The Ghost of Verner Lane

Words: 396

Now let me tell you what really happened. John thought Diane was really the ghost of Verner Lane. What he didn’t know was that she was an old girlfriend’s sister. She had grown up quite a bit in the ten years since he had seen her. In that ten years the sister’s anger at John had grown exponentially. She blamed him for her sister’s death. Posing as the Ghost of Abigale Crane, a girl who was murdered on Verner Lane back in 1965, her plan was to drive John to do something stupid and hopefully hurt or kill himself. If it was the former she was prepared to finish it. The long butcher knife she held in her hand strengthened her fortitude.
As John ran from the supposed ghost he only wanted to get away and didn’t think about how he could be injured running blindly through the forest along Verner Lane. As he approached the railroad track he heard the train barreling down on him. His only thought was to get across. When he was several yards from the track he heard a voice calling him.
“John, where are you going? John, please comeback!”
He paused and turned in the direction the voice. At first he didn’t see anyone then, emerging from the now swirling fog a pale figure appeared. John hesitated as the ghostly specter approached. When the apparition was almost within reach he saw moonlight glint off the knife in her hand. John turned and ran toward the railroad tracks. The ghost screamed behind him, almost on his heels. He ignored the approaching train. With a leap he jumped the tracks and could feel the cold wind of the passing train on his back, the roar of the engine in his ears. He didn’t stop running until he reached his home almost thirty minutes later.
What he didn’t see was the ghostly figure chasing him when he neared the train. He made it but the ghost behind him did not. By the time the body was found and it made the news, John would never make the connection. He would also never know that he was responsible for the death of two sisters. One by suicide, depressed over his callous breakup with her and the other so driven by hatred and revenge she couldn’t see the train for her focused loathing of him.