Mocha Mayhem

Chapter Five

I was woken by a scratching sound. For a moment, I felt completely disoriented. Where was I? I turned my head to and fro, trying to regain some semblance of location. Spotting Sam in the bottom bunk across from me, I remembered that we were in the haunted cabin at the Crystal Clear Lake Resort.

What had woken me?

Sam appeared to be fast asleep, if her rumbling polar bear-like snores were any indication. Don't ask me how I slept through that cacophony. She was lying flat on her back with one arm thrown over her head.

A sharp scratching sound, like long nails on a chalkboard, tore a shudder down my spine. An elongated shadow stretched across the moonlight through the window between Sam's bunk and mine. My entire body tensed. Cautiously, not wanting to see anything, but knowing I had to look, and absolutely certain that I would be haunted by whatever it was I did see, I peeked up at the window.

She was there, in the eerie glow of the moonlight: the ghost girl from the dock. She was staring into our cabin, her dark eyes wide and unworldly, her ratty hair streaming across her face. She didn't see me seeing her— at least I didn't think she did, judging by the angle I was at, but that didn't stop my heart from skipping four or five beats. Maybe six. And then the skipped beats all rushed together until my chest felt like the home of a pop rocks explosion.

"Samantha!" I hissed, "Sam!" I was trying to keep my voice quiet so the ghost wouldn't notice me and do, well, whatever ghosts did to humans. (Attack me with her claws? Possess me? Make my face look all nasty like those people in The Ring? The horrors flashed through my mind with a rapid speed, accompanied with the sound of my frantic pulse like a terrifying horror movie trailer.)

The window was only about two arm's lengths from me, which felt way too close for comfort. I tried to keep from trembling, avoiding any eye contact with the freaky figure, in case that was all it took to release her evil vengeance. My heart was doing backflips in the pit of my stomach, or maybe it was my stomach doing cartwheels that had traded places with my heart; it was difficult to determine, but the feeling was as unpleasant as it sounds. I forced myself to slowly inhale air through my mouth. Still, I couldn't help but feel that the air had drained from the room, as if the ghost had sucked it out with some sort of evil ghost vacuum. My voice sounded like a choked mouse. "Sam! Sam! Sam!"

Sam rolled over and squinted at me in the dim moonlight. "Huh?"

"Ghost at the window!" I jerked my head toward the window and then froze, in case the ghostly girl would zoom in on my sudden movement like a cougar primed for attack.

I could tell Sam was wrinkling her eyebrows in confusion and sleepiness. She lifted her head and peered toward the window. "What the hell are you talking about, you weirdo?"

I dared to peek again. All I could see now was the moonlight filtering in through a few tree branches that leaned up against the building. The scratching sound was also gone. My breath hitched again as I realized that I maybe was going crazy. "What?" I exhaled. After cowering for a moment or two under the soft flannel quilt, I slipped out of bed and crept over to the window, peering out. No ghostly figure in sight. At least, not that I could see amidst the darkness. "She was there— I swear!"

Sam slid out of bed herself and stood beside me with raised eyebrows. "What are you mumbling about?" She yawned and covered her mouth with one hand. Touching the button on her watch that lit up the clock face, she muttered, "It's 2:30 in the morning, Jordy."

I kept staring out the window, sure that the image would reappear. It had seemed so real; could it have only been a dream? I swear I heard the scratching noises after I'd opened my eyes. I shook my head; maybe I was still sleeping. I threw in a pinch for good measure. "OW!"