Phantom of a Good Thing

Deep in the Woods

Melody’s foot was caught in some pesky tree’s roots, which had no business being so far out of the ground, and had no business spraining her ankle either. She certainly was not afraid of the spooky, dark forest she had come to explore based on reports of a ghost roaming amongst the trees. Melody normally wasn’t fearful during her ghost hunts, she wondered what was different this time.

A twig snapped in the distance. She tugged on her foot again anxiously, why did she think it was a good idea to come here at night? She took a deep breath and stopped yanking, she won’t get anywhere that way. When she knelt down, a slight green glow caught the corner of her eye. Whipping her head around, she got a glimpse of a floating figure passing behind a thick oak.

She finally managed to dislodged her foot, and stood halfway into a crouch. When the glow diminished slightly she crept towards the ghost, surprised it hadn’t noticed her. It had looked humanoid from the brief glance she got, so it probably wasn’t an animalistic apparition. Perhaps it was less hostile or just unobservant. Whatever the case, she readied her ghost catching device and crept over to peak out into the small clearing.

Melody’s skin prickled and all of the hairs on her neck stood on end. Terror froze her in place.

Illuminating the clearing with it’s sickly blues and greens was a ghost starring up at the stars. Ectoplasm floated in globs around the ghosts body and seemed to pour from a precise Y incision on it’s chest as well as from it’s eyes, though none of it touched the forest floor. But that wasn’t what scared her. Along with the ectoplasm floated red blood, as well as two severed, human, limbs that seemingly replaced it’s own.

She was way out of her league. It must have just been toying with her, there was no way it didn’t know she was there. Her breathing quickened and she stumbled backwards, landing hard on her butt. She hardly noticed though, because the terrifying creature slowly looked back down and warbled in ghost-speak before approaching. Lazily, it floated her way.

She held her breath and prepared to die. Melody had always assumed she would die fighting a ghost, but not like this. She expected to go out guns blazing, and now she would die slowly in the middle of nowhere. Cold radiated in front of her and her breath hitched as she felt the ghost’s freezing touch on her cheek.

“Mother? Have you finally come for me?” It spoke in a hushed, static like voice. Like a really bad radio connection.

The voice was that of a child.

“I- I’m not your mother,” Melody explained, unsure of what else she should say.

It gave another warble that sounded like crying before touching her sprained ankle and floating back into the woods. The pain from her ankle disappeared the instant it touched it and she rolled it around. Standing up, she realized she was fully healed.

---

“Yeah, it sounded very young.” Melody told the small group of ghost hunters.

“Did you capture it?” The younger woman chirped.

“No, I think the ghost creates false emotions to keep people out. The fear in the air was practically permeable, it consumed me.”

The large blond man gasped, “This ghost managed to scare Melody?”

“Like I said, it wasn’t my fear. But anyways, that’s not the point-” Melody redirected, “This ghost isn’t hostile and it sounds like a teen, but I can’t understand its appearance… Why is it so messed up?”