Banish Me

Ghosts Of Lifetimes Past

I shot up straight in bed, looking around frantically for the source, praying to whomever that it wasn’t what I thought it was. I ran to the Magical Door and pressed my ear against the cool wood. Nothing from Gwen’s room and I stood there for a good five minutes just to make sure.

I skittered back to bed, hoping I’d heard wrong. I squeezed my eyes shut and counted. That’s what my mother had taught me to do, that they would go away by the time I got to a hundred. But her comforting presence wasn’t here for me to continue counting. I got to ten when I heard it again right outside my door.

I’d seen ghosts before. I’d dealt with ghosts before, but I tried with everything I had not to. I shouldn’t have looked at the picture in the Great Hall. That was always how it started. I could only connect to the ghost through a picture. The picture was something that still existed, linking them to the here and now.

Everyone and their brother keep pictures.

I squeezed my eyes harder, hoping beyond hope that the noises would stop. When it seemed like an hour passed, I opened my eyes.

Her face was maybe a few inches from mine, shockingly white with eyes filled with red.

She also had a bullet hole where her right temple should have been.

Her jaw dropped like dead weight and a gurgling sound started, then the actual scream poured like hot lava out of her throat.

I gulped and tried to pry my eyes from hers but I was paralyzed by her scream. I felt my own start to bubble up. I tried my hardest to contain it, not wanting to wake up Gwen or whatever else was trapped in the school.

But I failed and in the end I screamed back.

The only difference between her scream and mine was the pitch. Mine, if held long enough, could shatter glass and burst ear drums. She stopped screaming and listened to mine, closing her eyes, her face becoming serine, almost as if my scream was soothing her.

She disappeared and I stopped, my jaw snapping closed.

And then Gwen banged on the Magical Door.

By that time my nerves were jumpy and I was freaking out. I ran over to the door and threw it open. I was hopping from foot to foot, my arms wrapped around my torso.

Gwen stood there, eye mask pushed up on her forehead and looking as scared as I was.

“What happened?” she asked.

“There-there’s a gh-ghost! You di-din’t tell me there was a gh-ghost!”

“I didn’t know!”

“Can I sleep with you?” I asked.

“Yes!” She ushered me into her room and slammed the Magical Door behind us.

“Well, this is awkward,” I heard someone say.

The cloudiness of sleep kept me from identifying the person. I pulled the covers over my head, wincing at the light I saw behind my eyelids.

“Shut up!” Gwen yelled.

I heard her throw something and someone received the contact.

“Watch the coffee.”

“Did someone say coffee?” I asked as the last bit of sleepiness dissipating.

I popped up like a jack-in-the-box, blinking at the light. Peter was standing at the end of the bed.

“What’s today?” I asked, my mind still a bit foggy.

“Saturday,” he said suspiciously. “What happened to you two?”