My own contribution (with a little help from Brad McDevitt) to the Halloween Horror series is available today. I decided to take the “ghost story” and give it a little bit of an edge. There is more to this tale if folks are interested. You’ll have to let me know…

What are ghosts afraid of?

Lost Girl

Created by Matt M McElroy
With art by Brad McDevitt

“This one here, the blue folder…” the boss had said while pointing to the files on his desk.

I remember picking it up from the stack and flipping through it while the boss rambled on about how things used to be in the city, something about respect and a hard days’ work, I honestly don’t remember at this point.

What else do you remember from that day?

Well, um, I think there were a couple of witness statements and some scans of old newspaper articles. Nothing conclusive. I do remember looking up when the boss turned away from the window to tell me something else.

“Since the health of Agent Andrews is not improving his case load is being shifted around.” I remember he looked sad, then he said, “The council is not expecting much new data on this one, but do what you can with it.”

How did that make you feel?

It felt like I got stuck with Andrews leftovers. I didn’t want the cases he couldn’t solve, that’s no way to get a promotion. I didn’t think I had much choice at the time. I, uh, didn’t know what was gonna happen.

[Included in this patient’s records are the files found in his apartment after the “incident” and recovery by Alpha team.]

Ethereal Entity – Lost Girl – Master File

This EE is often seen looking out of windows. Few reliable photographs exist (see attached documentation). Most reports feature sightings in rain or otherwise overcast weather.

What is most unusual about this particular manifestation is that she moves from location to location. Other Ethereal Entities have primarily been documented as stationary. Nearly all cases have these subjects staying near the place of death. Of the few EE cases that have multiple sightings, there was usually distinct reasons in the subject’s life to have connections to a second location (place of death and the subject’s home for example).

This EE has been known to manifest in completely new locations that have little or no know connection to previous sightings. Without a complete history of the subject’s background it cannot be determined where or when she lived. The brief first-person accounts of her activity have not given us much to go on beyond her clothing, which seems to date back 50 or 60 years at least. If so, this would be the longest running EE case on record.

[These are the Field Reports that are directly related to the “incident” as far as we can tell. Other reports from this patient are available upon request.]

Field Report #2378 – Lost Girl –

I’m not sure just what the hell Andrews was doing with this case, but there is plenty of history if you know where to look. The locals have a few stories to tell about this little girl once they get over the fact that you’re an “outsider” (and a few drinks helps). They say she has been here a lot longer than 50 years. They say she follows other kids around sometimes, almost as if she wants to play along with them. One old-timer told me she would show up in his room when he was a boy. The crazy thing about his story is that she wasn’t the only ghost he used to see back then. Apparently there was a pretty bad accident when he was a boy and a local construction worker was killed when he fell off a ladder. This construction worker apparently was one of the dangerous EEs we hear about from time to time. One of those ghosts who would push objects across the room, trip people in the middle of the night and generally cause all kinds of trouble. This dead construction worker would even push kids down the stairs. The old-timer showed me a scar on his chin, supposedly from when the ghost knocked him down on the porch. Supposedly the old-timer cut his face on the edge of the railing. He said when he looked back at the ghost it was laughing at him.

The guy’s story gets a little weird after that. He says that the little girl showed up later that night. She just sat in the chair in his room and watched him and his brothers sleeping. They never saw the dead construction worker again. The little girl would watch over them at night, but never seemed to want to communicate or anything else. She moved on apparently a year or so later.

Field Report #2455 – Lost Girl –

With Agent Andrews death I guess this is my case now for good. I managed to find out a few more interesting bits. Sightings of a different EE where made three months before the little girl moved into the house over on Lake street. There was even a case filed with the council to verify if the EE was the ghost of the old lady who died in the house last year. Interestingly enough, shortly after the Lost Girl sighting in the same house, the old lady never showed up again.

Is she doing something to these other ghosts?

Field Report #3322 – New EE Sighting –

Agent Andrews just made contact with me. This is the first EE that I’ve ever seen of someone I knew before they died. It creeped me the hell out at first, but then I jumped at the chance to make contact with an EE. He just sat there looking at me for about an hour. I recorded as much of the “visit” as I could, but most of the disc is static. I tried to talk to him but it didn’t seem to do any good. He left shortly afterwards.

Perhaps tomorrow I’ll get out some pencils, paper and maybe a ouiji baord. Whatever it takes right?

Field Report #3322 – Additonal Notes –

Well, I think we can merge these cases together and we’ll probably have to create a new classification. Oh, I think I’m going to be taking some vacation now. Yeah, I’d like to be re-assigned to records management for a couple of months too.

The EE formerly known as Agent Andrews is gone. Discorporated or Dissolved. Whatever the correct term is from the guys down in Research. i can’t remember, those idiots change the material all the time. I can’t really keep up.

Andrews showed up in my living room again last night. He looked tired, which was a little strange for a dead guy. I was having a brew and going over my notes from the Highway sighting that got reported a couple of days ago. I looked up briefly to check the score on the tv and Andrews was sitting on the couch. I spilled my beer and I swear that when I got up to get a towel from the kitchen Andrews had not moved from the couch.

There was something written on the file I was reading. My pen was in a different spot too. The written “message” was:

SHE IS HUNGRY. BE CAREFUL. SHE IS NOT LOST.

I looked over at him to try and communicate, hell to try and figure how he wrote this stuff. I mean, we’ve heard of EEs sending messages before, but never seen it. I started to ask him something, anything, hoping he write more.

He was staring past me, looking down the hallway. I didn’t see anything at first. Then, slowly she came around the corner. Andrews was shaking, his mouth was moving but I couldn’t hear anything at first. Then, slowly, so quiet at first that I didn’t even realize it was there, I heard it. It got louder the closer she got to him. He was screaming.

I watched the whole thing. I just sat there, afraid she would turn on me next if I tried to make a break for it. Her hand was just lightly touching his face. His mouth was open, still making that awful sound. He faded from sight right in front of me. It was like all the color and energy, whatever it is that keeps these EEs active after death…just faded away.

When it was done she looked over at me. She smiled for second and then turned and walked back down the hallway. I haven’t been able to bring myself to go into the spare bedroom and see if she is still there or not.

[Our understanding is that sometime late that night neighbors heard screaming from the patient’s apartment. It is unclear how much time had passed between the event of his report and the arrival of the police. What is clear is that sometime in the night all of the patient’s hair had turned completely white and he had defensive wounds on his arms as if he had attempted to protect himself from an attacker. However, the police report shows that his apartment was locked from the inside.

We will continue to observe the patient and turn over all interview transcripts to the Council, but at this point we do not have much hope for this one.]

About Matt M McElroy
Matt is the Editor in Chief here at Flames Rising. When not writing Reviews or lining up new Interviews and Previews for the site he occasionally does a bit of freelance work. Recent projects include the Ghostories Enhancement Pack ^[1] for Precis Intermedia and Tales of the Seven Dogs Society ^[2] for Abstract Nova.

About Bradley K. McDevitt
Bradley K. McDevitt is RPG Illustrator and Graphic Designer, his client include Wizards of the Coast, Postmortem Studios, Fantasy Flight Games, Mongoose Publishing and many more. He recently published a new game, Haiiii-Ya! ^[3], and you can find more of his art in the Clipart Critters ^[4] series.

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