Cemetery Ghosts

By Dreams

Author's Note: This story was written for my 10th grade Creative Writing class. I was about 14. And ummm… that's it :)

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The dry grass crackled under their weight, as the three girls made their way through the dark and misty cemetery. The sun had long ago set over the horizon, leaving little trace of the once illuminating light.

Hundreds of tombstones rose from the soggy ground, adding to the solemn and depressing mood around them. Death seemed to follow their every move with unseen eyes.

Alix Morris ran her fingers through her short brown hair, and kept her other hand tightly grasped around the cool metal of the flashlight. She shook her head in annoyance from time to time, but kept moving forward, as her two best friends led her onward through the house of death. “Are we there yet?” she asked.

“Shhhhhh!” Jessica Heart hissed in a loud whisper.

“Oh, sorry,” Alix whispered. “I didn’t mean to disturb the decaying corpses." She passed by a grave. "Sorry," she said to it. "Go back to sleep."

Jessica ignored Alix, and aimed her flashlight directly in front of her. A solitary tomb stood at the end of the light. “That’s it!” she whispered.

“‘Here lies Jonathan P. Allen,’” Roxanne Perez read off the tomb. “‘Born August 23, 1850, died August 22, 1862 at age 11.’” She looked up and over at Jessica. “I don’t get it. Who was this kid?”

Jessica slid her backpack off her shoulders, and opened it, withdrawing from it an old newspaper clipping. She handed it to Roxanne. “Read it.”

“‘Twelve-year-old boy burnt to death in fire,’” Roxanne read aloud. “‘Yesterday morning, twelve-year-old Jonathan Allen was left home alone, while his parents, John and Patricia Allen, visited relatives in the outskirts of town. The Allen residence mysteriously caught on fire, and the young boy didn’t make it outside.’” Roxanne stopped reading.

“Ohhhh,” said Alix, "we’re going to call him back from the dead. And here I thought we were going to do something creepy. Good thing I trusted you, Jess."

Jessica smiled. “That’s right.”

Roxanne handed the paper back to Jessica, and shook her head. “How do I let myself get dragged into these things?”

“Stupidity?” Alix asked.

“Okay, guys,” said Jessica, “help me set this up.”

Alix and Roxanne rolled their eyes before kneeling down beside their friend.

“Candles,” Alix said, taking a box of black candles out from inside the bag. “Matches--yes, very important, we can't light the candles without them, or build a fire to make smores. And a blanket, just in case our spirit friends get cold.”

“Stop mocking me, Alix,” Jessica told her.

“Jess,” Roxanne started, “I think we should quit this right now. Lets go home.”

“Come on, Rox,” Alix argued. “Where's your sense of adventure? Communicating with the living impaired on a school night, what could be more fun than that? Other than jamming our eyes repeatedly with sharp objects, that is."

Roxanne rolled her eyes.

About ten minutes later, the girls had everything set up. Lit candles held down the blanket, and provided enough light for them to keep their flashlights off.

The temperature had dropped remarkably, and the wind was starting to pick up, creating a whole new world of strange noises.

“Are you guys ready?” Jessica asked, not noticing the severe change of atmosphere.

“Um, no,” Roxanne said, taking a seat on the blanket next to her friends. "Are you deaf? Haven't you heard me complaining?"

The soft flickering light of the glowing candles caused a circus of moving shadows around their small circle.

“Okay, let’s get this over with,” said Alix. “I’m missing ‘Melrose’.”

“You don’t watch that show,” Roxanne told her.

“I know, that’s one of the many reasons I’m missing it.”

“Everyone hold hands,” Jessica said, ignoring the pointless conversation her two friends were having.

They did as they were told.

“Okay, now, close your eyes, and repeat after me: World of the dead in your presence we stand . . .”

"Aren't we sitting?" Alix wondered.

Jessica glared at her friend, and then continued the incantation.

Hesitantly, Roxanne and Alix repeated everything Jessica said, though the weird prayer seemed to get stranger and more diabolical with each passing second.

The wind picked up again, sending chills up their spines and filling their minds with horrible thoughts of murder and gore.

“Jess . . .” Roxanne began, looking around, terror filling her body, and fear filling her mind.

Leaves blew by them, and new sounds appeared in the wind.

“Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssss!” the wind seemed to call.

“Oh, boy,” Alix whispered, looking frantically in every direction.

“Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssss!”

Jessica sat quietly with her eyes still closed. A strange, brand new smile played on her lips, and her eyelids fluttered violently, as though she was stuck in the middle of some horrible nightmare from which she couldn’t escape.

All of a sudden, she stood up, and stretched her arms out to the sky. “Take me!” she shouted into the wind.

Alix and Roxanne both stood and grabbed a hold of Jessica’s arms.

“What are you doing?” Jessica screamed.

“You’re freaking us out!” Roxanne yelled. “We’re going home!”

“I am home!” Jessica shouted.

“No, you’re insane,” Alix corrected. “Believe it or not, there’s a slight difference.”

The wind seemed to attack them. The lights from the candles had been blown away a while ago, and they were left in total darkness.

“Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssss!” the wind called.

“I’m here!” Jessica screamed. “Take me!”

“No! That’s okay! Take one of the candles instead, they're vanilla-scented!" Alix yelled.

Still grabbing a hold to her arms, Roxanne and Alix tried pulling Jessica away, but a strong gust of wind broke their grasp and they let go. The force pushed them backwards, and they fell down onto the soggy ground.

Jessica was now standing on the center of the blanket, where the wind was strongest. “Take me!”

Roxanne and Alix got up quickly, ignoring the pain that had shot through their bodies.

“Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssss!”

“What do you want?” Alix screamed at the wind.

“Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy . . . myyyyyyyy . . . naaaaaaaaaaaa-mmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeee!”

“What?” Alix asked.

A bolt of lightning crashed and hit a nearby tree, causing it to split in half and almost fall on them.

“What do you want?” Alix asked again.

“Alix, I don’t think talking to it is going to help any,” Roxanne whispered in her ear.

Another bolt of lightning crashed, this time a lot closer, and a lot more accurate. A tree branch fell, and hit Roxanne on the arm.

Jessica stood paralyzed on the blanket, staring blankly at nothing.

“What . . . do . . . you . . . waaaaaant?!” Alix screamed mockingly, losing her patience.

“Saaaaaaaaaaaaay . . . myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy . . . naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame!”

“Say your name?” Alix repeated. “What is your name? Casper?” A gust of wind blew a sharp branch within inches of her head. She jumped back to avoid it. “Oooookay, sorry,” she said quickly. “Moody, much?"

“Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllpppp meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Alix sighed and looked around. How was she supposed to know what his name was? What was she, psychic? Her gaze came to rest on the tombstone. She looked up at the wind. “Jonathan Allen!” she screamed into the night.

The wind slowed down.

Alix stood still, waiting for something to shoot out and kill her. When nothing happened, she turned around to see if Roxanne was okay.

“What in the world was that?” Roxanne asked.

Alix shrugged. “Incorporeal PMS? Hey Jess!” she yelled.

Jessica blinked rapidly, and turned to face her. “What happened?”

“Hurricane Jonathan passed by,” Alix answered. “Didn’t you notice?”

“No, I guess I didn’t,” Jessica answered, confusion in her voice.

“Can we go home now?” Roxanne asked, clutching her injured arm.

“Yeah,” Jessica said. “Let’s go. It was silly of me to think we’d actually communicate with any ghosts anyway.”

The End