"The Ghost of Jeff Walker

“The Ghost of Jeff Walker”

By Cody Williams



1.

         “Shit!” Jerry Smyth shouted out looking down at his digital watch that read 11:00pm. Jerry was in the middle of his first semester at Betsy University in Betsy, Tennessee. He stood up from his blue chair in the back left corner of the band room and carried his Yamaha marked trombone into the instrument storage room. He reached into the pockets of his navy blue basketball shorts and pulled out a key chain with a key that read locker 72 on it.

         He slipped the key into the keyhole and twisted it to the left to unlock it. He reached into the locker pulling out a red YAMAHA Xeno trombone case. He unlatched the golden buckles on the case and opened the lid. He unscrewed the nut witch connected the bell of the horn to the slide. He placed the bell in the case and then the slide in the case. He shut the case and latched it up and quickly placed it in the wooden locker.

         He shut the door of the locker and once again placed the keyhole and locked the locker. He bent down grabbing his next to the locker and grabbed his silver and black backpack. He placed the strap around his shoulder and darted out of the door. He sprinted into the lobby of the music building and walked out the door, down the steps, and onto the sidewalk.



2.

         Jerry looked down at his watch again as it read 11:15. The campus of Betsy University was a lot quieter than usual. It was the week of fall break and his girlfriend Allison was away visiting her parents. In fact, the campus was almost completely empty. Nobody but a few faculty members. The reason he was the only one on campus was because he and his dad had a bit of a falling out.

         His dad, Brad Smyth, owned his own cleaning company called Brad’s Cleaning Service. Jerry served as the head manager. It was Brad’s dream that Jerry one day became partners and on day owned the business. Jerry wanted very little to do with his father’s business. The only reason he accepted the manager job was so that he could have a little extra money in his pocket. Jerry tried out for a variety of performance scholarships and was awarded the grand scholarship to be in the marching band. This scholarship would completely pay for his tuition and would get paid a refund check of eight hundred dollars. He accepted it with no hesitation thus cutting the strings between him and his father.

         He continued walking down the sidewalk where he reached a stop sign. He stopped to look both ways. He walked across the intersection to the other side of the street. He paused for a moment and looked up at the black sky. He looked at the moon, which was lit up in a Halloween colored orange.

         He continued to walk down the sidewalk. He began to think about how empty the campus was. He walked by the Turner Cafeteria. He looked into the window to see if anyone was in there. There was something about walking in the campus at night, even if it was empty. Most people assume that it was peaceful to have the campus to himself. The truth is he thought so too…at first. With his lesson books tucked under his arm and his backpack on his back, he continued to walk down the street.

         Jerry stopped for a moment. “Maybe if I could cut through the center of the campus, I could get to the dorm faster. He turned to his left and walked up a case of five gray concrete stairs.



3.

         Jerry continued to walk on the sidewalk towards the center of the campus. He began to imagine the fun he could have since he was the only living being on the campus. The only thing that made him feel uncertain about it was walking through the cemetery. The thought of walking through a cemetery a night was enough to make his skin crawl. He ignored the hairs standing up on the back of his neck and continued to walk along the sidewalk.

As he got closer to the cemetery he could see that goose bumps began to appear on his arms and he could feel the hairs stand up on the back of his neck. He could feel an increase drop in temperature as an eary fog began to roll in from all angles. He stopped under a black metal railing, which read CEMETARY on it. He felt as if there was a lump on his throat. He good in a deep breathes and gulped with fear.

“Well, it’s now or never.” He mumbled to himself as he continued his exposition to his dorm. He began to walk with haste. He could not stand the thought of being in there more than a couple of minutes.

As he reached the center of the cemetery the temperature dropped to what he would describe as ten below freezing. His foot hit one of the head stones and he tripped falling down to the ground. He imminently grabbed his left ankle, which he twisted. He looked over at the now separated into two parts head stone.

JEFF

WALKER

NOT A VERY NICE GUY

         The headstone read.

         “Oh shit!” He said to himself while picking himself up. He lightly put weight on his left foot and stood up straight. He picked up the upper half of the gravestone and looked at it again. At the top of the stone was the head of a cobra. He knelt down to take a look bottom half of the stone. The date was one thing in particular that intrigued him. 1850-1900 read the stone. What was even stranger was the writing below his last name. NOT A VERY NICE GUY was strange to him. Why would somebody write that about him? What was not nice about him?

         He shook his head and placed the top half on top of the lower half and waited for a moment to make sure that it wouldn’t fall. He picked up his backpack and placed the straps on his shoulders and picked up his group piano group and placed them back under his arm. His picked up the notebook paper he dropped on the sidewalk and shoved them into his piano book. He turned around and continued to walk through the cemetery.



4.

         After getting out of the cemetery he could finally see his dorm. He continued to walk along the sidewalk. He walked for several more moments before he began to notice something. He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. He didn’t even have to look back. He heard the footsteps. He knew he was being followed.

He looked back over his right shoulder and saw a man standing in the middle of the sidewalk about the length of a school bus back. He could not tell who the man was. The moon was behind him so all he could see of his front was black nothingness. He could tell that he was wearing a long black leather trench coat and a tall black hat. In his right hand was what looked like a wooden cane to his side? It looked like he had long black hair falling down on his shoulders.

“Hello?” Jerry called out waiting for a response from the mystery man. No answer. “Hello? What do you want?” He asked again still waiting for a response. Once again, no answer. He turned back in front of him and continued to walk along the sidewalk. With every step he took, he could see the hear the cane of the man hitting the pavement of the sidewalk.

He stopped again and looked back at the man. There the man stood about the length of a school bus back in the same position with his face looking towards the ground.

“Hello? Sir? What do you want from me?” Jerry asked the stranger with a tremble of fear in his voice. Still the stranger wouldn’t answer him. “Damn it man, what the hell do you want from me?” He asked him again this time shouting. The mystery man continued to look at the ground without answering. Jerry looked forward again and continued to walk faster. Still with every step he took, he could hear the cane of the mystery man hit the ground. Every time his step got faster so did the stranger’s. CLICK, CLICK, CLICK he could hear the silver tip of the cane hit and echo throughout the valley as it hit the cold hard pavement.

He continued to walk faster and faster before he realized that he was sprinting across campus. He looked over his shoulder and could no longer see the stranger in sight. He stopped at a bench beside of the tennis courts to catch his breath. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a dark figure approaching him on his left hand side. It was once again the stranger walking urgently towards him.

He once again began to run towards the dorm. The dorm building was six stories high and was the oldest building on campus. The building was a light brown collared brick building. As he got close to the door he looked over his shoulder again and saw that the strange mas was no longer there.

As he reached the front door of the building he stopped of a moment and stuck his hand in his pocked to find his student ID so he could open the door. He grabbed the card and pulled it out of his pocket. He looked up at the door where he saw the mysterious man again. The palms of his hands began to run like faucets and his body began to tremble with fear. This time he could see them man a little bit better. The man was quite muscular and looked like he was about 50 years old. He had long black hair and was wearing a black t-shirt under a black leather trench coat with black jeans and black steel toe boots. In his right hand he was holding a long black wooden cane with the silver head of a king cobra as the handle.

“Who are you? What do you want from me?” Jerry asked the mystery man.

“The name is Jeff Walker.” The man said with a southern accent. Jerry’s skin began to crawl. Jeff walker continued to look down at the ground avoiding eye contact. His heart began to beat so fast he could feel the vibrations in the arch of his foot. “I believe you know that name from somewhere.” He said.

“Aren’t you dead?” He asked him knowing that he was going to regret getting the answer.

“Dead? I don’t like that word. I prefer deceased.” He told the frightened young man. Jerry’s hands began to shake with fear.

“What do you want from me?” He asked the phantom.

“What do I want? Do you think it was a quencidence that you tripped over my head stone? You have been chosen for a reason.” Walker informed the Jerry.

“And what reason would that be?” He asked him again as he once again had a lump in his throat.

“You were chosen to be my outlet.” Jeff Walker told Jerry.

“Outlet?” Jerry asked.

“Yes. You see young man, I have been waiting for over 100 years for this moment.” He said.

“What moment?” Jerry asked.

“The moment where I can once again walk among the living.” The apparition said with pride. He looked up into the eyes of the young man. His eyes were dark and cold. They began to glow red, that is the moment when Jerry realized he was no longer there. That he was under Jeff Walker’s control. Jeff’s black figure merged into the body of Jerry taking it over. Jeff lifted up Jerry’s arms. “Perfect” He screamed as his eyes began to glow once more.

Jeff smiled satisfied and placed his new student ID to the scanner and walked into the dorm.



5.

         “Jerry!” Allison shouted out while getting out of her Ford SUV. She ran over and jumped into the arms of her boyfriend. Jerry smiled and kissed her. He hugged her again as his eyes began to glow red as he morphed into Jeff Walker.



Copyright 2013 by Cody Williams

Courtesey of TRUE TERROR PUBLICATIONS

A division of TTP Entertainment

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