Short Stories

The Ghost Dream

"You can't tell me how to live my life!"

"You're a ghost."

I faltered for a second.

"Oh yeah . . . that's what I'm pretendi-I am!" I laughed, adding the words "this time" under my breath.

"What was that?" Hilo asked.

"Nothing," I sang back.

I really needed to get my act together. I kept faltering, messing up. How many times had I done this by now? Probably millions. The times I had been able to control my dreams had led to the best adventures of my life. So why did I keep messing up in this one?

It may have had something to do with it being my first ghost dream.

"So . . ." I started. "What are we here for again?"

I hated it when the dream started in the middle. I never knew how to act or what to say. That first line had just popped out of my mouth.

"We're . . . going . . . to the . . . complex," Hilo said. "How many times have I told you this, Kaitlyn?"

"Um . . . three?" I guessed.

"No, seven now," Hilo replied. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay . . ."

We stood by a brick wall at nighttime. Judging by the moon, it was midnight. The perfect, creepy time for ghosts to be lurking. We were in the middle of a big city, in a place that looked slightly like Rome. On the other side of the street there was an old hotel. For a second I thought we would be haunting people. That sounded like fun.

But then the fire started falling from the sky, and all chaos broke loose.

Thousands of little drops of fire plummeted down from what I had at first mistaken as clouds, but now realized were other, more demonic ghosts, all red in color, and glowing like coals. Roaring filled the air as the hotel caught on fire, and the evil ghosts joined in the cacophony.

I screamed and pressed against the wall, hoping for just a little bit of cover as the fire peppered my skin.

"GO! INTO THE COMPOUND!" Hilo yelled.

"WHERE THE HECK IS THE STINKIN' COMPOUND?!" I yelled back at him. This was proving to be a very . . . difficult dream.

In answer, he simply ran into the wall, and I watched stupidly as it rippled, like water does when you drop a pebble into it.

"Oh."

I followed him.

The inside was very spacy, actually. Very much more so than you would think, considering it was a wall.

Then I turned, and there Hilo stood, his arms crossed, with a whole bunch of other ghosts behind him. Hundreds.

I smiled and waved, thinking that it was about time I woke up. Unfortunately, the only thing I controlled in these dreams was, well, me. Unless . . . I started pinching myself behind my back.

"You're not Kaitlyn," Hilo accused. "Kaitlyn would have known about the compound. She would. She's been dead for, oh, a hundred years now?"

That made me pause. Had I . . . replaced somebody? Somebody a hundred years dead? Now I really needed to wake up. I began pinching myself with more vigor.

"Come on," I muttered. Wake up. Wake up."

"Who are you?!" Hilo shouted. "Why are you here? Are you working for the demons?!"

I laughed sheepishly. "Um, I actually can't answer that question . . ."

Even harder. I could feel bruises forming under my fingers.

They started closing in.

"Come on, guys," Hilo said, with more than just an air of finality. "She needs to be eliminated if we're to survive."

"I thought you were ghosts," I squeaked out, backing up.

Hilo began to smile. "We are," he turned to the ghosts behind him. "But we can die again, at the hands of the demons. A more permanent death. A more painful one. However, you just reminded me. We're ghosts."

The whole group of them were suddenly sucked towards him to form a swirling mass of creepy and chills. They shot upwards, and then plummeted towards my head, a howling funnel of death. I screamed and curled into a ball, squeezing my eyes shut and willing myself to wake up.

And then I was in bed, sitting up as I woke. Compared to the freaky, green light that I had only just realized was coming from nowhere inside the wall, it was pitch black. I sighed. That sucked. But . . . I supposed it was kinda fun. I chuckled, laying back down for some more sleep.

~~~*****~~~

This time, I was just a bystander. A witness. I watched as the "howling funnel of death" shot towards the girl. Just before it touched her, she stopped screaming and snapped to a laying position on her back, unconscious. The ghosts stopped short and reformed into their individual selves, landing on the ground and crowding around the girl. She had amber colored hair and seemed pale. Maybe a little freckly as well.

She gasped and sat up suddenly, and her bright green eyes bored into mine. She seemed to be the only one that could see me, and I mouthed the word "Sorry". She just smiled and went back to her business. Hilo laughed out loud when he saw her smile.

"You're okay! We thought you'd been taken!" And he tackled her in a hug.

I smiled at that. They were an adorable couple.

Then I drifted off into another tamer, much more restful dream.