A CALL FROM THE OTHER SIDE!

 

                                                               

                                                                CHAPTER ONE

 

                                                                  1298 words

 

She had just answered a phone call from her own number and Clara couldn’t understand what was going on. She remembered being out with her friends last night for a few drinks but the rest seemed vague.

She was holding a strange type of phone in her hand which looked transparent, the voice on the other end sounded familiar but a long way off.

     “I love you so much and just need to know that you got back home safely?” A male voice said in a panic.

She looked down at the crumpled clothing she was lying in and realized that it looked opaque, something felt kind of off but she tried to reply.

    “Darren its Clara I’m fine it was just a really rough night out with the girls!”

Her words however came out as a garbled mess and she felt exasperated.

     “Clara are you there, I have found your mobile phone it was lying in the grass by Coffin woods”

For some reason he couldn’t hear what she had just said and she felt sad. “Darren why can’t you hear me I’m here trying to explain to you that I’m alright and there’s nothing to worry about!”

Again her reply came out like crackling static electricity and the sound of her boyfriend’s voice sounded distant.


Darren Jones felt his stomach churning, he had been told by Debra who was Clara’s best friend that she had decided to foolishly take a short cut at the end of her night out and wouldn’t listen to the protests from the other girls. He knew how stubborn she could know that once she had made her mind up about doing something no matter how stupid it could be then she would see it through.

Hearing nothing but the crackling noise of static electricity he switched the mobile off thinking that the battery was dead. He had followed the track which he knew Carla would take and found the mobile in the grass. Using his own mobile he called the police to inform them about the possible disappearance of his girlfriend, feeling angry with her friends for not stopping her from going off on her own.


It was an hour before the police turned up and listened to his story, they coned off the area and Chief Inspector Ernest Dewsbury was the officer in charge instructing his group of officers to spread out looking for any clues, he was a plump man with a ruddy complexion and gave Darren a disapproving look.

    “What time did you say that you last spoke to your girlfriend sir?”

    “It was last night just before she went out Chief Inspector”

He could tell by the man’s tone of voice that he was the already the chief suspect. “I told her to be careful and not drink too much but she is very headstrong. I love her and just want to know that she’s safe!”

Feeling his stomach start to churn with worry his instinct was telling him that the worst had happened.

It was around 2 O’clock when they finally found the body of Clara Tompkins, she had been attacked by some sort of creature and could see claw marks all over her body and her throat had a deep slash across it.

     “We must have a maniac on the loose!” Inspector Bill Powers exclaimed.

He was standing next to his boss Chief Inspector Dewsbury trying to figure out what could have possibly caused the lacerations on the body. As the forensics arrived in their white suits they went over the area with a fine comb looking for clues and finding long strands of animal hair, there didn’t seem to be any human footprints apart from a set of large paw prints.


                                                         THE PREVIOUS EVENING


Clara was giddy with the excitement of a rare night out with her friends, after enjoying drinks in several bars she had decided not to wait for a taxi as her friends lived in the other direction and it was only a short cut through the woods. The moon was full and she had a clear view of the path ahead. Clara was a top athlete and knew that if she had to then she could easily outrun any man if needed. As she walked something seemed to be making a low growling sound in the bushes and she sped up, it was clearly the sound of a creature snapping loose twigs in the undergrowth and it startled her. She laughed when an old badger wandered out suspiciously sniffing the ground only yards away, Carla felt like such a sap and continued to walk faster.

    “Get it together!” She said loudly to herself.

Having not walked much further she heard another sound of something in the bushes only this time it was definitely large enough to be a man, panicking she began to run dropping her mobile phone out of her bag.

Managing to put a lot of distance between her and the sound she approached a dip in the track which made her lose her balance and stumble to the ground. Grazing her knees and the palms of her hands on the gravel she tried to stand up, a shadow approached in front of her and it had the form of a wolf. Only this particular one happened to be standing upright and walking towards her, Clara wondered if all of the drinks she had consumed were starting to make her hallucinate. Surely dogs couldn’t walk on their hind legs!? She thought.

The creature ran towards her and the last thing she remembered was the blood curdling howl as a set of claws started to sink into her body. It had all happened so fast that Clara was dead before she knew it.

As she held the ghost of her phone the truth of her horrific attack dawned on her, she was now a ghost and the phone call from Darren had been her final chance to connect with the human world.


It took a month for the police to try and work out what had actually happened agreeing not to disclose their findings to the public. No one would believe them if they said there happened to b a werewolf roaming around London and it would cause hysteria. Darren was fobbed off with all kinds of excuses explaining that they weren’t absolutely sure about what had happened.

Not feeling satisfied he decided to try something else, hearing about a local psychic who lived in the area he decided to make an appointment with her. She had been reluctant to take his call at first and sounded scared on the phone, he put it down to the possibility that she might be a phoney and didn’t want to get caught out. After a heated discussion she reluctantly agreed to see him but it wasn’t going to be late into the evening.

As he walked towards her house he glanced at his watch and realized that he was late so he decided to take the same the same short cut through the woods which Clara had taken, once again it was a full moon and he could see the path ahead of him. Hearing the sound of a growl he turned around to see the creature following him, running along the path he stumbled in the same area where Clara had been attacked precisely a month before and felt the werewolf closing in on him. In a vain attempt to try and protect himself he put his arm up feeling the sharp jaws closing around and heard a snap. As he let out his last earthly breath he saw the ghostly vision of his girlfriend looking back at him and he smiled.