Stories Told Only After Dark

Word Count: 774

Prompts: Two Roads – Black Ghost – In the Dark of the Night

Timeline: Before the first book.

Summary: Ada gets her first taste of ghost stories.


Gilbert didn't really mind the dark. It was a time for reflection of the day and sleep. It was an enjoyable time.

But standing in the middle of a newly-harvested field in the darkest time of night, with no stars or moon, was hardly his idea of fun.

Oz thought it was. He was rattling off ghost story after ghost story, trying to scare Gil but at the same time not being graphic enough to scare his younger sister, Ada, who was clinging to Oz's shirt.

"And then," Oz said, flourishing his hands towards the expanse of the field, "The man disappeared. Never to be seen again."

"That's lovely," Gil said, "Can we please go home now?"

"Come on, Gil. Put some heart into it." Oz grinned in the way that normally meant he had a plan brewing. "You tell a story. Let's see how scary you can be."

Gil heard something rustle behind him, but he swallowed his sudden surge of fear.

"Fine," he said, and Oz's ears perked in surprise. "It was a very late night when the servant finally strangled his master."

Oz's eyebrows lowered. "I don't like where this story is going."

"And after the death of his body, the spirit was left to wander around the desolate field for absolute eternity, while his younger sister and his servant went home. The End."

"I don't think Uncle Oscar would approve of the story, either…"

"Master Oscar would also not approve of us being out here in the middle of the night."

"My, my, you get crabby when you're tired, Gil…"

"Can I tell a story?" Ada said, making the two boys look down at the little girl, whose bedtime was way past what it should be.

"Sure, Ada," Oz said, no doubt humoring her. "Tell us your scariest story."

Ada folded her hands in front of her. She stared off to an empty spot in front of her, which Gil wasn't sure was for dramatic effect, or if she had just forgotten what she was going to say.

"It was a cloudy night when the Black Ghost first appeared," she said, sending an involuntary chill up Gilbert's spine.

"No one knew where he had come from, or who he had been before. The one thing they knew about him was that he had a black silhouette, and that he carried a long white knife, which was always covered in bright, red blood. And the only place he walked amongst was freshly harvested fields, because he wanted his kills to be as fresh as the harvest."

Gil looked over at Oz, who, if he was scared, was doing a good job not showing it. Gil, on the other hand, was starting to feel the darkness pound around him, and was hearing footsteps that he really hoped were just in his imagination.

"Always before he kills his victim," Ada continued, raising her hands and her voice, "he asks, 'what road would you like to go down?'" She suddenly dropped her hands and slapped them against her thighs. Gilbert was pleased that Oz had jumped from the sound, too.

"No one," she said, "has ever heard one of his victims reply."

Ada bowed, and she smiled sweetly when she lifted her head back up. "How did I do?"

"I've realized that it's kind of dark out here," Oz commented. "Why don't we go back in?"

"Excuse me? Something like that really scared you?" Gil snapped. He hadn't thought Oz would be scared of a story of that type. A type which was still slightly cliché, no matter where it was told.

But Oz, indeed, looked slightly spooked.

"Well, you know, Gilbert, I wouldn't mind, except that I've heard a story similar to that about the Black Ghost, and Ada hadn't been with me when the person told it to me."

Gil wrapped his arms around himself and looked to see how far the mansion was.

Then, behind all three of them, a hoarse voice whispered, "What road would you like to go down?"

Oz grabbed Ada and then all three of them took off towards the mansion, screaming at the top of their lungs. Hoping that someone in the mansion heard them before something got them.

Uncle Oscar shook his head as he stood in the spot that they had bolted from. He could still hear them screaming, and he feared they would be in an awful lot of trouble for waking the mansion up in the middle of the night.

It took an awful lot to keep kids in line sometimes.

The only thing that puzzled him was: where had Ada heard that story?