The Mystery of The New York Ghost

Fall Break

Days turned into weeks which turned into months which quickly turned into fall break. I didn't wanna go to the hotel. It's been so long since I've last spoken, the last word I spoke was to say bye to Mouse. I refused to speak after that, learning sign language just to say 'I cannot speak' when I'm asked to speak in front of the class. I was still terrified of Mouse's safety... Losing them the way I did was better than my stepdad kidnapping them and skinning them alive. I haven't seen that ghost or Mouse ever since that night. The fall break came as quickly as the morning turned to night, beautiful and elegant but having a consequence. That being the cold, endless suffering, and loneliness. Me knowing that my stepdad killed so many people with just one fire and he doesn't even feel bad. He even summoned something for some sort of reason!! Who knows why he summoned that ghost?!

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I wanted to reach out to her, tell her it's all gonna be fine, that it's ok to rat out that guy right to the police... but... she seemed scared... like she didn't wanna lose anyone... her only friend that I've seen her with... she liked them... whoever they may be. I don't know why I was scared, I'm dead and the only person I apparently care about is a fucking murderer. Bonnet... I always wondered who that was... Bonnet... like a distant memory... Bonnet... imagine being named after the only thing that kept you from crying as a baby because it gave you comfort... because your parents thought you were a girl... it was fucking stupid... no wonder alive Bonnet developed a crush on this fucking Samuel dude...
I only kept my distance, letting her walk freely without talking for the rest of her life... man... she really is stupid... if only I could...
I reached my hand out to her as she reached the hotel building the murderer worked at and found myself on the ground, looking up at the sky.
"What the hell? Where did she go?" I mumble to myself
"What the heck?! So- Bon- WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS?!?! What is happening?! Where are you?!" I heard Malikai yell out. Her voice was so loud as if it were in my head. I looked at myself, seeing that... I was Malikai. I was in Malikai's body
"Listen, little detective, you need to go back and find more clues, I need to find out who I am. I need to know what's the truth!!" I explain
"What are you talking about?!" she exclaims, trying to push me out of her body
"I don't have time for this!!" I jump to our feet and walked to the village
"If my stepdad found out where we're going, he's gonna kill Mouse and make sure I never speak ever again!!!" she yells, trying even harder but that only resulted in a burp. When Mali mentioned this Mouse person, our heart stopped and dropped. A vivid picture of Mouse tied up in a basement, bloodied, bruised, bashed, cut, snipped, ripped, sliced, burned, and all other stuff done to them. They were dead, their tongue cut out as if someone wanted to make sure a secret didn't leave. I stopped in our tracks
"You... don't know what you're doing... you're letting a murderer run loose and allowing him to threaten you like that... I don't understand why you're protecting someone you barely know!!" I yell. I caught the attention of someone who looks like the person in the picture in my head
"That's Mouse!! Shut up or I'm not letting you go any further!!" Malikai whisper yells
"Mali? Can we please talk... I just wanna know if you're safe... I wanna know why you shut me out... I still wanna be friends... I was just upset that you went quiet... I was so worried about you when I woke up that one time and you weren't there... and every day, that worry increases. Every time I wake up, I expect you to be right on that airbed, ready to start the day..." Mouse seemed worried and sad. Well nah dur... GET OUT OF MY THOUGHTS!! You went into my mind of your own free will!!!
"Yeah... honestly, it is about my stepdad. He threatened me to keep quiet or else he'll kill the both of us... literally..." I force Mali to say. Shut... up...
"Oh... I didn't know..." Mouse fimbles with their hands
"I'm sorry... I was terrified... I still am... I don't wanna give out too much..." I force Mali to mumble. I will strangle you... You can't kill someone who's already dead!! You...
"I'm so sorry... I promise I won't tell anyone about this... please come back to me when you're safe..." Mouse sadly shuffles away. Mouse... I wish I could tell you everything... ha gay! Leave me alone, idiot... I watched Mouse walk away with our heart aching. Mali wanted to reach out and hug them so that they can tell Mouse everything that's been happening. I speedwalk to them to catch up and grabbed their arm. I hugged them and whispered everything to them. What are you doing?! I'm doing what is right, I don't care what that murderer will do to us or Mouse. I will tell them whether you like it or not. I will keep them safe from the murderer... I felt that cold shiver down my spine again and I started to cry. I knew that the ghost left my body at that moment.
"Mali...? Do you need help...?" Mouse asks. I nodded
"I need serious help... I don't want either of us to die..." I sniffle
"Follow me... we can take care of this ourselves... we just need evidence that he did it..." Mouse whispers to me.
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"So, it was here?" Mouse asks
"Yeah, my dad lived here according to the ghost..." I nod, looking around once more
"It does look like your dad looks here but it doesn't look like the beanie dude was your dad..." Mouse says from another room. How did they move that fast? I found them in the master bedroom and there were three other corpses with different outfits than whoever was on the couch. Two of them were leaned against each other, probably my grandparents from my dad's side. The other had an exploded and burned phone, an office-type outfit, and a burned notepad that was barely readable. Mouse picked up the notepad
"It's mostly ashes but the last page has your name on it at the very bottom, circled in pencil," Mouse explains
"The pencil was probably burned in the fire..." I mumble to myself
"Either that or this person was going through the process of baby names to make sure their parents approved of the names..." Mouse mumbles
"Yeah, my mom always said that dad was indecisive and didn't know what he was himself..." I nod, looking in drawers and under the bed for more clues
"I think... this might be your dad, Socrates..." Mouse points to the skeleton with the office outfit
"Then... the ghost has to be Bonnet like my stepdad claims..." I state, looking at Mouse
"Bonnet? Bonnet Libbermen? He was best friends with Socrates and Sam! He wasn't well known but only true fans of your mom would know who he was. I've only heard about him being a nobody from my old friends before they lost interest and forgot about me..." Mouse mumbles
"Yeah, that suddenly makes sense... I'd imagine him being a smoker since he always had a Smartie in his mouth..." I state
"Oh, my old friends said he was the most boring person in history because he never liked any of those bad habits after only having gambling once and losing what he had left of his money," Mouse explains
"But we still have no evidence that my stepdad did any of it other than his word..." I sigh
"Then we'll just search the house he lit aflame, there has to be a reason he burned that one instead of this one straightaway," Mouse marches towards the door. Suddenly, someone was thrown in by some force and the door shut before a booming voice cackled like a madman.
"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!!! YOU ARE GONNA DIE JUST LIKE SOCRATES AND ALEXIS!!! YOU NEVER LISTEN, DO YOU? YOU NEVER SHUT UP JUST LIKE ALEXIS, MALIKAI!!! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE WITH YOUR FRIEND!!! I'll MAKE SURE MY SECRET NEVER GETS OUT!!! I'LL BE IMMORTAL ONCE I SACRIFICE ALL OF YOU TO BECOME WHO I WAS MEANT TO BE!!!"
The voice went quiet, grumbling to themselves as they shuffled away into the abyss of the outside world.
"Dammit... fuck... I can't fucking believe he thinks he's that fucking powerful to control his body, let alone push a ghost out of his body..." I hear the person on the floor curse. They got up and it was Soc- Bonn- I'm still confused on who he is!!! Whatever... he got up in pain, clutching his bleeding shoulder
"God, he stabbed hard... I'm surprised he's still moving at all..." Bonnet hissed
"So are we stuck here?" Mouse whimpered
"Well you are but I'm not... as soon as I get healed..." Bonnet shuffled to the nearest bathroom to get the wound as clean as he can get it being dead and all
"I thought ghosts can't get hurt or killed..." I point out
"They don't, they can still go back to Heaven or Hell if they possess someone and the possessed fucking dies. It also hurts like hell to receive pain as a possessor. This feels like I got shot with a fucking gun!!" Bonnet complains
"I don't understand how he found out..." I sigh
"He saw into my memories somehow which forced me to remember who I was... I know why he murdered Socrates but we still don't have any evidence that he did since it was seventeen years ago..." Bonnet huffed, taking out the Smarties he had in his mouth ever since we first met. He proceeded to put it back in after popping one which healed his wound up straight away.
"How do we find evidence if we're stuck in here?" Mouse asks
"Is your friend as stupid as you, Mali? this place is falling to pieces, you can just hop out a window after you clean up the glass. I'm not witnessing that again..." Bonnet trails off as he examines himself in the mirror
"If Sam didn't think five steps ahead that is..." Mouse says, looking around
"This place is basically nothing, just touch a wall and it crumbles into ashes... just make sure the roof and ceiling is stable enough..." Bonnet adds on, brushing off any dust, ash, and debris on his jacket. We were silent, it was loud
"Well? What are you waiting for?" Bonnet asks
"What did Sam mean and why did he kill Socrates?" Mouse asks
"Sam thinks he's some sort of fictional character from Storyteller, it's not that popular and I hear he had the last copy known to man. He wants to kill everyone who wronged him in his eyes, meaning he thought he was Abel without a sister. Otherwise he would be killing everyone that messed with his sister or love interest," Bonnet explains
"And about my dad?" I ask
"Right, he was one of the people that wronged him apparently. He always texted me that he was jealous of Socrates because Socrates dated Alexis, the most beautiful person according to both of them. I was jealous of her because I wanted that attention and fame but I wasn't so jealous that I'd kill her to become her. That's what Sam wanted, he wanted to kill Socrates to become him and marry Alexis which made me devastated when I remembered. That allowed Sam to take control while I felt my poor little questioning heart breaking from his tragic and cruel way of rejection. And guys think the worst thing your crush to do as a rejection is screenshotting your text and sending it to her friends to make fun of you!!" Bonnet scoffed before breaking down into tears
"I can't believe I ever had feelings for that man!!! I WISH HE NEVER EXISTED!!!" Bonnet screamed from the top of his lungs through tears. He was in more pain than when he was stabbed in the arm. Honestly, yeah the arm looked painful but not too severe... I would say... he needs a wakeup call. I went to him as Mouse awkwardly looked at the ceiling, looking for ways to break down the wall without it collapsing. I slammed the door against the wall as hard as I could which caused the house to shake but not crumble into ashes. I... Does that mean I'm weak?!
"Listen, you didn't know he was a psychopath before this!!! But now you know and we need to get our revenge by shoving his sorry ass into jail!!!" I exclaim
"... Fair..." Bonnet admitted, proceeding to eat another Smarty and composed himself
"Let's get you two out of here so we can expose that fucker..." Bonnet scoffs