Ghosts Next Door

Ghosts Next Door
by Lopaka Kapanui

Oct 10, 2018

100 Ghost Stories Counting Down To Halloween 2018 #21

GO FUND HER GO KILL HER

Her body was found in an open field just shy of a mile from the Kunia golf course. The white silk robe she wore with embossed designs of crows and strange symbols lay spread open beneath her.
A clean incision was made and her heart was removed. With all of the arteries to the heart cut open, and the heart itself missing, there was massive blood loss except for the lividity that set in. It was deemed as some kind of strange ritual sacrifice or the work of a serial killer considering the circumstances. Her name was Ruth Molina, she was thirty-seven years old and her browbeaten husband's name was Donald. He had a great future ahead of him Donald did, he was fresh out of high school and prepared to head to college in pursuit of his degree in architecture. He and Ruth met as study partners in an English 107 glass at Leeward Community College which he needed for credit. Ruth was the loud one in class and she annoyed everyone, including the instructor Mr. Greene. She saw that Donald had a future in front of him but not the future he had mapped out for himself, but the one that Ruth wanted. One where Donald would work his fingers to the bone so he could give her everything without her having to do anything. Whatever Donald did, however, was never good enough. She would verbally emasculate him only after she lamented over the number of men who formed endless lines at her door in order to marry her and give her a good life.

"I refused all one hundred of those men because YOU said you were going to provide for me and give me a better life! And now look!"

That's how it would begin. There was always forgiveness and makeup sex after and then the cycle would replay itself over again and again.

One evening Donald and Ruth sat watching a horrible incident unfold on the six 'o clock news. A woman driving her car with her two infant daughters in the back seat had the right of way at a four-way stop. The woman pulled through the intersection and saw the speeding car much too late as it came from the opposite direction and plowed into the back of her vehicle instantly killing the two infants. Donald was devasted by the event, Ruth, however, said nothing and silently excused herself to her computer. The name of the poor woman who lost her children in the tragic accident was Tammy Uaka. That's the name Ruth used in order to create the FundMe account in Tammy's name in order to aide her in her time of financial need. The Fund Me Account netted 2.3 million dollars. Tammy knew nothing about the online FundMe campaign and never received any of the money but Ruth did. She set up the campaign, she used Tammy's name and the tragic memory of the woman's two little daughters in order to gain sympathy and it worked.

............

One evening Donald called from his job at O.C.C.C. to let Ruth know that an extra shift had become available so he'd decided to take it. "You better take it," Ruth replied. "My washer/dryer is two years old already, I want a new one."

"Yes, babes," Donald answered. "I don't understand why I still have to work though? We're rich already, it doesn't make sense?"

There was the sound of a busy signal from Ruth's end of the phone which was her usual reply when she didn't want to hear any of Donald's crying. In less than an hour, Ruth had already hurried herself to Pearlridge and was bored with the selection of the fall wear in the department store. In the evening gown section, she came upon a mannequin that wore an unusual white silk robe. There were embossed designs of crows and other strange symbols all over it. It was strange but somehow enchanting if that were the correct word. Ruth was startled when the sales clerk appeared next to her and said, "Nice yeah?"

"Oh!" Ruth gasped. "Oh yeah, yeah it's nice but kinda off."

"It's the last one," the sales clerk replied. "Can you believe the frickin' thing was priced at $500?"

"What???" Ruth scoffed. "$500? Shit, I can buy one Hawaiian bracelet for less!"

"I no shit you," the salesclerk laughed. "That's why I marked it down to $50 otherwise the thing going just sit there and then we gotta send 'um back to distribution. Going be one waste."

"$50 sounds better," Ruth nodded.

"Eh, so what? I go use my discount and you can buy 'um for $20! What you think?" The salesclerk's face balanced in suspended animation until Ruth winked at the salesclerk and nodded. Once it was purchased and Ruth's shopping lust was satisfied, she found herself getting into her car just in front of Long's. She liked to drive her Lexus at a moderate speed because she had a thing about being seen in her brand new SUV for all to admire. She lived at the top of Ka'onohi and Kahapili street but she liked driving past her house and taking a U-turn at Lae'ula street before pulling into the garage. It was all about seeing and being seen. She must have made that U-turn a thousand times but this evening was different. There was another SUV that drove a car length behind her. When Ruth banked left to make the U-turn, the SUV sped up and t-boned her vehicle.

.............

LATER

When Ruth regained consciousness she found herself laying in the middle of a dark field with the night sky above her. She was too groggy and weak to move but with the brisk wind moving about she could feel that she was naked. Managing to turn her head she saw that she was dressed in the white robe she bought earlier. Ruth looked over to her right and saw the salesclerk from the department store sitting next to her. There was enough ambient light from the surrounding area so that Ruth could see the name on the salesclerk's tag. Strange, she wasn't wearing it at the department store.

"Tammy," Ruth whispered.

"Yes," the salesclerk replied. "That's me."

"What...what am I doing here?" Ruth was still dizzy and trying to make sense of everything.

"That robe is perfect for you Ruth," Tammy nodded. "Perfect for tonight."

"What? What are you...?" Ruth felt queasy all of a sudden. It felt like there was bile ready to come up but it wouldn't.

"Ruth.....the publicity on the news and social media about my daughters being killed in that accident was enough. That's more than enough attention than I needed. All I wanted was for all of it to be put away and forgotten but you............you had to go start your fucking FundMe campaign and dredge it all up again. I don't even care about the money Ruth, I don't. See, I'm not even from Hawai'i but where I'm from in our family, there has been a long tradition of offering up the firstborn to the Prince of Lies. At the time of my accident, I was on the way to honor that tradition because a miracle of all miracles; I had two firstborns! Yeah, yeah, minutes apart and whatever! All of that was cut short in that accident. The fewer people knew about me the better, I kept it all low key, didn't talk to any news reporters, stayed off social media. Then your greedy fucking ass came along and fucked all of that up! I was getting messages of sympathy because of your damned FundMe campaign! If you haven't already guessed....and you probably haven't because you're a stupid gluttonous greedy bitch! I don't work at that department store and that robe was never on sale. It's a ceremonial robe used by someone for ritual sacrifice in case the tradition goes wrong. You're going to make up for the offering that I was not able to give to the Prince of Lies."

Before Ruth could protest or plead, Tammy removed a long thin ceremonial knife that cut a 'Y' incision with two lines below both of Ruth's collar bones and one down the middle. With Herculean strength, she pulled back the chest plate, and expertly cut away the arteries which were connected to Ruth's heart. Holding the still beating artery up to the heavens, Tammy recited an incantation which turned her eyes red for a few seconds and then she consumed the heart. Wiping the blood away with the back of her hand, Tammy looked down at her handy work and scoffed, "Go fund this, bitch,"















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