The Ghost Files

Chapter Fourteen

I'm so out of my depth with this spook stuff. All I want is for everything to go back to the way it was. I just want the ghosts to go away, for me to be able to ignore them, and get back to a semi-normal life. I wish I didn't have this cursed gift. It sucks royally.

That thought causes me to think of my mom. Was that why she started to do drugs? Had she seen the ghosts too? Did shooting up keep them away? Did she try to kill me to protect me from this? These questions I have asked myself for years and as always, I have no answer. I don't really know why those questions pop up at such random times, but I guess because they are always lurking in the back of my mind.

Sighing, I pull myself up, sit on the toilet and inspect my ankle. I wince. There's a knot the size of a small baseball already forming and the skin is starting to bruise. Nasty sprain. Well fudgepops. How am I going to explain this to Jake? No way can I hop to the movies now. He's already jealous of Dan and now when he finds out I spent the morning with him, it could get ugly.

After about twenty minutes of sitting and twiddling my thumbs, I get impatient. No, sitting idly and hoping someone will save me isn't my style. I have always saved myself and right now isn't any different. Okay... I hop to the door and crack it open. No sign of Oliver. Is it safe to try a hobble to the stairs? It's only one room over. I set my foot down and put weight on it. Pain shoots up my leg into my hip. Uh, no. Crap. I ease off the pressure. Definitely a no-go. Pain I don't do in any way shape or form.

I can still hop, though. I cut my foot going out the window in Jersey when I ran away. I had to hop and hobble to the train station and managed just fine. What is one snake compared to a fifteen-mile walk on a foot that ended up with nine stitches? I can do this. Maybe.

The door makes an awful creaking sound when I open it wider. I do a careful search of the surroundings for the snake, but can't see him. Maybe he went back to his furnace. I can only hope so, then take one careful hobble and wait. No hissing. Now that I'm outside of the safety of the bathroom, of course, I get nervous. If I fall and can't get up in time, the snake will wrap around me and it'll be game over. I swallow, jump another step and listen.

Silence.

So far so good. Another hop, this one bigger than the last. I'm about ten feet from the bathroom door, but at least another ten or fifteen from the door leading into the main room of the basement where the stairs are. Oliver's furnace is the next room over, to my right. He seems to be staying put. Maybe he found a rat or something to munch on.

Four more jumps and I'm at the door to the main room. Yes. I did it.

The hissing starts and I turn in time to see the snake slinking out from under the stairs. Well darn it. So much for that. Now can I make a run for it on one leg? That is the question. No. But I can jump. I turn without another look at the snake and start jumping.

It slithers between my foot and the one I have slightly raised and startles me enough to fall flat on my butt. The snake turns before I can get up, but I try anyway. It's on me before I can even stand. Its body starts to wind around my legs. I can feel the pressure of it beginning to tighten as more of it winds up my body.

"DAAAAAAAAN!!!" The head, where's the head? I look for it, trying not to panic any more than I am. The snake will only respond to panic by increasing more pressure. I reach out blindly, trying to find a weapon, but there's nothing. Why couldn't I have just stayed in the stupid bathroom? I can see those little beady eyes drawing closer, its tongue flickering in and out of its mouth. Oliver's mouth opens and I see those awful sharp teeth.

"DAN, DAN, DAN, DAN, DAAAN!"

The upstairs door flies open and there are footsteps pounding down the stairs. Men in brown uniforms are there, harnessing the snake's head mere inches from my own. It hisses and only tightens its hold on me, truly crushing me. If they don't get it off soon, I'm going to have broken bones. Then mercifully, the other one starts to unwind the snake and then I'm free.

Dan is there, picking me up and carrying me upstairs. Tears slip free. I can't help it. I've never been more scared in my life. Paramedics are there too, and a few police officers. Dan hands me off to one of the paramedics and runs back downstairs.

They check my leg and then tell me I'll need to go the hospital to make sure nothing's broken. Oh, great. It's not often they get calls to check out crushing injuries due to a snake, they say. Well, it's not often I'm near enough to a snake for a crushing injury, so we're even. Plus, they want to make sure I don't have a concussion. The paramedics load me up on the gurney and start hauling me out when I hear the other police officers start to question Dan as to why we were here in the first place. I can't let him get in trouble for helping me.

"Excuse me, Officer?"  I make my voice as soft as I can. My face is streaked with tears and I know I have to be white as a ghost, no pun intended. "It's not Dan's fault. It's mine."

"Yours?" The officer who turns to me could be about his mom's age. She looks concerned, but there is a slight frostiness to her eyes. Yup, Officer Dan is in big trouble.

"Yes, ma'am," I nod. I close my eyes and concentrate for a moment and when I look up, there are tears in my eyes. "Ever since my foster sister went missing, I have been out just walking, hoping that if she did run away, that I can find her."

The officer's face softens. She can hear the pain in my voice. 

"I was walking by here and saw the door open. I thought someone might be trying to rob the place since Mrs. Roberts passed away. Dan was driving by and saw me looking in. He recognized me from the night my sister went missing. He stopped to ask what was going on and I told him that I thought someone had broken in. He TOLD me to stay put, not to go inside, but I didn't listen to him. I went in and saw the basement door open. I wasn't thinking clearly, I guess with Sally's disappearance and all. I thought for just a second, maybe it was Sally. Maybe she broke in and just wanted a warm place to stay. I went downstairs and I heard Dan yelling at me to stop, but by then it was too late. I saw the snake and tripped. I barely made it to the bathroom."

"You poor thing," the officer says soothingly.

"I didn't mean any harm," I sniffle.  "I just wanted to find my sister."

"Of course you did."

"Dan told me to stay in the bathroom, that'd he'd get me out, but I just freaked out, you know? I couldn't take it another minute. I had to get out. If I had listened to him in the first place none of this would have happened. I'm so sorry. None of this is his fault. It's all mine. He didn't do anything wrong."

"It's okay, honey," she tells me.  "Let's get you to the hospital and get you checked out, okay?"

I nod, satisfied that I've managed to thwart the worst of it. Dan is eyeing me with a new-found respect and just a hint of fear. I keep telling him I'm a really good liar. I wink at him as I go by. Now, how am I gonna explain all this to my boyfriend?