All A Phantom Silence...A Short Christmas Story

Fear not it's not really a twisty mist, just a moon photo I snapped!

A story inspired by some Duran Duran songs and just me feeling a bit crazy right now!

That's it the scene was written and it ended, played out over and over in my never ending emotions.  A dream come true, but somehow was it really that?  Filming song videos on location and at various locations had left me wanting to see them all and even find myself taking part in one, just for old times sake.  A dream becoming the most exquisite reality, but the memories were haunting and affectionately daunting.

The video for Falling Down filmed at Linda Vista Hospital, LA, left me with the overwhelming feeling of being pursued by a ghost, a spirit of significant manifestation.  Asking whether they experienced anything there fell on deaf ears and I was under whelming-ly ignored as usual!  Then one day it happened, it became real!

"Cut!" yelled Nick as he didn't like the creative differences this video was producing between everyone shooting on the set on location and particularly the lead actress.  She had wanted different costumes, more leather and lace mixed together, but of course Nick knew it wasn't right for this video and more so for the vibe they were creating. "Let's take 25, or rather 24 hours and go home!"  Starting afresh in the morning, he knew everyone was about to come undone with the bickering.  Perhaps the atmosphere and the energy was too prepossessing and making everyone shockingly edgy.

Simon was uncharacteristically quiet on the set and when "cut" was screamed, he looked pasty (ha!) faced all of a sudden and very pale.  He had to be physically shaken.  "Er mate time to leave!"  As soon as he heard those words he couldn't wait to get out of there like a cat escaping from a bowl of stale eight day old milk.  Something left a bitter taste in his mouth and he hadn't even been "drinking" to "ease the thinking."

Later that night he heard a violent and perplexing crashing sound come from the hotel room.  A vase had fallen to the floor and the tulips had made a damp mess on the soft carpet. "Ah room service will handle it!" The scene resembled that from the Careless Memories video when he pushed the vase away in that.  He laughed to himself thinking how things, the creepy noises "play me deja vu" right now.  Through the commotion of it, he smelled the tulips but it wasn't the flowers, it was something stronger, more a scent gardenias and musky at the same time.  Mind playing tricks he thought.  Or perhaps it was only John and Roger pranking him as they sometimes did.  Jokes on them then cos he didn't fall for it.  As his head finally hit the pillow.  Thinking of "I smell like I sound" and food.  Mountains of doughnuts and fish!  Strange combination.  Probably a harkback to that cat reference from earlier! There were after all no howling wolves around which would have compacted his appetite!

"How my ears bleed..."  A moaning resonated through the window and the curtains flowed too and fro in the gentle breeze, a wind that would blow "before the rain."  A misty cloud formed and floated through the darkened room, all pitch dark as coal, save for the small night light by the door and flashes of instant bluey lightning.  On and on the mist floated until it formed into a figure.  A woman dressed in the most delicate white lace and silky satin gown.  She reached out to him as if she wanted to "stroke his sleepy head" on his pillow.  Her tiny body leaving an impression where she sat on the Egyptian cotton sheets, but not sinking into the mattress.

The shoot continued as usual the next morning and yet Simon was still out of sorts, reading spirits here.  He couldn't do anything right today. To top it off the lighting was all wrong and the camera was all static-ky and switched off several times by itself.  As well as the flickering.  Though everyone agreed it was a good effect.  Everyone knew the stories about Linda Vista and the place being haunted.  They were well documented.  All those spirits and souls of those who walked these halls, the corridors of endless patients, some treated, some mistreated, others on the brink and brought back to endure this bleak existence and meagre, ordinary world.  Today seemed different.  Chilly, or "chill is it something real"; all encapsulating the memories of those that had passed there but not all ever managed to move on.  The music streamed, echoing the depths "little pin-pricks" and of the white washed walls, all awash in green and the words played in mesmerizing unison,  "Why has the sky turned grey...and why has my life gone astray..."

No artistic differences today, the minutes ticked away regular as clockwork and it was called a day.  Another night in that hotel before heading out for the edits later early morning.  There it was again, that same eerily familiar crashing.  Again the vase was on the floor in the same way as if last night was playing on a loop.  Too much of a coincidence.  Another windy night, the mist came once more, shrouded in cold and that familiar scent.  Simon turned to see it, rubbing his eyes, "is this some sort of trick of the light," he muttered.  Or did all that earlier flickering during filming have more on an impact on him than was normal.

"No."  A sublime voice replied.
"WHAT?!!" he shouted back.  Am I hearing things now after that recording and filming session?
"It's me.  I followed you here from this morning, from the hospital." {That was a long communication from a spirit - a would-be ghost.  Seeing as he had no idea what this was yet.}
He couldn't believe what he heard.  Too strange and chaotic to fathom.  She finally became that full bodied figure, a graceful soul in her white lace and looked so terrifyingly real.  A beautiful woman with the blackest of black flowing tresses and a pale complexion, obviously.  Almost vampiric.  Almost but more human than she should have been.
"I saw and heard you.  You in your doctor's coat.  I need help."  A kind face, she sensed the compassion behind his inviting blue eyes.  Inviting her to open up to him.  He would £pay the price of my blue star eyed weakness."  Alas no.  She wasn't evil after all.  Her face was too sweet and intriguing.
"Wrong person to help you, I'm not a real doctor (or priest - he joked to himself.)"
Then thought of the words from the song, "Box Full of Honey."
"And as the ghost will shiver trees
How I'm tremblin' on my knees
But I'm still drawn on by the the murmur..."
It was all true, all the awe inspiring words; only he didn't shiver or tremble, surprisingly, he was too taken aback by the glorious apparition of beauty and loveliness.  "She's too much...such a gentle touch..."

Nadia was an actress, she had been confined to her desperation of a silent prison by a jealous rival who coveted her career, life and family.  Her rival who was on the hunt and after her.  Nadia didn't have a chance at a full and fulfilling life.  Imprisoned in the depths of her mind.  No one believed her when she tried to explain how she got here.  No one knew she was here and more importantly she wasn't as well known or famous as she thought.  her fame less than fifteen minutes was only fleeting, a fluke.  Yet those doctors had ensured she succumbed to their treatment.  The countless hours of  water therapy was torture.  The needles, the sounds of whispering, until she could take it no more.  Driven out of her mind.  Sanity becoming insanity.  There was only one end for her, one outlet and she hadn't taken it, too painful to repeat here...one day Nadia was no more.  The envy was her undoing and her rival had succeeded in getting her way.  Nadia's rival was holding onto her own selfish "murdered secrets" and her criminal ways.  Getting away with ending Nadia's existence.

Simon awoke with a jolt and ran his sweaty fingers through the masses of his blond hair.  Some crazy nightmare he thought.  Imagination running on overtime and the result of writing too many songs, he laughed! "Only in dreams" entered his head..."how did I dream you..."  Another crash, the same vase on the floor once more! This time he wasn't asleep, or away in his own world writing lyrics.  This time he had seen it fall.  No wind, no breeze...no breath...

"Still I can't escape the ghost of you..."  

A little story for Christmas, though there was much more I could write.  Spurred on by the Falling Down video filmed at Linda Vista as I said and no one responding to my request of whether anyone had any paranormal experiences there.  So what can I say...guess it was a Pop Trash Movie in the end!

"I'll wait in the wings for you
I'll read your lines to you
But now the script is final, you know, it's time to go
So we'll have to say goodbye..."  

Until I finally get to film this it will just be a mere story from my imagination, helped by some of my fave Duran songs.  Thanks for that guys!!