The Ghostwriters’ Haunt

(Author: Semi-Charmed Wife)

click here for chapter 1

It started as a lark. It was a way to kill the time between sending out resumes and waiting for interview call-backs that never came. I’d watched all the Jerry Springer and Days of Our Lives that a girl could stomach, and I needed something to keep me intellectually challenged until I figured out what to do about work. When my 4-week reprieve ended, would I go back to the bullpen on Wall Street, or would I be doing something else entirely? Thinking about it overwhelmed me with stress and anxiety, and since Dr. Martin had told me to avoid stress, I just didn’t think about it after the first couple of days.

What I did instead was dive head-first into the blogosphere. I started off reading popular local blogs like Gothamist, but each blog led me to ten new blogs, which led me to… You get the idea. Before I knew it, I was reading about obscure subcultures of this city I thought I knew so well. Some of the sites were pretty interesting, but many were poorly written and dull. I could do this, I thought. So I did. Ten minutes on the WordPress website, and I had my very own blog.

An hour later, I was still sitting at my desk, staring at a blank entry and watching the cursor blink-blink-blink at me. What was I going to write about? Well, I could write about being a stockbroker, but given that my job had led to high blood pressure and panic attacks, I didn’t think writing about work would be the brightest of ideas. I didn’t want to write about my friends and family because I’d heard too many horror stories about good blogs gone bad. What else was there to my life? What did I have to contribute? I was just a single 20-something girl who was overworked and underpaid and watched too much CSI.

CSI–now there was an idea. I glanced at my bookshelves–nothing but mysteries and true-crime books. My blog would be about solving crimes. Perfect! My first couple of entries were about sensational New York cases from the past few years. I dissected each scenario in meticulous detail. This was when the cops had lost the trail, and that was when the killer had made his fatal mistake. In just a week, I had a pretty loyal readership of about 20 people. Not too shabby for a first-time writer with no web experience.

I began to feel pressured to post every day. No matter how much I wrote, my readers were always clamoring for more. I was spending 18 hours a day glued to the computer, poring through newspaper archives and dropping into macabre chat rooms to find my next crime. It was exhausting. Overwhelmed by the need to find something new and exciting every day, I asked my readers to email me with ideas.

That’s when I met Poe. Well, I didn’t really meet him–he sent me an email with a tip for a juicy unsolved triple murder on the East Side. We began to chat whenever we saw each other on gmail, and I guess you could say we became friends. He even sent me a real NYPD forensics kit. Poe’s fascination with crime was even deeper than mine. He was obsessed with the idea of the perfect, unsolvable murder. Sure, it was creepy, but who was I to judge? I spent 3/4 of my waking hours looking at grainy crime scene photos.

As time went by, I began to feel the pull of the real world. I had six days left until I had to go back to Rosencrantz or find a new position. I hadn’t sent out a resume in two weeks, and I was beginning to panic. I knew that I needed to make a serious change. I posted an entry on my blog saying that I’d be taking a brief hiatus. I got a flood of comments from my readers begging me to keep posting, but I stayed firm. I had to get my life in order, and besides, all the murder talk was getting to me.

That was yesterday morning. I went to a career fair yesterday afternoon, so I was away from my computer all day. I came back to find an email from Poe.

Dearest Lilly,

I was saddened to hear that you’ve decided to abandon your loyal readers, but I understand that one must fulfill one’s duties in life. Since you’ll no longer be able to enjoy our mutual past-time via your blog, I would like to invite you to join an exclusive society of which I am a member. If you’re interested, meet me tomorrow night at the Court and Crown on 13th Street at 7 o’clock sharp. Bring your forensics kit, and don’t be late.

Warmest regards,
Poe