>>16892901This time I do jump up and away. “Holy shit!” I shout, looking at the figure before me.
“What? You asked for us to come out, and then you get scared when we do?” The voice comes from a tired looking kid, maybe like ten years old. He’s wearing a t-shirt and shorts despite the chilly fall weather.
Upon closer inspection, though, I realize that there’s a lot of things wrong with him. His clothes are torn and bloody, he looks emaciated, and he’s barefoot. His skin color looks too pale, and his eyes are eerily dull.
“Oh shit,” I realize, “You’re one of the kids that got murdered. Ghosts really do exist, huh.”
He nods slowly, as if in contempt of me. “Yeah, otherwise I wouldn’t be here. Watching someone pour their blood on my grave, what do you think you were doing?”
“I was making up a ritual,” I say a bit sheepishly.
“Yeah, none of that ritual bullshit means anything. If a souls is trapped here, it’s trapped. I’m stuck chilling out around here, so it’s not like I need your candles and blood to draw you in.”
Makes sense, but something catches my attention.
“Draw me in?” I ask. “I thought I drew you out.”
“Oh no,” he says. “That’s not how it works. See, us spirits, we can’t do anything in the physical world. All we can do to talk with people like you is draw you in to the spirit world.”
“So,” I start, “I’m in the spirit world now?”
“Yep,” he says. “Your body is chilling out in a trance-like position. As long as you’re back in it by sunrise, you should be fine. Before you ask, you die if you don’t get back in. Or, in other terms, your body won’t accept your soul back, and it becomes trapped here unless you manage to possess someone else. But you’re not here for possession, you wanted truth.”
“Really, I wanted to see if this stuff would work, and I’m rather surprised.”
“Yeah, most people are,” he says. “You calmed down rather well, though.”
cont.
