The Story of Skye Phantom - Chapter 5

Mr. Phantom

Chapter 5

6,000 years later

I sat on the floor with my back to the wall, watching the guests come and go. I wasn’t enjoying my parents’ party. There were no children. No one under twenty, anyway. I was so bored. My father kept insisting on introducing me to different strangers and my mother kept demanding I should help serve the guests like a good little waitress. Well, I was having none of it. I was a hairs-breadth away from storming off to my room.

“Ashley, come over here a second.” It was my dad. “Come and let this gentleman here see you.”

Oh no, not this again, I groaned inwardly. My father had taken to showing me off like one of his golfing trophies. I got up and wove my way through the throng of ladies in elegant dresses and men in dashing suits.

“My daughter you know. She’s so smart, top class for English and Maths. Couldn’t be prouder.”

I kept her eyes down, refusing to look up into the guest’s face.

“You’re quite a charming young lady, Miss Webber. I get the strangest felling that we have met before.”

I looked up. I couldn’t help it. It was for one of two reasons.

First, it was his voice. It was soft and rich as chocolate, with a subtle Italian accent. Harsh and silky at the same time. Relaxed and tense. He was standing the same way. He was still and at ease. Yet he seemed ready for anything. Second, he actually spoke to me, in second person. He had called me by name. The other guests had just started talking to my father about me. Whereas this man talked to me.

I gasped. Again I couldn’t help myself. His face was startlingly handsome, with slender angled features that made him look like an angle. Beautiful, powerful and at the same time, kind, trusting and trustworthy. His eyes were either green or brown, I couldn’t tell. They seemed brown, but when they hit the light, they were specked with green and orange. He was tall, maybe a foot and a half taller than me, and lithe like a big cat. His hair was long and thick, and a heavy absolute black. It fell about his face, hiding his neck and shoulders. He could have been twenty. He could have been forty. It was impossible to tell.

“I said, have we met before?”

His teeth were straight and sharp. But most of all, there was an aura about him. Something that couldn’t be touched. He was as different to the rest of the guests as humans are different from animals.

“I think I would remember meeting you, sir,” I said before she could stop myself.

“Ashley!” my dad gasped. “Apologise to Mr. Phantom immediately!”

“No,” interrupted Mr. Phantom. “That’s quite alright, John. You know I have this affect on others. So, Miss Webber…”

“Ash.”

“Ash,” he said. “Do you read?”

He was treating me like an adult. “Yes…”

“What is that there?” he asked, gesturing to the book I held in my left hand. I had been reading it during the party before my father had called me over. I handed it to him.

He read the front cover and smiled. A warm, sweet smile. “The Ghost of Silvara Bay,” he read. “A fantastic book, don’t you think, Ash? Artemus Blain was a wonderful writer. But it has been a long time since I read this. It feels like almost a century now.”

“I’m reading it because I’ve seen the Sabien Blake musical and I thought I might as well read the original book,” I said, offhandedly.

“What did you think of the music?” he asked, an excited gleam in his eyes.

“It was amazing,” I replied immediately. “I loved it!”

“You have good taste,” he said. He was smiling again, with pride? Was he proud of my statement? Why?

“Ashley, I need you in the kitchen!”

That was my mother. “Coming mum!” I called back without taking my eyes of Mr. Phantom.

“Well, I shall see you again, Ash,” he said, nodding.

My dad was frowning at me.

“I look forward to it, Mr…”

“Skye.”

“Skye.”