A Ghast Story
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| Ghast by Jessica Muni |
As Roger was walking to the bathroom, he glanced through a window, absent of any reason to do so. Between yawning and turning his head to the bathroom door, he paused and reversed his last step. He double-checked what he thought he saw through the window in the backyard, and his uncertainty became certain.
Out on the lawn, lit by muted floodlights from the garage, was the figure of a girl in a long white dress. She had long black hair that looked wet and covered her face. As he looked more closely, though, he could see that she wasn't looking in his direction. He checked where she was facing: there wasn't anything but unoccupied grass and white vinyl fence.
He tapped on the window, but she didn't move. He tapped a little harder, hoping to get her attention but not to send a sharp noise through the house, and she quickly lifted her head to the side. He tapped one more time, risking a few more decibels, and the girl pulled some of the hair away from her face so she could use one of her bright-red eyes to see where the sound was coming from. She looked around for just a moment when she saw Roger waving in the window. She rolled her eyes and shook her head after she realized she had manifested facing the wrong way. She let her hair fall back over her eye, then turned to face the right way, looking at Roger. He gave her a thumb up, let out another yawn, then went into the bathroom before the girl could get her slowly raising thumb into full view.
Later that morning, when the lady of the house, Erica, was getting ready for the day, she was brushing her teeth and checking her face for acne in the bathroom mirror. She bent over to spit, and when she stood straight, in the mirror she saw a girl in the shower facing the shampoo corner. It was the girl in the long white dress, again. Erica used her toothbrush to tap on the mirror, but it couldn't be heard because she was tapping brush-side, so she used her fingernail. The girl raised her head and hurriedly turned it to the side. Erica rinsed her toothbrush while she watched the girl lift her hair from her face. The girl moved her head this way and that, clearly with utter confusion, until she finally turned around. When she saw Erica, the girl rolled eyes and shook her head. She immediately spun around. Erica gave her a thumb up in the mirror, then put her toothbrush away, swished some mouthwash, spit one last time, and left while the girl slowly lifted one thumb into full view.
A few days later, Erica and Roger's teenage daughter, Alice, was climbing the pull-down stairs up into the attic with a box to put into storage. Alice balanced the box on her hip while she reached up to pull a string and turn on the attic light. She set down the box, then lifted the steps to the latch. Unbeknownst to her, though, the moment the light came on, the girl in the long white dress had appeared in front of Alice. When Alice saw the girl, she stood there, frozen. It took a handful of moments of silence for the girl to panic and lift her hair away from her bright-red eye to be sure she was facing the right way. When she did, she saw Alice right in front of her. The girl smiled, let her hair fall back in front of her eye, then slowly lifted her hand high over her head. Alice lifted her hand, as well. They moved closer to each other, then swung their hands into a high and low-five, shouting in excitement, Alice's hand whiffing right through the girl's. Alice picked up the box with an extra 'woot', and took a look around to see where it would fit, then set it down in a gap near the far end of the attic, pulled the string to turn the light off, unlatched the steps, walked out, and pushed the steps back up into place. All the while, the girl was slowly raising her thumb into full view. In the dark.
The next week, Erica and Roger's ten year-old daughter, Max, was pushing the tree swing, but no one was in the seat. When Erica drove into the driveway and spotted Max doing this, she walked up and asked her what was going on. Max indicated she was pushing her friend on the swing, and when Erica looked more closely at the seat, she saw the translucent figure of the girl in the long white dress staring at her with her bright-red eyes glowing in the sunlight. Erica gathered her nerves and implored the girls to please take turns, but she forgot the girl in the long white dress didn't have physical hands to push Max. Max told her mom about this discrepancy. Erica gave herself an 'oh, duh' bonk on the forehead with the butt of her hand, and, with a self-aware scoff, she left them with a playfully stern voice that they should at least try. The girls giggled and kept playing with the swing.
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One evening, the family was sitting at an empty dinner table. Erica was holding Roger's hand, Alice was slumped in her chair, and Max was sitting on the bench under the window, looking out. All of them had tears in their eyes. They were waiting for the girl to manifest so they could give her some distressing news. The girl had manifested, but she was off by one room. It took her a few minutes of waiting for taps or breath to know if anyone could see her, but she didn't hear anything. She started to walk around the house to find the family, fighting with her hair the whole time so she could see where she was going. She finally found them, but by this time, they were all out of tears.
Roger spotted her first, and he opened his mouth to say something, but couldn't get the words out, so he closed his eyes and dropped his head. Erica gave Roger's hand a shaky squeeze, like its muscles were tired from squeezing juice from too many lemons. She beckoned the girl to come closer and invited her to sit down. The girl just stood. They informed her that they were going to move, and that they didn't know if she could come with them, which made them sad because they might have to say goodbye. The girl indicated to them to follow her out of the room.
She led them to a hutch full of old porcelain dolls that were there before they moved in. She pointed her finger. Roger slowly walked to the hutch and pointed to the dolls to make sure they were what the girl was pointing at. She nodded her head. He glanced at Erica, and they quickly talked about how 'she must be tied to one of these dolls.' Roger gave a small nod back to the girl. He asked her which doll tied her to this mortal realm. She raised her finger, again, and pointed at one very specific doll. Roger couldn't tell which one, though, since there were dozens all crowded together. He pointed at one, but the girl shook her head, 'no'. He pointed to another one. 'No.' Another one. 'No.' He went to a different row of dolls, and pointed with a more frustrated look in his eye than he intended. She shook her head, and her pointing became more animated. Erica was getting impatient, so she stepped in and started pointing, as well. With every point from the couple, the girl's answer was always, 'no'. There were so many dolls, that it would take over an hour to point at each one of them, so they started pointing at as many dolls as they could as quickly as they could. The girl tried to guide them by pointing a finger from each hand for each parent. Alice and Max were shouting suggestions, all at once. Finally, the girl threw her hands down and stomped on the ground, then stomped to the doll, herself, picked it up, and shoved it into Roger's chest. Roger saw the little doll was wearing a long white dress and had long black hair, just like the girl. He muttered something under his breath about how she could have just grabbed the right doll in the first place, but the little girl said nothing in response.
Everyone finally settled down and went back into the kitchen. They asked the girl that, if they were to take the doll with them, would they be able to take her with them, too. She nodded with a smile, and they all decided she would move with them.
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It was moving day, and everyone was excited to see the new place. Everything was packed and ready to be loaded onto the moving truck and into the family's two cars. The girls were all talking, with Max and the girl in the long white dress giggling to each other. The girl was barely visible in the light, but her bright-red eyes were shining brighter than ever before.
Roger brought out the last box, set it in the moving truck, and walked up to the girls. He had a glib look on his face and had his hands behind his back. The girls gave a chuckle and asked what he was hiding. He shrugged, and said it was nothing, just the doll that was going to let the girl in the long white dress stay with them, forever. As he was bringing it to the front, though, he accidentally dropped it on the concrete driveway.
Everyone went silent. The girl looked at Roger with absolute incredulity. Alice and Erica both froze, wide-eyed, covering their mouths. Max screamed and scrambled to pick up each broken piece in order to put them back together, but to no avail. Roger looked at the girl as though to plead for her forgiveness, but she just rolled her eyes and disappeared into the next life.
They swept up the pieces, and no one said a word on the way to the new house.
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