The Ghost Files

Chapter Six

The musty damp smell assaults me. My nose crinkles in disgust. I hate anything that stinks. I religiously clean my room and invest in air fresheners. When I was little, we lived in a rundown apartment on the ground floor of a decrepit old building in New Orleans. Whenever it rained, we got flooded. The place would stink like stagnant water and mold for days. It made me sick to my stomach on a daily basis. It's a smell I never forgot and that's what I smell now.

My eyes blink open and there's very little light in the room, only the slightly-cracked-open hallway door. At least the headache has eased up a bit. The smell is killing me though. It's gathering at the back of my throat and I want to gag. It's so bad, my eyes start to water. I reach out, looking for the switch to the lights above my hospital bed. The minute I turn them on, I can see what is causing the smell.

Sitting in the chair beside the bed is a girl about my age. Blonde hair, matted with blood, hangs limply down her back. Her jeans and tee-shirt are caked with mud and splattered with blood. She smells of dirt and stale standing water and she's blindfolded.

Fear claws its way up my spine, fast and hard. I keep expecting the pain to come back, but it's just a dull ache now. I'm afraid to move, afraid she'll do something. My hand searches for the nurse's button, but I freeze when she turns her head in my direction. What's she gonna do?

"Am I dead?"

"I... guess, maybe, I don't know," I whisper. And I didn't know. She still has color in her cheeks and her complexion isn't pasty or waxy. She doesn't really look like a ghost, but I get that same cold feeling from her I get from the others.

"I'm scared."

No kidding, I almost snort aloud. It's something I'm getting used to myself.

"I thought when you died you were supposed to see this bright light and then you'd go to Heaven. I didn't see it. Does that mean I'm going to hell?"

Do I look like Dr. Phil? I have no clue.

"No one else can see me," she says. "I'm cold, so cold."

"Where are you?"

"I... I... don't know."

"What's your name?"

"Mary," she says. "I just wanted to go see Jimmy so I snuck out of the house. My mom worked a fourteen hour shift, so I knew she'd sleep all night. Jimmy and I got in this huge fight and I needed to tell him I was sorry. He only lives a few minutes down the block and I took my bike instead of the car so I wouldn't wake Mom. I remember it started to rain and then I saw headlights coming when I turned the corner. I tried to get out of the way, but it all just happened so fast I couldn't stop."

Aw man, she died in a hit and run? That sucks. No, wait. Why does she have a blindfold on if she got hit by a car? It makes no sense.

"Why are you blindfolded?" I ask her softly, my finger firmly attached to the nurse button. She seems nonviolent so far, but I'm not taking any chances.

"I woke up and tried to open my eyes," she tells me. "I couldn't. I couldn't move at all. I think I'm sitting up, but I can't be sure. I'm scared. He hurts me."

She got nabbed by a killer, maybe even the same one who got Sally. Then again maybe not.  Time to find out.

"How did you find me?"

"I'm not sure. They were talking about you..."

"They?" I interrupt her.

"I can hear them talking softly, whispering. They leave me when he comes. They said you could see them and I don't know, I just thought about you and... and here I am. I don't know how."