THE DOORWAY

It was said that every Halloween, the veil between the land of the living and the dead was thin. This meant that things could cross over, and people could reach the other side too.

It had been a few months since the gruesome car accident where I died. My husband Robert had survived the crash. All I felt was cold. Deep impenetrable cold in my bones, except I, had no bones. As a ghost, feelings were reduced to the primal urges: anger, cold, love. I could never get warm, and so I got used to the cold seeping in every minute.

The other ghosts were excited about Halloween and were talking about how they could finish unfinished business on the other side. I asked a few of them to explain more, and they told me that if you really focused on something so hard, you could appear on the other side. It had to be something you had a strong connection to, like a place or a person. It was the one time in the year you were able to see your family again or take revenge on that person that killed you or resolve whatever drew you strongly back to the other side. I was excited at my chance to see Robert again. 

When Halloween dawned, at the witching hour, I focused so intensely on Robert and the love that we had. I felt this had been cut short by my death in my accident. I knew that this couldn't be the end for me. I had to see him one more time. I could see something that looks like a shimmery glow in the distance. I walked to it, and when I placed my hand upon it, I felt it give. I pushed my whole body through and came out on the other side, right outside our home. 

I still wasn't used to having no physical form. I could go through walls and buildings. I stood at Robert's window and watched for him. Finally, there he was. I smiled, he looked just like I remembered. Besides a few lines, I guess from the sadness of losing me. I readied myself to go to him when a woman came into the living room. He kissed her tenderly, the way he did me. 

That hurt. 

Because I had imagined that he would mourn at least for some time after I was gone. I didn't expect him to move on quite so quickly. But there he was showing no signs of having lost the love of his life. 

The sudden heavy wind and violence in the air alerted me to the fact that I was stark raving mad. How dare he? I had given him all of my life while I had been alive, and I had been the best partner he could have ever had. He told me repeatedly that he had never felt that way about someone else. So why now was he giving up? Why had he moved on to someone else if I was all the things that he had said? 

My anger seemed to merge with the elements around me. The wind picked up and was blowing the leaves, shaking the trees, wrestling them furiously and harder. The trees started groaning and bending, the clouds began moving faster and faster. I slammed the door open and walked in towards Robert. 

He turned with a gasp when he saw me. He said, 'You can't be here you're dead.'

I replied acidly, 'Well, it's something ghosts call ghost day out, and now you get to pay. For thinking you could just forget me like that.' 

Robert pleaded and begged. 'No. No, it's not what it looks like. She helped me through the pain of losing you. She's the only reason I'm alive.'

 I replied, 'Then maybe you should die together.' 

My anger grew the more he defended her. If I couldn't have Robert, no one else could have him. I started hurling utensils and everything that was not affixed to the floor or not too heavy at them. Cups, plates, curtain rods went flying at them. Knives left the holders and flew towards them. Robert wrapped his arms around the little imposter to protect her, and that made me even angrier. He was choosing this woman over me. How dare he? I got more enraged and angrier and threw heavy things at them. The dining table went flying towards them, and he ducked into another room and closed the door. I laughed mockingly, 'You think a lock can keep me out? I'm incorporeal you fool.' 

I stepped through the door and kept coming towards them. Robert looked scared, and it gave me satisfaction. I sent the Wardrobe crashing towards them. He tried to get out of the way and was hit on one side, his hand pinned to the wall. He screamed in agony. I laughed, his pain filling me with a heady power. 

The angrier I felt, the more power at my disposal. I felt invincible on the inside. I used to feel cold, really cold, but the heat from my anger was warming me, and it felt good. I knew that I had to do this. I had to defend my honour. I deserved for Robert to have treated me better. He couldn't just get away with it. He had to die.

I said, 'Choose, death with her or me.'

He spoke, 'You're dead. That's an impossible choice.'

I repeated, 'Choose.'

He looked at me, pain and pleading in his eyes. 'Please Mae.'

With a scream, I shoved the rest of the contents of the room at them. I saw the resignation in Robert's eyes as he realised there was no surviving this. He said, 'Mae, please. Spare her and I will do whatever you want.'

At the last possible moment, everything stopped motion and clattered to the floor with a bang. I held out my hand, 'Come to me.'

 Robert cradled his injured left hand with his right, walking to me. I took his hand. I smiled at the woman, it was a sinister look, and she paled. I focused hard and wished to go back to the other side, with Him. A pale dim light appeared, and I was ready. I stepped through, pulling Robert with me to the realm of the dead.