Spooky Followers: Cozy Mystery Short Story

By S. Y. Robins

Lorna Grindstaff lived an ordinary life in an ordinary village in Derbyshire. Running from the city to her refuge in the country after a bad breakup Lorna expected to live out her days in an ordinary fashion as an ordinary woman. Lorna craved ordinary but fate had different plans for the young woman. Shortly after the beginning of October Lorna meets a young couple on her nightly walk home from work. First the young man, and then the young woman. An odd pair they're well-mannered if dressed oddly, and obviously in love. But are they what they seem or is there more to their story than even Lorna can imagine? Soon Lorna is tangled in a web that she can't get out of and must find the answers that will give the young couple the freedom they need. But first Lorna has to learn the truth, are the pair ghostly spectres from the past or are they modern people simply living a lifestyle that's from 70 years ago?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lovy Books Ltd
• Release date: Aug 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223381860

Book preview

1

I’m off home now, Mildred! Lorna Grindstaff called out to her employer at the Druid’s Grove pub as she bundled her mass of curly dark auburn hair under a thick scarf and walked out into the early October darkness outside of the pub. The darkness was thickened by a deep fog that made it impossible for the street lights to illuminate the rain-slicked car park or the street just outside of the pub.

Sighing deeply Lorna knew it was going to be a harrowing trip home down the hill in this fog. The stones of the footpath and the road itself were going to be slick with pebbles and damp leaves from the oak trees that lined the road waiting to take your feet out from under you as you walked down the steep incline. Tossing one end of the scarf out of her clear grey eyes, Lorna placed an earbud into one ear but left the other free so she could hear any approaching cars; there wasn’t much chance of seeing the headlights of one tonight, not in this fog.

Stepping onto the road Lorna started the walk home, down the 'hill of death' as she called it, and down the road to her house. Humming along to the song playing on her mobile she wasn’t aware that she was approaching anyone until she ran smack into them in the darkness. Falling to the ground Lorna had an instant vision of sliding the rest of the way down the hill on her bum but she only came to a sudden stop without shooting off into the darkness. She looked up out of the darkness, confused as to what had just occurred.

A handsome young man’s face appeared out of the dark and fog, the dark hair styled in an old fashioned manner, his head covered by an old cap that Lorna thought gave him a jaunty air, and smiled as he offered his hand in aid.

Sorry, miss, must have been you I heard humming behind me then. An unfamiliar tune but lovely, all the same. I thought it may have been a ghost out to catch me unawares. The sound of it stopped me dead and I wasn’t sure whether to stay and listen or to run. You hum nicely by the way. The young man said jovially.

Lorna assumed the young man was a few years younger than her 24 years and harmless looking. She took his offered hand and stood up, brushing off the back of her red coat. She’d saved for weeks until she had enough to buy the red wool coat; she hoped she hadn’t damaged it.

Are you alright, then? She asked as they began to walk again.

I’m just dandy. What time is it? I’m meeting my girl at the Nine Ladies Stone Circle and I expect I’m late already. She’s afraid to be up there on her own. Things that go bump in the night and all that jazz! He said with another laugh. I’d best be off in any case. My apologies again, keep humming it seemed to make you happy! The young man said before rushing off.

Young love! Lorna said to