Ghost of the Past-Ranger's Apprentice Fanfic *Working Progress*

Chapter 4

Gilan passed her a mug of coffee and sat down next to her on the veranda. She smiled at him as she took the mug,

"thank you" he looked at her.

"What happened?" He asked determined for her not to put it off any longer. She sighed and looked into the black abyss that lay before them.

Fifteen years ago

She ran through the woods constantly looking over her shoulder to see if he was behind her. Each time she looked he was closer to her. She shoved a bush out of her way and ran into the clearing. She could see the small spiral of smoke that came from the chimney of her cottage which lay a few hundred metres ahead of her. As she crested the hill she saw the small cottage.

"DAD! GIL!" She cried as she ran towards the cottage. She glanced over her shoulder. As she did she tripped and tumbled down the hill. She struggled to her feet and carried on running, knowing that if she stopped she was as good as dead. She felt the cold breath of her pursuer on the back of her neck as she ran. His cold hand gripped her shoulder and she screamed. He began to pull her away when her mother came from the back of the cottage carrying a basket full of clothes. She dropped the basket and ran towards her daughter. "MUM! HE-" Her words were cut off by the man's sharp blade against her throat. Her mother froze in shock.

"Take another step and she's dead." He said as he slowly backed away. He turned around and began walking away. As he did her mother ran towards him and grabbed his arm causing him to spin around and stab her in the stomach. Her limp body fell to the ground. The young girl screamed as she watched her mother hit the ground and the pool of blood form around her. The girl launched for her mother. As she did the man swung his dagger in an ark. The sharp blade pierced the soft skin of her neck causing her to collapse to the ground beside her mother, her finally image being that of her attacker fleeing into the cover of the forest. She tried to move, to talk but nothing came happened, the more she tried the more fatigued she became until it reached the point where she could no longer hold her eyes open. It was as her eyes began to close that she heard her father's footsteps as he ran towards her and her mother. Then nothing. The world plunged into an eerie darkness, one she couldn't escape from.

She heard her father speaking quietly in the adjoining room to her brother.

"I'm sorry Gil, they're dead." Gilan burst into tears and was embraced by his father. She gathered what little strength she had to haul herself up to a sitting position. Everything felt just like it had before but she was dead, did that make her a ghost from one of Gilan's stories? Or was she dreaming? Neither one seemed comprehendible at the moment so she pushed aside the thought of what her current state was and instead moved her hand to investigate the injury that had brought her to the back room of their cottage with her mother. Her fingers delicately grazed over the large clump of dried blood which had formed over the gash across the left side of her neck. As they danced across the surface a strange tingling feeling coursed through her body making her shiver slightly as though someone had walked over her grave. And it was that nauseating thought that made her get to her feet and stammer outside to get some fresh air, if that was even possible anymore.

She slumped against the wall her breathing laboured as she tried to fill her lungs with air before she threw up. It was as she was slumped against the cold brick that she heard a faint whistling on the wind causing her body to tense in fear. Slowly and carefully she peered around the corner of the cottage to see a man pushing a wooden wheel barrow down the meadow towards the cottage. She'd seen him before, once or twice in the village, he was the undertaker. He came out to collect the bodies of the deceased so their loved ones didn't have to. Her heart began to pound in her chest, she didn't want to be thrown in the ground with everyone else, she wanted to see the world. Dead or not she was going to see the world. Determined not to spend eternity in a cold, dark hole surrounded by countless bodies, she crept around in the opposite direction, ready to make a mad dash to the woods when the undertaker was out of sight.

As the whistling got louder so did the pounding of her heart, she shouldn't be doing this, it was wrong, but she had to, didn't she? She couldn't spend eternity in a hole in the ground; that was a future she didn't want. No, this was right. As the undertaker disappeared round the back of the cottage she sprinted across the open ground as fast as her short legs could carry her. This was her only chance and she wasn't going to waste it. The fringe of the woods weren't too far away so it didn't take long for her to press her back up against a tree as she panted heavily for air. As she stood hunched over she glanced back to her home and the spiral of smoke. This was goodbye, but she'd go back eventually. She wasn't going to run forever, no, she'd come back and do what was right in the end. That she was certain of.