To continue with our Halloween theme, today we have Abrielle Fuerst
First She is going to tell us a little ghost story, then we can check out her book Lady Shadow that just came out in paperback!!
Now on to the ghost story …
***
This is an instance in two parts. Perhaps related, perhaps not.
Six years ago.
We were, at the time, renting a small house in a dubious neighborhood. My sister and I were given the massive, grey-carpeted room that had once been the garage, from which we could hear everything that happened outside after dark.
We slept side-by-side for the first couple months. My sister nudged me awake one such night and whispered—in a broken code—that there was a man hiding under the table.
“There is not.”
“There is.”
There couldn’t be. The garage had been permanently sealed years ago. There was only one other door, which led to the kitchen, and I slept facing it. No one had entered, I would have known.
“Go to sleep.”
“Go and check.”
Well, I’d woken her up for things of less import. I kept the lights off to not betray my position, and went creeping around in the dark, seeking a man hiding under the table.
I found none.
Incidence 2.
At some later point I was lying in bed, trying to sleep but not, when I felt someone very distinctly sliding two fingers up the inside of my leg.
I called out to my sister. “Were you just in here a minute ago?”
“No, why?”
“Someone was touching my leg.”
“It wasn’t me.”
I looked; she was right. The door creaked when opened; the floor shifted when stepped on. She would have had to make quite a bit of noise to actually get it here, and she just hadn’t.
But no one else had, either.
Years later, she and I were sitting in a sunny living room of a much more peaceful residence, reminiscing about that little house.
“I still can’t believe you didn’t see anything under the desk that night. I was so certain someone was there. I heard it. I saw his outline.”
I stopped. “What desk?”
“Don’t you remember? I woke you up and told you to look under the desk.”
“You told me to look under the table.” The kitchen table, off our bedroom. The one I’d found no one under.
We both thought about that little desk in the far corner of our room, built right into the wall. Nearly out of sight. Almost.
“I couldn’t remember our word for ‘desk,’ and I didn’t want him to know that I found him there. I was sure you’d figure out what I meant.”
Well, I hadn’t figured it out.
And I’d never looked under the desk.
***
Oooh that is creepy!! Great story Abrielle! Thanks for sharing with us today!
Don’t forget to check out Abrielle’s novel Lady Shadow now in paperback!!
Here is a little secret. Assassins do exist. They’re right here, in the kingdoms.
And the one they’re looking for? The mercenary who betrayed them?
She lives.
Betrayal is a death sentence—and Umbra makes a living at it.
When she was nine years old, Umbra was trained to be a mercenary. They are silent shadows with faces of men: ruthless combat masters, and Umbra was the best among them. Trained to swear fealty to assassins no one else believes in, sworn to die by her own hand before she dares betray them, Umbra becomes the spearhead of the assassins’ revolution: a hidden war to claim the kingdoms.
But what if she was wrong? What if she misjudged them?
So she changes sides, falling overnight from the deadliest assassin to the woman at the top of their most-wanted list. To the woman who, singlehandedly, is preventing the assassins from attaining the position she once killed to help them claim.
Now Umbra must confront the machinations of her past, from the old assassin masters who taught her everything, to the assassin heir and the man she would have married. But one aspect of her life might be too sharp to overcome. One betrayal runs too deeply to be reckoned with.
Because you don’t cross the Kai Assassins and walk away unscathed.
Sometimes, you don’t walk away.
Angela Scavone 
Hi Angela, and thanks for having me today! This was fun! 😉
Hi Angela, and thanks for having me today! This has been fun! 😉
Ha! I loved it! Great story. 😀
Thank you, glad you liked it! 😉