SPECTRAL

Chapter 1

 Laughter flowed out of his mouth like a hearty stream, his eyes squinted in happiness. The bright smile of the young boy danced on his face, happiness spilling into the air. The child grabbed onto the small boy and began to spin with him in his arms. Together they moved as friends, dancing and playing in the secrecy of the child's bedroom.

Their lively play was interrupted by a thump from downstairs bringing them down to earth. The young child with the messy blond hair let go of the small boy and gave him a goofy smile. His eyes then darted to the door and the heavy footsteps from downstairs. "Noah," The gentle voice of the small boy hesitantly whispered, "Don't pay attention to them, they don't care if I am here or not, I can promise you that."
Noah turned away from the door and looked at his small friend, his hands nervously tugging at the sleeves of his sweater. "But how would you know that, Joey? If you knew they wouldn't care than why do we have to hide?" His voice came out feeble, eyes darting back towards the door before flashing back to the small boy.

Joey, the small boy, hid a smile that had grown on to his face, "Just trust me on this, okay?"

With that, the two children returned to playing, their feet dancing around the room and their laughter ringing in the air. Within seconds, the deep voice of Mildred entered the children's ears, "Now boys, you need to be quiet. Noah should be asleep, we can't have his parents knowing that he is still up." Her voice creaked with age as she continued, "Go on, play in silence or not at all. Afterall, I could always tell you more about what I have seen throughout my years of life before sending you off to bed once and for all."

Hearing the words of the elder sparked Noah's interest and he pulled away from Joey. The five-year-old protested and stuck out his arms to play but Noah just laughed at him. His hands grasped one another as he turned to the old woman, eyes wide with anticipation. The wrinkled woman let out a breathy laugh at the six-year-old as he begged like a puppy. She beckoned him to his bed and gently sat down on his covers.

Hesitation kept the first words from flowing out of Mildreds mouth but seeing the eager look on the child's face she forced her words to come out. With a cough she began, "I've already told you plenty about my life, but there are things I have never told you yet. Are you sure you can handle it?" Noah's head bobbed rapidly, eyes sparkling like the shimmering sea.

The old woman laughed before continuing, "Okay then, let's go back to the old days, when there were no electronics or many of the games that you play today. When I was a little girl going to school, we learned about so many fantastic subjects, my favorite of all being math."

Noah's chubby face scrunched up with disgust as he mumbled, "Math is boring, how could you liked it?"

Mildred gave out a gentle laugh, "First of all, remember what I told you? And second of all, there are many wonders behind math. Seeing the sequences and the equations work out so perfectly as well as smoothly gives a certain satisfaction that other things just can't. Math is easy and fun after it is learned. Many people hate math just due to never truly learning it. If they did, more people would enjoy the beautiful subject." Noah scoffed, more like many people were bored of all the tedious equations, but she continued, "Well one day in math, I can't remember the year anymore, it has been so long, new students piled into our classroom. It was astounding, so many new faces halfway during the school year, all in our math class. It was a very strange occurrence because none of the students went to any other classes at all, not a single one. After a couple of weeks strange things began to happen. One by one, the new students disappeared, each taking one student from our school with them. No one knew what was happening, no one contacted the police."

The old woman took a deep breath, recollecting her thoughts and pushing the shudders that craved to wrack her body away, "Soon there were hardly any of the new kids left, and every single day fear coursed through our veins. We could be next, our friends could be next." Noah leaned forward, his eyes wide with interest as Mildred continued, "By then, there were news reports of other schools that had the same problem. What was scariest of all, the new kids there were the new kids that left our school. But what chilled me to the bone, it still does to this day, was that students from our school had joined them. Only then had I taken a closer look at those children. Their eyes had become blank, hardly any expression touched their faces. The kids were no longer the kids we once knew. It was terrifying."

"After seeing that, I decided to contact the police. I was sure others had done so before, but at that time I wasn't so sure anymore, and it is a good thing that I did. Not a single person contacted the police, they all said that they thought another had done so already. Not only that, but we received reports of their plans after every kid involved was captured. I was next." Mildred shook, her hands trembling like a frail leaf in the wind, "I was next." There was a long pause, Noah watching the elder intently, knowing that she would go on, or at least, hoping that she would go on. "No one knew how this happened. Why it happened. The kids that were affected slowly regained their senses and had no recollection of ever doing this. It was a mystery that chills everyone to their bones, a mystery that never has been solved."

Once Mildred had finished, she darted her eyes toward the luminescent clock on the bedside table, eyes widening after seeing the glowing red 3 a.m. She turned to Noah and coaxed him under his covers, tucking in the young boy. Noah's eyes closed easily and sleep overtook his conscious.

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The young boy was woken up by the birds singing outside his window and the smell of breakfast from downstairs. Noah groaned and turned over in his bed, clutching his body as he tried to fall back asleep. It was fruitless.

WIth a frustrated groan Noah flung himself out of bed and wandered downstairs. His curly hair ruffled and his clothes from last night wrinkled. He gently rubbed sleep from his eyes and then rushed toward the kitchen. Erik, Noah's father, stood in front of the stove, his attention focused on cooking the food before him.

With a yawn from Noah, Erik turned around and laughed at his son's appearance, "Your mother will be home soon, she has a surprise for you." Noah's brown eyes widened with excitement and he couldn't help but to jump around.

Joey peeked through the window, pulling back a curtain as he waved wildly at Noah. Seeing his friend, Noah called out childishly, "I'm go play with my friend!" With that Noah rushed out the back door and ran straight into Joey. Back in the house, Erik chuckled nervously to himself before focusing back on the food.

There was a cough from behind the two friends outside and Noah turned around quickly. His face brightened with happiness as he spotted his older friend, Claire. The red head laughed at his expression before saying, "What about me?" Noah rushed toward her, allowing his arms to embrace his thirteen-year-old friend. The girl's eyes crinkled with happiness as she pulled away from the young boy.

Turning back to Joey, Noah asked excitedly, "What game are we go play now?"

Joey gave a childish laugh and suggested, "Let's play tag!" Turning to Claire, the small boy asked excitedly, "Are you going to play as well?"

A sweet laugh flew out of her mouth as she nodded her head. Together the three friends played, running around the small yard, mindless to the worried face of Erik in the window. As the sun drifted higher into the sky Noah slowly became exhausted. When Claire was it once more, Erik called out for Noah, "Noah, your mother is here!"

Suddenly remembering that his mom had a surprise for him, he rushed inside not saying goodbye to his friends. Within seconds he was standing in front of his mother, her slender figure towering over him. A small bark caught Noah's attention and he looked down at his mother's feet.

A small dog with a tan and white pelt and some darker spots looked at the boy excitedly. The tail shaking the puppy's body as it wagged furiously, tongue flopping out of his mouth. A pink collar was secured neatly around the puppy's neck and with a bark, the puppy rushed toward Noah. A squeal erupted from the boy as the two embraced. The tan puppy licked Noah as Noah turned toward his mother, "Mom, is he for me?"

A warm smile graced her face as she responded, "Yes he is, Noah."

With an excited laugh, Noah turned back to his new puppy, a name instantly flying into his mind, "His name is Charley."