prompt
Late one night, you find yourself in a fairly under populated area of town. You’ve been strangely alone for the past few moments when you see movement out of the corner of your eye. Only a few yards away you see a young woman with tear-stained cheeks and a long white gown. It is difficult to make out any more details; she seems to be running from something. She looks like she is screaming but makes no sound; even her footsteps seem to be silent. If you try to chase her, you will wind up in a dead end—alone, and suddenly, cold. It feels like something has slammed into you and turned your blood to ice, but there’s no one around. No matter what you do, the chill remains until morning—but the image of the woman’s fear-filled face may haunt your dreams for much longer.
Word Count: 777
Antares was out patrolling the city, the chill in the air causing her to huddle under the overly large sweatshirt she had pulled over her thin uniform. The skimpy outfit she was forced to parade around in was not made for fall… or winter… or spring. It really was only best for high summer when the very heat of the city smothered the whole place in a blanket of garbage and funk. Even that wasn’t really enough for her to forsake her extra covering, since it helped her blend into the darkness and hide her from prying eyes much like right then as she made her way back to street level. The next roof to climb was too far away and required her crossing an empty parking lot and a unpopulated street. Even the streetlights weren’t working it was so empty of people who cared, no one had ever called in to complain about the lack of lights.
She was halfway across the parking lot when she picked up just how empty it was. Not a soul. Not a car, not a rat skittering in the shadows, not even trash to blow in the fickle wind. It was like a void of movement, sound, and life. The young senshi was nearly across the street when out of the corner of her eye she spotted movement. It was dim so it was hard to tell at first but it became clearer by the second that it was a person running towards her. At first Antares was leery, thinking it was some type of attack but as the young woman got closer it was becoming clearer and clearer that something was seriously wrong. Her face was stained with tears and her long gown was torn and ragged, maybe it had been white at some point but now not so much.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out something was off. The girl was screaming her head off but no sound was being produced. It was possible to explain that away by suggesting the girl had lost her voice earlier but when her feet slapping the pavement made no sound either… that was a bunch of bullshit. Even knowing that the figure racing towards her couldn’t be alive Antares couldn’t not see the horror written all over her face. She couldn’t not see the fear and know that the ghostly woman was running from something. The stoic blonde had seen that kind of fear and reaction more times then she wanted to admit. She didn’t turn away from the others and she wouldn’t do so now, not even when the one in trouble was some kind of spirit. In this city who said that Antares couldn’t help this ghost.
When the spirit raced past the young senshi followed calling out softly for the poor girl to wait. It hurt her heart to see someone in such pain, even when it was just a fragment of a being already free from physical pain. She did her best to keep up but it was as if the ghost was going faster and faster and no matter how much Antares strained to catch up she kept falling farther and farther behind. She took a corner at top speed and nearly skidded to a thudding stop against the opposite wall when her heel slipped on some trash. By the time she righted herself it was pretty clear she had ended up in an alley, a dead end alley… an empty dead end alley. There was no one and nothing there besides some dumpsters and trash. Cautiously Antares entered the deserted the space only to hit a wall of cold. Bitter cold. The cold of a deep winter night. It blasted through her and even after it seemed to dissipate she was still cold.
The ghost was gone and she was freezing. What ever reason that poor girl was still running away from even after her death never materialized. A shiver racked Antares, urging her to quit for the night, a urge she gladly accepted even as her heart broke at the knowledge that she couldn’t help the girl. There wasn’t anything that could be done to break the cycle for the ghost. No bad guy to punch, no evil to punish. The ghost would be forever stuck in the same cycle time and time again. Forever running down the same street. Over and over again. Never being able to stop. Even as Antares left, huddling into her sweater for warmth that wasn’t penetrating the chill, the senshi knew that the ghost girl’s horror stricken face would be added to her nightmare repertoire.
