Halloween Is Almost Here!

Hello everyone! My name is Kaylie and I’m so excited to be
here on the day before Halloween. This is one of my favorite holidays. I love writing about things that go bump in the night.
Here’s a spooky little excerpt from my book, A Death That Lingers, which is coming from Beachwalk Press November, 21st… If you like ghosts, and hot police officer heroes, this one’s for you. Enjoy! :)


Turning off the lights to the shop, she climbed the stairs
to the apartment, feeling, as usual, that she was being watched.
Suddenly, she froze with one foot poised on the next step
and her hand on the banister. She turned slowly, wanting with every fiber in her being to bolt up the stairs two by two.
But something stopped her. Maybe it was weariness of the
constant fear, or maybe it was just plain anger. Or perhaps it was curiosity at what lay beyond the tiny particles of dust hanging in the early evening light. Something wicked that she couldn’t see, but that she could most certainly feel. Whatever it was, it was enough to keep her pinned to one
spot, her thoughts hanging somewhere between terror and lunacy. The shop was quiet, except for the old air conditioning unit which hummed in the back. Her hands were sweaty, but she wasn’t aware of it until her palm began a slippery decent down the worn, wooden railing. She wiped it on her skirt before growing absolutely still.
She scanned the shop, her breathing shallow and fast. She didn’t know what she expected to see. A transparent and gruesome Liam levitating over by the comic books? Flying dishes and furniture that skittered across the room on its own? None of that happened. But she knew she wasn’t alone. The air conditioner kicked off, the tired fan slowing with a tick, tick that gradually eased into complete silence. Josie stood, afraid to move and afraid to stay. The hairs on her arms rose as the temperature dropped a fraction. She opened her mouth and willed herself to speak.
“Liam?” It was merely a whisper, but the sound punctured the silence to the bone. If anyone could have seen her right then, standing on the stairs, too afraid to move, addressing her dead husband as if he’d walked through the door, they would have thought she’d lost every single marble she had.
“Liam?” Her voice was stronger now as she looked around the room which was growing dimmer by the second. “Is that you?”
She had goose bumps all the way up her arms and along the back of her neck. The spot where she was standing was so cold that she had to work to keep her teeth from chattering. She ground them together until her jaw began to ache with the effort. She stood there for a minute longer, waiting for what, she didn’t know. The silence was deafening, and she’d managed to completely freak herself out. Turning, she trotted up the stairs, her heart pounding like a bongo drum in her chest.
If it was Liam in the room with her, he wasn’t in the mood for talking. And if she’d learned anything during their marriage, he didn’t like to be pushed. She reached the apartment door, scurried through, and slammed it behind her.
Then locked it for good measure.