Lois Investigates The Ghostly Light

The reporter slipped over the wall into the park. Curiosity was what made her such a good reporter, and she couldn't resist this little mystery. Lois tried not to think about all the times her curiosity had gotten her into trouble...

The small blue flame glimmered near the oldest trees. Lois crept forward carefully, momentarily forgetting her mission to get a pregnancy test. She was remembering instead old bits of folklore, that chapter in Dracula where:

Suddenly, away on our left, I saw a faint flickering blue flame. The driver saw it at the same moment; he at once checked the horses, and, jumping to the ground, disappeared into the darkness. I did not know what to do, the less as the howling of the wolves grew closer; but while I wondered the driver suddenly appeared again, and without a word took his seat, and we resumed our journey. I think I must have fallen asleep and kept dreaming of the incident, for it seemed to be repeated endlessly, and now looking back, it is like a sort of awful nightmare. Once the flame appeared so near the road, that even in the darkness around us I could watch the driver’s motions. He went rapidly to where the blue flame arose—it must have been very faint, for it did not seem to illumine the place around it at all—and gathering a few stones, formed them into some device. Once there appeared a strange optical effect: when he stood between me and the flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same. ... Then as time went on, and I had got somewhat bolder, I asked him of some of the strange things of the preceding night, as, for instance, why the coachman went to the places where he had seen the blue flames. He then explained to me that it was commonly believed that on a certain night of the year—last night, in fact, when all evil spirits are supposed to have unchecked sway—a blue flame is seen over any place where treasure has been concealed. “That treasure has been hidden,” he went on, “in the region through which you came last night, there can be but little doubt; for it was the ground fought over for centuries by the Wallachian, the Saxon, and the Turk. Why, there is hardly a foot of soil in all this region that has not been enriched by the blood of men, patriots or invaders. In old days there were stirring times, when the Austrian and the Hungarian came up in hordes, and the patriots went out to meet them—men and women, the aged and the children too...

Lois was breathless as she stood within arm's length of the tiny flame, which seemed to float on the breeze, with no wick or candle. A weird thrill ran down her spine at this obviously supernatural apparition. Children...she remembered now that the potter's field was also where the remains of orphans were buried, as well as stillbirths and miscarriages...

The flame wafted toward her, almost lazily but Lois sensed some apparent purpose. There seemed to almost be a shape within the flame...and something inside of her that called out. The reporter reached out to touch the small blue light...and with a gasp grasped only empty air. The intangible blue flame flitted right through her hand, still headed for her.

With sudden realization, Lois intuited where it was headed. Just at that moment, as it was within arms reach, the flame zipped forward like a meteorite drawn in by the terrible gravity of a planet, and Lois Lane looked down just in time to see it disappear into her stomach.

The night was still, and the reporter felt herself holding her breath. The noise of the city seemed distant. Quickly but carefully, Lois raised her shirt to expose her stomach, but there was no visible sign of the tiny blue flame. She twisted and turned around, but there was no sign of it.

What just happened? Lois thought. She didn't feel any different and yet there was a foreboding inside of her, the terrible desire that had her rush out of her apartment for a pregnancy test was back, and stronger than before.

"I have to get out of here," Lois said, just to hear her own voice.