Go bump in the night

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The candle was burning bright and was located on the window still of the derelict cabin. It glowed like a comet in the dark sky. It was a good idea that it was burning for it scared away the public and allowed the ghosts inside to get on with their afterlives.

It was also the death day of Erasmus, and he was reminiscing about his life as a civil war veteran. He had fought on the side of the Union and died at this very spot when a Confederate soldier shot him.

“I was hiding in the cabin in these same woods, when the door suddenly opened, and a Johnny Reb opened fire!” Erasmus wailed.

The other ghosts politely murmured. They had heard the story many times as he has been one of the older ghosts and were bored by now. Older in the sense that he had been there longer. Ghosts didn’t have birthdays. They had death days after which they were stuck in perpetual limbo. They were the same age they died, but the earth years passed them by.

Their human friend who could see ghosts, Angie was coming up as always. She loved ghosts, and they were her best friends ever since she first saw them. She never missed death days.

Templeton was the ghost who could make an impact on the physical world if he tried hard enough. It was his duty to light the candle from now on so that the public doesn’t come in. Before there had in fact been people coming in. Teenagers who had looked for a place to vandalise and take illicit drugs and underage alcohol. Campers who wanted to get out of the rain, and some very lost people . Then there were the daredevils, the Youtubers and the bears. After Angie had suggested that they should use a deterrent, they did.

His real name may or may have been Templeton. He was a novice archaeologist who had come into the cabin looking for pre contact artefacts when he slipped and fell. Then woke up a ghost.

The other ghosts included Sour Brown who was a chef from a plantation, and two young adult siblings , Carlos and Diego who had died in the fifties looking for cougars when an animal of said species had killed them. Finally, there was Tailey who had only died a decade ago and had fallen from a tree.

The ghosts loved each other, but the cabin was getting crowded, and they didn’t want any more to join then. So they asked Angie to use the candle to scare people away. However as, they found out, the candle also attracted other things.

Soon there was a knock on the door.

“Angie?” shouted Sour Brown.

The door creaked open, and the ghosts looked at each other . Angie always replied

From the doorway came what looked like something that they had never seen before. It was feminine but also very hooded. Its eyes were like a jack o lantern but in the shape of a lighting bolt. You could barely see it smile. It floated above the air. Ghosts walked on the ground. The whole thing looked like a big blackcurrant the size of child but coloured orange.

Tailey was the first to speak. “Oh no, not another one! Look I’m sorry but we are full, can you go and get exorcized?”

“Be nice, Tailey” Sour Brown replied.

Carlos added “You were the new girl not too long ago”.

The hooded figure didn’t reply

“You’re a strange looking ghost” bemused Erasmus directed at the figure

She didn’t reply.

“What’s your name ?” asked Templeton.

She looked on and smiled. Her features were very hard to see.

The ghosts kept looking at each other.

“So errmmm how did you die?” asked Diego.

The figure floated through the air without her feet touching the ground. She didn’t even appear to have feet.

“What is this? whispered Templeton to Erasmus.

Erasmus started “Angie you can come out now, the surprise is over”

The figure swirled through the air and then left through the door.

The ghosts were in shock.

The door closed by itself. Suddenly there was another knock on the door.

“Hello guys you all ok?” started a female voice

Angie opened the door and found herself staring at six scared ghosts.

Erasmus finally spoke up –“Not funny Angie. You spoilt my death day”

Angie simply stood there. “Errmmmm…what?!”

Finally, Tailey spoke and told them the story of the encounter.

“So, yeah, there was this new ghost, and she was a weirdo” repeated Sour Brown.

Angie as slumped. She could see ghosts all her life. She could sense them. She could smell, hear and even taste them!

“Guys, there hasn’t been a new death here . Not in the whole woods . Not since Tailey”.Angie explained very carefully

“Not funny,” shouted Erasmus.

Angie replied –“ I can sense a death a few miles away. Whatever you saw was not a ghost”

“Maybe a clear-sighted mortal like you?” asked Diego.

Angie shook her head. “I can sense them too”

“But if we are the ghosts” whimpered Templeton. “And that thing wasn’t….Then what was that?”

The ghosts and the mortal stood in eerie silence.