“That driver tried to pass off some story about a terrible accident involving a couple of children on our street. Have you ever heard anything about that?”
Sally stiffened in her seat, clearly disturbed by the question. “You know, this is strange but, I was speaking to Tiffany—”
“That kooky lady next door to you who thinks she’s an astrologist?”
“Yes, the same.” Sally continued, “Anyway, she brought up that very topic last week.”
“Why? Seems odd to just come out with a story like that,” Jackie said.
“Yes, well, ever since Clay started my project, I’ve been hearing some strange noises outside. I thought maybe prowlers were looking for tools or supplies to steal, so I asked her if she had seen anyone sneaking around.”
Jackie took a moment to soak that in, recalling that she hadn’t seen anything unusual. “She is always up late with her astrology group. She’s invited me a couple times but...”
“Same here,” Sally replied. “Anyway, Tiffany said she hadn’t seen anything. But one of her friends had felt a strange presence. Some woman named Martha, who claimed to be a psychic.”
Jackie rolled her eyes. “Ooookay.”
Sally shook her head in agreement. “Yeah, I thought the same. But here’s the thing... Tiffany explained to me that evening she had shared a story with the group about two children...” Sally paused, then lowered her voice, “Who got run over on Haynesville Woods Avenue before this neighborhood was here.”
Jackie let out a deep sigh, and her shoulders slumped forward a bit. “So, the driver told me the truth about that?” Jackie looked up into the rearview to see Elena occupied with a game on her device. She tilted her head a bit and saw Sean looking intently at Sally.
“It would seem that way. I don’t think the driver knows Tiffany,” Sally said. “But here’s the thing that stands out about what Tiffany told me.” She paused for a second to gather her thoughts, smoothing the fabric of her lap. “After she told her group the story, adding her own brand of spooky to it, the psychic got agitated, mentioned this... presence, and then left suddenly.”
Jackie tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, considering the implications. “That is strange. This psychic didn’t say anything else about the story before rushing out?”
“Apparently not,” Sally replied.
“Some psychic she must be if she runs off scared after a little ghost story by the fire,” Jackie said.
“I know right... These people,” Sally scoffed.
“Anyway, this guy, John, the driver, said that the ghosts of those kids lurked around our street, causing mischief,” Jackie added. “Is that what Tiffany said too?”
“Something like that.” Sally brushed off her pants leg dismissively. “A bunch of nonsense if you ask me.”
Jackie shook her head. “Yeah, but it’s very odd that two people who don’t even know each other came up with the same story.”
“Local folklore, I guess,” Sally replied, a dismissive tone in her voice. “Unless Tiffany has a secret love life we don’t know about.” They looked at each other and shared a brief laugh while Sean rolled his eyes.
Waiting at the next stoplight, Jackie glanced up at the rearview to check on Elena again. She let her gaze linger a bit longer, thankful to see her safe.
In a strange, sudden motion, Elena’s head jerked up and met her mother’s eyes with an unusually serious demeanor. “Momma, are you talking about my friends in the front yard?”
Jackie froze, mouth agape. Sally turned slowly to look back at Elena. Sean stared at her. A horn broke the silence. The light had turned green. As she accelerated, Elena spoke up again, giggling this time as she said, “They always want me to come out and play.”
𓂓
Officer Street pulled up to the precinct, eager to speak with the specialist about the video. He couldn’t stop thinking about that flash of white light at the moment Clay crossed the front of the truck. Streets’ intuition told him he needed to know more.
The precinct was an ordinary two-story brick building with double doors set in large windows that wrapped around the front and sides, with smaller windows along the second floor. He pushed through the glass doors, said hello to the desk sergeant, made a quick right heading through a plain door, and up a set of sterile stairs to the second floor. He emerged from the door and headed to the specialist’s office, immediately to his right.
Detective Slade sat in a gamer-style chair analyzing the video. Two long desks dominated the right and back side of the office. Several large screens provided the only light in the room. Despite the cables and wires that ran back and forth along his desk in apparent disarray, everything appeared to work as it should.
“Couldn’t wait either?” Streets said with a smile as he walked into the room.
Slade looked up from the computer screen but didn’t say anything. His eyes were wide. His face had a combined look of disbelief, fear, and morbid curiosity. He tilted his head toward the screen, inviting Streets to take a look.
Intrigued by Slade’s lack of response, Streets walked over to the desk and leaned in closer. Slade used a dial to back up the video to the point where the events had begun. Clay and Sean were in the foreground, kneeling over separate areas in the front yard. Elena was in the distance, across the street, standing in the front yard near her soccer ball, which she then gave a swift kick. She had apparently shanked the ball badly. It went through a flower bed and then bounced down the gentle hill and into the street. She paused for a moment and then ran casually down the hill to retrieve the ball as it slowly rolled to a stop in the road. From the house behind Elena, Jackie burst out of the door, stumbling as she lunged out. That’s when Clay looked up and took off like a sprinter from the blocks with Sean not far behind. As he approached the road in full sprint, the truck came into view. The driver was looking down at his phone and didn’t see Clay or the girl.
“Lying sack of shit,” Streets muttered to himself.
Slade didn’t look away from the screen. “I've watched this next part at least half a dozen times.”
As Streets watched the events unfold on the screen, he noticed something that did not add up. Judging by speed and distance, it didn’t look like Clay would reach Elena in time.
Slade looked up and said, “I’m going to slow this down a bit so you can better see what happens.”
Streets nodded.
What can only be described as a brilliant white light had begun to materialize near Clay on an almost parallel approach angle from his left side. Their paths formed a V as the light seemed to merge with Clay a few steps before he lined up his dive for Elena.
“I’ve used some filters here to reduce the brightness of that light so we can see the details of what happened in that moment,” Slade commented as the footage continued to play.
Despite the video’s slow motion, Clay appeared to quicken his pace just enough before he grabbed Elena under the arms and tossed her. In that moment, he also appeared to have a thin glowing outline around his body, like an aura moving in unison with him. An instant afterwards, the light appeared to pass through, then emerge from him. Clay was struck by the truck, which came to a stop a split second later. Only his legs were visible after that. The driver could be seen gripping the steering wheel with his left hand, a shocked look on his face, a cell phone clearly visible in his right hand. The light quickly vanished after passing through Clay.
Slade paused the video and Streets looked at the screen dumbfounded, then glanced over to Slade, who shrugged while he shook his head. Then a more resolute posture came over the specialist, and Slade backed up the video one more time. “Now, look more closely at that light. I’ll upscale the video so we can sharpen the focus a little, slow down the speed some more, and zoom in on it.”
The video restarted more slowly just as the light appeared. But as it did, details within the light became visible. As it slowly grew in intensity, what looked like a head and body resolved into view. As the body became clearer, arms appeared to reach out from the light with open hands. Then the apparition merged with Clay, accelerating him at the precise moment he dove.
