Chapter 1
You'd think with a name like Chartreuse Madison McKenzie I'd be a tall blonde haired purple-eyed goddess with the powers to lure men to their doom, or something like that. Hah! You'd think wrong!
In fact I'm not even 5'5" with hair like a honeybee's nest and eyes that shine like mud does. I'm lucky enough to get a date, let alone lure men home every night! Though I'm not super weird I do have my odd little quirks and glitches, like I can see ghosts and ghouls. Yeah, that's a very attractive quality men look for in a woman.
Can you imagine being on a date and seeing the spirit of an old guy who died while taking a shower? Yeah, though not. It's disgusting and just plain mean!
But that's not the start of my problems, I mean I can handle myself pretty well whenever the dead decide to pop up again, no the start was when I moved to a little town a couple hundred miles from New York. The town was called Polloi; it was a tiny thing in nearby New Hampshire with barely a local bakery let alone any real potential.
It was, in a way, perfect for living all alone without the constant interruptions from spirits. This all brings me to my house, a white little cottage as far away from the town without actually leaving the county. It's small no real room for guests (Which is fine with me) inside a secluded little glade deep inside the lush oak forest surrounding my property.
When alls considered I really think this place is an ideal home. Now if only the darn ghosts would stay away!
Almost every morning I wake up to a spirit of some kind wailing their heads off (if they have any) or aiming at my own head with a weapon of some kind. Thankfully someone somewhere had decided to give me a break today. So instead of ghouls or ghosts;only a storm screaming outside and my front door was banging against my wall tonight.
Then purple lightning flashed across the night sky, lighting my bedroom up in its wake. I blinked and groaned; there's only one thing that can cause different colored lightning, ghouls. These are ghosts that are so old that they've changed and become ghouls, nasty spirits that enjoy pain and terror.
On my way to the kitchen I grab the holy water sitting on my nightstand and a cross necklace. It's not a lot but both are very effective at warding off attacking ghouls. With these I descend into the black that's engulfed my entire house.
A whinny is the first thing that clues me into the location of my haunter. A shadow rushing past my stair window is the second thing. I gulped and stepped off the last stair, into the kitchen I crept slowly and silently so as not to alert the ghoul.
Too late I realize it already knows I'm here. Already the horse is standing on my tiled floor, its rider looking like he'd kill me before I'd even blink. The only thing I could do was start screaming and struggle to open my holy water.
With my hands all sweaty the bottle slips from my grasp and crashes onto the floor. The water spreads across the tiles. Now the only thing keeping me from becoming ghoul food is the tiny silver cross dangling on my neck. Not a great defense tact looking back.
Before I could even breathe the ghoul had jumped down off his horse and grabbed my throat. With a strangled I cry out, wrapping my hands around his gloved ones and trying to pull them away. Only to have his other hand wrap around my mouth, so screaming was out of the question.
Then something connected with my head and everything went black; dark; dangerous, infecting black.