Ghost 10 – The Darkness Again

I tried counting my steps as I walked.

I didn’t want to get lost, but after one thousand and forty, I lost count. I wasn’t too worried though, I could feel the door behind me. Like a tether. The sound, or whatever it was, was getting louder as I walked. It was filled with anger and pain, but even as it echoed all around me, I couldn’t understand the words, only the emotions.

It was deafening and I had trouble figuring out where exactly it was coming from. I spun. There. I saw another light nearby. It seemed the moment I noticed the light, the noise finally stopped. We watched each other in the darkness.

“Hello.” I ventured first. It didn’t seem like the other…ghost was going to speak. They reacted quickly and were on their feet in seconds and rushing towards me. I stepped back alarmed, but they rushed past peering into the darkness I’d come from. Maybe they couldn’t see me?

“Hello?” I repeated. The ghost whirled and grabbed my shoulders. Okay so they could see me. It was a girl. She had long hair.

“Where is it?!” she demanded. “Did you walk far?”

“What? And I think I did. I lost count after a thousand.”

The ghost slumped, defeat written on her face. “Too late.” Then she looked at me, as if she was seeing me for the first time. “How’d you find me?”

“I heard you shouting. Are you okay?”

She snorted. “Hah. Funny. Do I LOOK okay?” She spun around arms outstretched. I flinched thinking her arm would hit me, but it passed right through me. “I’m stuck in the darkness and he won’t come back!”

“Who won’t come back?”

“The Reaper,” the ghost said as if I was dumb. “I bet he knew I was going to be stuck here. But he let me make the deal and now, no matter how hard I try, I can’t find the way out.”

“A way out? Oh, um. Like a door?”

“YOU have a door?!” Again the ghost grabbed my shoulders almost painfully. How is it that now she could touch me but before her arm passed right through me?

“Yes, back that way.” I pointed to where the pull was coming from.

She stared at me and her eyes slowly narrowed. “I don’t believe you. If you had a way out you wouldn’t be here.”

“I’m looking for the Reaper.”

“Hahahaha.” She kept laughing until tears flowed down her cheeks. I stepped back alarmed, but she recovered swiftly as if she hadn’t just been hysterical. “Good luck with that. I’ve been trying to find him forever, but no matter how much I try, he never comes.” Spinning the ghost faced the darkness again. “I’ve changed my mind! Come back!” The shout made me wince.

The ghost she didn’t feel very safe, but something she said was bothering me. I almost agreed with Julia that I was James, but if that was true why was I a ghost? “Did you say you chose to come here?”

“Didn’t you? When you saw the Reaper, didn’t you ask to stay?”

I tried to remember back to the very beginning there had just been darkness… “I don’t remember asking.”

The ghost looked at me curiously and then shrugged. “I’ve seen two kinds of ghosts. Most ask to be ghosts because of unfinished business.” She pointed at herself. “And once they’ve finished their business, the Reaper comes again. Others, well they just are.”

“They’re ghosts too?”

“Oh defiantly. See-through, transparent emotions, all that.”

“If they don’t have unfinished business, how do they stop being ghosts?”

She shrugged. “As far as I know, they don’t. They’re mistakes.”

.

I could almost hear the Reaper’s voice again. I swallowed. Was I a mistake?

“Why did you decided to be a ghost?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” the ghost gestured to her see through body. “I am way to young to die. Plus being a ghost is so much better. You can scare folks and get revenge. When I find a way out of here, I’ll find him and he will pay for what he did!” The ghost’s eyes went dark and I backed up a step.

Suddenly she gripped my shoulders again. “You have a way out! Let me come with you!” She must have seen my hesitation for her grip tightened until it was painful, despite the numbing darkness. “Please, I’ve been stuck here all this time,” her voice was terrible.

But I knew it was a terrible idea to take this ghost back with me. Back to where Julia was. It had been a mistake to talk to her.

“I-I can’t.” I twisted away from her.

“You MUST,” the ghost insisted reaching for me again.

I ran.

---

Credits

* Ghost is Ghost Harper Mills by Imogensimgirl111
* Challenge details: CitizenErased14’s Ambrosia Challenge.