Something stirred in the darkness below. There was someone there. A woman was staring up at him. Her body was nothing more than a silhouette cast against the dusty football pitch. Her face was lost in shadows but her gaze burned into his own. He could feel her stare and he found himself unable to look away. She appeared to be dressed in simple clothing, much like the young girl that he had seen on the beach but this woman was older. With palms upturned she raised her arms and as she did so her body gently lifted into the air. Bill’s heart began to pound. This was surely a dream, a nightmare. For so many years he’d wanted to see a ghost and now he found himself reacting like a terrified child. The woman was a manifestation of evil. He could see it in her eyes. The way they burned in the darkness like two hot coals pushed into her skull. She uttered his name; her tone was gruff and filled with rage. Her foul breath reached out to him and filled his lungs with the suffocating stench of death. He was frozen with fear and unable to move. Somehow he had to break the hold she had on him. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. His pounding heart began to slow. It felt heavy in his chest and dragged the breath from his lungs. She was draining life from him. She wanted him dead and he didn‘t know why. He made one final effort to get away; from somewhere he summoned enough strength to slam the wooden shutters together, throw the latch across and stagger back to his bed. For a few precious moments there was silence. He drew the sheets to his face and stared into the darkness. She was still there; he could see the light from her eyes seeping through the wooden slats. The latch rattled noisily as she tried to force her way in. He rested his head on the pillow and tried to make sense of things. The line between fantasy and reality was becoming a blur. Eventually he fell asleep, but it was a restless slumber filled with anxious dreams and disturbing nightmares. When morning finally came he woke in a cold sweat. Sunlight was streaming in through open shutters. The shutters that he had closed and locked.