My Friend From the Other Side

Chapter 3 - About the ghost

“Get the hell away from me, I’m armed.”I threatened, terrified.

“Calm down! I can see that you’re just holding a book, which will just go through me if you throw it. Plus there’s no point of doing you any harm, because I might go to hell for it. But the thing is I’m bound to you by this stupid spell and no offense but you’re not a nice person for someone to be stuck with in their afterlife.”

“Thanks a million.”I replied with sarcasm.

“Well it’s not nice to spend an afterlife with any stranger. Anyhow you’re the one who did the ritual!”

Zoe! I’m gonna kill her.

Reading my face, the ghost asked “I guess you didn’t summon me then?”

“Nope.” I sighed. “My witchcraft obsessed friend did.”

“That explained it.”

“Yeah. I’m so gonna kill her right now.” I stared at the ceiling, made a face.

“Don’t. Because she will become a ghost and you’ll be truly stuck with her.” He pointed out.

“You know this is just a figure of speech right?”

“Well what’s the harm of letting you know- “

“Well what’s the harm of keeping your mouth shut and making me feel better?” I snapped. As you can tell, I’m very annoyed right now.

“Sorry.” He muttered.

For the next few minutes we just sat there in awkward silence; the clock on the wall ticked by as the second hand run around the centre. I stole a few glances at him, seeing him leaning to the wall looking down at the floor. Clearly this is not a good day for me.

To break the silence, and to make both of us feel better, I called “So does heaven or hell really exist err…”

“…Blake.”He answered. “And no the exact hell doesn’t but apparently you still get punished for the wrongs you’ve done.”

“Ok.” I smiled, returning to silence again. “Err... I’m Riley by the way. Sorry about yelling at you, I was in a bad mood.”

“I can tell.”He answered. “But apology accepted.”

“Thanks.” Whilst there was a pause, I thought I wasn’t going to sleep anyway so I tried to make a conversation instead. “So how old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“Darn you’re older than me.” I made an exaggerated moan.

“How old are you then?” He asked me.

“Sixteen.”

“Well at least you can get older. I’m now staying seventeen.” His face saddened a little, thinking about something else. This make me feel bad, since I don’t like seeing others in a bad mood.

“Miss you family eh?”

“Yeah.”

“I feel for you. My parents divorced a couple of years ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s fine. I’m used to it. It’s just I used to get lonely since half of my family are gone. But it’s fine now.”

He smiled with a sympathetic face.

“Tell you what, if you help me on my everyday stuff - I don’t know what yet – I’ll try and help you break whatever this condemning spell casted by my crazy friend and I’ll try and help you to leave a message for your family or something.” I suggested (a small part of can’t believe I just did that).

“Ok that sounds cool, would you really do that?”OK, he agreed to it. Keep your cool Riley the rest of me reminded myself.

“Yeah.” that small part of me just died in agony.

“You know you can’t lie to a ghost or they haunt you forever right?”

“Well now I do.”

“Then that’s a deal.” He grinned at me, holding out his hand.

I took the hand and shook it.

“By the way, how do I keep my parents from seeing you?”

 “What’s wrong with me?”

“Well, it’s sooooo normal for a girl to have a random guy staying in her room right?” I pointed out with sarcasm.

 “Good point. But no one can see me if I do this.” Suddenly, he fades into nothing before turning back again.

“Nice!” I mimed an applause. “Oh, last thing for the day, can you please stay in the guest room…”

“…Since you need a bit of privacy. Yeah. I get that.” he interrupted.

“I mean you’re cool and everything, but…”

“It’s fine!”He reassured me. “Now good night!” he did an salute gesture.

“Ok.”

I watched him walk across the corridor into the guestroom before closing the door behind him.

 

Man! I have a ghost in my house.