Afraid of Ghosts

Creak.

Creak.

I rolled onto my back, scowling. Stupid old staircase. I couldn't last one day without hearing them creak as somebody (or something) walks up the stairs.

I looked at the alarm clock. Seven a. m. on a cold, winter weekend. I pressed my palm against my forehead, trying to sleep. It was the weekend, for Pete's sake. I was supposed to be staying up until three in the morning, and sleep until two in the afternoon.

But no. My ADHD was on over-drive, and the pills I had weren't working. I rolled onto my side, rubbing my eyes. Where the heck was sleep when you needed it?

Creak.

"Oh Lord," I grumbled, and sat up. "Who the heck is there? Anybody? If you want to talk to me, that's fine. Just stop stepping all over the stairs and actually come into my room."

No answer. My eyes narrowed, and I slowly slipped out of bed. Maybe it was just my over-active mind. Maybe it was the mass overload of coffee and soda I had this afternoon. Maybe it was my annoying step-mother, stepping all over the stairs in those three-inch high heels that looked like they could gouge your eyes out. I reached for the doorknob hesitantly, trying not to widen my eyes like those stupid dramatic scary movies. I really hated that stuff.

My hand rested on the doorknob for a moment. I looked around the dark room (although I had my nightlight on, but I'm fourteen years old and afraid of the dark), and inhaled. I turned the knob and threw the door open.

Nobody. It was slightly dark, but I could swear that I saw a figure moving in the half-open door of the dark bathroom. Oh well. Probably just my stupid ADHD mind. Trying to shrug off my paranoia, I walked back into my room, shutting the door behind me, and sat down on my bed. I really, really need to stop reading all of those scary books. Maybe I should tear down that weird picture of Hades, god of the Underworld, that stared back at me when ever I was lying in bed, staring at the wall. Or the Edward Cullen poster my sister had posted up when she'd had this room.

I really think it should be Edward.

"Terra? Terra, wake up."

"Ughh...." I groaned, opening one eye as I rubbed the other. My father hovered over me, with the same black hair and dark eyes that I had. He looked tired, and much older than he was supposed to be. Maybe it was just being a math teacher. "What goin' on?"

My dad blinked, probably unable to say anything for a moment. "Comfortable, Terra?"

"What?" I shifted uncomfortably. I stopped rubbing my eye and reached towards my head to touch the pillow. Instead, I touched the dresser.

"You're on the floor."

Thank you, Captain Obvious. I sat up, groaning, and nearly bumped my head on the dresser.

"We should, like, tie you to the bed or something, Terra. Maybe that will stop you from rolling off it so many times."

I looked up at my father as I untangled myself from my blanket. "Are you... making fun of me, Dad? It sounds like it."

He scoffed and walked out of the room, leaving me to untangle myself from my blanket. After accomplishing that feat, I walked to the bathroom and brushed my teeth, and did all of that regular morning stuff. As soon as I stepped onto the first step on the staircase on my way downstairs, it creaked.

Creak.

I scowled, mainly out of irritation, but partially because it reminded me of last night. "Will somebody please fix this creak? I feel like it's only here to annoy me."

"Honestly, that creak has been there for over half a century, my dear. Do you think it will go away that easily?"

I frowned, and turned in a complete circle. "Who's there?"

"Boo."

"Boo wh--- HEY, WAIT A MINUTE!" I shook my fist at the ceiling. "STUPID VOICES! I'M NOT SCHIZOPHRENIC! NOT SCHIZOPHRENICCCCCCCCC!"

"Er, Terra?"

I turned back to the staircase slowly, and there was my dad, standing on the staircase with a confused look on his face. "Uh... Hi, Daddy."

"Did you hit your head on your dresser when you rolled off your bed?"

".... No?"

My dad nodded slowly, and walked back downstairs.

I sighed, rubbing my eyes. "Stupid voices. You guys can never leave me alone."

"You're welcome, Terra."

"AAGH, NOW YOU FREAKING KNOW MY NAME?!"

Well, that morning was sort of fun. After breakfast, I went outside and walked three blocks to an old, abandoned house, where my friends, Harold Van Horn and Nina Juarez, stood waiting. We'd planned a break-in to the old Halloway house, since it supposedly was haunted, and Nina and Harold wanted to see if it really was haunted.

I was the unfortunate child that was dragged along.

Harold, with his awkward-looking legs and scruffy brown hair and stubble, looked pretty darn old for a fourteen year old. He grinned at me, waving enthusiastically as I walked over. "Ready to pull a 'Ghostbusters' and break into the old Halloway house? I mean, seriously, it's probably haunted and stuff and nobody would care if it was broken into since it already has been a lot of times, and and and---"

I sighed. "You're getting really over-enthusiastic about this, Harold."

"But this is cool!" he whined, shifting around and acting all fidgety and excited.

"Of course it is," Nina muttered, rolling her eyes. She was the skeptic one, of course, because she was skeptical of everything that really didn't have much logic. Skeptic of the skeptical. Skeptical of the skeptics.

I'll stop now.

"LET'S GO!" Harold ran for the house at the speed of a track star, even though his legs were ridiculously awkward-looking, and they looked way too thin to run like that. Nina and I glanced at each other, then ran after him.

By the time Nina and I reached the front porch, Harold was pushing the door open and running inside, yelling, "WOOT! THIS LOOKS LIKE DRACULA'S CASTLE!"

"Come on, Harold," Nina whined, "wait for us. We're not superheroes."

Harold stopped, and his face darkened. "At least, you don't know."

I stopped too. "What?"

"Er, nothing. Carry on, Terra. Nina."

Blinking, I took a cautious step forward. "Looks nice for a place that was abandoned twenty years ago."

"Harold and I will take the downstairs area," Nina told me. "You can take upstairs."

I looked at her, all stunned and surprised and stuff. "What? B-b-but---"

Nina gave me a funny look. "What? Are you afraid of the dark?"

"I... uh...." I stood up a bit straighter. "No. Nothing. I'll be fine."

Nina nodded at me, and walked towards Harold, who was busy admiring a dusty picture of a rose on the wall.

I stared after her for a moment. I was so screwed, damn it. I looked up at the staircase, and took a few cautious steps up the staircase. No creaking. Well, that was a change. With renewed excitement, I charged up the stairs and into the nearest room, which happened to be a bedroom.

Ew.

Well, this was a change from the dark scenery downstairs. The room was entirely pink. The bed, which was about as high as my thighs, was covered with flowery blankets, with a pink pillow at the head of the bed. A teddy-bear sat on the dusty pillow, leaning to the side and looking abandoned and faded with age.

I looked around. There was a dusty dresser, dusty slippers on the floor, an old book with half the pages torn out. A spider scurried over the slipper and under the bed. "Looks like my kind of bedroom," I muttered sarcastically, moving the teddy bear so that it was sitting up correctly.

"You shouldn't be touching my stuff."

I tensed. "Nina, whatever you're doing, stop it."

"My name is Emily, you idiot. Now get out of my room."

What the heck? I turned slowly. A transparent-looking girl in a pale dress stood in the doorway of the room, her blond hair tied up into a ponytail. Her eyes were glowing green, which was sort of funny, since humans didn't have those kinds of eyes.

"Get out of my room," she ordered, scowling.

I turned away, waving my hand. "You're probably an illusion. Like the other ones. I've seen things like you before. My parents think I'm schizophrenic or something. And delusional."

Of course I wasn't surprised. Why would I be? Ever since I was five, I'd been hearing these voices, responding, and sometimes saw the thing that was speaking. It had wiped all the surprise I had for these events away from my mind like dust on a windy day.

In other words, these sightings were really common for me. Surprise, surprise.

"Get. Out."

I turned and stuck out my tongue at the girl in the doorway. "Make me, O scary figure in the doorway."

The girl snarled angrily. "Of course you wouldn't leave. Your mother was wise to have abandoned you."

"What? Are you, like, my idiotic side or something? I'm not that stupid. My real mother died a couple days after I was born."

The girl grinned. "Or did she, Terra?"

I waved the girl-thing away. "Get out of here. I don't need to be tossed into therapy again."

"Get out of my room."

I rolled my eyes. "Make me."

"If you say so...." the girl murmured, and smiled widely.

Something hit the back of my head. I turned, and the teddy bear was on the bed, but not on the pillow.

"What the freak?" I muttered.

Something moved in the dark room. A figure, like a tall man.

"We don't take kindly to mortals messing with our home," the figure said, shifting again. "But you're an exception. A rude one, I may say. Melinoe would not be happy with us if we beat up her-- her, eh, niece?"

"Who the freak is Melinoe?"

The girl looked past me, right at the figure in the dark corners of the room. "Told you she'd be stupid, Daddy."

"What? HEY! YOU'RE ALL PROBABLY ILLUSIONS! MAYBE I AM SCHIZOPHRENIC! Now, pick up your stupid asses and LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Terra?" Harold called. I listened as he began climbed the stairs. "Terra, are you alright?"

The girl and the figure looked at each other, and then I blinked. They were gone.

"Terra? Where are you?"

"In the nearest room to the stairs, Harold." I scowled. Maybe I was just, like, imagining things.

"There you are." Harold poked his head into the doorway. "You alright? You were screaming up quite a storm in here."

My face darkened. "Well, now I really think I'm schizophrenic. I kept hearing these, like, voices in here, and they just...."

"Who are 'they'?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Then make me understand, Terra. You can tell me. I won't tell your parents or Nina."

I sighed, lowering my eyes. "Well, I just touched the teddy bear.... Then this, like, transparent little girl appeared in the doorway. We argued for a bit, and then her 'daddy' appeared. He mentioned Melinoe or something. Do you know who she is?"

When I looked up, Harold looked pale. "Er, yes. Yes I do," he replied. "She's a good friend of mine. But that d-doesn't matter. W-we should leave."

I frowned. "But it was your idea to come here. Don't you still want to, like, see if this place is haunted?"

Harold shook his head vigorously. "Nina has enough evidence to be un-skeptical. Now, let's go, shall we?"

I shrugged as he began descending the stairs again, and sighed.

I'm going insane. Somebody PLEASE put me out of my misery.