Paranormal
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Guy Tregaskis stepped onto the porch of the large suburban home and paused for a moment to feel its force. He considered that all homes with any age carry a force, made up of the people who built it and the people who occupied it, and perhaps even those who occupied the land before the house was built.

This house was old and built of wood. Guy felt that it was built with love and pride. He could feel that its timbers had been stroked. Feelings like that can pass into the fabric of the building. All strong emotions carry through and linger, sometimes forever.

There were occupants too. Before the house was built people had walked the bare land and paused to look at the view of the lake that still remained, but their feelings had faded. Others had followed and within the walls and the floors and the ceilings, real people had lived, loved, and cried. Guy believed that all these people had left a trace of themselves behind.

To Guy Tregaskis it would be unthinkable that human life could exist on Earth without every sentient crea-ture leaving a trace of themselves behind. It seemed to him that all these lives lead and ended would have no meaning if there was nothing remaining.

This house was proof of it. It was not haunted. There were no unsettled spirits here. There was just the warm glow of a house that had been lived in and welcomed new occupants.

He reached for the brass doorknocker and struck three times.

A middle-aged woman answered the door. She was still good looking despite age and obvious distress. He sensed that her worry was not just immediate but had been in place for some time. Before that she had led a happy life. She had a man who loved her and children too. What was her concern?

“Hello. My name is Guy Tregaskis, Paranormal Investigator,” he said holding out his hand to be shak-en. “You must be Mrs. Willis?”

“Barbara,” she said, taking his hand. “Barbara Willis. Won’t you please come inside.”

He entered the room and felt the warmth – not the air but the spirits. He paused again and closed his eyes. He opened them to see Barbara staring, but in acceptance that he was the man she needed. He followed her and sat in the armchair she indicated, while she sat on the sofa opposite.

“It’s about my son, Paul,” she said. She was about to get straight to the point and he was glad of that. He leaned forward to listen and to get a little closer to her aura. He respected her need for distance, but
Such reticence worked against him.

“A few days ago our son Paul returned from a long hike,” she began. “It was something he has wanted to do. Some trail somewhere. He says that he had some kind of encounter … some out of body experience … something you might know about? Anyway, it has changed him – drastically. He is not the person he was. He is somebody very different.”

“Is there any signs of physical change? Or are we just talking about a change in personality? Was there an accident involved?” Guy was interested in this case. In most cases there is no paranormal agency – the human mind is complex and sudden changes even without a head injury, were not uncommon.

“Oh yes, there were physical changes,” she said, taking a book from the coffee table between them. “Let me show you what he looked like. He said there was no accident – just that a spirit entered him. That spirit seems to have taken him over. This is what he used to look like.”

There were several images in the photo album she pulled from the bookcase. They showed a slightly built young man, smiling for the camera but not happy, Guy sensed.

“Where is he now?” Guy was interested in seeing what changes might have happened.

“He is upstairs in his room,” she said. “I can call him down if you like?”

“No, let’s not do that,” said Guy. There was no feeling of a younger person in the room. It felt old. It was for her and her husband. The essence of them was present. The young man was somewhere else. His room was where he belonged. “Could we go to his room … now?”

“Perhaps I should tell you some more about the changes?”

“No, please,” said Guy. “Let me see your son in whatever state he might be.”

She shrugged her shoulders. She stood up and headed for the stairs. Guy followed her. She walked down the wide hall and knocked on the door at the end.

“Paul, there is somebody here who would like to meet you,” she said with her head close to the door. “Somebody who might be able to help.”

There was a muffled response, but it must have been positive. Barbara Willis opened the door and went inside, and Guy followed.

To his surprise Guy Tregaskis saw that the only occupant of the room was a girl. She was a very pretty girl, with blond curls held back with a gold hair clip. She wore a little makeup, and a pink floral dress. She was sitting at her dressing table evidently painting her nails, also pink.

“Paul, this is Mr. Tregaskis, Paranormal Investigator,” said Barbara.

“Mom, please call me Paradyce,” she scolded. Then to him she said simply – “Hi, I’m Paradyce Wil-lis. That ends with a YCE.”

She did not hold out her hand, she just smiled at him across the room, and it seemed for a moment that this was a close embrace, perhaps the closest Guy could ever remember.

Her aura was strong and very feminine. That made him question what her mother had just told him, and even the authenticity of the image that she had shown him. There was no trace of a man in the room, excluding himself of course, as was his carefully developed practice.

It was also his practice to respond to any greeting immediately, but on this occasion he found himself odd-ly speechless. He trusted his senses, because his were more highly refined that most, but in this moment he seemed devoid of abilities – not just struck dumb, but having lost all powers. He had too forced words from his lips, but they came out as a meaningless mumble.

“My mother will have told you my story,” she said to his relief giving him time to regather. “I suppose that you want to hear it from me. Perhaps you should Mr. Tregaskis, mother?” She glared at her mother on those closing words, pushing her to withdraw and close the door.”

“I’m Guy,” he said. It sounded strange. “I mean, my name is Guy.”

“Yes,” she said. He felt foolish and giddy. Yes – that was the word. Giddy, as in the feeling after being spun around a few times as a child – the last time he could remember the sensation.

“I am not sure why I am here, but perhaps you should tell me your story?” he said.

“You take my chair and I will sit on the bed,” she said. He gaped as she glided that short distance, her spread hands held in front so as not to disturb her work. She backed onto the bed and drew up her smooth and shapely legs before laying them down.

There was no mistaking the feeling of arousal in Guy, but it had only just arrived. What preceded it was something else – something even stronger – if that was possible. The sex drive was one of the strongest human feelings as it was driven by the second brain within the first – or should it be first brain within the second. It is often called the amygdala, but that is only part of what is otherwise called “ the lizard brain” or the part of the human brain that is unchanged from the earliest animal forms. Including the brain stem, cerebellum, and basal ganglia this is where body functions are managed together with the simple survival urges like feeding, escape, defense and mating. This part of Guy’s brain strongly suggested sex with this person.

But the cerebral cortex far outweighs that primitive organ, in all humans and perhaps more so in the de-veloped mind of Guy Tregaskis, Paranormal Investigator. He took her seat and felt the energy of her body in the warmth of it.

“I am told that you had an encounter of some kind?” he said.

“My mother likes to see it in those terms,” said Paradyce. “It is easier for her to accept that than to face the fact that I have been deceiving her along with everybody else, including me, my entire life. I make no apologies for doing that. The mind can suppress all manner of feelings. It can lie to itself. Do you believe that?”

“That is my business, in a way,” he said, trying to put to one side his fascination with the way light played on her hair. “People can deny the truth and create lies to replace it. My job is to find out what is really happening by being open to things beyond that which is observed by only a few of our senses. So, tell me, was there an encounter or not.”

“I would call it a moment of total clarity, but with the force of an encounter, if you like,” she said. “I climbed a mountain to find some kind of peace, and I did. As I stood there with only the ground beneath me and the sky and sun above me, I suddenly realized that I was a woman in my soul. Nothing could have been clearer and more obvious. It explained everything – all my childhood feelings and sadnesses, all my failed relationships, all my sensitivities. I knew in that moment that I needed to live as a woman, and to commence my transition immediately. Does that make sense to you?”

“You have a female aura,” said Guy. “And a very strong one. You are a woman; I can tell you.”

“Thank you,” she said. There was that smile again, and that giddiness.

“No, I don’t mean that as reassurance in your decision,” he added quickly. “I mean that I have a cultured capacity to assess such things. You are female, not male. It is strange perhaps, but it is true. If your anat-omy is male, then that is the anomaly here.”

“That is the way I feel, so it is nice to hear it said.”

“I am just being honest,” he said. “Sometimes my honesty gets me shown the door. If there is nothing paranormal then I will say so and some a more than disappointed. But what is not real is delusion, and I am not here to promote delusions.”

“Perhaps you could speak with my mother then?” she said.

“I will,” he said. “But while I am speaking the truth and tell-ing you what I know to be true … I feel that I must declare that I am extremely attracted to you. I don’t want you to think that this is some creepy pick-up line, because I can swear to you that I have never said anything like this before, to any woman, but probably because I have never felt any-thing like this before.”

“With all your skills I am guessing that you know how I am feeling now,” she said, with a sly smile.

“I am hoping that my senses are not failing me,” he said. “But frankly my own feelings are so strong that they might be playing tricks on me. I am not sure whether I can trust them.”

“I think you can,” she said. She swung her legs off the bed and walked over to him. She still had her fingers splayed as she placed her wrists on his shoulders and planted a kiss on his lips.

Guy Tregaskis, Paranormal Investigator, experienced an encounter. Perhaps they both did, in the very same moment.

True love like that can seem paranormal.

The End

© Maryanne Peters 2025

Erin’s seed: “A guy comes back from long camping trip, presenting now as female and tries to explain that his was a long time happening but family decides he was abducted by cultists or aliens or something. She stops denying this when she meets the gorgeous paranormal investigator. She eventually confesses to him …”. 2020.

This is a story from my latest book on Amazon - my second anthology of stories that push the edge of reality, or sometimes fall over it - caller "Stranger Romances".
Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DV3VVJMG
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