Grim Reaper

The dreaded fight

I could never found mom, no matter how hard I looked or how often. I looked all around the estate,

searching for the familiar face I wanted to see. I never saw it. Eventually I decided to ask the next

ghost I saw. It was a woman that I asked. I knew her right away;. Her name was Sally. She died

about the same time as mom. She helped mom take care of us kids. "Sally, have you seen mom?" I

asked her slowly. Sally regarded me silently. "Sorry, dear. I haven't seen you mother in ages. None

of us have," She said sadly. I sighed. "Great. Just great," I pouted to myself. Sally floated to me and

tried to touch my arm. But her hand went right through me. "Your mother may not be here now. But

that doesn't mean that she doesn't want to be. She has her reasons for not being here. Even though

I have no idea what those reasons could be." She sounded generally depressed, just like I felt. It

made me feel really sad that mother would do this. Would suddenly disappear and leave us. No

wonder father and Kit were upset. "Well thank you, Sally. Will you tell me if you see her? I really need

to talk to her. It's important." Sally nodded and smiled at me. "Of course dear," she promised

gravely. I smiled and thanked her. Even without asking I knew that the chances of anyone seeing

mom again were slim. Really slim. And her's the thing with mother. When she doen't want to found,

you can't find her. That's what I was most worried about. Whether or not she wanted to found. My

best guess was that she didn't. When we were little, mom would sometimes lay hide and seek with

us kids. We would hide in the forest while she tries to find us. It was our favorite game, and we

played it all the time. Maybe that's about the time we found out how good mom was at hiding from

us. We almost never were able to find her. Sally turned and floated away, and I was left alone with

my thoughts. So I guess asking mom for help was out of the question. I don't even know why I

bother anymore. I walked back to the house, sullen and tired. In a few days we would be gone and

out of here. I walked back through the door of the house, taking in the large front room and the

cobble stone floor and the stone walls. The huge wooden staircase that led upstairs was deserted

and cold looking. No one was around as far as I could see. I sat down in the black leather couch

and started playing with a strand of my black hair. Without mom here, the whole house felt empty

and lonely. I wish she never died and never left us. But now it's way too late.

Later that same night I was still in the living room, staring at the ceiling. The only person to come 

downstairs to check on me was our zombie housekeeper, Murtrude. Already she knew about Kit

and her little outburst agenst dad.