“I’m not quite sure what I was expecting when I downloaded this book. I thought it would be a little supernatural tale with a small romantic spin. Well, what I got was a sad but hauntingly beautiful tale of love lost and found, past and present. It was so well written and I cried like a baby in the end. I’ll definitely check out more work by this author, I’d like to see what other spooky stories she has to offer.” –  Verified Amazon customer

Excerpt from the Spine-tingling Tale ‘Cornelius’:

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Before stepping inside, Wade looked at her, “You mind letting up a bit? You’re squeezing my arm.”

“Oh sorry,” Mira replied nervously.

They walked inside together—eyes darting in all directions of the spacious interior. The white paint on the wall was chipped in several places and the dusty floor had been speckled with creature droppings and smudges of dirt and mud. There was no furniture in sight—just a large, empty space. Wade and Mira walked slowly ahead and entered a room that looked like an extension of the living room, only separated by an arched wall.

“Hello…” Wade called out again.

“Is anyone here?” Mira said behind him, voice breaking at the end.

They proceeded through the large front area then entered what looked like the kitchen. There was one row of cabinets still attached to the upper northern section of the wall with a few missing doors. Some doors were slanted due to rusty, broken hinges. There were three other sections of the wall where only the imprint of cabinets remained presenting a theory to the observer that they might have been cleanly extracted at some point by thieves.

“This place is a mess,” Mira uttered, still holding her brother’s arm.

“Yeah. You notice that just about every door around here is missing?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go upstairs,” Wade released Mira’s grip. “Follow me.”

“No way! You know I’m afraid of heights!” Mira whispered loudly.

“Just hold on to the rail. You’ll be fine,” Wade replied before heading up the long winding staircase.

Feeling that she would rather be with him than downstairs alone in the old, creepy house that resembled something from a horror flick, she took a deep breath in and decided to follow him. The ceiling of the house was extremely tall and as Mira carefully followed Wade up the stairs, she couldn’t help but wonder how the owners ever managed to change a light bulb up there whenever necessary. As they climbed the staircase, the wood beneath their feet creaked and Mira had no idea how she would ever get back down.

They made it to the second landing and refusing at that point to look down over the rail, Mira trailed closely behind Wade who had entered one of the bedrooms.

“Wow! This room is huge!” Wade remarked, hurrying over to a large window on the western side of the room. “Hee, hee!” He laughed looking down at the yard. “The second floor of this house must be at least a hundred feet from the ground!”

Mira quietly advanced toward the entrance of what looked like the walk-in closet. As she looked in, something immediately caught her eye. The floating image of a black woman was at the far end of the room. The apparition appeared relatively young with frazzled, black hair that hung tiredly just above her shoulders. Her face, rough and haggard, exuded a sadness that Mira could feel deep within her bones, and the thin, white dress the woman wore was drenched in what appeared to be blood around the mid-section where long trails of it had slid down to the end. Momentarily frozen by the sight of this woman, Mira’s mouth hung open, yet no voice escaped. The woman’s veiny eyes seemed to be begging, pleading… for something. Then her hand reached up toward Mira, re-enforcing what the little girl already felt was a cry for help. At that point, a blood-curdling scream escaped Mira’s lungs and she darted outside of the room—Wade running behind her.

With a fear of heights that paled in comparison to what she saw in that room, before Mira knew it, she was at the bottom of the staircase and out of the house.

“What’s wrong?” Wade called out to her in the yard. “Wait for me, Mira!”

She had run a good distance away from the house before even thinking of stopping.

“Tell me what’s wrong!” Wade insisted after catching up to her. “I never saw you run that fast in my life.”

“I know I shouldn’t have listened to you, Wade. You’re a jerk! We never should have come here,” Mira blasted, walking hurriedly.

“What did I do?” Wade was confused.

“I don’t wanna talk about it right now. I just wanna go home.”

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