Encounter with Fate

What Happened?

Skull sleepily opened his eyes to find his parents on either side of him. He and his parents had fallen asleep on the couch while watching TV. Skull carefully wiggled himself out, shifting a small yawn, and headed upstairs toward his bedroom to change clothes. 

Skull cautiously looked around his bedroom, thankfully there was no sign of Dustin. He let out a breath he had been holding and hurried toward his closet. Skull stole a glance toward his owl-themed alarm clock, which read 10:04 A.M., he had a feeling it would be a long day and week. Skull opened his closet door and reached for a shirt, till he felt a presence behind him.

Skull turned around to find Dustin standing before him, water droplets dripping off him. 

"I want to go home," Dustin whispered, staring at Skull with pleading eyes.

Skull slowly backed off to the side, not knowing what to do, till a pair of cloaked hands covered his mouth from behind.

"Mphhh-mehh"

"Hush child, no need to be afraid," The sliver-haired-women whispered, crouching down to meet Skull's height. "I stopped to check on you, I see you have an unwanted guest. Let's see why he's following you."

She looked to Dustin, her eyes glowing bright green and the slicks on her mouth growing. "Why are you here?"

"Skull's going to take me home," Dustin answered with a tense glare.

"I'm sorry child, but you can't." The silver-haired woman stood up, rolled up her left sleeve, and a strong wind blew around the room as blue electricity came from her hand. The electricity surrounded Dustin making him vanish in a black haze. "May you find peace where ever you lay."

Skull stared in shock and amazement at the nowempty spot where Dustin once stood. The woman's glowing eyes dimmed, and the slicks returned to standard size. She took a deep breath as she rolled down her sleeves before looking at Skull.

"He shouldn't bother you anymore child," she said with a tired breath.

"Are you okay?" Skull asked with worried eyes.

"I'm fine, sorry if all of this frightened you. He should be gone now, so there's no need to worry." The woman said, her breathing returning to normal. 

"Thank you...um...not to be rude, but who and what are you?" Skull asked, crossing his arms and giving her a suspicious look. "You're like him...no one can see you, huh."

"That would be a correct assumption, yes, I'm almost invisible to everyone," she took off her hood. "For my name, it's Coraline."

Coraline crouched down to Skull's height and spoke with a soft voice. "Would you like me to teach you how to get rid of all the scary things?"

Skull nodded. "Yes please, but you haven't told me yet,"

"Hmm?" Coraline innocently tilted her head.

"What are you?"

"Isn't it obvious little one? I'm your friend."

"So Dustin ended up following you home and this Coraline is actually the death?" Headphones said, trying to wrap her head around everything.

"Yeah, Coraline taught me the difference between a ghost and a spirit, the kinds to avoid, and helped me with my 'gift'." Skull sighed thinking back. "She'd visit me a couple of times a week, but one visit, an angry spirit followed her and almost got me. After that, my grandma took over, turns out those two knew each other, and after that fight with Vintage, Norman came and the rest is history."

"What about Dustin?" Headphones asked, looking to Skull.

"I don't know if he did find peace, but I think he just wanted to see his family one last time." Skull leaned back, his arms behind him. "From what I heard, the blast didn't kill him...but he didn't know how to swim."