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Ghosts And The City 02

(To The Ends of The Earth—A Halloween Tale

A DarkSF Short Story by John Argo

The second story in the series, is a Halloween tale mainly set in San Diego - about a horrific murder that took place on a long ago night, far away in Upstate New York and the consequences rippling down through the Neitherworld between time and eternity.

The Neitherworld is rich with ghostly people--and sometimes terrifying, but always fascinating events.

Ray's friend Lolo has reunited with her lost Henri and the children they were meant to have, while Ray meets an alternate, loyal version of his beloved Tamsin who had been cheating on him. Together, Ray and Tamsin enlist in the paranormal cause of Dr. Jonas Nestor, head of the Compass News Bureau.

From a mysterious House of Four Seasons in Coronado, Ray is propelled into detective work to lay to rest, forever, the murder of Agony Pond, N.Y. all those years of living time ago (a relativistic eye-blink in the Neitherworld, whose own golden nethertime flows slow and rich as warm amber honey, and rain falls like tears).

At the end of the journey, a dark spirit reaches the end of the world, and the murder is laid to rest amid the river of history, of time, of human events, and above all, forgetfulness.

Here in the Neitherworld, somber light falls like rain. The very air itself is poetry, full of moody rain like tears, but often shiny like a smile about to break through. Things are not all sad and gloomy. Ghosts can love each other, and people, and do good or heroic deeds. Theirs is a world filled with surprises. Along the Shore Road (which doesn't exist in the world of the living), houses are built of gloom. Green and ruby coach lights shine dimly on the ghosts who hang around waiting for the mission that will set them free. We get to meet a few of them…

For the living, it’s a dark, windy world of short nights and long evenings filled with rustling leaves. Pumpkins with carved eyes flicker full of candlelight and anticipation. It’s all about atmospherics, and here in the Neitherworld we breathe nets and skeins of wonder.