Soul Salvation

After trying to persuade her family to leave the house and failing, Rania dropped the subject entirely. She knew there would be no point in trying to go to them again. But at school the following day, she couldn’t help the feeling that she needed to tell someone what she had seen in her house. Someone who might believe her. It was too good of a secret to keep to herself, knowing the stories, at least as far as a ghost in Haner Manor was concerned.

Rania was close to letting it slip in homeroom to Jackie, Ariel, and David, but decided that it would be better shared with Mariah and Sam as they were her two closest friends. So upon seeing them in the hall between classes that morning Rania told them to meet her after school in the library. The two girls were confused, but agreed nonetheless.

Strolling quickly into th library after the final bell had rung, Rania saw Samantha already sitting at one of the tables in the corner.

“Hey Rani. So what are we meeting for?” Sam asked as Rania took a seat across from her.

“I want to wait until Mariah gets here before saying anything.”

“Is everything alright?” Sam pressed, brows furrowed.

“Yeah. I think,” Rania muttered, fingers tapping against the table quickly. A few moments later Mariah entered the library. Seeing her two friends already there, she smiled and made her way across the room.

“Hey! So what did you want? It sounded pretty urgent earlier,” she asked, taking a seat at the table.”

“Okay so… you know how I asked you guys, that day at the beach…about the Haner Manor?” Rania asked, trying to contain herself.

“Yeah…” Sam said, egging her on to finish.

“Don’t tell me you went there by yourself…” Mariah butted in.

“No. Well…not really. The reason I asked is because…it was my family that moved in there,” Rania revealed, watching as the two girls’ jaws dropped.

“No way,” Sam whispered.

“Yeah. Weird stuff had been going on for a little while. Nothing bad. Just…not normal. But then, one night, recently…and then again the other night. I saw him.”

“Who?” Mariah asked, not believing her ears.

“Brian. The ghost. The one everyone claims to see when they go there. That’s what got Angie so spooked. She saw him too,” Rania explained.

“Did he hurt you? Or do anything?” Mariah asked, feeling worried for her friend.

“No. That’s the weird thing. He’s not violent. Or…even mean, really. Both times I saw him we even had a conversation.”

“Get out. Can I come over and see him!?” Sam asked, raising her voice excitedly.

“Shh!” they all heard the library hiss from her desk.

“Yeah, me too?” Mariah added, quieter now.

“Well, I don’t even know if he’ll show himself to you. That’s why some people see him and others don’t. He only shows himself when he wants to be seen,” Rani continued, realizing how weird the whole idea sounded.

“Hmmm…” Mariah pondered aloud. “You could always ask him? The next time you see him? It’s not that I think you’d lie about it… It’s just-“

“I know. It’s hard to believe in something like ghosts until you see one,” Rani finished.

“Yeah,” Mariah agreed with a nod.

“Or!” Sam exclaimed again, ducking her head as the librarian hushed her a second time. “We could do a sleepover this weekend. Maybe something will happen.”

“I’ll have to ask my parents. But I’m sure they will say yes. Anyways, I need to head home. I never told my mom I was staying after. She’ll wonder where I am,” Rania then said, putting her bag across her shoulder and standing from the table. “I’ll see you guys later.”

When Rania arrived home her mother was seated ine one of the armchairs in the entrance hall. Amrita looked up as she entered.

“How was school today, Rani?”

“It was alright. Same as every day, really,” Rania answered, waiting for her mother to question her on where she had been. But she never did. “Do you think I’d be able to have two friends from school sleep over sometime this weekend? Like a girls’ night sort of thing?”

“I don’t see why not. I’ll check with your father when he gets home,” Amrita said with a smile.

“Okay, thanks. I guess I’ll go do my schoolwork until dinner.”

With that, Rania made her way up the grand staircase, an odd chill crawling up her spine. She’d felt that way a few other times while going up or down the stairs, and Rania thought it was rather strange. She’d never felt like that on any other staircase, or in any other part of the house; it didn’t make sense for her to feel so uneasy.

Brushing it off as the feeling passed, Rania continued to her room. As she entered she saw a figure sitting on her bed looking out the window and screamed, realizing too late that it was just the shimmering figure of Brian. He gave her an amused look as she covered her mouth.

“Rani, what is it!?” her mother called from the bottom of the stairs.

“Nothing! Just a…spider!” she shouted over her shoulder, getting up to close her bedroom door after. “You scared me,” she then glowered at Brian, who laughed quietly.

“Sorry. Sometimes I forget my appearance at random times is…a little frightening. Works well when I want it to, though…”

“I just didn’t expect you to be here as soon as I got home,” Rania said, setting her bag down in her desk chair. “How long have you been waiting there?”

“Not long. How was school?” Brian asked, and his friendly curiosity baffled Rania.

“It was…school,” she answered, not really knowing that to say.

“Just how I remember it,” Brian chuckled, standing and going to the window. He sighed as he looked out at the world, remembering what it was like to venture out beyond his own front door.

“Brian?” Rania asked. She took a seat on the edge of her bed, watching him. She could see the reminiscent look in his eyes.

“Hmm?”

“What was your life like?”

Brian smiled at her question. “It was wonderful.”

“Did you have…a family?” Rania had heard that the owner of the house had a wife and a child, but wanted to know the story directly from the source, since she had the chance to.

“I did,” Brian smiled once more. “I had the most beautiful wife. Her name was Michelle. We were practically made for each other…at first. And little Kade, my son. He’d be just about eleven years old now,” Brian explained, remembering their faces. “I miss them.”

Rania kept quiet a moment, not knowing if she should apologize to a spirit of all things, for making him sad.

“How long have you been like…like this?”

Brian turned away from the window, leaning on the sill as he looked back at Rania.

“It’ll be seven years this winter,” he answered, crossing his arms. The room fell silent again, Rania playing with her hands subtly in her lap.

“What was it like?” she asked finally.

“What?”

“Dying…”

Brian sighed. He had asked himself that very same question plenty of times before, never finding the answer.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember,” he said, his gaze dropping to the floor as he willed himself to remember.

“Oh,” Rania said, then quietly chuckled. “How does a ghost not remember what it is like to die?”

“I don’t know,” Brian repeated with a shrug. “I don’t even know how I died…”

“That’s so strange.”

“I know. There wasn’t even like… a defining moment between my life and death. It was just like one second I was there, and everyone could see me, and the next it was like I didn’t even exist. All I remember was at one point I could see my own body just…lying there, bleeding, in the entrance hall.”

“And that’s when you knew?” Rania asked quietly. Brian nodded, not saying a word.

“Rania, who are you talking to?” Amrita asked unexpectedly as she slowly opened Rania’s bedroom door. Rania jerked her head quickly in her mother’s direction.

“No one. Myself,” she said swiftly. Turning back to the window, Brian was gone.