The night was cold and Eric had just been able to finally fall asleep after a long day of school. He had started school two days ago and already wanted it to end.
Relaxing into his covers all he could hear was the wind blowing outside and the soft snores of Xavier. Eric took a deep breath and closed his eyes. A soft whisper got his attention, it sounded as if it were coming from the hallway. He softly groaned and tried to block it out, only for it to get a little louder. The whisper then demanded his attention as it sounded as though it was right in his ear. “Eric…” he jumped and sat up, looking over he saw that Xavier was fast asleep. His heart began to race, who was saying his name? He slipped out of his bed and quietly walked over to the door. Very easily cracking it open he looked down the hall both ways and saw no one there. He stood straight and rubbed at his face. Maybe he was just so tired that he was hearing things. “Eric…can you hear me…?” The soft voice sounded strangely familiar to him, he began to follow it down the hall. “Come back to me honey…please…” Eric didn’t understand was he following a ghost? He saw the soft white outline of a woman reaching out to him; she was standing next to one of the large arched hall windows. The curtain was flowing around her in the wind, the window was open. That was strange, Mrs. Doming had all the windows bolted shut so the smaller kids didn’t accidently fall out. Despite his sudden fear he found himself walking over to her slowly, his feet making barely any noise on the hall carpet. The woman smiled at him and faded as he got closer he looked around for her and then looked out the open window. There she was next to the large willow tree in the back courtyard. Her ghostly voice called out to him “Eric, darling come here please.” This time without hesitating he turned and ran down the hall towards the stairs. His bare feet flew down the steps then across the floor. Almost slamming into the back doors he flings one open and darts out into the cold night making his way to the willow tree. Standing there under the overhanging branches he couldn’t see her anywhere, but he could hear her voice. “Eric…I love you honey…” With that she was quiet all he could hear now was the wind howling through the bare trees. “Who was she…?” Eric turned and looked around the tree, maybe she brought him here for a reason. He knelt down at the base of the tree and ran his hand over the soil feeling around for anything that should be there. His fingers soon ran over something hard and smooth, pulling it free he dusted it off and held it up so the moon light would allow him a better look. It was a locket, carefully prying it open he saw old pictures of a man and a woman in the picture holders. “Mom…Dad…?”
The next morning Eric was groggy, after chasing after the ghost of a woman and then finding a locket with the pictures of his mother and father in it he didn’t get any sleep. He kept rolling the locket around in his fingers as he walked with Xavier and a few other older kids to the bus stop. “Eric are you okay?” Xavier’s sudden question made Eric jump; he looked up at him and tried to put a smile on his tired face. “Yeah…I’m fine.” Xavier just shrugged his shoulders and kept walking. Eric’s mind was going crazy with questions that he wanted answers to.
Eric can’t remember anything from school; he was too tired and kept falling asleep in his classes. When he was awake he was thinking about last night and if that was really the ghost of his mother. What was that locket doing on the grounds and how did it get there? When the bus dropped off all the kids Eric ran to the willow tree and knelt down in front of it. Perhaps there was more that he missed last night in the dark. After a while of searching he didn’t find anything so he just sat with his back against the tree and pulled out a notebook from his backpack.
Two hours passed and Eric finished a picture of the ghostly woman from last night. Pulling out the locket he compared the faces and it was the same woman. The ghost woman was his mom. What was she doing here; the town he lived in was hours away from here. What was this locket doing here when she was wearing it that night? He needed answers but didn’t know where to start looking; maybe he could find something in the library.
Eric rushed through the old building down the maze of hallways until he got to the library. He searched all of the shelves for anything that might help him understand all these strange things going on. He couldn’t find anything on his family of the fire, there was no logical way that his mother’s locket could possibly be here. There was no way it could have gotten here, because she was buried with it. “Eric” jumping at the sound of his name he turned around to see Xavier standing there staring at him with a worried glance.”Eric, you are acting really strange. What is going on with you?” Eric took a deep breath and nodded softly, he knew by Xavier’s eyes that he wouldn’t be able to get out of telling it all. Sitting down at a table he motioned for Xavier to join him. He started with talking about the dream he head that was more like a memory of what happened. After he was done talking he had covered everything that had happened up to last night. “So you think the ghost of your mother brought that locket here for you to find?” Xavier didn’t seem taken back about it, more like he was very interested. “Maybe I don’t know. What I do know is that it was her.” Eric rubbed at his eyes and placed the locket on the table. “Eric you look really tired, maybe it would be best if you went and took a nap.” Xavier had worry laced on his words. Eric just nodded and got up from the table; grabbing the locket he pushed it into his pocket. “I have to leave for work in an hour, I work graveyard shift tonight.” Eric shook his head, he needed the money but this graveyard shift would end up killing him. Xavier looked over at Eric and shared his head shake. “You need a new job, Eric.” Eric gave a half smile to his friend and started to walk away, calling out behind him. “I’ll think about it.”
Later that night the sound of sobbing woke Eric up; he had fallen asleep with his head against the counter. He worked as a coder at this small business; he basically copied the codes from this paper and typed it into the program. Standing up he looked around slowly, his voice slightly shaky he calls out “Hello? Who is there…?” Stepping around the desk he looked around the room with about 4 other computers, he was supposed to be the only one here. There was no one to be seen in the room with him, so he walks rather swiftly to the door and peeks out, looking down the hall on both sides of the door. The sobbing continues but it gets a little louder as he begins to walk down the hall. He comes to a room with just a desk and a chair, the light sort of flickers and he can see the same ghostly woman sitting on the chair, she was holding her face and crying hard. “Mom…?” He couldn’t hear his own voice all he could hear was her crying and a breathy ghostly voice as she spoke. “Please…please…let him come back…please…my poor baby…” Eric reached out and tried to touch her but his hand went right through her.
“I’m telling you it was her!” Eric was franticly talking to Xavier in their dorm room. After seeing the same woman he saw before he ran home right away. “Calm down Eric, so she seems to be following you. Maybe she is connected to you.” Xavier was trying to calm his friend down because he was way too loud and they would surely get in trouble for being up this late. “I don’t even know, Xavier what do I do?” Eric shook his head and plopped down on his bed, rubbing his temples and trying to think. “I don’t know how to help you dude, I have never had this problem.” Xavier’s face looked very tired, the red numbers on their clock read 4:28am now and they had to wake up in about 2 hours for school. “Why not just try and sleep tonight, I really do not want to see you go two nights without sleep, Eric.” Xavier sat down on his bed and looked at Eric with a look of concern. “Yeah…I guess you’re right.” Eric let out a long sigh and got ready for bed, yawning he realizes now just how tired he was. He falls asleep as soon as his head hits his pillow.
Colors swirl and form pictures, the pictures move and the scene is when Eric was younger, before the fire. He was in the backyard playing with his best friend from down the street. They were playing tag and his mother was watching them from the kitchen window, smiling brightly at them as she did the dishes. Eric trips over a rock and falls down scrapping his knee, he starts to cry as he sees blood. His crying comes out sounding like a siren and then sounds like an alarm.
Eric is woken up by the alarm going off, groggy and feeling very tired and sore he lays there a moment. Xavier turns over and smacks the alarm off, grumbling something about wanting more sleep. Eric sort of smiles and forces himself up. Both boys get ready for school and head out the door after grabbing some cereal bars for breakfast. Sitting on the bus Eric is staring out the window as usual when the bus begins to slow down and stop. It doesn’t usually stop here, Eric looks up to see a new girl climb onto the bus. She has long reddish brown hair and big beautiful blue eyes, her slender shape shimmies down the aisle; she takes the empty seat across from Eric and relaxes back against the seat. Eric can’t help but sneak a look over at her; just as he does she catches him and gives him a soft smile. He smiles back at her and looks back out the window not saying anything despite how bad he wanted to say hi to her, he was just too nervous.
School dragged on for what seemed like forever, the teachers, the school work, the lectures, and then the “Don’t forget your homework!” before you are even out the door. When Eric got on the bus that afternoon he was beyond exhausted. The new girl wasn’t on so he decided to just rest his head and close his eyes; a quick nap on the bus never hurt anyone. When the bus came to a stop at the orphanage he was jolted awake by Xavier shoving him. “Come on, Eric.” Xavier slightly chuckled and followed the line of kids off the bus. Eric looked out the window and nearly jumped out of his skin when there was the ghostly face on the woman staring back at him, her face riddled with sadness. Eric quickly darted from the bus and almost ran into Xavier. “Are you alright Eric?” Xavier looked at him with worry; all Eric could do for the moment was breathe and stare in disbelief at the bus. “I-I saw her…in the window…”
Eric didn’t have work today so as soon as they got into their dorm, Eric lay down and tried to sleep. No dreams came to him, but he could hear this soft weeping voice speaking to him. “Eric, please come back…wake up…” Jolting up right in his bed Eric was sweating and cold all at once, panting he could barely catch his breath. He was met by a very frightened Xavier.”Eric, what is it, what is wrong?” Xavier sat next to him and rubbed his back until he was calm. “That voice…I could hear her voice…” Eric was starting to think that he was just going insane, that all of this was just his mind giving up.”I am starting to really worry about you, Eric.” Xavier has a soft frown on his face. Eric just rubs his forehead and lies back against his pillow; he was so tired that he passed right back out.
“Eric!!” The woman’s voice called out to him. There is a loud crash and the sound of scraping metal. Sirens are blazing mixing with unfamiliar voices speaking unknown words. Overpowering pain causes Eric to open his eyes and sit up clutching at his chest. What kind of dream was that? Looking over he saw the clock read 3:34am, letting out a sigh he slips from his bed and goes to take a hot shower. The hot water felt good against his aching body, he felt relaxed and brand new. Stepping out he dried his hair and stepped up to the mirror, pulling the towel away he gasps loudly and stares at the mirror. Written in the fog of the window is ‘Eric please come back’ He bites his bottom lip and wipes the message away. He tries to push it away in his head and forget about it. As he leaves the bathroom the ghostly voice of his mother sounds right in his ear “Come back, Eric.” He stops dead in his tracks and shakes his head. There was nowhere to go back to. He couldn’t go back; he knew he needed to move forward in his life.
Eric still had a while before he had to go to school so he decided to go for a walk. Walking down the stairs he hears something thud as if someone was banging on a door. He tries to follow where this thud came from, but it leads him to a hall closet. He shakes his head and starts to walk away, only to be stopped by another loud thud coming from that door. “What the…?” he slowly opens the door and all he can see is cleaning supplies piled on the floor and single shelf of the closet. Eric cocks his brow and goes to shut the door, but right then a pair of ghostly hands shoot out of the wall and grab a hold of his shirt. With a yelp of surprise he tries to fight the hands as they pull him into the wall and he feels like he is falling, he can’t see anything. Suddenly he sees a light below him and he is falling right for it, when he hits the light he falls into a body of water. He reacts quickly and pushes to the surface, gasping for breath.
Looking around he sees a grassy shore next to water, swimming over he pulls his soaked body from the water and sits looking around in astonishment, he was sitting on the grassy bank of a lake. Lined by a forest on all sides this lake was a clear crystal color of blue, the sky was clear and it was day time. The air smelled clean and clear and the trees were a bright healthy green. Standing up Eric walks towards the forest when a crisp lovely voice calls out from his left. “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you!” Eric looks over to see a girl with bright blue hair sitting on a rock; she was wearing a knee length cloth dress. Her eyes were a lovely color of blue, bright and soul deep. Her face looked sort of familiar to Eric, where had he seen her before…”Why shouldn’t I go in there?” He walked over to her and pushed his hands into his pockets. “Cause you would die.” She cocked her head and smiled at him “All that go in there never come out.”