A Tale of Two Ghosts

by Sarah Riad

  I walked in and was instantly overcome with rage as I read the word ‘LOSER’ written on the window using the dirt that had settled on it.

  ‘Stay out of my room!’ I yelled as I attempted to push Theo in the chest but barely causing him to take a step back.

  ‘What are you on about, you idiot? I haven’t been in your room.’ He rolled his eyes at me.

  ‘Will you boys ever just stop!’ Mum sighed in the hallway.

  ‘Tell your son to stop accusing me of going into his room then.’ Theo pulled a face.

  Mum looked over at me. ‘How on earth could he get into your room when he was at school with you the whole day?’

  Theo shook his head and walked off back into his room, closing the door behind him as I stormed off into my room.

  ‘Then who did that?’ I said pointing to the window.

  Before Mum could think up an excuse, Maia walked past her into the room and gave me a look.

  ‘It was AB.’

  11

  Ab

  Hey, you little rat. I thought we were pals,’ I said, but Maia ignored me.

  ‘Maia, you really need to stop with this AB thing.’ Cait sighed as she picked up one of the used towels on Finn’s floor and wiped my handiwork off the window.

  ‘Fine, don’t believe me.’ Maia stormed out of the room past me and into her room.

  I felt a twinge of regret as I watched Cait look at her son sadly before leaving him to sulk in his room. I poked my head into Maia’s room, quietly watching her set up an evening of ‘tea with teds’.

  ‘You’re not invited,’ she said as she roughly forced her teddy, Jam Jam, to sit at the table.

  ‘Are you mad at me?’ I cautiously stepped into the room.

  She spun on her heel and looked at me with low eyebrows and crossed arms. ‘You’re a bad person, AB.’

  ‘Hey, I’m not a bad person.’ I sighed. ‘It was just a joke.’

  ‘I don’t think you’re funny. You were mean to my brother, and I don’t want to be your friend anymore.’ She sat at her table, waiting for me to leave.

  ‘I’m sorry, kid.’ I weakly smiled feeling as though I had been told off by a parent. I left the room and made my way back to the library feeling disappointed in myself for upsetting my only friend.

  Hours later, once the sun had long gone and most of the house had fallen asleep, I heard what sounded like Maia crying. Quickly, I left the library, leaving Mitzi asleep beside me and made my way to her room to find Finn had beaten me there. He was sitting on Maia’s bed, gently brushing the stray hairs out of her face. I hid in the poorly lit corner and watched as she reached out for his arm and hugged it like a soft toy.

  ‘What was your bad dream about?’ he whispered.

  She looked up at him and whispered, ‘That AB kept being mean to you.’

  Argh, I’m giving the kid nightmares.

  Finn nodded. ‘Who is AB, Maia?’

  She sighed, and I knew it was because she was frustrated that no one else could see me. ‘She’s a girl that lives here.’

  ‘You mean, like a ghost?’ he said calmly, and Maia nodded.

  ‘I think so. She said she died a long time ago.’

  Finn stayed quiet for a moment before whispering, ‘Is she here now?’

  Maia shook her head. ‘No, I told her I didn’t want to be her friend because she was mean to you.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Finn smiled before tucking her in. ‘Ok, no more nightmares, right?’

  She smiled and nodded confidently. ‘Goodnight, Finn.’

  He stood up and watched her turn onto her side before he left the room with me following behind. Back in his room, he switched off his light and climbed into bed. Just as I was about to leave the room, he turned over and pulled his laptop out.

  ‘You really should listen to your mum. Those dark circles are worthy of an award,’ I said walking over to look at his screen. With no mistakes, he quickly typed out a street name before the screen displayed lots of words and pictures.

  He clicked a few times and brought up what looked like a newspaper.

  ‘A petition signed by the locals of Newberry Village has been dismissed by the council on the agreement that the owner will refurbish the abandoned house which has been deemed a hazard to locals. Locals say that the house, which has been unoccupied for over thirty years, should be turned into flats for prospective tenants but instead has become a place for teens to hang out.’

  I stopped reading out loud as Finn changed the page again.

  ‘What teens? I wish there were teens. Maybe I wouldn’t have gotten so bored all these years,’ I said. I stopped caring once Finn typed ‘AB’ alongside the street name. After a few seconds of scrolling, he stopped leaving us both a little disappointed at the lack of results it showed. He then began typing once again, this time removing my name and replacing it with the word ‘haunted’.

  Clicking again, suddenly the screen was colourful with a bright green background and looked like a conversation between people with strange names, such as ‘NewlyBerry1000’.

  ‘Anyone actually been to the house? I went in the mid-1990s and there was definitely some crazy stuff going on. Doors banging and footsteps coming from upstairs. Anyone been recently?’

  ‘My son went a few years ago and said the same thing, but he seemed to think someone was living there and just getting off on scaring people.’

  ‘I went last year and there’s no way someone is living there. The place is haunted. It’s not right they’ve left it to rot like that.’

  ‘My uncle reckons there’s an old pervert that lives there.’

  Growing angry at the comments, I quickly got to my feet with a face of thunder. They were wrong. They had no idea what they were talking about.

  In the corner of my eye, as I threw a tantrum, I noticed Finn shiver and begin looking around his room. I felt a boost of energy, but Finn wasn’t frightened. He just seemed curious. Like it was not impossible for him to believe that I could exist. I couldn’t leave the house earlier but maybe that was because relying on Maia wasn’t enough. Maybe I needed to feed off another person. How much stronger could I be if Finn believed in me too? Maybe, just maybe, that would be enough for me to leave.

  Finn closed his laptop and before he closed his eyes, he gave the room a quick glance.

  I guess there’s only one way to find out.

  Over the next couple of days, I followed Finn around whenever he was in the house. I had come to learn his habits and daily routine. It would start with ignoring his alarm multiple times in the morning before groaning as Cait banged on his door. He’d sulk and sigh as he took to the bathroom to do the minimal in hygiene—a thirty-second brushing of the teeth and a splash of water to the face—before he’d return to his room and rummage into the black sacks that held his clothes. He needn’t worry about whether his chosen items would go well together as everything he owned seemed to be black. He finished his look with a quick ruffle of his overgrown hair before leaving his room to sit in silence around the breakfast table. Knowing he had no interest in talking to them, his family would usually exclude him from their chats about the day ahead or the one before except Maia who would flash him smiles now and again which he would always return. Once Finn had returned from school, he would always be in a bad mood and storm off into his bedroom where he would play graphic shooting games for hours until Cait shouted for him to have dinner. He wouldn’t usually be spoken to again during dinner and would quickly make himself disappear to his bedroom soon after.

  Watching him had made me question which one of us was the actual ghost. Sure, I was the dead one, but he seemed to exist in this world as much as I did.

  The school week had almost reached its end as they all left the house in a mad rush, as usual. Cait had announced she was going to go shopping and register Mitzi at the vets after doing the school run, so I knew I would be alone for a little longer than normal. My mind was far too busy to sit and read, and so I found myself doing the usual
walk around the house, ending up in Finn’s room as always. They had lived in the house for exactly a week and already it was far different to what it had been—except for Finn’s room. Somehow his room seemed to have gotten worse. Dirty clothes had begun to pile in the corner of the room and a smell of dirt and mould lingered in the air. He had done one thing: install a lock on his door so that no one could get in.

  Except me, of course.

  Frustrated at the state of the room, I pulled down the makeshift blind Finn had made by hanging a sheet and opened the window. In the daylight, the room looked even worse as it highlighted the rubbish in the dark corners. One corner homed the cleaning products Cait had given him the week before, and even they were beginning to collect dust. I sighed out loud as I reached into the bucket, pulling the black sacks out.

  If he wasn’t going to clean this room, then I would.

  After a few hours or so, the room was spotless, and almost everything had a new home. His wardrobe and drawers held the unlimited amounts of black clothing he owned while his desk was set up with his laptop and computer games. I had unrolled a grey carpet onto the swept floor and put clean sheets on the bed. I had even put up some blinds—though I had very nearly given up when I could no longer understand the stupid instructions. All I had left was one final box which I emptied onto the bed. I was ready to pack it all up again once I noticed the medals and trophies, thinking they had belonged to Theo when Finn’s name caught my eye.

  ‘First place at Klaxon Swimming Gala, first place at Junior Swimming Event, first place at Upper Brentfield Swimming Championship…’

  It was endless.

  My attention turned to a black book among the medals which revealed photos of a very different Finn. For starters, he was smiling in almost every photo. I sat down on the bed, grateful for the break as my energy was fast beginning to fade. I began to study each photo of him with friends, with Theo and his mum, even some of his dad, but there was one face that appeared more frequently than the rest. It was a boy his age, with lighter hair and dimples when he smiled. He had the kind of face that would always seem youthful no matter his age. I wondered where he was, and if he was the reason for Finn’s moods.

  I didn’t have to know Finn well to know that there was no place in the room for these things. A lot like the memories I had stored away. So instead of unpacking them all, I scooped them back into the box and hid it at the back of his wardrobe. There’d be a day he’d have to face them, just like I would, but today wasn’t that day.

  12

  Finn

  I felt I could breathe again when the school bell rang to signal the end of Friday. It was like I had spent the entire day holding my breath waiting for something bad to happen except it hadn’t been that bad at school since Theo had told TJ to back off. I wasn’t going to tell that to Theo, though. People avoided me like they had in my last school, and that I could deal with. I could be the loner kid as long as I was left alone.

  Mum couldn’t pick us up today since she had to collect Maia from a school trip at the same time that we finished, so instead Theo and I agreed to walk home. Not together though. He was still playing football when I bolted out of the school, following the route that my phone had suggested.

  It was the first time I had walked around in the new town. I couldn’t help but notice how much it felt like a movie set. There was no litter on the pavement, and the equally spaced trees were all perfectly trimmed. Even the buildings that were probably hundreds of years old looked new. Once I had gotten off the backroads near the school, I was greeted by a row of shops in a circle, surrounding a park which was also a circle with a fountain in the centre. Of course, every shop was family-owned and had the word ‘son’ in the name.

  I wondered for a moment why you never saw ‘daughter’ instead of ‘son’ since we were in the twenty-first century, but then I remembered where I was. This town could quite easily exist thirty years ago, and it would still fit in.

  ‘Excuse me.’ I heard over the music from my headphones and felt a tap on my shoulder.

  I pulled my headphones off as I turned to face the voice, dropping my eyes down to an elderly woman in front of me.

  She was wearing a blue and white apron covered in flour while holding a large white box.

  ‘Are you Jack’s son?’ she said as I watched specks of flour wiggle on the little hairs on her face.

  ‘No…I mean, yes.’ I stumbled as her brows met in the centre.

  ‘Well, what is it? Yes or no?’

  I nodded. ‘Yes.’ My stomach felt tight.

  ‘Right, well this is for your mum as a welcome to the town.’ She handed me the box. I could already smell the contents—an apple pie of some sort. ‘It’s just finished in the oven so if you get home now it’ll still be hot.’ She walked back into her shop without another word.

  I couldn’t decide on whether to keep the pie or throw it in the bin. It may contain some type of poison, considering how short she had been with me. I watched carefully as someone walked into her shop and was greeted the very same way I had been.

  ‘Well, get a move on then,’ she shouted as she noticed me staring.

  ‘Sorry,’ I said not nearly loud enough for her to hear but quickly walked off. For a little old lady, she was terrifying.

  I got a few minutes further down the street when I was stopped once again, but this time by a middle-aged man. He was also wearing an apron, but he was covered in blood as I looked up at the sign, ‘Malcolm & Sons – Butchers’.

  ‘You’re the new family up near the forest?’ he said in a low voice.

  I nodded before he walked back into his shop, to return seconds later with a big white bag.

  ‘Here’s some bits to keep you going for a week. I hear you’ve got a dog, so I’ve thrown together a bag of goodies for him too,’ he said, handing me the bag as I adjusted the cake box in my right arm.

  I didn’t dare tell him Mitzi was a girl.

  ‘Thank you,’ I said.

  ‘No need for thanks, consider it a welcome gift,’ he said with a smile before waving me off.

  I hadn’t taken more than ten steps when I was stopped again but this time it was by the girl that had picked up my phone after my run in with TJ. She hadn’t even opened her mouth to speak and I already felt my face burn up.

  ‘Hey, Finn, right?’ She smiled before eyeing up the stuff in my hands, ‘Been busy shopping, have we?’ She chuckled and I was pretty sure my windpipe had closed up and I would stop breathing at any minute. ‘I’m India.’

  I stood there just staring back her incapable of thinking of one word to say let alone a sentence.

  ‘Well, this has been fun. See you around.’ She said before the gentle creases of a smile reached her eyes. For a few seconds, I stood in the same spot watching her walk off before the wave from an elderly man caught my gaze. He hurried over to me with a large bag as I looked past him to find India. She was long gone.

  ‘Are you Cait’s son?’ The elderly smiled, already handing me the bag.

  I nodded and sighed. ‘Yep, that’s me.’

  ‘Where the hell have you been? And why have you not picked up your phone?’ Mum said as I walked into the door with arms aching from the bags that hung off them.

  ‘Oh gosh. What is all that stuff?’ she said once she had seen me.

  ‘Welcome gifts from just about every shop in this place,’ I said, standing still as she took the bags away from me.

  ‘Well, that is just so kind. I’ll have to get some thank you cards. Can you remember who gave you what?’ she said as I followed her into the kitchen with the stuff she couldn’t carry.

  ‘Mum, I barely remembered how to walk by the end of it. This town is weird. Who does this?’ I moaned.

  ‘Small towns do this kind of stuff. It’s not like the old place. They make a real effort here to look after each other. We should be grateful—this must have put a dent in their pockets,’ Mum said admiring the bags.

  ‘Yeah, well, it has left s
everal dents in my arms, so I’d say we’re even.’ I rubbed the red lines, feeling the temporary bruising.

  I left Mum to unpack the stuff and headed upstairs for my bedroom.

  ‘Mum,’ I yelled with a clenched jaw as I looked around my room. My heart was racing. My face grew hot. She quickly came up the stairs as I shouted once again, ‘I told you to stay out of my room!’

  ‘For the 100th time Finn, I did not go into your room. Nor did Theo or Maia or your dad.’ Mum sighed loudly enough for the whole stupid town to hear.

  ‘Then who cleaned it up?’ I said pushing the door open so she could see my bedroom. It had been completely changed with the walls painted white, blinds hung at my window, and none of my clothes on the floor. It also stunk of lavender.

  Mum’s eyebrows frowned slightly before she replied, ‘Well perhaps someone broke in while I was out and instead of robbing us, they were disgusted by your room and cleaned it instead.’

  I screwed up my face. ‘Funny. Just stop going into my room,’ I said before slamming the door shut behind me.

  ‘How on earth could anyone have gotten into your room when you had locked it?’ Mum said storming into my room.

  ‘Well, how else did it get cleaned?’ I said watching her face grow in a slight panic. The same panic that had begun to grow in my stomach.

  ‘Mum,’ Maia said from downstairs. ‘Theo is bleeding.’

  Mum spun on her heel with a loud sigh. ‘If it’s not one thing…’ she muttered as she walked off out of my room and downstairs to my brother.

  I closed the door behind and sat on my neatly made bed unable to shake off the feeling that someone was watching me.

  If Mum didn’t clean my room, then who did?

  13

  Ab

  Hey, Maia,’ I said softly. We hadn’t spoken since she told me off for my window writing skills.