My Nightmare Just Became Real

Chapter 3 - I See Dead People

Author's Note: I will thank all of you again for commenting, your words and thoughts only encouraged me to write more. I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations :)

I was sat in the dark in a big oak wardrobe. When Charlie and I were younger, this always used to be my favourite place to hide. I leant against the door, the comforting feel of the solid wood against my back. I'd sat here so many times, it could have been a second home. I remembered a time when we brought up a blanket and some torches and sat in the wardrobe, like a secret hideaway place. I closed my eyes, remembering...

Then, the door was flung open and I tumbled out of the wardrobe laughing. Charlie said "what were you doing in there? Looking for Narnia?" He stuck out a hand and helped me up.

"We were playing hide and seek, remember?"

"But the wardrobe?" He raised his eyebrows.

"What about the wardrobe?"

"It's the most obvious place," said Charlie, rolling his eyes "you just never change you know. All these years we played hide and seek and you still go to the wardrobe."

"I couldn't resist." I said "do you remember when we sat in there for the whole afternoon?"

Charlie chuckled "yes, I'll never forget the look on my Mum's face when she found us."

"Where's Maddie?" I asked.

"Don't know, thought I'd find you first and then we could look together. You know what she's like."

"Glad I'm so predictable." I sighed, "you go down stairs and I'll look up here." This could take a while.

Sometime later Charlie shouted up to me "Hey, Lily, come down here for a minute." I found him in the kitchen staring nervously at the cellar door. "I think she's down there." I heard some muffled giggling coming from the cellar and smiled. "Come on then." I said, taking a torch from the side since there was no light switch down there.

"You know how I feel about going down there." Said Charlie, looking at my pleadingly.

"But I thought-"

"But I still don't like going down there. It's...dark and stuff."

My expression softened and I said "it's alright, I'll go."

It was cold in the cellar and my breath came out in front of me in clouds. I swept my torch beam over the jumble of things, looking for Maddie. I jumped when I thought I saw someone standing a little way off but relaxed, realising it was just a mirror. I went closer, looking at the ornate frame and dusty glass, the word 'HELP' written across it accompanied by a hand print. I frowned deeply, Charlie said it was alright now. That he'd gone. He probably didn't count on there being a message for me to see. I didn't like it down in the cellar, it felt like there was a pair of eyes on me. Watching me. I shivered and gave the room a final glance before turning to head back up the stairs. Something grabbed my leg then and I shrieked, pressing myself against a wall. Maddie's high pitched laughter filled the room and I sighed as my heart hammered against my chest. "You would have never found me. You're hopeless you two." She said, running up the stairs. I hastily pointed my torch in front of her, afraid she'd trip in the dark but she seemed to have no problem making her way back up to the kitchen.

When I got back up I put the torch back and looked at Charlie, arms crossed. "What?" He said, confused.

"The mirror, Charlie."

"What about it?" His face fell. I was right. He was hiding something.

"He's not gone has he?" I said quietly.

"He...he went but...then he came back again." Charlie tugged at his hair, obviously upset.

"We really need to talk later."

"Yes." Said Charlie, looking at the floor "we do."

Around eight or nine years ago

I was staying over at Charlie's house, my parents needing somewhere to leave me and it must have been about 11 o'clock at night. Charlie and I were still awake but when we were about to go down the stairs to get a glass of water he stopped dead in his tracks."What?" I hissed in the quiet house.

"I...I don't want to go."

"Why?"

"It's dark."

"Come on Charlie," I said taking his hand "there's no need to be scared of the dark. It won't hurt you."

"I'm not scared of the dark." He said stubbornly.

I sighed "it's ok to be scared of things you know."

"It's not the dark that's scary...it's what's in it."

"What's in the dark?"

"Things and...people. Dead people. Ghosts but...not like the pictures you see. Scary ghosts. Some of them...some of them don't like me. Want to hurt me. Nobody believes me. They think I'm lying, making it up. But I'm not."

I thought about this. Normally, I would have thought this a joke. It seemed a bit farfetched. But it was Charlie and he didn't make jokes like that. We'd always said we wouldn't lie to each other and, seeing his stricken face and his shaking hand clutching mine, I had to believe him. "I believe you." I said. "Even though I've never seen them, I believe you." I don't think I've ever seen anyone grin wider.

That was how I first found out about Charlie's ability to see ghosts. He tried telling his parents, but they wouldn't believe him. They thought he was making it up. I was the only person who took him seriously. That's why Charlie didn't like the dark, ghosts were stronger at night because they'd had the whole day to gather energy from the light and at night they could use it. I was a bit doubtful of Charlie's ghosts until about a week after he told me. That sealed my belief, forever.

We were in Charlie's room, sat on his bed when he said "I think I can show you the ghosts. I think I've worked out how."

"Go on then." I said, intrigued. But not expecting anything to happen. Charlie took my hand and closed his eyes and I thought nothing was going to happen after the first few minutes. I was about to pull away when I saw them. Ghosts. Floating in the room, some of them screaming, some with horrendous injuries and some just floating and...staring. "Please...Charlie, I don't want to see any more." I whimpered. He didn't seem to hear me and I just sat there, unable to move because of the horrors in front of me. A ghost with horrible hollow eyes and gaping wound in its chest stuck out a white hand, caressing my cheek as if wishing it was alive again. I didn't even notice the hot tears that were streaming down my face until Charlie let go of my hand and almost passed out. "Charlie," I said, shaking him "wake up."

"I'm fine." He said quietly "just tired. It takes a lot of energy to get them all to come at once. But..." He smiled a weary smile "you believe me now, don't you?"

"Charlie I always believed you, you didn't have to show me this."

"But I know it now. I know you'll believe me."

I've never forgotten that and, to think, Charlie saw them all the time. Well, not all the time but occasionally he would see them. Anywhere he went one could pop up. As Charlie got older, he worked out that he could help the ghosts find the other side because that's all the ghosts wanted to do really, go home. They were lost. He could do a lot of strange things with souls and he had this sort of awareness with living people as well as the dead. The one thing that scared me most was when he did his astral projection. That was when his soul left his body for a while and went somewhere else. It was almost a form of deep mediation. Charlie had only done it once and I was so scared he wouldn't be able to come back. I sat by his body and, as hard as I tried to wake him up, he slept. He woke up when he came back but still. I didn't want him to do it again. Your soul can get lost if it goes too far and I made Charlie promise not to do it again unless he really had to.

Author's Note: Well, did you see that coming? Charlie sees ghosts. Sorry about the 'information dump'. I tried to keep it simple and added the flashbacks so it wouldn't be as overwhelming. Oh, and, don't get too used to the updates almost every day. Usually, I update like this for a while and then you won't hear from me again for a week or more. Anyway, any thoughts? :)