A Ghost Story

Nobody knows that my new neighbor is a ghost. Even Tina, the real estate agent, I don’t think is aware that she sold the home to a bizarre ghost family, and I have no intention of telling her. Since the moment I first saw that family, I suspected something was up; they were pale, had black bags under their eyes, and wore the same air of weariness.

Later that day, after our mothers had forced us to introduce ourselves to our unsettling neighbors, Ace, my closest friend and I did so. Their porch was covered in skulls, rotting food with flies circling it, and glass shards that crunched under our feet. When we arrived at the big, black door, I squealed. The doorbell had a slithery form. Ace stretched out with shaking hands and gently placed the tongue on the rusty, brown, serpent-shaped doorbell. Bing, bing, bing! We both waited in quietly as the bell rang.

A boy my age answered the door, “Hello, my name is Mae, and here is my friend Ace,” I said while feigning a grin.

“You don’t have to be terrified of me, you know,” I guess I couldn’t make my eyes appear as happy as my face, “I’m Walter, by the way.”

He held out his hand for me to shake, and I did so reluctantly. I shivered as his palm felt like ice-cold water and replied, “We’ll be going, I have a doctor’s appointment in 10 minutes. Bye!”

“Mae, come up to the board and present your project,” Mr. Richard asked politely.

I came back to reality in a snap and my face started to burn. My project! I didn’t get to finish it, I hope Ace did. Ace and I walked up to the front with my round watermelon volcano feeling everyone’s eyes on us. Oh, I forgot the baking soda and dish soap, so I ran to my desk, grabbed the bag, and sprinted back. Ace poured the dish soap while I put in the baking soda and… BAM! The orange, bubbly foam was running from the mouth of the green watermelon. It took us about an hour to clean that up and Ace and I missed 2 periods.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Finally, the school day ended; I get to go home and take a long nap in my comfy bed. I found Ace leaning against his locker a grin on his face. I gave him a c’mon look and we trotted to the bright yellow bus talking about our new neighbor.

“Ace, I don’t like Walter, wanna go to Agatha the Great to ask advice to get rid of him and his freakish family,” I said with a hushed voice.

“I don’t like him either but that doesn’t mean you can kill them. Let’s go at like 4:30, I’ll call you,” said Ace and joined his huge group of friends.

Knock, knock! I ran to the front door promptly and opened it.

“Hey, let’s bike to Agatha’s house, or do you wanna call Uber?” Ace asked while ruffling his short, black hair.

“Call Uber and I’ll pay,” I told him sternly while walking away to get the backpack with all the essentials.

After I got everything we just stood there, looking everywhere but at each other in awkward silence until the Uber reached outside my house. We ran over to the grey car and started bickering about who gets to sit in the front seat and finally resolved to sit in the back seat. Ten minutes passed with Ace and I playing rock, paper, scissors.

“We’re ‘ere, gimme the cash now,” said the driver gruffly.

I handed him the money, bid my farewells, ran to the front door, and knocked thrice, Ace on my tail. An old wrinkly woman in a flowery pink top and light blue jeans opened the door.

“Hi, I’m Mae and this is-” the old woman cut me off and said, “Ace and you two came here to ask advice on how to get rid of your ghost neighbors. Is that right?”

I looked at her in shock, too stunned to speak, how did she know all that?

“Ya that’s right, uhh can we come in?” Ace politely asked with a smile.

Agatha nodded her head and said, “This way, and take your shoes off please.”

We did what she asked us and followed her to the room. It was full of candles of all varieties, fluffy poufs, and incense sticks.

“Sit my dears, anywhere you want,” she said with a smile.

I perched on top of the bright yellow pouf adorned with pink flowers and blue butterflies and muttered, “So can you tell us?”

Ace nodded his head vigorously with an impatient smile.

“Ok, have you heard of the Amulet of Eternity?”

We glanced at each other and shook our heads slowly.

“The Amulet of Eternity is an amulet that grants any three wishes, even the impossible, bringing back the dead and killing ghosts. To get to the amulet you will need the Book of Enchantment which I have now. The book has spells to defeat the obstacles leading to the amulet, it also gives specific details on where the amulet is and how to get it,” Agatha said patiently.

“Can you please give the book to us? Please?” Ace and I remarked at the same time.

She nodded her head in hesitation; I ran up to her and hugged her in a vice grip. Agatha carefully handed us the book. It was embroidered with bright blue sapphires, dark red rubies, shiny green emeralds, pale yellow topaz, and shimmering diamonds formed into a pattern of flowers all around the border with an eye in the middle; it had the biggest jewel as the iris with a lot of tiny jewels making the eyelid.

“Can I have a bag for this, I don’t wanna tell anyone about it, please?”

She handed me a baby blue bag with dark purple polka dots. We gave her a quick smile and dashed to the silver car, opened the door, and sat on the soft leathery seats. I never thought that you could kill a ghost or bring back the dead, that only seems possible in fairy tales, not the real world, definitely not my world. Well, now my world has ghosts, witches, enchanted amulets, and magic books. How can I hide this from my parents? I thought to myself.

“Earth to Mae,” I came back to reality in a snap, “we’re here.” I stumbled out the door onto the hard concrete floor ending up with a bloody knee that stained my light blue jeans.

Ace helped me up and whispered, “Hey, are you ok?” in my ear.

He helped me back to my house, made sure my wound was clean and bandaged, put me in my comfy bed, got me a snack, and left. He really is a good friend, I’m pretty sure that my own parents or brother wouldn’t have done what he did today I thought to myself and smiled. I got the shimmering book and started to read the curvy writing on the yellowish parchment. The Amulet of Eternity is an amulet that grants any three wishes to its user. You may not wish for more wishes or wish to go back in time. It is located in a crypt in Shasta-Trinity National Forest. To get there you have to go down the secret passage and solve the riddle to the proper door. The other doors will lead to your demise, so choose carefully. I slowly opened the drawer to my side desk and carefully placed the book there.

“Mae, come down to dinner!” my mom hollered. I ran all the way to the dining room and sat down on the cool leather seat. Mom served us delectable pasta with melted cheese and spices sprinkled on top adding an elegant touch. After dinner, I went back to my room and plopped on my comfy bed with my phone, opened messages, and found Ace.

Hey! Wanna go to Walter’s and ask him if he wants to help us find the amulet? At 11:30 or ddddjjjsomething.

What!! I thought you had a curfew

It’s ok, I’ll sneak out.

Woah! Who r u and where’s the Mae I know?

My window’s on the first floor anyway, I’ll jump out.

Still doesn’t mean u should do it.

Ugh! Can u plz come w/ me?

K,

cya.

bye.

Ok, now we got that settled I thought to myself.

At 10:40, I changed into a black sweatshirt, and jeans and put on a black beanie. How am I gonna sneak out with the cameras? I’ll just try my best to blend in. I carefully opened the window, sat on the windowsill, jumped, and landed with a thud. The impact caused a sharp pain to radiate through my legs. I bolted to Ace’s house and hid behind a prickly bush in his front yard. 5 minutes or so later a black silhouette emerged from the front door; I crept out of my hiding spot and slowly walked toward him.

He smirked at me and uttered, “C’mon, let’s go to Walter’s house.”

We strolled three blocks over to the ghost’s house in silence. I knocked on the door and the same feeling of panic settled in my chest.

“What are you doing here at this hour?” Walter said while opening the big black door.

“We just wanna talk to you about something important,” I said hastily.

“Ya,” Ace added, “we wanna know if you want to help us find the Amulet of Eternity? The amulet grants any three wishes, even the impossible, bringing back the dead.”

Walter stared at us quizzically for some time and slowly said, “Is that true? Would you guys bring me and my family back to life? Then I will help you find the amulet.”

Ace remarked, “Yes! Of course, just lead the way.”

What was he thinking, why would he promise someone who he wants to destroy that he’s going to bring him back to life?

“Well, we’ve gotta get going. Bye,” said Ace.

Interrupting my furious thoughts, I smiled wryly and left. Fuming I sprinted to my house, climbed through the window, and plunked onto my fluffy bed, instantly falling asleep.

My phone buzzed near my head and I woke up with a start, my heart beating twice as fast as it usually does.

I quickly grabbed my phone and answered the call, “What! Why did you wake me up so early!”

“Early? What are you talking about? It’s 12:00 PM!”

“Huh, that’s still early, wake me up in one hour.”

“Walter came over and he wants to go to the amulet today. So wake up!”

“Fine, bye.”

I slowly got out of my bed ignoring the urge to cover myself with blankets; I went over to my closet and got out a sweatshirt with matching shorts and put it on. My phone was lying on my messy desk, I swiftly grabbed it and called Ace.

“Sup,”

“Hi,”

“Did you finally get ready?”

“Ya of course, why wouldn’t I? I don’t take that long you know.”

“Haha, meet me at my place and bring the book.”

“K, bye.”

“See ya.”

Quickly, I ran downstairs with the heavy book weighing in my backpack, grabbed a banana, and sprinted out to Ace’s house. He was already waiting for me outside his door, he grinned and beckoned me to come with him while he started walking.

“Where are we going?”

“The forest, I just realized that Shasta-Trinity National Forest is the woods behind my house. Walter’s waiting for us there.”

I nodded and hurried to his backyard which was filled with green trees and bushes trees, bushes, and beyond the fence the dark dense forest.

“Want me to boost you up the fence?”

“Yes please.”

With that Ace got on one knee and said, “Get on top of my knee and jump. Ok?”

“Got it,” I replied and anxiously stepped on his knee and pulled myself up the fence, and landed with a thump on the forest floor which was littered with twigs and dried-up leaves, Ace followed after me.

“So, Walter can you lead the way?”

“Ya sure, this way,” he said gliding straight smoothly.

I glanced at Ace we followed serenely at the same pace, the twigs crunching beneath our feet.

“Walter, I’m bored, can you tell us something about yourself?” I asked pleasingly

“Fine!” he sneered, “I was born in Germany, in 1906, I moved to California when I was 10, during the war, and I died in 1929, happy.”

“How did you die?” I blurted out. Oh no! I feel dreadful, he probably doesn’t want to think about his death. Now tears are forming in his eyes and it’s all my fault. Why did I have to ask him that? “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s fine,” he said blinking back his tears, “My family almost died, they went to the doctor because my sister got Tuberculosis, a deadly disease back then and both my parents had to go with her since she was only nine. They didn’t come back for almost five hours, so I was really worried. Suddenly, a policeman just barged into my house and said, ‘Are you Walter Johnson?’ I slowly nodded my head, ‘Ok, I have to tell you some tragic news, the Russians attacked and your parents and sister got shot, however, they’re fine,’ I was so relieved, I went up to him and gave him a tight hug.”

I can imagine the feeling he is experiencing at first really worried slowly turning into dreaded fear, then grief, the worst one out of all four, and finally reassured. I don’t think I would’ve been calm if something like that happened to my family, instead I would be screaming, crying, and hoping even if it is a little bit.

“Phew, I’m overjoyed that they survived, tell us more,” I asked pleasingly

“Ok, a month after my family came back from the hospital our house got attacked, bombs fell from jets and everything got destroyed. The first bomb landed in our living room, I saw a blinding flash, heard an earsplitting boom, and felt like my body was on fire before everything went dark and I lost all feeling in my body.”

So that’s how it feels to die, extreme pain for a second, and all blank. I don’t get why he’s talking so casually about his death. Doesn’t he feel any emotion? I get that ghosts can’t feel objects but they still have emotions since they’re practically like humans but transparent and ghoulish.

We walked in silence for hours and hours, and by the time we saw the grimy, mossy crypt, my legs were aching, numb and they felt like they were going to fall apart and shatter into a million pieces. I sat down on the cold, stone block and started to knead my legs slowly, soothing them.

“Can we take a break for some time and have something to eat?” I asked biting my lower lip.

“Sure, do you have any food for us?” Ace asked breathing heavily

I handed him the opened bag of potato chips; he grabbed a handful and greedily stuffed it in his mouth. Three handfuls later his stomach finally seemed content. I chuckled and gulped down the water quenching my undying thirst. Walter was just standing there looking anywhere but at us, I feel sorry for him, I’m pretty sure that he didn’t eat food or drank anything in a long time. That is one of the cons about being a ghost, even though they get to do all the cool stuff like walking through objects and floating around. Ghosts also don’t get tired and they live forever, but they can’t touch things or move them.

Five minutes later, after recharging my body, I slowly got up and jogged over to the entrance, and beckoned to Ace and Walter to come with me. They followed without hesitation, we strolled to the arched doorway and reluctantly stepped in. It was pitch black, I had a tingly sensation in the back of my neck. Alertly I took one step and instantly regretted it, the bottom of my shoe is covered with slimy, gooey muck. I scavenged through my backpack to find my flashlight and turned it on. We strutted on until we found three large black doors with a skull the size of a baseball on it. On the wall next to it there was illegible writing carved into the jagged stone wall; Walter leaned close to it, his nose almost touching the wall, and said, “This is in Latin, easy. There are three doors. The first door has fire and lava. The second door has lions that haven’t eaten in 5 years. In the third door, there is a 1,000-foot drop into alligators. Only one door will lead to the Amulet of Eternity and your safety. Which door will you go through?”

Hot lava will burn us severely and the alligators will eat us, even if they don’t the 1,000-foot drop will surely break our bones. The last option is the lions, they haven’t eaten in 5 years, and they’ll be eager to eat us the moment we walk in; wait, they haven’t eaten in 5 years, meaning they’re dead. It’s settled we’re going through the second door.

“Let’s go through the second door, the lions are probably dead by now because they haven’t eaten in 5 years,” I declared.

“I’m fine with any door honestly, it won’t affect me either way since I’m a ghost and can’t die,” he chuckled.

Ace and I rolled our eyes and remarked, “We know!”

I am closer to a miracle than I’ve ever been in my whole life; after I get the amulet, I will have the power to do the unthinkable, ravage a ghost or bring him back to life. I will, I must accomplish the task I initially came here to do, not the stupid promise Ace made even when knowing that the only reason we want the magic amulet is to destroy that freak. He’s a phantom, besides flying and walking through objects, there’s nothing he can do to protect himself from my wrath.

I steadily ambled towards the second door and opened it with a grimace; I took a deep calming breath and stepped inside, the awful stench reached my nose making me gag, it was coming from the green moldy mound next to the stone pillar with flies circling above it. Tears welled up in my eyes just by seeing it; poor lions, I try not to imagine their miserable face, dull fur, and their ribs popping out when they starved to death, being devoured by pesky flies, and the possibility that they could’ve lived a lovely life with plenty of food, cubs, and in the wildlife with their own kind.

Ace felt my uneasiness and put a comforting arm around me and whispered, “It’s ok, don’t think about it.” I nodded and a warmness dispersed from the middle of my chest. Plugging our noses, we meandered across the enormous room to the large, stone door kicking the dust and small bones as we went. As I entered the magnificent room I saw the high marble ceiling with white marble pillars holding it up, and a marble bridge right in the middle leading to a dazzling gem with a gold chain attached to it. Mesmerized, I ambled toward the stunning pendant and slowly took it out of the base. Thrill surged through my body and I felt immensely powerful as if I could do anything I wanted in the world and no one can dare be in my way.

“Wish for it. Wish for me and my family to come back to life!” Walter demanded

“No!”

“NO?”

I deliberately shook my head with a sly grin emerging on my face and announced, “No, why would I want to help a weirdo like yourself? Didn’t you notice that the only reason I ever told you about the amulet is to use you? Breaking a promise I made was the price for getting what I actually want.”

“NOO! YOU ARE BRINGING ME AND MY FAMILY TO LIFE OR ELSE!” Walter roared.

His body started to expand rapidly, his eyes glowed red and he charged towards me in a split second, stopping right before my frightened little face. My pulse sped up and my mind went blank, I could feel his hot breath around my nose.

“No,” I hesitantly said breaking out into a run, the amulet wrapping loosely around my neck.

I darted to the dusty, stinky chamber, Ace came behind me ten seconds later, panting. We sprinted outside the crypt into the forest, every step causing stabs of pain in my calf. I finally slowed down when I was confident that Walter wasn’t behind me. The amulet, it’s around my neck, I’ll wish for the crypt to close forever and for anyone inside it can never escape, also, everyone but me should lose the memory of anything to do with the crypt.

“I wish for the crypt to close forever and everything in it should be trapped for eternity. Also, I wish for everyone who knows about the crypt or amulet to lose the memory of it except me,” I announced loudly.

Relief washed over me like a cold sweat after running in freezing temperatures. I’m so delighted that my mission is accomplished, destroying Walter once and for all. I should call Ace over to celebrate this victory. Ace! Where is he? I didn’t see him behind me or after the millisecond in the smelly room. Did I forget him there and wished to lock him in permanently? Did he manage to escape the clutches of that maniac or was he devoured by that thing? Hot tears started spilling out of my eyes and once I started, I could not stop. Don’t just cry over him, search the forest or go home and tell the police.

“ACE! ACE! AAAACCEEE!” I hollered, knowing that there was no hope, I hastily got up and ran over to the pile of dry leaves where the crypt used to lie and started to brutally tear the leaves from the cold ground. Hot tears fell from my eyes and slid into my mouth, hands numb and blue with coldness. Is there any way, any at all to make my best friend come back? How am I going to tell his parents? Now anguish took the overall feeling in my body, the very little hope I had was lost. The amulet is useless, I used up all three of my precious wishes recklessly. I put more priority on destroying someone who didn’t do anything to me over the person who’s been with me my whole life and been there for me when times were rough. Did I even look back for him? No, I selfishly ran for my life completely forgetting about him, whereas he would’ve run back for me and risked his life in the process of getting me to safety, that’s the kind of friend he is, well was.

As I was mulling over Ace’s dreadful death, I felt immense pain in my neck, it felt like two knives were digging into my flesh, and the pain increases when it digs its fangs in, tearing my throat away, breaking my bone. Blood gushed from my neck onto my body staining my sweatshirt. My life flashed in front of my eyes in a blur of color, everything went black and I lost all feeling in my body.