Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141
Teenage Ghost
“It’s been two days Mom!” Evan tried to snap his mother out of the depression daze she lived in. “Even his mother is worried.”
“Evan…” she turned her weary eyes towards her son. Her voice sounded as if it took every ounce of energy just to reply. “Hasn’t this happened before? Weren’t you two hiking and he got lost?”
“Mom. That’s not what happened, Mom.” Evan tried to reclaim his mother’s attention, but she was disinterested again. “I fell! Remember that? I fell and he went to get help, but came back and I was gone.” He walked around his mother and stood in front of her, “I was gone.”
His mother looked at him as if he was over reacting, she changed the subject. A bit of the fight returned to her voice, as she complained. “Your Father isn’t coming home for dinner again tonight, he said he has to work late. Again.”
Evan said nothing, who cares if Dad works late? His best friend was missing, and no one around here seemed to care. Evan walked out to the tree house and climbed inside.
He sifted through the comic books and began to read the last series Jeff has been reading before he disappeared.
The light began to seep out of the sky and the stars shone, the moon was bright and full. There was enough light pouring into the window that Evan did not need to turn on the lantern. He reached for the fifth issue of the series and opened the first page.
The tree house began to get chilly. Evan grabbed the blanket from the chest in the corner. He settled in and began to read.
Then a voice so familiar, spoke in his left ear. He even felt the breath pushing the words as they were spoken. “That’s a good issue.”
The small hairs on the back of Evan’s neck stood at full attention. Actually, all of his hair was pretty much standing on end. He jerked around, half expecting to see Jeff leaning over his shoulder reading the comic with him.
There was nobody there. Not even the normal chorus of summer insects could be heard. The air was extremely still and smelt stale, or old when he breathed it in. He reached his hand out near the odd stench and felt the air denser, and colder than anywhere else in the room.
Evan’s heart began to beat quickly and fiercely. He scooted away from the cold spot as quickly as he could.
He fumbled erratically with the latch he and Jeff had installed to keep the entrance shut. The more he tried to open the latch the more his fingers stumbled and couldn’t grasp it.
As he struggled the room began to grow darker and colder by the second.
Jeff too felt fear in his heart, as he desperately fumbled erratically with the latch to keep it closed. All he could see in his mind’s eye was his best friend in all the world falling to his death from this tree house. In a panic he stumbled and fell, he landed on his head, his neck snaps. He feels no pain, he dies instantly.
Tears began to well in Evan’s eyes and he stopped trying to escape. He curled up in a ball, in that very spot and cried. “Please.” he begged. “Please leave me alone.”
Jeff stopped and moved away.
The room began to warm up and Evan watched as the moonlight began to light up the room. Evan looked up and glanced around the empty room. He slowly reached for the latch and found it easy to open. He climbed down the ladder, slowly, his legs and arms shaking.
Jeff watched him from the corner of the lawn. He wanted so desperately to communicate with him, but now he felt so weak. Jeff knew if he ever wanted to speak Evan again he needed to regenerate his energy. If such a thing existed.