Are you ready to switch off your screens and ponder or discuss another writing/conversation prompt during dinner tonight? You want to know about my thoughts on it? Here’s my take:
At first it had just been a dare. There was this chapel by the road side that was allegedly spooked. Some claimed to have seen a nun, deeply veiled. Others said that it was too dark to see anything but that there was definitely a presence. They had taken the dare. Neither Alice nor her friend, James, believed in ghosts.
They had parked a little away from the chapel. One never knew what ghosts thought of technology. They might turn their motor useless so Alice and James couldn’t get away. Not that they believed in ghosts, of course …
Alice and James had opened the heavy wooden door and entered the dark room. He had gone in first, which was the only reason why she had followed him. She wouldn’t have dared to go first. Or alone. Behind her, the door fell shut. There was a full moon outside, but its light didn’t make it through the ancient, stained-glass windows. They hadn’t brought a torch either – who can see a ghost when there is bright light?!
There was a rustling in the dark. Some stifled moan from James. Alice stood still, her heart racing. Oh, why hadn’t she held on to his hand?! She WAS alone in the dark. But so was he.
“Where are you?” she asked.
She heard steps nearing her. She stretched out her hand, hoping it was James. She wanted to touch his shoulder, be held. Instead, she touched hair. Long hair. She shrieked. She held on to the hair, with the absurd hope that it would make the spook disappear. But the ghost moved on, and the hair stayed in her hands.
“Where are you?” she whimpered.
“Pray that this works,” James said softly, seemingly a mile away from her in the sea of darkness.
Suddenly, light flooded the room. Alice stood blinded for a second. She looked at a switch of hair in her hand and at her friend standing by the altar, his hand still on a light switch. He was as pale as she.
“I thought you were switched into her!” She stared at the hair piece.
“I’m not sure ghosts would do such a thing,” he said weakly.
“Where is she now?”
“Gone,” James said hoarsely. “Because she didn’t expect that I’d remember they recently put in wiring to illuminate the altar. Which shows … oh my, a deeply veiled nun on the right wing of the triptych!”
“It’s her,” Alice whispered. “And this must be the hair she sacrificed when she became a nun.”
They stared at each other, trembling. Then Alice softly placed the switch onto the altar.
“Let’s leave,” said James and took her by the hand.
They walked up the aisles and opened the heavy door to escape the eerie chapel. Outside, they were greeted by the laughter of their friends as one of them quickly slipped out of the habit they had rented from a costume store in town.
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