A Ghost Story

Chapter 13

It was hard for me to accept ghosts. All my life, the paranormal had been a mysterious, intangible speculation, romanticized by Hollywood and Stephen King. It had made existence more interesting, not knowing whether or not there was something beyond what we could see, and to have that taken away was like dulling the edge of a knife, especially if that knife represented the unknown. Some part of me clung to my lifelong idea that ghosts might be real with such a firm grip that I couldn't bring myself to believe with certainty that a real ghost had created that depressing song which had permeated the rain and thunder to reach where I had been laying, already startled, in the grass and mud. It had seemed so real and frightening in the moment, but later, when I could sit ponderously in quiet and there was no threat on my life, I didn't find it reasonable to just believe without skepticism that I had finally had my first encounter with the paranormal.

And so my mind was stuck in limbo, as it bounced between reasons to believe and reasons not to believe.

But there was another problem. That day, a Saturday, I woke up with a horrible stomach ache and I spent most of my morning on the toilet.

It didn't take me long to put the pieces together and figure out that Caroline had pulled a fast one on me by putting laxatives in my tea. The extra sugar and honey must have been meant to hide the taste of them. And she had given me that creepy smile before I left....

I hated her for being so untrusting and judgemental of me. I was perfectly innocent and yet she had taken out all of her wrath on me. And who was to say that she was even telling the truth about anything at all? What if the story had just been to gain attention and it had all been a sick, elaborate hoax?

As much as it would have been cool and amazing if I could absolutely believe in her and her ghost, I knew that it was equally unlikely that it was real, especially considering that she didn't seemed frightened of it in the slightest.

But as much as I hated her for everything, I couldn't help but notice that she was beautiful, especially when she was only illuminated by the lightning at 1 in the morning, mud smeared across her face like she was a ferocious warrior of the night. And on some level, her mysterious demeanor drew me in.

Nonetheless, I hoped I would never have to deal with her again. It had all been a silly mistake made out of my confused May mind.

So I was taken completely by surprise when I found her sitting in the passenger seat of my convertible blue Honda in the school parking lot after the last day of school on May 31st...