Free Forest Ghost by Graham Masterton

other to watch out for what they called
Der Waldgeist
, the Forest Ghost. Also we have sometimes seen them spitting on their fingertips three times, which is supposed to be a way to defend yourself against evil spirits.”
    ‘This entry is dated October seventeenth, 1940,’ Maria went on. ‘But now listen to this, from November eleventh. “Now we are sure that we are being watched and followed by something terrible. Very early in the morning, even before the sun comes up, we have seen it behind the trees. Also when it begins to grow dark. We are not sure what it is. Some of the men believe that it might be a wild animal – an albino elk, maybe. But we all are agreed that it is white, and that it gives us a feeling of dread much worse than any of us have ever experienced before, although we find it hard to explain why. I think that it could be inspired by us being alone in this vast forest, but maybe it is more than that. I believe that I have glimpsed it myself. It is white, and it looks like a ghost.”’
    Jack felt a prickling sensation on the backs of his hands. ‘Read that to me in Polish,’ he said. ‘Read it to me the way it’s written down there.’
    Maria frowned at the diary and said, ‘“
Był bialy. Wygl ą dał jak duch.
”’
    ‘Have you ever read that out loud to anybody else, apart from me?’
    Maria looked puzzled. ‘Of course not. Why should I? You are the first.’
    ‘My son said those exact words, only last night. He said he had a nightmare that he was in a forest, and he could smell a campfire, and that a man said “
Był bialy. Wygl ą dał jak duch.
”’
    ‘Your son speaks Polish?’
    ‘He used to be fluent. His mother always spoke Polish to him, when he was little. Now – well, I’m afraid I don’t bother so much as she did, and like I say, I’ve gotten pretty rusty myself.’
    ‘Your wife is no longer with you?’
    Jack gave her a quick grimace. ‘She, ah … she passed away two years ago. Cancer.’
    ‘Oh, I apologize. I was wondering why she did not come today. I did not know. I am so sorry for your loss. There is never a way to fill the space which a person we loved used to occupy. The world is crowded with empty shapes, where people once were. But – your son spoke those very same words? How do you think he could have known them? It could hardly be a coincidence, could it? “It is white, and it looks like a ghost.” Who else would say such words?’
    ‘I don’t know, Maria. I can’t even guess. My son is into star charts and astrology and all that kind of thing, and he’s told quite a few fortunes for people which have turned out pretty accurate.’
    He told her about the suicides at Owasippe, and what he and Sparky thought they had seen there, flickering behind the trees. He also told her that Sparky thought there was a connection between the Wallace family and Owasippe, although he hadn’t been able to explain what it was.
    ‘Perhaps the white thing that haunts the woods at this scout camp is the same as the white thing that haunts the Kampinos Forest,’ Maria suggested. ‘Perhaps
that
is the connection.’
    ‘But Owasippe and Palmiry are thousands of miles apart. They’re in totally different countries, in completely different cultures. I think that what we saw at Owasippe was probably an animal, like a cougar, and you don’t find too many cougars in Poland.’
    Maria held up the diary. ‘On the other hand, Mr Wallace, there is another similarity which is very hard to explain.’
    ‘Oh yes, and what’s that?’
    ‘The way in which those boy scouts died, and the way in which your great-grandfather died. Listen to this – November nineteenth, 1940. “We are all now feeling such terror that some of us can barely speak. The Germans must be feeling it, too, because a patrol came within fifty meters of our hiding place, stopped for a while, and then suddenly rushed away. We could hear three or four of them screaming out loud. Then we heard several