The Ghost of Burnt Ranch

The Wisdom of Katalyn

 After briefly visiting a home that had been restored to its early 1900s glory, we ate lunch in the shade of the forest at the edge of town. The General Store was in front of us and the rest of the town spread out behind it, mostly quiet except for a handful of people walking the streets on the far side of the town, the part that hadn't been restored and was still inhabited.

I was eating with Robyn and a few of her other friends – Denise, Katalyn, and Monica. Denise and Monica were talking and laughing, the same as usual, but Katalyn was strangely quiet. Robyn was also quiet, but she was also intent on her sandwich. Katalyn wasn't eating.

"Is something wrong?" I asked Katalyn.

"My mother told me about this place," Katalyn said quietly. Her eyes then met mine. "She's an Immortal. She was alive when... things started happening here. She didn't tell me exactly what happened, but I know it was bad. I know people died. A lot of people."

"Did she live here?" I inquired.

Katalyn shook her head. "No, but she did visit sometimes and she did hear stories from people who lived here at the time. She told me she saw the mayor's house the day after it burned."

"Does she know who did it?" I asked.

Katalyn sighed heavily. "Nobody knows who did it. Nobody's ever found out. The mayor's house burning down wasn't the bad part, though. The really bad stuff, everyone knew who did it. The problem was, nobody was ever punished for it. My mother told me half the town was in on it, including the police. That's why when bad things started happening to people that the ghost stories started. It was said that only a ghost could've done those things because everyone who had the motivation was dead."

I stared at Katalyn. "How many people died?" I asked her.

Katalyn shrugged. "I don't know, my mother doesn't like to talk about it. I don't think anyone in this town would want to talk about it, either. The stories say talking about it invites attacks from the ghost – and even if it didn't, nobody wants to admit their grandparents or great-grandparents were mass murderers. All that I know was that basically the whole town was involved and that it had something to do with World War One. There was a lot of violence across the country at the time. I've thought about looking it up before, but... the First World War was a horrible and ugly thing. It was so pointless and stupid. To think that people were killed at home while the war raged thousands of miles away... it's horrible, and I'd rather not think about it. I can understand why my mother didn't tell me more."

"Could it have been an Immortal?" I asked Katalyn. "Could the ghost be an Immortal pretending to be a ghost?"

"No, Immortals can be killed the same as the rest of us," Katalyn replied, looking down at her food. "It could possibly have been a Finn. There was a not insignificant population of them in the town at the time. Sometimes they have weird powers that nobody else has. Their magic could've allowed one of them to survive. But that still wouldn't explain how the ghost has persisted over the years – if it was one person who's been doing everything. Finns are magic, but I don't think you can be magic and Immortal at the same time."

Robyn then finished chewing her sandwich long enough to say, "Katalyn, don't be so sad and depressing! We're on a field trip! Have some fun!"

"Easy for you to say," Katalyn muttered before returning to pick at her sandwich.

I turned to my own food as well, but I found that I had no appetite. I put down my half-eaten sandwich and sighed, looking up into the forest. The darkness of the trees, which had seemed so inviting when I was standing out in the scorching heat, now seemed vaguely sinister, like they hid a dark secret.