J is for Peg Leg Jack, Sandling - Jack by Natasha Duncan-Drake Day 10 #AtoZChallenge

J is for Peg Leg Jack, Sandling

Good morning, and welcome to another spooky tale for the #AtoZChallenge, this time for J. All month I am writing flash fiction ghost stories inspired by local places.

Today I have to admit I could not find a place beginning with J in Kent. So I had to cheat a little, it's the ghost that begins with J today. The ghost's name is Peg Leg Jack and he hails from The Museum of Kent Life in Sandling. Now I have no idea if he's a nice ghost or a nasty ghost because information about him is sparse on the internet, so I have made him a nasty ghost for my story.

This story is of the scary variety. I was also inspired to try a haiku too, just because :) Both are called Jack.

Haiku - noun - a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five

Jack

by Natasha Duncan-Drake

Step thud, approaches 

Fear, too cold to keep inside 

Scream for Peg Leg Jack

Step, thud. Step, thud. Step, thud.

Lanie huddled behind the admissions desk, tears streaming down her cheeks, her fist in her mouth. A scream was lurking in her throat. She dared not let it out.

"Oh, don't worry about old Jack," her mum had told her, "he just likes to make some noise."

The thing Lanie had seen didn't want to make noise, it wanted blood. The Ouija board had been a stupid idea. All she'd wanted was a spooky video for her Youtube channel. Stories about Jack made him out to be a harmless old spirit, but Miki was lying, bleeding under a cabinet of overpriced jams and preserves, and Nat had run away screaming.

Lanie volunteered at the museum where her mum worked, mostly because it would look good on her university applications. She had offered to close up this Saturday, when her mum had been invited to a party, and she'd planned the whole thing. Do a little pretend talking to the spirits with Miki and Nat, record a few noises and she'd have had a click bait video.

Jack wasn't supposed to be real.

Noises, keys going missing and turning up in other places, the odd jar being turned around – that was Jack's legend. All things that could be explained away. Lanie hadn't believed in ghosts, not until the pointer on the Ouija board had started to move with no one touching it and that putrid smell of decay and hops had filled the room.

Now she believed. Now she had seen. Now she understood terror.

 The thing they had invited in wasn't human anymore. Stick thin, almost as if he was made of the hop polls he once attended, the most human thing about him was the peg leg. Lanie had only caught a glimpse as she ran. In her panic she had run away from the door. She was trapped. Jack was between her and any way out.

Step, thud.

He could only be on the other side of the counter.

Something clicked on the counter's glass top. It squealed like nails on a chalk board as it slid towards her.

Lanie tasted blood as the scream built and her teeth dug into her hand.

She looked up, she couldn't help it. She could not breathe. Over the edge of the counter appeared first the top, then the rusty tip of Jack's hooked hop knife. It hovered above her, directly over her head, and slowly, painfully slowly, it turned. The end of the blade stopped, pointing directly at her face.

It was more than Lanie could take.

She ran, but her feet slid from under her before she reached the door. Vines with their fragrant hops, twisted around her ankles, dragging her back across the shop. All that was left to her was that scream.

Dramatic Reading on Patreon

For this month I am also recording dramatic readings of all the ghost stories. These are available on my Patreon. They alternate between public and patrons only every other day.

Jack - read by Natasha Duncan-Drake

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AtoZChallenge Master List of Blogs 

Please do let me know what you think of the story and leave me links to your AtoZ entries so I can visit you back. I love to chat.
Have you ever played with a Ouija board? Would you?