Ghostboy

The Finder

      "The streetlights turned on as the stars came out. Those studying packed their bags and those partying made their way to their fraternities. Nothing stopped the girl from staring at the sky, fascinated with the glow. She danced, arms in the air laughing with glee. Her friends tried to convince her to join them but nothing could tear her away from her trance. It was just her and the sky. I watched from a distance as her friends left her behind. She seemed free when she was alone. I want to feel free too. I put my arms in the air and danced across the campus lawn. Together, we danced alone. Unaware of close we were becoming, I moved-"

        The boy turned the page only to realize he reached the end of his notebook. He slammed his book shut and pushed it to the side, upset that his fantasy was interrupted by a lack of paper. He stood up with a sigh and started towards the humanities building. It was about time he head inside, it was getting dark and since it was the weekend students wandered the campus much later than usual. He walked through the locked doors of the building, feeling safe in the dark halls. Thankfully, the motion sensor lights didn't detect spirits, allowing the boy to move freely. He slowly trekked towards a comfortable seating area located at the end of the hallway. This was the boy's favorite spot. The cushiony couches provided a comfortable bed, and because it was in the humanities building students never found it to be an ideal spot to hang out, leaving it empty and unused. Plus, there was easy access to a hidden air vent where he stored his completed notebooks. 

        The boy carefully removed the tiny screws and placed his filled notebook on top of the rest. There were eight notebooks in total, each containing made-up fantasies the boy wrote about. He sat back, smiling at the worn notebooks. While he has no memories to back this up, the boy liked to believe he was an accomplished writer when he was living, winning school awards and sending material to legit publishing companies. The boy was never upset about forgetting his past. He had a feeling if he could remember he would be nothing but disappointed. In fact, the best thing about not remembering your past is that you get to create it for yourself. To him, his living life was perfect and filled with romance, adventure, and success. No one could tell him that was not true. 

       The only downside was that he had no clue what his name was. He was not sure why, but something inside him commanded that he discovers his name. Maybe if he could finally associate a name to his fake past, it would feel less hollow. 

      Shaking himself out of his depressing thoughts, he began his search for a new notebook. Typically he steals new ones from the school store, however, the store was located across the school and it was much too dark for him to be parading campus. He decided to hunt the classrooms, hoping someone was forgetful enough to leave a barely used journal behind. 

       After about ten minutes of searching the baren halls, he found himself in a hallway lined with old fashioned lockers. He was not used to seeing lockers like this on campus, typically students just left their books in their rooms. He assumed most of the lockers had not been in use for some time, and decided to continue his hunt one locker at a time. As he suspected, most of them were empty besides the occasional crumpled paper or old gum wrapper. He started to lose hope as the number of remaining lockers decreased. With each empty locker the more exasperated he became. It finally came down to the last two lockers. Defeated, he opened up the second to last locker, expecting the same result as the past ones.

        His face lit up as he opened the thin metal door. The locker was filled to the brim with old books and school supplies, he assumed it must be a storage locker for lost materials. He ripped through the locker, throwing the Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf books to the floor. 

       "Finally!" He whispered excitedly to himself as he pulled out a spiral notebook. He tore it open and scavenged the pages. There were a few doodles and the occasional note, but nothing he could not work around for the time being. Content, he started back to his nook where he could continue exploring his imagination in peace. 

      What should not have been a long journey felt like an eternity to the boy. While the building was not huge, the darkness made it difficult to navigate and he could not quite remember which side of the building he was on. After some searching, he finally found himself somewhere familiar. His spot was right around the corner! His anxious steps turned into peppy bounces as he neared the familiar hallway, clutching his notebook in hand. 

      The boy stopped in his tracks. Why were the lights on? 

     Light poured from around the corner where his safe haven resided. The boy's breathing doubled as his mind spiraled, "The doors were locked, only faculty and staff are able to enter. Were they doing late-night cleaning? No, it's 2 am on a Saturday, that is impossible. Did they start doing inspections? They never did them before, why would they start now?" The boy sucked in air as a thought entered his brain, "Did someone spot him through a window and they were here to take him away?"

     His mind continued to overflow as he stood there frozen. 

    "HA! Oh my GOD, will you just shut UP!" A high pitched juvenile voice laughed, interrupting the spirit's thoughts. 

    "A girl?" The boy thought to himself. "Impossible! The doors were locked, there is no way a student would be able to enter!" 

"Please stop yelling and drink this" A calmer, slightly on edge, voice commanded. 

"No, YOU should drink THIS!" The energetic voice interjected. 

"There's nothing in that bottle. Please drink your Gatorade and then we will head back to the dorms"

"WHY do you wanna go back so bad? The night is still SO young! C'mon, let's at least go on an adventure while we are here."

The more the boy listened the more familiar the voices sounded, he desperately wanted to see their faces but his panic kept him from moving. Instead, he remained silent and hoped to catch every word of the conversation. 

"No, we are not exploring" The friend argued "It's late and we shouldn't even be here. I only agreed to come because you refused to come back to the dorm unless you got a Gatorade. You have your Gatorade, let's go."

"If they forgot to lock the doors they can't get mad at us for being here. Besides the only reason, you don't want to stay is because you think I'm drunk and can't take care of myself when in fact I am fine."

"You are drunk."

"Tipsy, there is a difference." 

Both girls giggled at that, the tension slowly residing. "Fine", the sober one piped, "Let's explore for ten minutes then go because I am genuinely getting tired. What are you even expecting? Nothing is going to be different than how it normally is just because it is dark." 

"Okay FINE 10 minutes" the energetic girl laughed, "that's all I really need anyway. There was something I want to check out."

"Well, you could have just said that" the calm girl's voice started to fade as they walked deeper down the hallway. 

The boy, whose curiosity outweighed his fear, slowly moved towards the lit hallway. He was not sure if the fluorescent light would be able to hide him completely, but his stealth mixed with the girls' distraction was enough of a safety net for him. He inched towards the corner and peered around the corner hoping to catch a glimpse of their faces. All he saw was their backs as they walked towards his special corner. "What did that girl want to explore?" The boy thought to himself. With a deep breath of courage, he started down the bright hallway, hiding in doorframes and behind pillars. He saw as they stopped at his little safe haven, the peppy girl bent behind the lounge sofa near the air vent. The boy's anxiety crept back rapidly, consuming his ghostly body. His once steady mind took this as a cue to panic, "Why was she near his air vent. Why were they in his corner. Do they know about him?"

"No" He reassured himself. "They don't know about you, and they don't know about your special books. There is no way a drunk girl will open the air ve-"

"Oh my GOD!" The energetic girl yelled, once again interrupting the spirit's thoughts "Look at this!" 

Suddenly, she whipped around holding a black and white marbled composition notebook labeled "property of _______". 

The boy covered his mouth, trying to hide his sobs as his safe haven was being trespassed. This was not happening.