Excerpt from THE UNEXPLAINED: A HAUNTED CANADA ANTHOLOGY
by Janet Lunn
|
He was awakened suddenly by a deep growl from the dog. He sat up. There, seated before the embers of his fire, was a young woman. Her long hair hung heavy and wet over her shoulders and all but covered her face. She wore only a soiled white dress, which was as wet as her hair.
“Good heavens, Madam! Where did you come from?” Torrens exclaimed.
She did not answer. She only held up her left hand. The captain saw that one of her fingers had been cut off. It was dripping blood.
He jumped up. Frantically he looked around him to find something to use as a bandage. In that moment the air about him turned cold as ice, and in a single movement, the woman rose and slipped past him through the door.
For a moment the captain just stared, then he ran after her. But she was as sweift as the wind. It was a clear moonlit night, and to his horror, he saw her dive, headfirst, into the lake. The dog raced after her, whining and barking, but a moment later, when the captain reached the water’s edge, there wasn’t even a ripple to show where the woman had disappeared.
“I must be insane. The sight of all those dead bodies this morning has unbalanced my mind,” he thought.
He slowly returned to the hut with Whiskey trotting by his side. When they came to the door, the dog stopped. He began to growl and refused to go inside. Torrens saw the hackles rise along the dog’s back. He looked inside and felt his own hair prickle on the nape of his neck.
There was the young woman sitting by the fireplace. Fearfully the captain entered. He approached her cautiously, and as he drew near, she turned and held up her mutilated hand. This time he saw her face. It was as white as the moon, but he knew her.
From The Unexplained: A Haunted Canada Anthology. Text copyright © 2008 by Scholastic Canada Ltd. All rights reserved.
|
|
