The Ghost Files

Chapter Thirty One

It's not the cold that wakes me up this time, but something else. I know there's a ghost here even without opening my eyes. I feel not just the cold, but an energy. It surrounds the bed, almost suffocating me. I know who it is. Why has she waited this long to come to me?

My mother is sitting at the foot of the hospital bed. She's wearing the same stained pink tank top and blue jean shorts she wore when she died. Her blond hair isn't stringy or messy. It's the one thing she kept up. I remember she used to sit and brush it for hours on end. Sometimes she'd even let me. It looks as soft as ever. Her blue eyes are sad, but I expected that. She always looked sad. My mother is beautiful. The drugs aged her, but only a little. She hadn't been hard core when she died. She might have been doing heroin for maybe a couple months.

"My beautiful girl," her voice sighs through the room.

"What are you doing here?" I ask her. My hand automatically searches for the nurses call button, but I realize with a start, I can't do anything. My hands are bound. She could do some serious damage to me before anyone found out.

She reaches out to me and I flinch away. Her hand drops and there is regret in her eyes.

"You were such a beautiful baby. I loved you the minute I saw you. You were smiling before you were a month old. There was this joy in you even as a baby. I only ever wanted to protect you. Please remember that. I love you more than life itself, Mattie."

"Then why did you try to kill me?" I hear no fear in my voice, no emotion at all really. Honestly, I think I'm just tapped out for the day. After what I went through, my Mom doesn't scare me all that much anymore.  Not that I'm gonna let go of the nurses call button, though. I'm not stupid. I'll figure out a way to use the darn thing.

"To protect you, but I can't anymore. You are shining like a lighthouse. I can't do it anymore."

"I don't understand." Protect me from what?

The light I'd seen before at the house opens up in the window. My mother stares at it and then looks back at me. The light is for her.

"Forgive me, Mattie."

"For trying to kill me, Mamma?" I wasn't sure I could.

"No, not for that."

"Then for what?"

"Just remember everything I did, I did to keep you safe, sweetheart."

"You're not making sense, Mamma."

She smiles at me and then goes over to stand in front of the light. She tells me one thing before she walks into that glowing warmth.

"I'm not your mother, Mattie."

End of Book One...please don't forget to vote for each chapter! 

**  There are more books, but only a chapter or two from each is uploaded to Wattpad as per my publisher's mandate. I'm sorry, I really wish I could put them all up! **