Paranormal Stories of Warren High

Chapter Three

Just as Ned had predicted, Laura was late meeting him in the library. He'd already started scouring the school's yearbooks for the mysterious elephant friend of hers, before realizing the futility of the task, since he had no idea what he looked like. His hand hovered over the computer mouse, before he opened up the public records for incidents involving the school.

He was surprised by how much was present within the historical archives. Fires, floods, and everything in between had happened at least once in the school's nearly century old history. Part of him almost regretted having taken the case, but at least it was something to do.

The tingling of the bell above the Library's door signaled that someone new had entered and looking up, he noticed Laura out of breath and rushing straight towards him. "You'll never guess what just happened!" She gasped as she dropped her satchel on the table and sat beside him.

Ned looked at her, waiting for her to continue but when she didn't he sighed. "Fine, I'll bite. What happened?"

"My friend Ashley got hurt today."

"Ashley...?"

"Ashley Felix, the cat."

"Oh. Her. I'll try to remain sympathetic." He replied. "But shouldn't we be working on the case?"

"This has to do with the case." Laura assured him. "Ashley says she tripped, but there wasn't anything there for her to trip on. I'm pretty sure this was the work of my friend. She had just said something kind of mean to me."

"Typical Ashley maneuver. The mean thing, not the tripping. Well, let's look at the evidence: did anything odd occur before she fell?"

The rabbit put her paw to her head as she tried to remember before nodding. "Yes. I remember it became very cold all of a sudden. I was able to see my breath in the hallway just before she fell."

Suddenly Ned became very serious. "Was she injured when she fell?"

"She sprained her ankle, why?"

He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry Laura, this has just become an exorcism case. Your friend has become a poltergeist."

"A what?"

"A poltergeist." He repeated. "Sometimes, when a ghost has been dead for a while, they start to go a little crazy. As would anyone who's spent too much time being invisible. Poltergeists aren't like normal ghosts. Instead of just showing up or playing tricks, they can do real harm to people. I guarantee you, if we go to look at Ashley's leg it'll have a bruise in the shape of a trunk."

Laura shook her head fervently. "No way, that's not possible. My friend wouldn't have hurt someone like that."

Ned frowned. "I'm sorry Laura."

The rabbit glared at him. "Don't say you're sorry. Your job is to help me find him, that's it. I won't let you exorcise my friend." She went to stand up but Ned quickly went after her. "Don't you have research to do?" She sniffed.

"Laura, you need to listen to me." He instructed, moving in front of her to block her path. "I understand he's your friend. But he is really, really dangerous. You could get seriously hurt or worse."

"How do you even know?" She demanded. "Maybe he was just protecting me or defending me or something. You don't know he's dangerous."

Ned sighed, trying to think of some way to convince her. "Alright, we'll just find him." She looked at him unsure if she could trust him. It was a good instinct, since Ned was about to lie through his teeth. "We won't exorcise him. Maybe you can calm him down and talk to him."