Ch 2: The Chogga Hoffa Ghost

It was around 11:20 that night. Karen was dragging herself home, exhausted after her night classes at college. She was relieved to be out after so many hours but now she had to walk home alone. None of her other classmates went her way. That was okay, she usually saw a lot of people even at night since her apartment complex was pretty big.

There was no one else on the street though. There were no cars on the road, no pedestrians crossing the street, no couples walking hand in hand, no kids making late night trips to the mini mart, no jaywalking drinking buddies, no insomniacs out for a jog, no spouses coming home after overtime, no smokers standing at lamp posts, no night owl seniors peeping from their window blinds, and no officers to mind them all. Even the shops and stands looked deserted.

She huffed at herself. Of course they would look deserted, it was late and they were closed... including the Open 24-Hour Mini-Mart. Maybe she was at the wrong street. The college student slowly walked up to a stop sign and read the street sign bolted bellow it. " 'Chogga Hoffa St.' What a stupid name," Karen admitted to herself, "It's the right street though." She frowned and looked up at the city skyline, looking for the familiar rustic build of the Charnon House Complex. The moonlight illuminated its rooftop poking up from the swell of smaller buildings and the shadows of the rest.

Feeling uneasy, she kept her gaze on the ground while walking. The blond had her hood up and her hands tucked in her pants pocket, her bag slung across her chest. Karen wished she had the car or at least her bike, but David needed the car for work and she kept her bike at her mom's across the city. At least she was close to the apartment.

Suddenly a long shadow stretching towards her caught her eye, although there was no one around before. The woman looked up to see a boy walking in front of her. The boy was several feet ahead and was having trouble walking. She could say he looked hurt as he was limping and struggling to walk in front of her. Karen immediately stopped in surprise. There has been no one around for blocks, not behind her and not in front of her. How could she miss this hurt boy?

Karen, who was a naturally kind person and studying to be a doctor, felt an impulse to get to the boy and help him in any way she could, forgetting about the eerie setup. Since he was walking so slowly, she caught up with him. Up close she could see him even better. He was clad in a dirty suit crusted in mud and torn in places, his joints were all bent and twisted into irregular angles. Worse, his dark hair was a mess and spiked out everywhere, either by unruly nature or the clotted red that stuck to it.

He shouldn't be able to move, why was he walking? Oh God what happened to him? Karen stopped just a few feet behind him. She felt that she shouldn't be getting any closer to him but she didn't have the guts to pass him by. "Oh my god," she choked out silently. He stopped-

And turned.

You know, people say that if you're really surprised you can't even scream. That was right... Karen was speechless. The young man in front of her, roughly fourteen, slowly jerked his head to the side, revealing more of that clotted red on his sallow skin. He went a little farther and his ruddy cheek turned to her. He tugged even more at his neck so now he could see her through one heavily bloodshot eye. If he could see at all. Each more time he pulled his neck she heard a crack. One last snap of the few bones in his spine and his head was turned 180º to her. Then the rest of him.

Karen regretted getting so close. The right side of his face was smashed and gored. Blood still seeping from a wound on his right temple. The right eye was shut tight with blood leaking from the corners. His mouth was pulled into a half smile that favored his left side. The suit looked like it had been bought and ruined on the same day recently. A great big red bow was tied at his throat. The glinting buckle of his belt held up his filthy brown slacks and the muddy jacket was torn at the left shoulder. A bit of dark blood had started pooling at his right foot, a toe stuck out from the ripped sole on his left. But Karen had never stopped looking into his bloodshot eye. She swore he could see into her soul with that demonic eye. Karen was stricken, not able to move at all.

"Where is she?" He asked in a voice so normal and unaffected, separate from the mess of the rest of his body.

Her thoughts were racing to his question. The moment gave her chills just thinking about it. She didn't even know what she was thinking. She slowly stretched her arm out and raised her finger above their heads, pointing into the far aways dark. "O... Over there." She just wanted him to get away from her.

The boy's right eye twitched and quivered as he attempted to open it. "Please stop," Karen pleaded internally. More blood gushed out from the opening, first as a trickle and now a stream of blood and brains that cascaded onto the dull white of his dress shirt. He blinked the rest away and she could make out a mutilated brown eye. He twisted his head back to see where she was pointing, trying to stand on his tiptoes to have a better look at the dark. Karen was just thankful he turned away, she tried to ignore the added blood running on the sidewalk and the almost pitiful way he was stretching to see a little better into the dark, like a lost child.

Karen entertained the idea of noiselessly walking away, assuming his next step was to venture into the abysmal night, when he slowly turned back to her. This time he didn't swerve his head into a 180º at least... But he was walking towards her.

For every half step she took back, he took two forward even with his delays. Karen started to panic. Shouldn't she be running now? Shouldn't adrenaline be shooting into her system? Shouldn't she do something?

He finally stopped two feet in front of her. Karen didn't know what he was doing or what she should be doing. Running - running is probably what she should be doing. She probably could make it, he was terribly hurt. But she didn't feel the need to. Call me crazy but Karen didn't sense any murderous intent from him. Call her crazy because she sensed no immediate danger.

He was close enough for her to pass out from the smell of dirt and blood on him, but not enough for her to wake up and smell the roses.

The boy stuck out his shaky arm from the pocket of his jacket and brought it out to her. Karen just stared at his offered fist that opened up to let her see a pendent and the imprint it left on his bruised palm. She watched as he took it in his crooked hands and unclasped it in between seizures. Thoughts of sympathy and sorrow for the wayward soul and his inabilities took over her mind. How could he ever come to harm her, or anybody? Those thoughts hit a wall as he tried to put it around her neck.

All the sympathies in the world wouldn't make her let him touch her. The college student did not forget he shouldn't be moving or that he was thoroughly unclean from the top of his bloody head to the tip of his bloody toes. Instead she took the necklace from his hands, being careful not to touch him, and smiled as sincerely as she could at a time like that. She didn't want to insult him either.

He actually smiled back at her. She could almost see his broken teeth and would readily mistake the dark liquid rolling down his right cheek as tears. "Thank you," he said unnecessarily. Again she felt the tug at her heart despite the gruesome picture.

He wobbled away past the street lamps and into the dark patch she had pointed to. She couldn't see him anymore and the almost assuring feel of his presence went with him. Again she was alone. Karen looked down at the necklace in her hand. The pendent was turned over to the back and engraved on it was "M.G." The woman noticed a clasp in the side and opened it. The light of the lamp post let her see two pictures, one of a lady with long, black curls and dressed in a sundress and hat; the other was of a little boy with unruly, dark hair and a little girl with white blond hair, both of them were smiling back at her. Both the pictures were in black and white.

Karen looked them over a little more, wondering who the "She" that the boy asked for was. The blond closed the little locket over to the side with the pendent. She ran her finger over it, feeling a swirl etched into the stone.

"Ow," she gasped at a cut on her finger. She frowned down at the stone and its sharp edges. She had enough of blood for the night. Something about the symbol on the center of the stone pendent gave her a bad feeling like none of the other things that night had. She didn't want it. Her blood seeped into the swirl and something about the damn thing gave her a feeling of dread and foreboding.

At that moment she just wanted to have people around. She was through with the empty and lifeless dark. She wanted to get home. She could not think of anything else.

Just then she heard an ear splitting roar rip through the night. "She is not there!" He screamed from far away.

Karen barely had time to react before she saw the same broken boy bounding over on all fours and head twisted backwards, limbs flailing on the pavement and coming in as a blur.

She finally came to her senses and adrenaline immediately shot through her veins. She sprinted away high on fear and sheer will. Nothing on her mind but a shot-in-the-dark guess of what would happen if she stopped. She only knew she had to run.

She threw her head back and saw him closing in on her with new malice. Karen faintly remembered screaming bloody murder before everything went white.

She woke up on her bed with a vague recollection of what might have been a dream the other night. As weird as it had been, she was mainly concerned about how she got home, unlocked the door, found her room, removed her shoes, climbed into bed safe and sound all while not remembering any of it.

Her worries were quickly brushed aside when she smelled breakfast cooking and heard her fiancé humming an out of season holiday song. "David?" She called out, "David!"

Karen pulled back the covers off her fully clothed body (minus the hoodie) and ran barefoot into the kitchen. There was David Hayes at work on the stove flipping bacon and burning toast. "I'm glad you're finally awake Karen, I was so worried,"

She rolled her eyes and gave him a look, "About what, coming out at you with a baseball bat for bringing me home and cooking me breakfast? David please." She took out a mug from the cupboard and went to serve herself coffee.

"Karen, when I got home you weren't here and none of the neighbors had seen or heard you come in." He stated, "I called your friends to ask about you and they told me they didn't know either. I was about to call your mom when Mrs. Erdbrenger from around the block called me."

"Oh my," Karen was alarmed. "So then what..."

"Well she told me that she found you," he paused, she nodded, "lying unconscious on the street at four in the morning." Karen gasped. "Bu- but don't worry, she assured me that you weren't 'handled' by some night prowler and that you were perfectly okay except for a cut on your finger."

"Oh my lord, how did I end up there, " she asked.

"I don't know, Kare," he replied at a loss, "And Mrs. E said she didn't know anything either." He laid a plate of bacon and burnt toast in front of her. "I was hoping you knew."

"Well that's a shame because I don't." She sighed, "At least I was okay... Hey, did you take me to a hospital?"

He blushed, "Um no. That old woman said she already checked you and she was a nurse back in some war. I mean I still think you should see a doctor but you were unconscious then and the old lady was pretty clear-"

"That's okay, David. I get it now," She waved him off.

"Do you remember anything?" He murmured, doting.

"Well, kind of. But I think it was a dream though." She bit into a slice of bacon, "I remember this kid with pinkeye in one eye and bawling through the other. He had weird, gravity defying hair and was asking for directions. I was lost myself but he was sweet and I wanted to help him. After I did he proposed to me and ran off. I cut myself on the diamond and a swirly mark at the center of it was glowing pink. He came back pretending to be a dog and I swear he was going to knock me down and lick my face so I started running and screaming when someone took our picture and a huge flash of white light swept us up. All I know for sure is that he looked like a hobo."

"That could only be a dream but- hey, you took his ring?!" David exclaimed.

"Or maybe it was a key ring. I think I remember someone saying 'Lock-it' ." She shrugged.

"Humph, I'm just kidding Kare. But could you promise me that you'll take a cab back home please?" He pulled a puppy dog face.

She laughed at him, "Alright, alright."

They eventually forgot about the big scare with their wedding coming up in a few months.

In 1950, at an apartment complex in Choga Hoffa, Kanalis, a fourteen year old boy jumped off the Luna Moth Helium Balloon and died on the spot. Known as Max, the son of a Cielis official, he lost a childhood friend nearly seven years before in a ballooning accident and jumped from the window thinking he heard her voice. After that incident, Max was seen walking around the apartment complex asking for her.

Edit: Why did I like Karen's mom character s omuch? Nouh fense but she was a very passive and inneffective mum at times. Man my standards must have been low.