GLASS COFFIN

 

PART ONE

 

It was a landmark, really. The old place had been there since the thirties, white and palatial with long, tall windows and big pillars that stretched higher than the roof. It was typical of many old cinemas that had long since been turned into bingo halls or bulldozed to make way for supermarkets. But the place had clung on and lived another incarnation as a nightclub for a few years in the mid 1980s before it was finally closed down, locked up, boarded up with a cheap fence thrown around it and left to turn to dust. The location kept the vandals at bay - on the main road, at the tail end of the town centre, only five minutes round the corner from the local nick - and had managed to stand  preserved. Time had been kind to the place, here and there the paint was peeling, a crack or two showed up high in the windows. By day the place looked gracefully aged like a woman grown old with dignity.

But she was one scary old bitch by moonlight.

As I wobbled slightly and looked up at the pillars that pointed skywards they seemed to shake. Then I blinked and swallowed another mouthful of wine. I held the bottle up to the streetlight. There was one third left and the cork was swimming about in it, with little broken pieces that came apart when I'd rammed it down the bottle using a spiked metal railing as we walked past the park. It was the next best thing to a corkscrew, which I didn't have. I had'nt thought about the cork when I dived in the shop. When we left the pub, I'd seen the sign chalked up outside and my cheap white wine was in my hand before I'd bothered to check if it had a screw top. I wobbled in my heels again. There was a pain in the back of my head, not quite here yet , it was more of a ship just on the horizon, telling me I'd have a sharp hangover tomorrow, the kind of pain that throbbed and hurt in stops and starts. Lager and wine did not mix, I knew that. But I was out with Liz and Karen. We were at college together. Sometimes our group was bigger, tonight was quiet really. But we always had a good time. We always got out of our heads. It didn't matter whether we were at a party, in the pub or just sitting in the park. There was always drink. Cans from the offy. Or bottles of wine. Some of my crowd liked to get stoned. Everybody liked to drink, but not as much as me. My party never stopped. I was up for it every night. It was my right. I was eighteen.  On a night like this with the wine making my head buzz I felt that I would be young forever. I was up for a laugh. And when conversation turned to the old Town Picture Palace, or Sparkles at it was called in recent years, I was definitely up for it. I didn't get a chill sitting in the White Horse at our usual table by the fire. I listened to what Karen said about the place having a ghost and I felt no fear. Now, as I wobbled drunk and looked up at it in darkness I wondered, was the shiver I felt fear, or was the fire cooling in my blood just enough to feel the late september cold snap?  I pushed my fears aside as the sour-tasting yellow stuff inside the bottle called me with warm feelings. I took another mouthful, spat out pieces of cork and felt instantly better. Karen was saying my name.

"Joy.. this way!"

My attention switched from bottle to Karen. She was tall and slim like the branch of a willow and the breeze was making the ends of her long hair whip upwards as she slid through the bent open railings. "This way you pisshead!"

And she laughed as I clumsily stepped through the gap. Liz followed, she was taller than me but heavier, although she fit through the gap she had to push herself through.  She brushed a cobweb off her short dark hair. As she looked up at the building I saw doubt in her eyes.

"This is a bit scary."

I was glad someone else had said it.

"How do we get in?" I asked.

Karen held up a silver key.

"By the back door. I copied it off my old man's set..."

Oh, yes. I recalled how this had all come about. Her dad was an estate agent. The current owner had finally decided to sell. Karen had swiped the key and copied it. This was after she heard the story about this place, the one she wouldn't tell us till we were in there with candles lit...which gave me a chill down my spine. It hadn't scared me before or during the pub but now, here... I just hoped that wine wouldn't let me down.

"Let's go, then."I said, and surprised myself at how bold I sounded.

We went around to a stiff old back door and watched as she fought to turn the key in the lock. She gave it a shove and it groaned open. It was pitch black inside. Liz glanced at me and I could tell we were thinking alike. This was getting a bit scary.

"You sure there's no one in here?"She said.

"There was a security guard here at night a couple of weeks ago but that was when they did some work in here,"Karen replied, "I think part of the ground floor was unsafe and they had to fix it..there might be some lights working somewhere.."

And she disappeared into the building. Liz followed, then I did too, suddenly feeling more afraid to be outside alone than inside with my friends. We needed to stick together.  I felt my way in and collided with Liz. Somewhere close by Karen was sweeping her hand around the wall. She found a switch and pressed it. The dim bulb flickered on and off, giving snap shot images of the room:  An old kitchen. Dusty cupboards. Dirty cups and plates. A fridge, an old cooker. The blinking light was making me feel unsteady and the wine was starting to promise that I would feel ever so slightly sick in the morning. The floor was tiled black and white. The clock on the wall had long ago stopped, the hands frozen at five to twelve. The door was open, it led to a narrow corridor that was plunged in darkness. Somewhere beyond that another dim light flickered, enough to throw a glimpse. The light went on, I saw the length of the corridor. The light went off, I saw blackness. It went on again.And someone was standing at the end, a man hidden by shadows. He was standing there like he was looking right at me.

The other two were opening the fridge and the cupboards, being curious and poking around. Karen saw the look on my face and panic briefly flashed in her eyes.

"What?"

"I saw someone..down there.."

As the flickering light dimmed and then illuminated again all three of us stared at the bottom of the corridor. And all three of us saw the way the shadows jumped and moved and disappeared.

"There's no one there."She said, "It's just the light..I told you, this place has been looked after. No one's broken in before except us..trust me."

She sounded sure of herself, but I was still the last one to follow as we went down that corridor. After what I thought I saw I just wanted to turn and run.  I knew I was wobbling in my high heeled boots out of fear not drunkenness, but I couldn't show it - I could already picture the scene at college tomorrow, in the daylight, when all things scary were put in their proper place and my friends were laughing and my face was going red. No, it was better to carry on than be the butt of their jokes in the morning. I kept close and we finally made it to the end. The light flickered here too, but the one dim bulb didn't cut out completely, it bathed the room in a weak, weirdly flickering sepia haze. It was enough to see, but this was the only light in the main part of the building. Now I knew why Karen had suggested candles. A torch would have been better, but of course there was her scary story to get out of the way and she was determined to make us shit a brick before the night was out. We were standing in what would have been the entrance to the nightclub. The carpet was a deep royal blue and the walls were painted black, there was a small flight of steps with a sweeping chrome handrail that would have made the place look dazzling as the light bounced off from the spotlights dotted across the ceiling, but now there was just a single dim bulb strung from a wire that hung from a hole cut out of the ceiling, where a spotlight had been extracted like a rotting tooth, its nerves reconnected to a piss poor replacement. As it flickered madly, ever threatening to cut out, the place looked sinister, especially with the windows all boarded up on the inside. Bits of paper still clung here and there to the walls, long since ripped away and any remnants of old posters that still remained were in pieces on the floor. This place had been stripped of its memories before it was sealed up. Large double doors to the club were wide open, a yawning dim void that I could just about make out from where I stood. Shapes and shadows. None of them moved. Karen had been right, it had been a trick of the light. Not so uncomfortable now we had a little lighting, I was the first one to walk through the doors.

Karen's voice echoed in the wide open space.

"I came here two years ago. In '87, in the summer. They didn't care about ID. I had four drinks and I left."

"Why did you leave?"

"It was shit. It was a right dive. Everyone started going to that new place by the industrial estate. No one wanted to come here any more, it just shut down."

"I thought you said something bad happened here."Said Liz.

"It did. I'll tell you in a minute. Joy, is the bar locked or can you get in?"

After the fright I'd had, I was the person to seek out the booze.  I walked boldly into the shadowy gloom, just about able to make out the large, curved bar that was hiding behind a metal grille at the far end of the room. I still gripped the remains of my wine.  I walked from the carpet onto the dancefloor, and stopped dead in my tracks as I was aware of movement all around me. It moved with me, it stopped with me. I turned and stared. And she stared back at me, a girl dressed in white stiletto boots and a short denim skirt with white lace on the hem. She wore a black jacket, beneath that her white lycra top was tight, the neckline plunged down into her cleavage. Her hair was soft and golden brown, it fell in layers around her face. Her make up was wearing off but her red lipstick was still on and her startled grey eyes were framed with heavy mascara. Her image was cracked, distorted. I took a deep breath and forced my self to try and be sober, I was looking at my own reflection. I was reflected everywhere, the place was lined with mirrors, they ran around the middle of the wall, all the way around the room.

And every single one of them was broken.

I took a final swig from my wine bottle, got a mouthful of cork and spat the remains back in the bottle. I didn't want to spit on the floor in here, there was something about it that reminded me of hallowed ground or a time capsule. I ignored the freaky broken images of me and went up to the bar, leaving my bottle on the floor as I tried the grille. It was locked firmly. I tried to peer through. With a sinking heart I called out:
"It's empty.."

The mirrors were reflecting a dim unearthly glow that made the shadows stretch and jump.  A huge wave of relief washed over me as I saw two people sat on the floor with candles lit.

"Come here and sit down."Karen said, "Listen to this..it's scary.."

As I took off my jacket and put it on the dusty dancefloor to protect my skirt, I felt a bit let down. After getting in here and having that fright, now there was a little light and I saw the place for what it was either the drink was wearing off or my childish streak was wearing thin and I was starting to think like an adult; this was getting boring. But I didn't want to spoil their fun. I sat down and shivered, but only because it was cold and I was missing my coat already. Liz and Karen were sharing a joint. Karen offered me some and I shook my head, knowing it would just make me want another drink. I wondered if the offy was still open. It had been just before nine when we left the pub. Then she started to speak and we listened:

"It happened two years ago, a month before this place shut down. There was this group of friends who used to come here every friday night. They were our age. They used to come out, have a laugh, normal stuff really. But this girl, she was seeing her boyfriend's best mate behind his back...he caught them outside, round the back of the club..they were having sex. Her skirt was up her waist and she had her legs wrapped round him. The boyfriend went mad. They had a big row and she stormed off crying. The two blokes really went for each other but someone told a bouncer and it got broken up quickly..and that was the end of it, or so everyone thought.." She paused, looked at us both and lowered her voice.

"It happened in here, in this room a couple of weeks later...The boyfriend had dumped her that night, but he couldn't forgive them, he'd been with her since school and his best mate was someone he'd known all his life. He couldn't let it go...he hated him for stealing his girl.." And she paused again, the silence in the room adding to the tension.

"What did he do?"I asked her.

"Two weeks later, his ex and his best mate are an item and they come back in here. But he turns up. He watches them all night from the other side of the room, sees them kissing and touching and he can't stand it...when it gets late, just before closing time, he follows him over to the bar where he's buying one last round. And he hits him in the face with a broken bottle. He goes down on the floor and he hits him again, this time he gets him in the throat... he bled to death. The girl was screaming and trying to stop the blood but she just got covered in it, the floor was soaked in it. He was dead in something like five minutes. The bloke who did it got life for murder and they say the girl went mental and never got over it...that's why this place is haunted. Her dead lover haunts this building, his face all cut to pieces... apparently he was a really good looking bloke before he died. Maybe that's why he's still here, he can't accept what happened - or what his best mate did to him..we might even be sitting on the spot where it happened.."

We looked at each other, wondering if she could be right. Then Karen smiled.

"Scary or what?"

"Is it true?"Said Liz.

"All true."Karen said, "I swear it is... I heard it off someone who knew someone whose cousin used to come here all the time and she was at the bar when it happened. Since this place shut down a lot of people have said they think it's haunted...it wouldn't surprise me."

She passed the last of the joint back to Liz.

"I think we should come back here when everyone can come down. We'll get some drinks and bring some music... and  scare the shit out of everyone! It'll be a laugh."

 my gaze wandered through the gloom, watching the tiny glow of light that reflected in the mirrors all around us.  And something moved - it wasn't a shadow..the shape was moving by itself.. the outline of a man.... he ducked behind a shadow, vanished into a corner. Then I saw him again.  His head came up out of the darkness, right near the corner of the bar. Then he sank back into the gloom.

"There's someone in here..he's over there!"  

Liz and Karen jumped up, looking with frightened eyes towards the bar.

"What?"She exclaimed, grabbing a candle and thrusting it at the far end of the room.

The light just about reached enough to see there was no one there.

My empty bottle was on it's side. I'd left it standing up.

"Shit! Something knocked the bottle over.."

Karen glared at me. Liz was blinking back tears.

"I saw something."I said.

"Don't put the shits up me, I'm stoned I'll freak out!"Karen snapped, "It's just a fucking story..how pissed are you Joy?"

Not enough to have my eyes play tricks. But I could see as well as they did the room was empty. And between the two of them everyone we knew would hear about this by tomorrow morning. I played it down.

"It's just the way the shadows move.. I don't like it in here."

Liz was heading for the door.

"You put a right downer on tonight."She said to me, "It was a laugh till you did that..you know what, I don't think I want to come back here again, not now..this place is a bit weird."

They walked out ahead of me, Karen saying she hoped the toilets were okay because she needed to go before we got the bus home.They disappeared in the ladies toilets and I stood alone, feeling safer in the dimly lit entrance.

"Joy.."He whispered.

I jumped out of my skin. The voice was coming from the now darkened dancefloor. My heart was pounding in my chest and I was too shocked to speak. The girl's muffled voices came from the toilet, laughing and talking and oblivious to what I just heard.

I looked back through the open doors into the darkness.

"Who's there?"I demanded, my shaky voice almost a whisper.

"Joy.."He said again, "Don't be scared..please..come here..."

He sounded so gentle, so scared. It reminded me of something that was said to me when I'd shrieked at the sight of a spider: It's more scared of you than you are of it....

And something mad and reckless made me take a step forward into the doorway.

"Where are you?" I whispered into the darkness.

"Here."He replied, startling me as I realised he was just out of sight, behind the doorway, in the shadow.

"Who are you?"

"You know who I am."

Part of me wanted to know, the other part was trying to convince me this was a sick joke. But I knew it wasn't. His voice was so full of hurt, of fear.

"Turn your back."He told me, "Turn and face the light...then I'll talk to you."

It was a strange feeling, turning away from that darkened doorway, knowing someone was coming out of the darkness, right up behind me. But my fear was leaving me now. There were no monsters here, just the ghost of a man who longed for comfort. His voice sounded young, once seductive but now wounded.

"You're beautiful."He whispered in my ear. Then he kissed my cheek, he kissed my neck, his lips were soft and warm and his hand slid around me, down my top and  squeezed my breast. I glanced down and noticed he was wearing a white shirt. Bloodstains spotted the sleeve and stained a gold cufflink that was engraved with the initials JT. I made a move to turn round but he dodged back into the darkness and held me in front of him with my back to him.

"I told you,"He said, "Don't look at me..my face isn't like it used to be..you won't like me if you see it.."

And that was when my heart went out to him.

"I won't be scared."I promised him, "I know what happened..it wasn't your fault. You didn't deserve that.. do you know you're.." I was a bit stuck for the right word. He said it for me.

"Yes I know I'm dead. I don't want to talk about it... Come with me. Trust me, I won't hurt you.."

He took my hand and led me backwards, around the back of the door into the shadows, away from the dim light. Now I was behind the door and he was in front of me. I could make out his outline but I couldn't see his face.

"Make love with me.."He whispered, "I'm so alone here..please.."

And he kissed me. He was every bit as warm and passionate as a living man, he held me in his arms and ran his hands down my body in a way that made me wet and aching with longing for him. He got down on his knees and pushed my skirt up, pressed my hips firmly against the cold wall and pulled my knickers aside. His tongue slid into my wetness and he licked me harder, faster, as my fingers tangled in his soft hair I was begging him not to stop. As I came I tried  to do it silently, but he was sucking on my clitoris and burying his face hard between my legs and I gasped out loud and clung to him as a shockwave of pleasure ran through my body.

He got up, embraced me as I steadied myself.

"You taste lovely Joy."He whispered in my ear, and pressed my hand against his cock. I hadn't noticed in the dark, but he had been wanking while he licked me, now he was hard and ready to burst, so I closed my hand around it and slid up and down his cock, harder and harder. As he came he turned away from me, I felt him throb as I let go and something wet hit the dusty dancefloor.

"Please come back."He said, and gave me another tight hug. He heard their voices and tensed.

"You have to go..don't tell them about me.."

And he gave me a shove towards the doorway. I stepped out into the dim, flickering light.

Liz and Karen were staring at me.

"What was you doing in there?"

"Nothing.." It was all I could think to say.

Then Karen laughed at me.

"You dirty cow...the toilets ain't that bad...sort yourself out, I can see your gash!"

I looked down and realised I hadn't tidied my self up. I straightened my knickers and pulled my skirt down. I didn't have to explain, they'd already thought up my reason..I was so drunk, I'd pissed on the dancefloor. I just let them think it. We left the way we came in, Karen didn't think to lock the door and I didn't remind her. I knew I was coming back here - and I'd come alone. We got the bus after a half hour wait that made me shiver.

    By the time I got home I had a raging thirst, drinking a lot of water didn't stop the inevitable: next morning I had a bad hangover. It kept me off college and in bed for most of the day. My thoughts were still with what happened. I couldn't forget. When I went back the next day the story had already spread around : Joy got so drunk she pissed on the floor in the club... I laughed with them, said I couldn't remember. And his memory still burned brightly in my mind.  So that night I did go back, and I went alone.

 

PART TWO

 

It was dusk when I slipped through the broken fence.  I tried the door and found it was still unlocked. I turned on the flickering lights and made my way down the corridor that had scared me so much the first time - now all I had to do was think of his gentle voice and his passionate touch and my fears melted away. When I found myself in the entrance and staring into darkness I expected him to be waiting. He wasn't.

"It's Joy.."I said aloud, "I'm back..where are you?"

Nothing replied but the echo of my own voice.

Then I noticed something on the floor, just outside the doorway. My jacket, folded neatly, on top of it was a faded silk rose... Could a ghost be so romantic? Again I wondered if this had been a sick joke, had someone got in there before us, heard our conversation... No. I knew he was a ghost! The blood stains on his shirt, the way he was afraid of letting me see his face..the way he vanished, how only I could see him... I pressed the rose to my lips and kissed its faded petals.

"Thank you.."I whispered.

And I turned to leave.

"Joy.."

He was calling me again, from the far off heart of the darkened dance floor. I stepped inside. The doors closed behind me and all light was gone. In my panic I dropped my jacket, I dropped the rose, I reached out blindly in front of me. His hands closed over mine.

"It's alright."He said softly, "I'm here..."

And we embraced. As he held me all reason left me, all questions of his existance were silenced. He was warm and breathing and kissing me and the only emotion I felt that saddened me was as I thought of how he died. He hadn't deserved what happened to him. Now he was trapped here forever...unless there was a way I could free him.

I pulled back from his embrace.

"Tell me your name."

"I can't do that."

"I know who you are. I know what you are... I want to help you..I want to help you leave this place.."

He gripped me harder and I felt his breath on my face as he spoke darkly.

"I can never leave this place..I died here! Don't ask me about it again!"

And his mouth was on mine before I could reply. He drew me onto the carpet at the edge of the dance floor and lifted my skirt, slid my knickers off and spread my legs. Then he was on top of me, thrusting his hard cock into me as I moved with him, every moment was bliss and as he sharply pulled out of me in the pitch black I gasped as he grabbed me by the hair and shoved his cock into my mouth. I was almost choking as he squirted warm cum down my throat and I swallowed and coughed and he let me go.

"Sorry."He said breathlessly, "I wanted to do that so much..I've thought of you all the time, since you first came here.. I wanted to come in you so badly.."

There was a vague trace of the taste of spunk in my mouth and I wondered why a ghost would worry about unprotected sex....but then I wasn't about to point that out, he seemed to have a hard enough time accepting he was dead.

He laid back on the carpet with me, holding me next to him. He was still in that shirt, I could feel the cotton fabric, here and there rough where blood had dried on it. There was a smell I hadn't noticed before, like an underlying odour of decay... I wished I could open the doors, take the boards off the windows, force the light in here.

I raised my hand, pressed it to the left side of his face and gently stroked him. That side of his face felt smooth and unmarked.   

"I wouldn't be afraid if I saw you."

He breathed a heavy sigh. "I told you, leave it, Joy.."

I swept my hand over his hair, as I did so he shoved my hand away from the other side of his face. Then he pushed me away. He flew into a rage.

"I said don't!" He yelled, "Don't touch me there, don't you EVER touch me there..."

I stood up and pulled down my skirt, groping blindly for him in the darkness as I walked towards the door.

"I'm sorry..I just want to help you...Please let me help you.."

He slammed his fist into the door and the sound echoed around the room.

"You can't help me you silly girl I'm dead! I'm fucking dead and it's forever! And I'm alone and it hurts...." His voice was tearful and angry. "You don't know anything."He said, "I hurt so much and it won't stop..I keep sleeping and waking and I'm still here..Just go..!"

He was opening the door. I couldn't let him leave it like this. I stepped forward, reached out for him. He shoved my coat and the silk rose into my hands.

"Just leave me! I should never have let you know about me, Joy - leave me in the shadows where you found me!"

I reached for him again, my hand closing over his sleeve.

"No...You can't be here alone..not forever.."

He turned me around, my fingers were still twisted in his sleeve as he pushed me through the doorway. Something ripped, then I was on the floor in the entrance with a battered silk rose and my jacket beside me. The door slammed and I heard a heavy lock slide shut.

I took a deep breath and made a move to call him again.

It was as if he knew.

"I SAID FUCK OFF!" He yelled, and there was another crash from behind the door.

Feelings didn't come into it when it came to a lover's tiff with a dead person.

I grabbed my things and got out of there.

    I cried over him when I got home, I shut myself in my bedroom and put the rose under my pillow and tossed my coat on the carpet.  I sobbed my heart out. The phone went twice for me, my friends wanting to know if I was going out. I made an excuse and stayed in, wishing as I hugged that pillow with the silk rose beneath it that I could hold him in my arms once more. I needed to know more about him. I needed answers. He was dead, there was a grave somewhere. If I went there, if I left him flowers, would he know? Would he feel my love, would he some how reach back for me? Next morning I started with the local library. I said I was doing a project on local history and I raided their records. I found nothing. There had been no record of anyone dying at Sparkles in '87. I searched on - an hour later I realised there was no record of anyone ever dying at Sparkles, the only mention I could find of a fight was between two men, a punch up at the bar, over a girl. One of the men had smashed a glass, the other had been cut and the police had been called. That was all I had to go on, apart from a name : Zara Clayton. The name of a girl who witnessed in the incident. I tried the phone book. There was only one Z Clayton and she lived on the other side of town. I went to a phone box and called her.

She picked up the phone and said hello.

"Are you Zara Clayton? The one whose boyfriend got glassed at Sparkles two years ago? Please tell me, it's important.."

I thought she was going to hang up. There was a silence. Then she said, "Oh no, not again..what do you want to know?"

"What happened?"

She laughed softly down the phone.

"Not another one, I don't believe this.. nothing happened. I was seeing this bloke and I went off with his friend and they had a row over it. End of story."

"But he died.."

"No one died."

"Are you sure he's not dead?"

"Very sure. I'm married to him now. My ex got arrested but they made up andthe charges were dropped.  Listen, I've had a lot of people ask me things like this...Some idiot's been making up stories..It's probably because the club closed down just after it happened...things get around but they're not true, okay?"

"So it's a lie?"

She laughed again.

"It's quite funny, really. It's just an urban myth, you silly girl!" And she hung up.

I did'nt see the funny side. Now it was all adding up I was starting to feel quite sick and this time it had nothing to do with alcohol. Someone had been hiding in there, listening to us and watching us...no wonder he told me not to look at him... no wonder I'd tasted his semen and he had been careful about coming inside me! He was a sick bastard playing a game! I'd never felt so stupid in all my life!

I went home and decided it was time to sort this out, I'd go back and confront the 'ghost' later that afternoon. First I had to think, to get my head straight. I spent some time holding that silk rose as I laid on my bed, wondering whether to keep it or crush it. I couldn't throw it away. Even now I knew he was lying, I couldn't hate him. I was angry but not enough to cancel out my feelings. When I had been lying in his arms I had wished with all my heart for him not to be dead. Now I had my wish. I certainly wasn't afraid of confronting him, not now I knew he possessed no special powers except perhaps for the ability to swear loudly and slam doors. I tossed the rose on my bedroom carpet. And that was when something caught my eye. It was gold and shiny, caught in the crumpled jacket I'd left on my floor since last time I saw him. I got up and shook my coat. A gold cufflink fell out, it bore the initials JT and it was stained with blood. I sniffed it. It stunk. The blood was real, it was dried. It was many days old.  And I wondered, why was this guy covered in blood if he wasn't a ghost? The fantasy was out of the way now, I had to look at the facts. Maybe he wasn't some dirty bloke hiding in the shadows who fancied a quick fuck.... I put the cufflink in my pocket, threw on my  jacket and went to catch the bus into town. Half an hour later I was standing outside the old building, as I crossed the road and headed towards the broken fence I noticed a woman. She was a couple of years older than me with curly dark hair and she was huddling into her thick coat and blinking back tears. She looked at the broken railings and then looked at me.

"Are you alright?"I asked her.

She shook her head.

"No."She said honestly, "No, I'm not... I keep coming back here like I'm going to get an answer...I don't know what else to do...did you know how this fence got broken?"

"No..."

"A car was coming up that way,"She told me, pointing up the main road behind us, "Some arsehole jumped the lights and came out from over there and smashed into it. The car went across the road and slammed into this fence. " Tears ran down her face.

"My brother was in that car.."

An icy chill ran up my spine. Maybe I'd been wrong about him. Maybe he was a ghost - not the ghost in the local legend, but another ghost..

"Was he killed?"

As anger and frustration crept into her voice she suddenly reminded me of someone.

"I don't know!"She said, "He's vanished...he could be any where.."

It was making sense now. I hoped I was right.

"Did he know the stories about this place?"

"Of course he did..when he was at school him and his mates used to come up here and muck about after the place shut down..why?"

"Just tell me..what's your brother's name?"

"Jamie Taite.."

I showed her the cufflink.  As she snatched it from me I saw hope in her eyes.

"Where did you find this?"

"I think I know where he is," I told her, "I think he's in there..we have to go and get him."

As I led her round the back of the building she was asking me over and over, how do you know this? I didn't have time to explain.

"There was someone in here."I told her, "It's a long story..I just hope I'm not wrong.."

I turned on the lights and led her down the corridor to the front entrance. The double doors were open. I ran in, stared into the darkness.

"Where are you?"I called out, "It's alright, I know what's happened..."

Jamie's sister flicked a lighter and it was enough to see the way.  As she turned around and shone the light he staggered forward towards the doorway.

"Jamie!"She yelled, dashing forward as her brother collapsed against the open door. He looked up at her and whispered "I am the dead man..", then his eyes rolled up in his head and he lost consciousness.

It was the first time I'd seen him, in the dim light I stared at him: He was no phantom with a reason to hide his face. He was around eighteen, with light brown hair and a handsome face that was slightly stained with dried blood. The blood had come from a deep wound to his temple that was still open. Blood had dried on his shirt. His sister was yelling at me to stop staring and get an ambulance. And that was where the mystery ended. There was no ghost in the old building called Sparkles. After Jamie was taken to hospital his sister called me. Her name was Sandra. She was grateful and thanked me. Now the pieces had come together there was nothing unexplained about what really happened. The car had slammed into the railings. Jamie had taken a very hard blow to the head. He had staggered from the wreckage and found himself outside the place he used to go as a boy. With his memory gone he had wandered around and found the door unlocked, no doubt left that way by the forgetful former security guard. He went inside, recalling the only familiar thing he could in his confused state - that this place was haunted. Going into the main part of the club he would have seen his reflection in the many mirrors, he was dazed and confused seeing  the blood on his face and in that moment thought of the urban myth, became the man of myth, no doubt smashing every reflective surface in the place as he believed he was here forever, the place had become his coffin and the glass reflections only served to torment him as he looked at his blood stained face and believed he was disfigured. His confused state was all down to a severe concussion. He was very ill for a while, two weeks was a long time to survive in that empty place on scraps left over in the kitchen and his untreated injury caused him a great deal of pain and confusion. But he was going to be alright, because we had found him in time. I met up with his sister two weeks later and said I'd see him when he was better if he remembered me. And I handed her a faded silk rose.

"Just give him this."I told her.

       Some time later I was alone in the house when the doorbell chimed. I answered the door and was surprised to find no one there. Then I saw the faded silk rose on the doorstep with a note. It said, Thank you. All my love Jamie. As I picked it up I was aware someone was standing in front of me. It was him. He looked at me. I looked back at him.

"I'm still thinking about you."He said.

I smiled.

"I can't forget you either."

And he stepped inside. We closed the door. We were kissing there in the hallway, still kissing as we stumbled into the livingroom and fell back on the sofa. He slid down my knickers and opened my legs. As his cock went inside me it felt like heaven.

"My parents will be back soon.."

He thrust inside me harder.

"I don't care..kiss me.."

I kissed him. We fucked so hard the back of the chair made a groaning noise and something gave way. He pulled it out and shot over my leg, some of it missed and hit the cushion. I went down on him and sucked the last of it out of his cock, then we held each other.

"I think I love you."He told me.

"I feel the same."I replied.

We talked some more.

By the time my parents got home we were dressed. He was drinking tea and I was scrubbing a mark off the sofa.

"Spilled something.."I said, then I introduced them.

"This is Jamie..he's my boyfriend..."

         Seven years later we were driving past the old nightclub and the place was finally getting torn down. We stopped the car to have a look. There was a group of kids hanging around watching and when they saw us a couple of them wandered over.

The two who approached the car were no older than seventeen, a boy and a girl. She listened intently while the boy did the talking.

"This place is meant to be haunted."He said, "Did you know that?"

I exchanged a look with Jamie and we laughed.

"Why is it haunted?"I asked him.

They looked deadly serious as they told their story.

"Well,"He said, "About seven years ago, this boy got killed in a car crash over there.."

And he pointed to the crushed fence that was still standing, "And his face got all mashed up and he haunts the old club...hiding in the shadows 'cos he looks too bad to show his face.."

And the girl was nodding. "It's true.."She was saying.

Now it was my turn to put somebody straight on a thing or two.

"There's no ghost. The boy who crashed his car lived. I promise you that."

"How do you know?"He asked me.

Jamie laughed out loud.

"Because it was me! I just had a knock on the head..I was wandering round in there a bit dazed.. I swear, it's the truth.. there's no ghost. It's a story."

The kids looked doubtful.

So much time had passed  we had other things in our life that we thought about now - like our two noisy kids in the back of the car - and although we would never forget how we met, it had just been the start. We had no idea that our story would create another  tall tale.

"Honestly,"I said, "It's the truth. I was the girl who found him. We're married now! Don't you ever believe that urban myth..there's no truth in it at all..it's a just story made up by kids to scare each other...it's just a story.."

And with that we drove off and went on our way. I wouldn't say we drove off into the sunset because like the average urban myth it would be a lie. There was a nice sunset and we noticed it but he was driving and I was busy with the children.  Later, we laughed about what those kids said. I was glad we put them straight.  After all, in the case of every single urban myth you hear, you can be sure there is no truth in it what so ever. Not an ounce, not a grain!  Well...ok, maybe sometimes there possibly  is...but just a little bit!

 

THE END.