Turn Back Time - The Ghost and Molly McGee Story

Chapter 3

Scratch spent the rest of his Saturday trying to avoid Molly - or, any of the McGees, for that matter. He had a habit of ignoring things he wanted to avoid instead of confronting them head-on. His mindset worked like the saying that only stupid people believed, if you can't see it then maybe it'll go away. He tended to lock his feelings and fears deep down inside of him in hopes of never thinking of them again. But, despite his efforts, he couldn't ignore this problem forever. Ignoring it was starting to take a toll on him. Scratch could hardly even look Molly in the eyes anymore, and when Sunday morning rolled around, he was terrified to even speak to her. He dreaded the moment when she'd try to interact with him.

He was keeping a close eye on the clock. He couldn't sleep with that amount of guilt sitting on his ectoplasm. When seven a.m. came around and her alarm began to blare, he was immediately sent into panic.

Molly slammed the alarm off, jumping out of her bed. "Good morning, Scratch!"

Scratch watched as his ectoplasm began to give off a purple-ish glow with fear. He clinged onto the wall with all of his strength, hoping to negate the effects of the curse. But, the more he tried to fight it, the more the spell began to tug on him. It felt like someone had grabbed his ghostly body and was pulling with all their might, trying to rip him out of the comfort of his dollhouse. His efforts were to no avail and he smacked the wall right next to Molly afterward.

"I'm glad you're up!" She exclaimed, her voice as cheerful as ever. Scratch imagined the happiness in her speech filled with sadness. He feared that her "I'm glad you're up" might become a sarcastic saying in a few days. He didn't say anything and just looked at the hardwood floor of her bedroom with shame.

Molly's joyful expression fell once she noticed how Scratch was acting. She couldn't stand it when anyone she deeply cared about was upset or not acting like themselves. "Are you okay?"

Her question quickly caught his attention. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I- I'm okay."

His response seemed doubtful. "Are you sure?" Molly asked again.

"Yeah. I- I'm sure." Scratch replied as he started to drift backwards. He didn't even notice he was flying away from her, his body's automatic response to the situation was to get away. He ended up backing himself up to a wall before he realized what he was doing.

Molly knew he wasn't going to tell her what was on his mind. Maybe when he was feeling more comfortable - that is, if he'd ever be comfortable with telling her. Scratch tended to only tell people things when he was forced to. When the situation he was in forced him to tell her; that was usually the case. he could talk to him later, she supposed, and shrugged his weird behavior off. "So, since I know you have nothing to do today, and I have nothing to do today... what best friend activity would you like to do, buddy?"

Scratch had been secretly hoping all morning that Molly wouldn't ask him to hang out. She could hang out with anyone else, yet she chose him. He wanted to say yes, but knew he couldn't spend tons of time with her, for his sake and Molly's. "Sorry, Molls, I'm kinda busy today." He said. "Ghost work stuff. But we could probably hang out tomorrow...?"

He watched as Molly began to adapt a disappointed face when he denied her request. He felt guilty, but tried to wash the shameful feeling out fast.

"Yeah, okay." She replied softly. "Tomorrow."

Scratch felt even worse. He bit his lip and stayed quiet until Molly left the room, then immediately flew back into his dollhouse. He made his way to the bathroom of the dollhouse, which he never used because ghosts don't need to go to the restroom (and it wouldn't have worked if he wanted to, anyways), and stared at himself through the small vanity mirror.

"Why are you like this?!" He screamed at himself. "A few months ago you didn't care for anyone, and you wouldn't have cared to be assigned this job, but here you are!" He covered his face in his hands and moaned. "Why do you care for Molly so much, anyways?"

Because she's the first person to care for you? A voice in the back of his head, the reasonable one that was always honest, spoke up. She's the first person to ever say 'I love you' to your face? She's the first person to ever give you a genuine hug? She's the first person to let you vent to her about your problems? She's the first person to ever want to be your friend? She's the first person who cares?

He took a deep breath and slowly removed his hands from his face. Whenever he looked at himself in the mirror, all he saw was an ugly, useless sack of ectoplasm that never deserved love. But, ever since he met Molly, he couldn't look at himself in the same way again. Maybe he was something more than that. Maybe he did deserve love. Her positive thoughts always tended to drown out the negative ones, but as he floated there in front of the mirror, those negative thoughts began to return.

He watched as tears began to well in his eyes. Why are you crying? He thought. You shouldn't be crying, this isn't hard. This isn't hard at all. 

Even more tears formed.

Whenever he had a problem, there was always the option to talk to Molly about it. Before she moved in he couldn't talk to anyone, but now he at least had her. He knew he couldn't talk to her about this problem, though. This problem was something she could never know about.

He floated down to the ground and tried to hide behind the plastic sink with no running water whatsoever. He soon started to cry, silently and softly, only praying that no one would hear him. That's what he always did before, because crying in front of any other ghost only showed weakness. It also gave those ghosts another excuse to mock him.

He had two options: wait there for his inevitable fate to come claim him, or ruin the friendship he had forged with Molly McGee. He had to choose, but no matter what option he picked, he would still be unhappy. It was a lose-lose situation.

Whatever he chose, he wouldn't be happy. And there was no way to escape it now.