Mary Emilia meets a ghost

Mary Emilia could not tear her eyes away from the scene behind the mirror. If the woman she saw there was Mary Thomas - which she still refused to believe, because her co-sister would certainly not be naked among men - then this glass surface would be a door to the next room. And then she, Mary Emilia, could simply leave the room. In fact, there wouldn't be just one exit, but many.

However, she certainly didn't want to go into a **** chamber. The idea sent shivers down her spine. She silently told herself that it was of course not a real dungeon. Surely it was just a backdrop that the carnival had set up here in this haunted house to scare the visitors, and the creepy hooded men were just actors. Still, no, no, she didn't want to take a closer look. In fact, she already regretted having accompanied Mary Thomas into this house. She wanted to get out again as quickly as possible.

Well, what alternatives did she have? What did the other mirrors show? She turned around and looked at the door-sized, blind openings on the opposite wall. In one of the frosted glass surfaces, she imagined she saw a human-like figure.

Oh, it was probably just her own reflection, she consoled herself. To make sure, she walked towards the reflection. As expected, the image seemed to be coming towards her.

"Uh!?"

Mary Emilia stopped in mid-motion, as if her feet had suddenly frozen to the ground. She was shaking like a leaf and felt goose bumps all over her body. Stunned, she stared at the figure that had stepped out of the frame and was now standing in front of her.

It was probably a human, although Mary Emilia wasn't entirely positive, as humans normally weren't translucent and glowed blue from the inside. At least that was her assumption. You should never rule out a possibility from the start, should you?

The person's face kept blurring and changing its appearance, as if you were looking at it through a moving water surface. The long, white hair blew in an impalpable wind. The figure was wearing a half-length, old-fashioned frock coat, knee breeches and shoes with large, rectangular buckles.

"Hello Emilia!" The woman felt the words more than she heard them, "Welcome to my house. I am very pleased that you would like to join me."

"Er?"

Mary Emilia's mouth gaped open and snapped shut, like a fish on dry land, without any sensible sound coming out.

"We should get to know each other better," the figure suggested, "because we'll be spending a lot of time together from now on. You could almost say eternity."

The ghost - the presumed ghost, she corrected herself - held out a hand invitingly and took a step forward. The chubby nun shrieked. Hastily, she tried to run backwards, which, as expected, went terribly wrong. She tripped over her own feet and landed, bang, unceremoniously on her backside.

"What ... what do you want from me?"

"Oh, nothing in particular. But first things first. It would be rude to leave a lady sitting on the floor. Help her up!"

He had addressed the last sentence to no one in particular, simply speaking into the room.

The seated woman noticed faint blue lights and movements out of the corner of her eye. She looked around anxiously and clapped her hands over her mouth in shock. She stared in horror at six or eight disembodied hands that had appeared out of thin air and were floating towards her.

"No! Leave me alone! Don't touch me!"

Her voice broke. The hands were not impressed, danced around her and came closer and closer. Then they grabbed her. Maria Emilia thought her heart must stop.

The strong limbs lifted the little nun with ease and placed her on her feet. Then they withdrew.

"Oh. Um, thank you. I think."