Raven's Haunt

The following is my story submission for the 2019 Halloween Story Contest, if you enjoy my writing, please let me know, and vote! Thank you!

I would like to recognize and specifically thank CiaoSteve, for his editing assistance and suggestions, which made a good story even better.

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Ghosts; yeah, right. Rose chuckled to herself as she followed her local guide into a bedroom and set her bags on the bed in her new room for the next week. She was following her assigned scoop for the small paper she worked at, about yet another ghost story. At this bed and breakfast named Raven's Haunt, in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of North Carolina, there had been tales about a special room. Story goes: if a lady stayed by herself in said room she would find herself visited by the ghost of a notorious rake. Some of the locals claim that he was killed on the property hundreds of years ago by an outraged husband of one of his lovers.

Rose was sure that it was a fake, every ghost hunt her bosses had sent her on had come up with nothing out of the ordinary, just interest for tourists. She was betting the ladies with the ghostly visits just wanted to have their 15 minutes of fame, or some local was sneaking into the room to keep the story going. Her boss thought it would be a great piece for the Halloween paranormal section, so yet again she got the eerie assignment. The owner who had guided her to the room was still going on about the ghost, so she tried to tune back in.

"Some say that he appears as just a mist; others claim that he had almost a solid form, but lights would shine through him." The tiny older woman named Trixie was finishing her brief summary of the tale. She was a very cheery woman, with her gray hair in a small and tight bun. She smoothed her apron then smiled again at Rose. "Dinner was at 7:00, but if you are hungry I could make you a sandwich." Rose declined and Trixie continued. "Ok then, breakfast is at 8:00 in the morning, pancakes and fruit are planned, but we could do some special requests if you have any."

"Pancakes and fruit sounds lovely," Rose accepted with a smile.

"Great then, we'll see you in the morning. You have the key for your door, and unless you request something, no one will enter your room while you are staying here. You are our only guest for the week, unless someone stops in for a surprise visit. My husband and I are not taking in as many guests as we used too, with our age we are thinking about finding someone else to take over here, so we can go traveling and be guests ourselves." She finished with a chuckle, and as the older woman left the room she winked at Rose. "Enjoy your stay at Raven's Haunt."

"Thank you, I'm sure I will." Rose smiled politely and got a look that said the older woman believed she was in for a surprise. Clearly laying it on thick for the press, Rose thought with smile.

Once the door was closed, she sat on the edge of the big, wooden canopy bed and took in the room. It was very charming, on the corner of the house so she had two windows. From the pictures she had seen on the simple web site she knew that one overlooked the garden and the other showed her the back yard and small orchard, with mountains framing everything. Right now they were dark and empty, covered by some heavy white lace and gauze curtains, and she reminded herself to make sure they were well locked. The walls were a summer sky blue, with photographs of what looked to be the local countryside in simple wooden frames.

She stretched her arms above her head, arched her back and gave up fighting off the yawn. She had been driving for the past 6 hours straight, and was so ready to just lie down, but she had some work to do first. The door was where she started, locking it, then she checked the windows. They were well made, and there was no way anyone could unlock them from the outside. Not to mention she was on the second floor at the back of the house, the porch was on the front side of the house and, with the soft light of a lower window, she could see it was a straight drop to the ground with thick rose bushes growing right below her windows.

"Well," she said softly to herself. "There goes my 'local being frisky' theory." She turned back to the bed and unpacked her bags into the big dresser against the inside wall. There was a huge mirror standing up from the back of it, and she could see the big bed right behind her reflected in it. She tossed her digital recorder on one of the many pillows on the bed. Once finished, she changed into her comfy clothes, a soft stretchy tank-top and loose skirt, then she picked up the recorder and pushed the record button.

"This is Rose Chase at the Raven's Haunt Inn, in North Carolina and it is Monday night, October 13th, 2008." She set the recorder next to the lamp on the nightstand beside the bed. "I am here to discover the truth to the claim that Raven Tanner's ghost haunts this lodge." After turning the lamp out and climbing onto the bed, she sat with her legs crossed in the center, facing the nightstand which had her looking at herself in the mirror, the faint light from outside the windows slowly seeming brighter as her eyes adjusted.

"Is there anyone else here right now?" She asked the darkness, getting no reply. "I am willing to give you a shot and see if you are real..." More silence "But you have to prove to me that you are here." Pause. "I have all week." That said, she decided that she had completed her work for the evening and could finally sleep; like she said, she had all week to be here.

Rose flipped the comforter down, and stretched out under the sheet. She usually slept nude at home, but not when traveling, and she was not about to completely let her 'frisky local' idea go, wanting to be prepared if that was the case. She lay there listening to the sounds of a house cooling, and the crickets outside. Just as she was about to go to sleep she heard something that didn't quite fit with the night sounds. It had a rhythm to it, like a soft rocking, or breathing. She was curled up on her side and didn't move her body, but she did crack open one eye and glanced around at the darkness.

Just over her shoulder she thought she saw a pale haze, and for a second thought it was a man's face. She jumped, barely held back a scream and opened both eyes but it was gone. She calmed her breathing and silently laughed at herself. She had let all those stories go to her head, she thought. Lying back down, this time on her back, she put an arm behind her head, and just watched the room for a little while. She didn't know when she fell asleep, but when she did it was a deep sleep.

Once the woman's breathing had leveled out, he slipped closer. He felt bad about scaring her earlier, but he really wanted to get a look at the woman sleeping in his bed. With his focus on her, and not on trying to maintain an actual form, he only appeared as a slightly darker shadow in the already dark room.

The woman's face was smooth in sleep, the faint laugh lines in her face just adding to her features. He had seen earlier that her eyes were a smoky blue, her teeth white, and her hair was a shiny strawberry blond. One thing that he loved seeing was the clothes that women were now wearing. This one had walked in with a pair of butt hugging jeans and a V-neck short sleeve shirt that showed hints of the curves of her breasts hidden from view. Now she slept in a scrap of material that had strings across her shoulders holding it up, and it allowed her nipples to be seen pressing against the fabric. Then there was that knee-length flowing skirt that softly outlined her legs when she walked around his room. God, he loved the change in ladies' fashions over the years.

As he leaned closer to her face, he could almost smell the perfume of her body. His eyes roamed from her glorious hair fanned over the pillows, down her well shaped nose, and admired her full lips. He closed his eyes for a moment to focus and when he opened them he could see his arm and hand holding more form in front of him. Slowly he reached out and ran his fingers through her hair; it was as soft as it looked, and seductively silky. When he lifted a lock to his nose, to breathe in more of her tantalizing scent, she moaned in her sleep, turned her head and tugged the lock right through his fingers.

"Soon," he whispered. "I will be able to answer your challenge, and you will know that I am here." Then he faded away.

Sunlight creeping over the bed woke Rose in the morning. The hazy bits of a dream hovered at the edge of her mind, a hand in her hair, a whisper in the night, and then it was gone. After breakfast with the owner and her quiet husband she wandered the grounds taking pictures and talking to the people in the little town about Raven's Haunt and its 'resident' ghost. The locals were split pretty much 50/50, some thought it was great for tourism and nothing more, others swore the legends were true and the ghost of Raven Tanner was as much a womanizer in death as he was in life. That night at dinner she asked the owners of the inn about the person who was Raven Tanner.

"Well," Trixie started, "he was a very handsome man, and all the ladies around loved him. He was this area's Casanova, if you know what I mean. He owned this house before... well... before the duel. The room that you are staying in was his master bedroom." Rose had been thinking it was something along those lines, and it explains the tie to that room.

"Did he die in the house?" she asked.

"No, the duel that ended his life happened in the orchards, out behind the house." The older woman continued with her story. "There is a bench out there next to the tree that he died leaning against. Since that day it has not once produced fruit, not even flowers. Some say the curse of his dying without ever knowing true love is what stunted the tree."

Rose had expected a bit of romanticism with the tragic tale of a ladies' man killed because of his illicit affairs, but a bloomless tree was new to her. Once the dinner was done, Rose left to go up to her room, pulled out her key, unlocked her door and when she walked into her room she could smell a rich floral scent hanging in the air. There was something laying on one of the pillows on the bed, the one that she had laid her head on last night. After locking the door behind her and dropping her keys on the nightstand table she reached out and picked up a huge red rose.

Trixie or her husband must have put that here, Rose thought. She took a glass off the top of the dresser to put the flower in, poured water from the pitcher into it then she set the glass on a little table under one of the windows. She smiled softly, then got her comfy clothes out again and changed out of her jeans and t-shirt. Thinking about the rose more, she started to reconsider its origins. The roses around the house were not in bloom, and had the smaller old-timey leaves that supported small cluster blooms. This one was large, deep red, very fresh, and she had not seen a bush yet that it could have come from. All the flowers decorating the old house were more of the late wildflower variety. She also remembered Trixie telling her that they would not enter her room without her permission for the duration of her stay. A chill crept up her spine and washed over her as she finished her evening prep.

"Time to work," she said to herself, just to hear a voice and break the silence in the now too quiet room, before gathering her recorder and sitting on the bed again.

"Night two at Raven's Haunt. Learned more about Tanner, his connection to the house and land." She recounted the story of his death under the tree for her recordings. Towards the end of the recitation she had the fragmented dream of last night flash into her mind for a second, causing her mind to lose track, but shook it off and gathered herself.

"Are you still haunting this place, Tanner?" she whispered. She caught sight of movement out of the corner of her eye and calmly turned her head to look at her rose under the window. It was slowly spinning in the cup.

"Okay..." she said, a little nervous, and felt silly asking for a cliche, but couldn't stop herself. "If you are truly Raven Tanner, can you knock three times, like this?" She knocked softly on the nightstand. There was a moment of silence, the rose had stopped its dance, and then she heard three knocks. She also felt the knocks through the bed as if the being was knocking on the side of the bed frame. For a second she felt fear shoot through her veins, but then all the stories of the women who had stayed here came flooding back to her. No one complained of pain or fear. She felt a blush warm her cheeks and her nipples tightened as details from the pleasured women's visits returned.

"Can you speak, or just move things?" Rose asked, still looking mostly in the direction of the rose. She felt fingers brush her shoulder and lift her hair.

"Oh, I can speak, beautiful flower." A deep throaty male voice whispered from right behind her, causing Rose to gasp, spinning her head around, and she found herself looking at the headboard of the bed. No one there, she thought, and as she got up off the bed she scanned the room; no one anywhere. Since she herself put the rose in the glass she knew there were no strings, but she walked over to the window and checked for a draft. The wind was blowing outside making the trees dance, but there was nothing at all slipping into the room.

"Okay.... It seems I will now have to admit that you are real, Tanner," she said fighting a heady mix of fear, excitement, and arousal, and then heard a deep chuckle behind her.

Rose gasped again in surprise of the sudden and very close sound and also as a sense of being touched registered. She felt hands gently slide over her shoulders, massaging tense muscles and coaxing her to relax. From the light behind her and the moonlight from outside, she could see no hands on her, but she felt them. Long strong fingers were massaging up along her shoulders moving closer to her neck. She could see her hair sliding over something that wasn't there, then her hair was swept back exposing the tender flesh of her neck. She felt lips against her skin, a brush of facial hair as the kiss traveled from her shoulder to her neck, then teeth lightly nibbled up her neck and then captured her earlobe.

Rose gave a tiny moan and closed her eyes as a shiver of arousal raced across her skin, laying her head back as the lips, teeth, and tongue teased her ear while a bearded chin brushed her neck. The hands slid down her arms then they went around her waist and were urging her to take a step back towards the bed. She allowed herself to be led while the hands continued to roam. One slid down to the curve of her hip while the other crept up her stomach and under her shirt, both continuing the gentle pressure, pulling her back.

She looked down at the strange sight of her shirt being lifted by nothing, the smooth skin of her stomach coming into view. When the cool touch of a chilly hand hit the bottom of her breast, her nipples instantly hardened into buds. The ghost hand pushed her shirt on up and drew it over her head and off her body, and it hit the floor as she stopped next to the bed.

"Please call me Raven." The voice whispered now from in front of her, as Raven's ghost hands slid back up her bare stomach to cup her breasts. She looked down and watched as they almost seemed to move of their own accord, but she could feel the slightly cold touch of his hands on her body. Her breasts lifted, then her nipples flattened as they were pinched, making Rose moan softly.

She felt her body being pushed and adjusted so she had the backs of her legs against the tall bed, and was facing the large mirror on the dresser across from her. All Rose could see was herself standing there, topless, then she felt a mouth against her breast and watched her nipple being sucked by an invisible man. She felt the slight pain and pleasure as he held her nipple with his teeth, tugging on it while flicking the tender nub with his tongue, and the slight tickle of his facial hair on her breast. She saw the nipple dance back and forth and without thinking about it tried to set her hand on the back of his head. She felt a shock as her hand actually cupped something that felt solid, she could feel hair and the tension in his neck as he swirled her nipple with his tongue. When she looked down her hand was hovering out away from her body, cupping nothing but air, which startled her into releasing him.

Rose felt the ghost of Raven chuckle against her breast then it was released. She heard him making soft sounds of approval, as the voice was slowly rising from around chest level to sound like it was coming from slightly above her. He continued to play with her nipples, pinching and pulling on them, and she could not fight her body heating up under his masterful touch, not that she wanted to.

"I see you like to watch your body as I play with it," the voice whispered. "Please, sit on the edge of the bed." He instructed her, and she felt a wave of desire wash over her as she obeyed. Rose felt his hands slide down from her nipples, over her hips, down her thighs. Then they slowly crept up her legs, raising her skirt the same way her shirt was drawn off her body. Once the material was bunched at her waist, her knees were coaxed to spread a little and her damp panties were exposed. She felt fingers hook into the elastic band of her underwear, and as the hands swept back down her legs, they pulled the moist fabric towards her ankles. After it was discarded on the floor, the hands then slowly slid around the back of her knees, and gently yet firmly began to spread her legs wide open. She felt his fingers move to the inside of her thighs, before they started creeping inch by inch closer to her most secret spot, thumbs drawing soft circles along her skin. She was already damp but as he got closer she could see in the mirror the moistness growing and glistening in the light from the little lamp. Finally his fingers gently brushed her pussy and Rose's body gave a little jump as she whimpered softly.

"Oh, yes, Rose. You were secretly hoping I was real, were you not?" the husky voice rumbled.

All Rose could do was nod and continue to whimper, because he had taken two fingers and traced them up the length of her pussy flicking over her hidden clit. Her breathing got heavier and she heard an appreciative sound from the ghost tormenting her body.

"Would you like for me to give you a release like you have never had before?" his voice whispered over her body. His fingers started circling her clit, not touching it but staying right next to it, and pushing her damp pink lips back to expose it to the cool air.

"Yes," she moaned. "I want to know for sure if the stories are true. All of them." He chuckled and nibbled at her neck again, his fingers still teasing.

"I had better get started then, shouldn't I?" he asked.

Rose agreed with a moan as his fingers flicked over her clit before slowly and steadily pushing into her hot channel, only to retreat before pushing back into her. She looked down and all she could see was her pussy opening and closing for the invisible fingers. Then he pulled his hand away and she whimpered.

"No worries, flower. I am just going to give you something better to watch. Look at the mirror." She looked straight ahead at the huge mirror and saw herself reclining on her elbows on the bed, her legs spread and hanging off the edge. The hands were at her knees and spread her legs wider, her swollen pussy was moist and a deeply aroused pink. Then she felt the cool velvet softness of the head of a cock being slowly rubbed along her inner thigh heading for the junction of her legs.

In the mirror she could see her breasts quivering with her heavy breathing. She could also see the imprint of the invisible dick on her skin as it was sliding closer to her sheath. Her eyes were transfixed on the mirror as her lower lips were slowly spread by the un-seeable. Her pussy looked like an open mouth waiting to be fed, but she felt the girth of the cock being gently pressed into her, then she felt the thick ridge of the mushroom crown pop completely into her body. His cock slid a few more inches into her, its thickness stretching her open, her natural juices providing plenty of lube.