Milton shocked his finger on the metal arm of the lever, but that was about it. Everyone gave a nervous chuckle and made a remark of some sort.
"Sorry, man. Sure looked cool."
"Hey, feel better. We could use it for Halloween!"
"I'm gonna need my cord back for my science project."
"I have to go get groceries."
"Cheer up. Maybe it'll work next time!"
Milton hung his head as his friends filed out of the dojo. "Thanks for coming anyways. See you guys later." he muttered sadly.
"I just don't get it. I bought the materials. Well, most of them. I built the whole thing. I planned it for days! It was supposed to summon a ghost, but no, it just shocked my finger. Stupid machine." he punctuated the last sentence with a hard kick to a side filled with switches.
He stubbed his toe and shocked himself again. The metal contraption roared to life, lights flashing wildly. Milton fell backwards on the mat and barely managed a fearful, whispered "Holy Christmas Nuts..." before the lights forced him to close his eyes.
When the brightness had dimmed down enough for him to see, the first thing he saw was dead.
She looked to be about his age, maybe a little younger. She had ragged, short brown hair with a hint of auburn. The girl was wearing a neon yellow tee, dark jeans, and grey sneakers. Seemed normal enough.
The weird bit was that she had bright yellow eyes and she was transparent.
She looked around at her new surroundings with a combination of awe and fear. Then she looked down at Milton and surprise entered the confused mix of emotions. She squinted, then finally said, "Oh my god, it's a nerdy, pale, soulless ginger!"
Milton was shocked, to say the least, but even more shocked at what he said next. "Hey! You're ginger too!"
"Yeah, but I am a soul."
He stood up quickly and began to pace around the apparition. "But-you're-?"
"Dead? Yeah, I get that a lot."
"And you're that girl... Jenna Lake! From the shooting! With the-the thing!"
Everyone had heard about the shooting. A family of two parents and five girls was infiltrated and murdered all in one night by a maniac. The youngest, Jenna, had killed the trespasser and died in the process.
"The one and only. Alright, nerd, let's get one thing straight. I don't know who you are or how I got here, but no one knows about this unless I say so." she pointed a finger to Milton's chest.
"M-Milton Krupnick! I built this machine... thing and sort of brought you here."
She looked around. "This place is kind of nice. Okay, that settles it. You're officially stuck with me."