Written by Niki Esmaili of Richard Montgomery High School
It was a chilly fall night on November 11, 1987. The sun had already set, and nothing but the silhouettes of the leafless trees remained visible through the windows. Amelia Jones stood in her kitchen, looking around at the fridge, the cabinets, the oven, and the stove, with one hand placed on the countertop and the other on her hip. A confused and nervous look shone bright on her face. Neil, a man whom Amelia had met in recent weeks, was coming over that evening for dinner and Amelia wanted everything, absolutely everything, to be perfect. She and Neil had met a little over a month ago in a quiet club one evening, and this was technically their first date since. Amelia had never dated before, and she was rather keen on Neil, so she wanted to avoid messing up and causing him to lose interest in her.
At a frustrating loss for ideas on what to cook for Neil, Amelia turned to her phone and searched up ‘dinner date meal ideas.’ Simple foods such as pizza, pastas, chicken, shrimp, steak and potatoes, and fish immediately popped up. Amelia, very late with beginning the dinner preparations, decided to go with the simple option of fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp. It was seven o’clock in the evening and Neil was arriving at eight, leaving Amelia only one hour to prepare the food and get dressed herself. Amelia let the fettuccine pasta boil in the simmering hot pot while she went upstairs to get dressed. She was in the middle of putting on some high waisted jeans and an elegant, black, off-shoulder top when she heard a strange noise coming from downstairs.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
She immediately froze, thinking Neil had arrived early. Dinner was far from ready, and Amelia hadn’t even finished getting ready herself. Nevertheless, she quickly finished brushing her hair and applying some waterproof mascara and made her way downstairs, thinking it would be impolite if she left Neil waiting too long. However, when she got downstairs and peaked out of the window, Neil was nowhere to be seen. It was pitch black outside, so Amelia figured that the lack of light was probably obscuring her vision. She made her way back into the kitchen, and, noticing that the fettuccine still had some time left to boil in the pot, she grabbed a flashlight from one of the cabinets and made her way outside of the front door.
“Neil?” she whispered into the night as she stepped out onto the front porch.
Nothing.
There was only the howling of the wind and the rustling of the leaves as they swept onto every sidewalk and street. For the first time since Amelia had been a little girl, she noticed how frightening the dark night was. The suspense of the silence, the eerie feeling of being unable to see who or what was out there, and the unfamiliarity; how one place can change so easily when the lights are shut off. Tell me, dear reader, is it not an unpleasant feeling? I know for sure Amelia thought it was because she immediately ran back inside her house and locked the door.
Making her way back into the kitchen, she glanced at the time on the stove: 7:30. Amelia shook off the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach and decided that if she wanted to get this dinner perfect by the time Neil made an appearance, she would need to focus and not allow herself to get distracted.
The fettuccine had finished cooking in the pot and Amelia was ready to pour the Alfredo sauce on it along with the shrimp and mix them all together. While mixing them, Amelia looked back up at the stove once again to check the time: 7:50. Ten minutes to eight. Where was Neil? Amelia asked herself. She hadn't known Neil for long, but she thought that he was a nice enough guy to turn up early on their first date. Amelia had come to the conclusion that he was probably running a bit late.
Oh, how wrong she was.
At five minutes to eight, Amelia let the fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp warm up in the pot on its own while she took a quick trip to the bathroom. Upon entering the bathroom, she immediately noticed something rather odd on the mirror. The words, where is Neil? Will he be here for the meal? How does it feel? To know that this is all real? were written on the mirror. However, the most horrifying part was that it was written… in blood.
Amelia was unable to move. Paralyzed with fear, her mouth gaped open while she pressed both of her hands to her heart, trying to stop it from jumping out of her chest. There’s an intruder in my house, she thought to herself. And what did this mean about Neil? Was he alright? Amelia’s head was exploding with questions. Half of them were about the concern of Neil’s safety while the other half were about her own. Amelia thought back to the tapping sound that came from the kitchen window earlier. Was there someone watching her? Did that have anything to do with Neil’s tardiness?
Amelia was now so scared that she didn’t know what to do with herself. Her immediate thought was to get out of the house and call for help. She was just about to do that when all of a sudden, the lights shut off in the bathroom, leaving her in complete darkness.
Amelia was shaking so bad that she was sure the bathroom floor was shaking with her. She quickly locked the door and ran inside the shower, kneeling and covering her head with her hands behind the glass door. Amelia could hear the floorboards creaking. Each one getting louder… and closer than the last.
Creak.
Creak.
Creak.
Amelia was never one to believe in supernatural ideas or theories. She always thought them to be impossible, and in her mind, it was just a way that simple minded people explained the strange occurrences of life. But what could explain the sudden blackout in the bathroom? Was it a power outage? And what was the creaking sound on the floorboards? Amelia couldn’t remember ever inviting someone to her house besides Neil. Amelia still remained kneeling on the shower floor, rocking back and forth and praying that this was all just some awful dream and that she would wake up at any moment. The creaking of the floorboards was inching closer to Amelia by the second, until it came to a sudden halt and silence was all that filled the dingy bathroom. The only sound that remained was the ferocious beating of Amelia’s heart and the panting of her breath.
Amelia suddenly remembered the fact that her phone had been in her back pocket the whole time. She could call Neil! And the police as well. With sweaty, trembling hands, Amelia quickly began to dial Neil’s phone number. About two rings later, Amelia was greeted with a dark, mysterious voice on the other side of the line.
“Ah, took you long enough,” said the voice.
“N-Neil?” stuttered Amelia.
“Neil? You can’t even recognize your lover’s voice, can you?” said the voice hysterically.
“Who are you?” demanded Amelia.
“Who am I? Oh, I’m your worst nightmare, my dear,” said the voice with a hint of satisfaction.
“Where is Neil? Where is he?” cried Amelia.
“Oh… let’s just say he’s been taken care of,” replied the voice.
“Wh-what does that mean?” said Amelia, biting her fingernails.
“Mmm… something smells good. Is that… fettuccine with shrimp?” said the voice, completely ignoring Amelia’s question.
Amelia’s fear level hit a completely new level at that moment. So someone was in her house!
“That’s it!” said Amelia when she didn’t get a reply from the creepy, dark voice. She immediately hung up on them and decided that it would be best if she finally called the police. She was just about to do so when…
“Oh, no you don’t…”
All of a sudden, right before Amelia’s eyes, a transparent hand grabbed hold of her wrist. Slowly looking up, Amelia saw that the hand belonged to a transparent body. A man. A man with messy, tangled curls and dirty, ripped clothes. His mustache appeared to have been half-shaven and there was a long scar that appeared over his left eye.
“Gh-gh-gh…” said Amelia.
“Ghost,” said the transparent man.
Within seconds, Amelia’s lifeless body made a loud thud on the floor, and the mysterious ghost uttered a loud cackle and disappeared through the walls. Amelia and Neil finally got to be together that night after all. And if you remember earlier when I mentioned that Amelia wanted everything to be perfect, well, you bet that she was feverish when things turned out the exact opposite. Amelia had now become the thing that she couldn’t bring herself to say that fateful night… a ghost.
From that moment on, she swore that no one else deserved to enjoy the dinner date that had so unfortunately not happened for her. Amelia was angry… and hungry for revenge. So, take my advice: if you’re ever making dinner for yourself and someone you’re quite fond of, and the lights suddenly go out or you hear suspicious creaking on the floorboards… run.
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