Three Hours for the Ghost (Part II)

(Eight months later)

William was standing near the window in my bedroom- his typical activities. It had been eight months after I met him. I needed about one month to make sure that I wasn't insane at all. It was positive that nobody could see him but me. He was like a real human for me, but a mere ghost for people. I thought a ghost would be transparent, flying over the ground, or showing the scary face that could be your worst nightmares.

But William was truly normal for me. He was just too pale as a human, but it wasn't a sign at all that he was a dead ghost since most of people from around this town were so pale. He walked on the carpet with a sound, I could even touch him. His skin was as cold as an ice cube. The things that made me realise that he wasn't a living human at all were his ability to disappear- like a magic, and his incapability to feel hungry, or thirsty, or sleepy.

"I hate those blokes!" William said with his eyes to the front yard. I was sitting on my bed, reading Oliver Twist.

"Why?" I asked him without interest. "They are trying to get you to the ball," he turned to me and within a second he was already sitting besides me.

"Wick it! How did you know that? How many blokes will come to ask me to the ball?" I closed my books and leaned over the pillows. There will be a new year ball in my school. I had no plan on going there until William said that some boys would ask me to.

His deep blue eyes flickered and he scolded me, "They are betting over you, Emily!"

"I don't care. I don't like them, though. I'd never been in a ball before." I told him. It's probably a good chance for me to experience the teenager thing. I had never been in such a party at all in my seventeen years existence.

William didn't say anything anymore. He disappeared somewhere. I guessed the conversation was over so I jumped out my bed and went downstairs. My father was still in the hospital and Ethan had drowned into his sleep since supper. I checked all doors and windows in the house, tried to make sure that they had been locked before I went to bed. William once said that no thieves would come to sneak in and steal something from the house. But I still couldn't believe him easily.

"It's a haunted house. The last tenant was about fifty years ago, they survived for only a week here," he told me that day. That was the true reason to avoid thieves.

"Did they die?" I asked him in horror. I couldn't believe that my father was crazy enough to still buy this old haunted house. Our family was the first tenant who could survive for eight months in the last a hundred years. What an awesome record!

"No. They moved somewhere else," he shrugged and laughed to see my horror face. "Did you haunt them?" I blinked. William stopped his laugh, his face turned into grim.

"Aren't you afraid with me, Em?" he asked, moved slowly towards me. I could feel the cold wind suddenly blew my hair. He was trying to frighten me.

"I'm only afraid with bad human, not a ghost. Besides, you're a good ghost," I grinned. "I didn't haunt them. I was just trying to make them realise that I do exist here. I was lonely," he confessed. 

William was twenty when he died almost a hundred and fifty years ago. He said that the house was probably built hundreds years before by his ancestors. He didn't remember many things about his life before dead. The exact thing that he remembered was the tragic murder that killed his entire family. William still couldn't find the reason why he was the only one who turned into a ghost while the rest of his family had moved into another dimension. But I guessed it was a matter of revenge. He wanted to do the revenge but he didn't know how.

I returned to my bedroom and tried to sleep when I heard William's footsteps. But I kept pretending not to know and closed my eyes, until the dreams finally pulled me in. Sometimes it felt weird to see a ghost sulked because of you. But I could talk to him tomorrow.

to be continued...