Ghostly Encounters

Stephania wandered into the woods as her brother Jacob finished up his investigating work. His team had just been called out because someone was found dead in the lake by the Eastland Woods. Jacob was a detective and since Stephania was spending the day with Jacob, She had to wait for him to finish working before she could leave. So she decided to wander around the woods when she came across the little cabin-looking-thing.

She looked through the window and saw a boy about her age in a green shirt and blue jeans just standing there looking at a wall on the other side of the cabin. She walked through the open door and looked around. Nobody was there. She wondered if she was going crazy, but yelled out either way, "Who's there? I saw you. I know you're here."

The same boy suddenly popped out of the ceiling, hanging onto a metal rod. "Hi," he said.

"Where’d you go?" she asked watching as he dropped down in front of her.

"I didn't go anywhere. I can't. Not allowed. I've been here the whole time," he said cheerily.

"But, I saw you in the window and then didn't see you when I walked in until I called for you. You had to have gone somewhere," Stephania reasoned.

"No, I didn't go anywhere. I told you...I can't go anywhere" he said, just as cheerily.

"What do you mean, you can't go anywhere?"

"Well, see...I live here in this cabin, but I don't actually live here," he explained.

"You mean...you're a ghost?" she laughed.

"Yep,"

"What's your name?" Stephania asked stepping a bit closer to him.

"It was Evan," he said, getting a bit less cheery.

"Mine's Stephania," she said holding out her hand for him to shake. He stuck out his hand and tried to grab hers, but it was like she was grabbing mist. Stephania jumped a little and Evan sighed.

"That's what I was afraid of," he said, frowning.

"So, how did you die? You know...if you don't mind me asking." Right as Stephania asked that, a huge wolf growled and tried creeping into the cabin. Stephania's scared to death of wolves so she picked up a shovel and whacked it a little on its head. It ran straight away.

"Um, if you could, uh, please try not to break my shovel. I'm a bit partial to it...don't know why...but I am," Evan laughed.

"Sure...can I use this?" she asked, picking up a cane and setting down the shovel.

"Yea, that works," he laughed again.

The wolf was back, and it growled even louder this time. It lunged at Stephania and grabbed a hold of her wrist in its mouth. "Ow! Get offa me!" she yelled as she hit it repeatedly with the cane. It finally ran off and Evan came rushing over to her after she shut the 2 doors of the little cabin.

"Here," he said, offering her his hand. He placed it on her bloody wrist and it automatically felt better even though all she could feel was mist. Maybe that's why it felt better. But all she knew was that it felt better.

"Thanks," she said, blushing, seeing as how close they were.

"No problem," Evan said. "So...you wanted to know how I died?"

"Yea...were you the boy they found in the lake today?" Stephania asked.

"No, but I did die in this forest. Actually, in this cabin. That's why I can't leave here," he said. "That wolf that just attacked you, well, it was the thing that killed me. See, a little less than a year ago I came down really sick. The doctors and my parents wouldn't tell me what I had, so to find out, I pretended to be asleep one day while they were talking about everything. They were talking about how the cancer was going to kill me eventually. So I apparently had cancer. And they were talking about how close 'eventually' was. So I decided to run away a couple weeks later. I ran here. Stayed here for a couple months until that wolf came and attacked me. It tore open my throat and just left me to die. It took two days. Two whole days of suffering. Two days of lying here, on this little bed, waiting to die. Actually wanting to die. Just to get through all that pain. They found me three days after I died. And when they took my body away, my spirit stayed. And because of that...i can't ever leave this cabin. Never."

"Oh...I’m so sorry, Evan," Stephania said quietly.

"Its okay, Stephania," he sighed. "Oh, crud! The wolf!" he yelled. The wolf jumped through the window and flew through Evan onto Stephania. She tried fighting it off, but it was too strong. Evan tried grabbing at it, but the same thing happened as when he tried to hold Stephania's hand.

The wolf ended up killing Stephania faster than it did Evan and she died that day, not two later. Stephania's screams caught Jacob's attention and he ran to the cabin. When he got there, she was already dead. "Stephi! No!" Jacob yelled and sunk to his knees before her.

As soon as the rest of his team of investigators heard him, they ran to the cabin too. They calmed Jacob down a bit and eventually removed Stephania's body to take it to the morgue. Jacob was standing outside the door watching. He started walking away when he heard his name being whispered. He turned around and saw Stephania standing next to Evan holding his hand. Jacob remembered Evan from an investigation earlier that year. A boy died in that exact cabin from an animal tearing his throat out. "Jacob. Don't worry about me," Stephania called out.

"She's in good hands, Jacob," Evan said.

"Thank you Evan," Jacob whispered to him. Stephania and Evan both waved to Jacob as they faded out of view and into mist.