - just staring, in a trance. I was wiping the vomit off my face with my sleeve and smacking my hands against my pants, getting my hands as clean as I possibly could. I managed to get up on my feet and staggered over to him, throwing my body against his. He remained frozen in his position, like a statue, not responding to me. I looked up at his face. "Brandon," I said again.

"Huh?", he managed, still staring in a trance. I sighed in frustration and turned my head in the direction of his gaze.

There she was. A beautiful ghostly figure, huddled near her lifeless body. She was gently gliding her pale, transparent hand over her face. Her long, blond hair flowing over her bony shoulders and down her willowy body. I mimicked Brandon's trance-like gaze. I couldn't look away. I only prayed she didn't look up. I just wanted to behold her for a moment. She lifted her hand and gently pulled her ghostly wispy hairs behind her ear, exposing a black hole in her left temple. I felt my eyes widen and my jaw drop. She had been shot in the head. My eyes surveyed down her bony arm, over her bony, pale fingers, to the head of her body poking out from beneath the ground. There it was, the same hole.

Suddenly I snapped out of it. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes with my free hand. My heart started pounding. "What now?" I thought. I pulled slightly away from Brandon. He suddenly drew in a deep breath and looked at me, snapping out his trance.

"What are you doing?" He asked in a groggy voice. I didn't move, only motioned with my eyes toward the car. Toward the door. He furrowed his brow, not understanding my cues.

I was afraid to speak. Afraid to make a noise. Afraid to disturb the ghostly figure crouched only fifteen feet away. I only mouthed the words, "Let's go". Again his look was puzzled. I jerked my head toward the car in seizure-like movements - trying to communicate without drawing attention. I finally saw the light go off in his head. He glanced quickly in the direction of the ghost, a look of concern on his face. Then he looked back at me to make sure this was really my plan. I reached behind his body and felt for the handle. I gently lifted it. He crawled in before me and I followed closely behind. I shut the door and locked it quickly, never daring to take my eyes off of the ghost. She didn't seem to notice. I blew out the breath I had been unknowingly holding.

"Now what?" Brandon breathed.

"Go", I whispered, staring straight ahead.

"Go?" he asked in surprise. "Are you serious?"

"Yes! Yes, I'm serious. GO! DRIVE!" I grit my teeth in frustration, keeping my eyes on her - Lisa.

"Well....you're just gonna' leave her here?" As if she couldn't find her way back. She'd found me before. She could travel anywhere - do anything. She didn't need us. Besides, if she really wanted to, she could probably just appear in the car. The thought gave me sudden chills.

"Just frickin' drive, Brandon! DRIVE!" I shouted in agitation.

Brandon slowly moved the gear, notch by notch into reverse. I swallowed hard and drew in a long, deep breath, holding it, waiting in anticipation. How would she react? What would happen next? This was a gutsy thing - I knew it. But I had to get out of there. We started to roll backwards slowly, suddenly catching on something and stopping. Brandon pushed the gas pedal and the engine roared, sending us lurching backwards.

The pale, ghostly figure jerked her head up suddenly - her cold, black eyes boring straight into mine. A look of disgust. Every hair on my body stood at attention. My eyes widened in fear. I gulped hard. We continued to roll backwards, now turning as Brandon angled the car around to face the road. Lisa stood up and started to slowly walk towards the car, holding my gaze in hers. I was completely tense, every muscle in my body. My hands and feet like ice.

"Gah!" I released uncontrollably.

Brandon jumped, "What? What's wrong?" He shouted. Caught off guard.

"She's coming! DRIIIIVE!" I shouted in desperation. He threw the car violently into drive and hit the gas pedal with so much force we flew right out of there, flying over bumps, narrowly missing trees.

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah." I muttered over and over under my breath, cheering him on.

"Is she still coming?" He shouted. I jumped up in my seat and turned around. There she was, at a distance, still walking slowly towards us, a scowl on her face.

"HOLY CRAP! JUST GO!!!" I screamed.

And he did. He drove like a complete maniac, probably in a similar fashion to how I got us there in the first place. How she got us there...in my body.

We reached the main road and Brandon continued to drive like an absolute maniac. I sat completely tense the whole time, my right hand clutching the side door - only half breathing. Finally we came down the mountain. We were down on main roads now, heading home. I looked behind us again. I don't know what I expected to see - maybe the ghostly figure still following behind, closing in on us. But there was nothing. Just blackness.

"She still there?" Brandon asked quietly.

"Uh uh," I sighed. I reached my hand over and touched his shoulder. He flinched. I pulled my hand back and he looked over at me, embarrassed, then clutched his head with his left hand, resting his elbow on the window ledge and continued on, staring straight ahead in a trance. I heaved a sigh and sat back against my seat, staring blankly out the window, trying to keep my head clear. Trying to push out the memories of what had just happened. We drove home in complete silence.

Upon arriving at my condo, Brandon and I simultaneously opened our doors, stumbled out and staggered toward the garage door leading inside. All I could think about was my bed. I just wanted my bed. We both staggered to my room without saying a word. I threw myself on my bed - dirt, blood, vomit and all.

"Don't you wanna' shower?" Brandon mumbled.

"Hmmm," I groaned.

Brandon sat down hard on the bed next to me. He laid his hand on my hair. "You're covered in lots of different crap, you know."

"Yeah, I know," I mumbled into the bedding. "I don't wanna' shower right now. I'm too tired." I threw myself over onto my back and stared at the ceiling. "Besides, I don't want to be alone. Not even in the shower."

Brandon nodded, staring off somewhere else. I don't know where he was, but he was clearly not present. And neither was I. He started to kick his shoes off, so I followed his lead. He crawled across my bed and reached for me. I pulled away.

"Let me get the lights", I sighed. I shut the bedroom door. And locked it. I didn't know what that would do. It just made me feel safer. I hit the light switch and staggered over to the bed, stumbling onto it and melting into Brandon's shape as he curled his body around mine and laid his arm across the top for security. I felt very safe now. I drifted off quickly.

I drew in a long, deep breath, my body stretching reflexively. I held the stretched position a few seconds and then released, blowing my breath out. I could still feel Brandon next to me. A huge relief. I heard him stirring and waking then too. He groaned and rolled over to his other side, letting his legs fall over the edge and sitting up in a slightly hunched position, rubbing his eyes for several seconds.

We both got up and stretched again, standing up now - facing each other across the bed.

"You okay?" Brandon asked. A look of concern on his face.

I simply nodded. But I worried. I wasn't okay. I wasn't okay at all. I was exhausted, physically and emotionally. I didn't feel any better after my long night's sleep. I felt sick.

"You hungry?," I mumbled.

Brandon nodded. "Yeah. Kind of. You?"

I shook my head no. Brandon laughed. "No? Then what did you ask me for?"

"Well, just 'cause I'm not hungry, doesn't mean you're not," I replied.

I unlocked the door and grabbed the door handle, but hesitated. I looked over at Brandon and raised an eyebrow. "Well, let's see what happens now," I said playfully, trying to mask my intense fear at this moment. The moment of truth. What was on the other side of that door? I had no idea, but we couldn't hide out in the bedroom forever.

I threw it open dramatically and stood there. I looked around at the family room before me. Silence. Calm. Nothing out of the ordinary. I heaved a sigh of relief. "All clear", I said and sauntered out, rounding the corner to the kitchen.

T-E-L-l t-H-e-M

It was spelled out on the fridge. I froze. I turned and bolted for my room screaming, "OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH!" I slammed the bedroom door, ran to my bed, jumped under the blanket and pulled it up over my head, sobbing uncontrollably.

I suddenly felt a hand touching me above the blanket. I threw it down and saw Brandon sitting there on the bed. A horrified look on his face. "What - just - happened?" He spoke his sentence in broken pieces.

"She's baaaack," I sobbed.

Now. This is where I will end the long, drawn out tale. It is now the night before Halloween and this could honestly go on forever, but you've hung in there long enough. And now I will simply finish by stating that after two days of contemplating and two days of torment by Lisa's ghost, I did go to the authorities and tell them what I found. I lied slightly. I told the police that my boyfriend and I were camping and came across the body. We were both taken into custody and questioned about the case. The body was found by our description of the location and the map Brandon drew. The body belonged to a young woman - 23-year-old Lisa Stinson. She had been kidnapped, murdered, and driven up there for her shallow burial near the lake.

Brandon and I were eventually released, having been cleared of any connection to the murder. Lisa's case is still a cold case. It has, to this day, never been solved. Lisa never did communicate to me any clue as to who could have done this. Apparently she doesn't know who did this to her.

I returned to my life and Brandon to his. I spoke of this to no one. I couldn't. Everything seemed to work out just right for my son to be with my ex during the times that I was finding the body and talking to detectives.

As for Lisa's ghost - I never did see or hear from her again. Once I reported the whereabouts of her body and she received a proper burial, she left me in peace.

Now scroll way down. I have one final thing to say to you all...























































This story is completely made up! GOTCHA!!!!! HAHAHA! I know. Not funny. Not funny at all. But I had you, didn't I? Not one single part of this story is true - including Brandon. I've never had a friend like that named Brandon. I made this all up as I went along - chapter by chapter. Even Lisa Stinson is made up. Now, the two women pictured earlier in the story are real. They were murdered. I did some research for this story. But I honestly had no idea where this story would go until I was actually sitting and typing it.

Now that I've completely lost your trust, I will say - all other stories in this blog are completely true. THOSE were not made up. But anything as exciting as this story - never happened to me. Are you kidding? I'd be in a mental hospital right now if it had.

I hope you enjoyed. I hope you're not too mad at me. And I hope you'll come back for more next month as I begin a new blog - dating stories - The Horror, The Hilarious, The Hurtful, The Hopeless. I have so many crazy (but completely true) dating stories. I've often been told I should write a book. Instead, I would like to blog it because it's fun and gets my need for creativity out of my system. I am now working on a book. An actual book I would like to have published, so if you enjoy reading my blog works, then maybe someday you'll buy my books.

Happy Halloween!