1. Ghosts

99 13 24
                                    

↳ ❝ [ ⱤɄ₦ ₣ØⱤ ɎØɄⱤ Ⱡł₣Ɇ] ¡! ❞

TW: Censored swearing, gore

↳ MATTHEW

"Sorry, Mr Graves, your evidence... is not valid. It's... well, to put it plainly, it just looks... like a blur of white and black. That... doesn't mean anything, really, so..." The woman said, her voice sounding crackly through the telephone. She's tired of him insisting, Matthew could tell. He sighed and put down the telephone on the receiver. 

The bed creaked as he sat down, putting his head in his hands. A draft blew through the open window, chilling him to the bone. He trembled, and self-consciously hugged himself. As he looked to the side, he spotted the lonely photo lying on his night table. 

He picked up that photo. You could tell that this was taken inside a car, with the steering wheel visible on the side of the photo. You could also tell that the picture was taken by shaky hands. The glass was broken, the edges jagged and sharp, also stained with a dark color, not very clear as it was nighttime. Outside the shattered window, was a blur of gray color. It wasn't very discernible as the foggy sky was almost that shade of color, but it was a little paler. It was different.

And Matthew was convinced those were ghosts.

This was the only proof he had, except for his memory, the actual proof no one believed. He had exceptional memory, everyone said, truly exceptional. Yet it was a totally different story when he retold the story of his parents' deaths, suddenly he was hallucinating, suddenly he was insane, suddenly he didn't have that same exceptional memory again.

'People are f*cked up.' thought Matthew bitterly. 

He knew what happened, even though he was only at the young age of five. 

Matthew was sitting on the carpet, color pencils clutched in his chubby fist. Scribbling on the white paper, Matthew giggled every once in a while, apparently drawing was very funny to the boy. 

It was this small bubble of peacefulness around Matthew that made him oblivious to the howling sound of the wind outside. Maybe he was too young to notice, but despite the whistling winds, none of the trees and grass were affected. Everything was still.

But his parents noticed. And they knew something was up. Rushing into the living room, Matthew heard the urgent footsteps and looked up, his face curious. 'Matt. We have to go, darling.' His mom said. Matthew searched her voice for any sign of teasing a surprise visit.. to Disneyland, maybe. But there wasn't. She was completely serious, and there were hints of fear in her voice, though hidden well.

Her mom put a struggling smile on her face and grabbed Matthew's hand. She said,'Come on, Matt...' Matthew let himself be led out of the living room by his mother. He looked back, subtly, at his paper with his childish drawings. His eyes widened as he got one glance of his drawing.

Somehow, and he didn't remember doing it, he had drawn a ghost. 

His mother closed the lights, and Matthew followed her to the car, where his dad was putting two big suitcases into the trunk. They got into the car quickly, and Matthew couldn't help but notice his mother's hand shaking.

The car zoomed off.

Minutes later, they were driving on the highway. Matthew was scared of the silence in the car. His nervous eyes darted around, and he had to restrain himself from crying. The silence was too much. He wanted to understand everything.

A tear dripped down Matthew's face. 

Then the car jolted to a stop. Matthew was lurched forward, before crumpling on the floor of the car. His parents were thrown forward too. His mom gasped as she realized Matthew was on the floor. 'Matt! Did you unbuckle your seatbelt? Are you okay?' Matthew's seatbelt was indeed unbuckled. But he didn't unbuckle it, definitely not.

GhostsWhere stories live. Discover now