Soul Salvation

The bus having dropped her off after school, Rania made her way up the twisting gravel path toward the house. She liked the sense of privacy the long road gave the house, but at the same time wished she didn't have to walk it every day. With the weight of the book sin her bag, the walk seemed all the more cumbersome.

Pulling the key from her bag, Rania unlocked the front door and stepped inside. Throwing her bag into one of the armchairs of the grand entrance area of the home, Rania traipsed into the kitchen. She dug around in the cupboards and then in the freezer until she produced a bowl of chocolate ice cream. Leaving her bag behind she slowly made her way up the stairs, enjoying her delicious treat as she came upon her closed bedroom door. Rania clenched the end of the metal spoon in her mouth as she turned the handle and stepped inside.

A figure was waiting for her on her bed, sitting precariously on the edge as dark eyes bore into her own. Out of sudden fright Rania jumped, the bowl falling from her fingers as the spoon fell from her mouth, both clattering on the floor as a strangled s cream left Rania's lips in that instant.

The first coherent thought that ran through her head was, It wasn't a dream.

"You-" she gasped, slowly backing away as the familiar figure of Brian stood from the bed. Rania noticed and processed in the back of her mind that the bed neither shifted while Brian was seated nor when he had stood.

"Rania, I'm not going to hurt you," the strong voice pressed.

"Who are you really? Why are you here?" Rania quickly asked, her stomach flipping at the fact that this stranger knew her name. "Why do you know my name? Are you stalking me?" The questions came like rapid fire.

"Calm down."

"Are you a squatter? Someone suggest that what they saw here was a squatter." Rania was growing breathless, finding her back against the wall as she had moved away from the door. Why she had done that, she wasn't so sure. Escaping would be harder.

"Will you be quiet for just one minute?" Brian huffed, becoming agitated.

"Not until you tell me who you really are!" Rania tried to bargain. She was desperate to find out who this man was, and why she kept seeing him in her home. She had been skeptic that this was the man who had apparently broken into her home, but the dark eyes looking into her own were unmistakable. Those eyes could give her chills with just one glance.

"I told you last night. My name is Brian Haner. I'm here because this is my house. I had this built for myself and my family. I believe it is you who doesn't belong." Without another word he stepped forward, crossing the room to where Rania was cowering against the wall. Reaching out Brian took a firm hold of her arm and pulled her gently toward her bed to sit.

As soon as the intruder's fingers touched Rania's skin she gasped. An icy cold seemed to fill her entire body, unparalleled to anything she had ever felt, even in the dead winter of New York.

"You're so cold," she whispered, rubbing her skin as she looked up at Brian. "Why are you so cold?"

Brian didn't know what to give her as an answer. He knew what he was, but was uncertain as to if this young girl would believe him if he ever told her.

"You'd never believe me."

"Try me," Rania countered, suddenly feeling less threatened by the downcast look in Brian's eyes.

"I died in this house seven years ago," Brian finally said, and the room appeared to dead-pan.

"So...they're not just stories?" Rania slowly asked, feeling that this discovery needed to be shared with select people at school. People like Angie.

"No. Well..." Brian chuckled, "not all of them. Anything too off-the-wall is just a story."

"So those two seniors that were here with the Ouija board?" Rania asked, drifting off before finishing the question. When Brian showed no signs of answering her, she sighed. "Was that you they think they saw?"

"Yes. And I wasn't happy that they were here. I don't like anyone invading my home. Not while I'm still here," Brian said, his voice turning bitter.

"But why? It's not like you're actually alive," Rania pointed out, wishing she hadn't when Brian's eyes reduced to slits.

"I don't like being bothered," he said lowly and then the room fell silent.

As Rania stared at the man facing her, completely unthinking about the bowl of ice cream lying on the floor where she had dropped it, she found it increasingly hard to figure that he really was a ghost...a spirit. Maybe she'd just seen too many movies, but Brian looked like a living, breathing human to her.

"If you're a ghost...why can I see you? Shouldn't you at least look like...I dunno...see-through?" Rania finally asked.

Brian let out a hearty laugh but when Rania didn't join in, he slowly quieted. "You're not serious, are you?"

Rania only shrugged.

"I can show myself whenever and to whomever I please," Brian explained. "I don't know why I don't look like some sort of spectral image to you. I've been like this for seven years, and I still don't know how any of this works. I'm just...stuck."

"So...why are you showing yourself to me? Why can I see you?" Rania pressed.

"Because I wanted you to be able to see me."

"But why?"

"Because I want you to tell your parents that you need to leave."