…So I Shall Call It Pookie
They say names have power, and knowing a thing’s name takes some of its power away. I believe that words have power, so it’s just a short step to believing in that, I guess. I asked a friend to give me a really silly name. Something you couldn’t say with a straight face that you’d name something scary.
Well, I didn’t actually say “name something scary”. I asked her what she’d name her ladybits.
That conversation amused me and worried her, but she had no clue what she’d name them. So, therefore, I’m naming it/them Pookie. Not that she’d name her ladybits Pookie, mind you. Neither would I, for that matter. If I was going to name my ladybits, I’d give them a proper name. Like, Wilbur. Wilbur’s a fine, distinguished name.
As soon as I decided on Pookie, I realized the name sounded very similar to a mythical creature I’d heard about from somewhere. Took me a minute to figure out what, but I got it. Pooka.
No fairy is more feared in Ireland than the pooka. This may be because it is always out and about after nightfall, creating harm and mischief, and because it can assume a variety of terrifying forms. – Irish Fairies | The Pooka. (2016). Irelandseye.com. Retrieved 7 December 2016
Anyways, I saw Pookie again. I really wish I hadn’t. Really, really wish I hadn’t. I’m hoping it was just the temporary obsession with reading all I could about Shadow People that set it off, but… Yeah, that’d be my luck.
One of my co-workers asked me how I was doing today. I just stared at her for a minute, then shook my head and said “You don’t want to know.” Then I walked away because she’s nosey and loves to know everyone’s business.
I’d went to the movie theater last night. Figured it would be a good time to get out of the house, you know? Distract myself with munchies and hot men running around blowing crap up. And everything went according to plan. I had popcorn with m’n’ms in it, I watched a semi-hot man with huge nose going all Grr-Argh on aliens, and life was good. So I wasn’t even really thinking about anything when I went to the bathroom before I left the cineplex. And, of course, mid-washing my hands, I glance up, and Pookie is standing beside me.
Like, literally standing beside me! Needless to say, if I hadn’t already had a thorough tinkle, I’m pretty sure there’d have been a fair bit of leakage from my nether regions. As it was, my lovely fight or flight instinct left me completely deserted and I just froze, doing my best impression of a Tarsier. I wanted to turn my head and look over to see if it was really there, but I honestly couldn’t. It just stood there for a few minutes, about a foot away from me. I couldn’t really see any features or anything. It was… Hm. Like, I knew it was there – it was definitely kind of shadowy – but at the same time there was nothing really solid about it. You know how you see something out of the corner of your eye, but you don’t really *see* it?
Like that.
And then, of course, some lady exits the another stall, walks up, standings in Pookie, and proceeds to wash her hands. Gave me a bit of a side-eye for looking like a bug-eyed terrified goblin, but didn’t say anything.
I just cleared my throat and hurriedly finished washing my hands. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Tell her “Excuse me, but did you not see the shadow thingie you just stepped in?”
I think not.
I’m going to place another call into the doctor. Maybe he can see me if it’s a psychiatric emergency? Is it a psychiatric emergency? Or does that only happen when you’re thinking about suicide?
Burn the Dead: Purge Synopsis
No evil can remain buried forever, as disgraced journalist Thomas Brooks discovers when a wave of death grips the rural Kentucky town of Gray Hollow in terror. 
The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror: From one of our most important contemporary writers, The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror is a bold, haunting collection of six stories.
These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed. But he is dead now and has been for more than forty years, the one who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me.
This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.
“Reeling from a terrible accident that claimed the lives of his parents, Felix arrives at Portland College hoping only to survive the experience. In time, however, his reality star roommate shows him there is more to higher education than just classes, shared bathrooms and bad dorm food, and Felix gradually dares to believe he can put his past behind him. But a fateful storm looms on the horizon: In the nearby woods, two hikers become the latest victims in a series of gruesome murders; a disfigured giant embarks on a vicious cross-country rampage, killing teenagers who fail his ‘test’; and an ancient society of assassins tasked with eradicating the wielders of a mysterious source of power awakens after a long silence. Only one man–the school’s groundskeeper–knows that the seemingly unrelated events are connected, and that an eighteen-year-old boy stands in the center of the storm.”-Goodreads Synopsis