The Ghost of Summer

I'll never forget the day my best friend Luke was murdered. It was the summer of 1994.

We were 12 years old and we thought we knew everything. We were never more wrong. We definitely never knew what was in store for us on this hot July day. The day started like any other. Daniel, Jacob, Luke, and myself got together to hang out. We rode our bikes to our tree fort and laughed and made jokes for hours that morning. It was when Daniel asked, "Does anyone want to see a dead body?"

“What?” we all exclaimed at the same time.

“Radical” Luke screamed.

“I call b.s.” I told him. “Where?”

“Yeah, really? Where is it Daniel?” Jacob asked.

“I saw it last night in that old abandoned barn down by the creek on old man Montgomery's place. It was all blue and gross looking. I think we should all go down there and check it out. Are you all with me or are you all too scared?”

“I’m not too sure about this, guys.” Jacob replied, a bit hesitant.

“Come on it’ll be fun. We’ll just ride down there and right back. No big deal. Nobody will even know.” Daniel insisted.

“I’m in” said Luke.

“Me too.” said Jacob.

“That leaves you, Michael”

“Alright, screw it. I’m in.”

We rode our bikes for what seemed like forever. I mean after-all it’s not like I was too eager to go anyway. When we got there it was later in the evening. The barn eerily lit up by the sun making it seem to glow like an ominous, luminescent pumpkin. I was very nervous about going any closer but to keep from losing face at my coaxing friends I ventured forward, not willing to show any sign of fear. Nevertheless the fear was there. And if I knew my friends as well as I thought I did, they were scared as well.

We decided to wait until nightfall because of old man Montgomery. He was a very mean old man and we definitely didn't want any trouble. Night time seemed to come pretty quickly and when it came we moved toward the barn, weary of any sound our footsteps seemed to make.

We made it to the door and slowly opened it, the door creaking loudly. We crept inside. At first we saw nothing but lots of straw and old rusted tools laying around. Something about this place just didn’t feel right. It was as if something or someone was watching us. I nervously kept looking over my shoulder. Fear suddenly took over me when I looked in the corner to a light shining from the ceiling onto what appeared to be a body. We crept closer to the small beam of light. It shone on a man’s hand. He was clutching an old antique looking locket.

“It’s old man Montgomery” exclaimed Daniel.

“What’s up with that locket? Something’s not right about this. Does anyone else feel like we’re being watched?’ I asked.

“You’re just scared” Luke said, walking toward the stiff body of old man Montgomery.

Luke reached for the locket and took it in his hand. It was then our lives were changed forever. Smoke began to rise and took the shape of an old woman. Luke froze in place, his body seemed to almost freeze and turn a strange color of grey. The old woman began to cackle as life drained away from our dear friend. “What have we done? I asked myself. The old woman begged us to help her and her wails grew louder. We began to run but my legs felt as if they were in quicksand. I felt trapped. We made it to the barn door and took off running. I seemed to trip over everything but managed to stay on my feet. It seemed as if time totally stopped and the cackling became louder and louder in my ears, like the ringing of church bells. We finally made it to our bikes and began to ride away. Scared and in shock, none of us talked the entire time. Who would ever believe us? When we made it to our tree fort we caught our breaths and the silence was broken when Daniel asked “What was that?”

“I don't have a clue. What are we going to do?” I asked.

“There's only one thing we can do. We keep quiet, we never speak a word of this. If anyone asks where he is we just tell them we don’t know. Agreed?

“Agreed” the three of us vowed.

The next morning we woke and went about our day as if nothing happened but everywhere I went I felt Luke’s presence. Maybe he was still alive and was following me around just waiting for an opportune time to jump out at me and yell “gotcha” and things would go back to the way they were.

We got together at the tree fort later that day to talk about what we had seen.

“What do you think happened to him, Michael?”

“I’m really not sure but I think that that locket was cursed. It’s the only thing that makes sense. I think we should go back while it’s still daylight. I feel like that old woman wants our help with something.”

“You’re crazy, Michael. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard you say.” said Daniel.

“Have you got a better idea? We need to figure out what happened to Luke. We owe him that much.”

“I’m in,” Jacob said. “Luke would want us to go back”

“Alright” said Daniel, feeling ganged up on.

We got on our bikes and we rode to the barn. The three of us were as silent as the grave the whole way. This time we rode all the way up to the barn doors, knowing that we needn’t worry about old man Montgomery. There was something much bigger to worry about than him today. When we got inside everything appeared just as the night before, except this time the locket was gone.

“Where is it?” We all screamed.

“Let’s go inside Montgomery’s house and look around.” I said. “Maybe it’s in there.”

We reluctantly went inside his house looking for clues. Everything had a thick layer of dust. I looked around the room and something in the corner caught my eye. It was a photo album. What made it stand out from everything else was the complete absence of dust. I motioned for the other’s to come over and we sat down and went through the pictures. There, plain as day, was a picture of the old woman we had seen the night before. She was with old man Montgomery, only she looked younger in the picture. It was at this moment a light shone through the window onto a framed picture on the coffee table. It was old man Montgomery and the old woman at what looked like their wedding. That's weird I thought because old man Montgomery didn’t have a wife, or at least that’s what I thought. The wind blew through the window, knocking the photo onto the floor, shattering it. We took off running outside when suddenly we felt caught in some sort of trap. We couldn’t move. Our legs were locked and shaky. A light shone down on a single spot of earth under a big weeping willow tree. I knew it with everything in me that this was a calling. Something was leading us there to our deaths or worse. We cautiously walked over. Leaning against the tree was a shovel.

“I think she wants us to dig,” I said, grabbing for the shovel.

“You're crazy. You’re on your own this time, Michael. Let’s go Jacob.

“Yeah, I’m coming with you. This is too extreme for me.

And there I was by myself. I dug at the earth for hours when I heard a loud thud under the shovel. I scraped away the dirt. Under me was a long wooden box. I broke through it and found a skeleton. She was clutching the locket we saw last night. Out of the grave the ghost of the old woman floated around me.

“Thank you so much for finding me, lad. Ronald, my husband murdered me years ago and I’ve never left this dark cold place. Thanks to you I my spirit is free now.”

Smoke filled the air and I heard an all too familiar voice call my name. It was Luke.

“Oh my God Luke. You’re a sight for sore eyes. What happened?'

"When I grabbed that locket, I was under some sort of curse until you found the old woman. She was with me the whole time and wouldn't let me have any fears. She's a really nice lady. Her name is Summer, and she was married to old man Montgomery. He killed her, and she doesn't even know why.” Luke said. We promised to never speak of this day again. We rode home on our bikes laughing and having fun. It was as if we were just seeing each other for the first time after years.

When we made it home, Daniel and Jacob were astonished. They couldn't believe their eyes. This would be a secret we all shared for the rest of our lives.

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