The Boy and the Ghost

by sameera najmeddine
(fort mcmurray, AB)

It was a cold and stormy night. A nine year old boy named Anthony Galenzoski was sitting on the couch in his living room, thinking of something to do, for he was very bored. He decided he would like to go up to the attic, so he walked through the house and into his bedroom, and dug through his container of toys until he found his flashlight. A wise decision, he thought.

He made his way down the hall and looked up at the attic door. On the wall to his right there was a wheel that had a long rope wrapped around it. This rope was attached to the latch on the attic door. He extended his arm to take the rope when he thought he heard a sound coming from behind him. He looked around slowly, cautiously, then decided it was nothing.

He took hold of the rope, gave a small tug, and the latch opened, thus letting a ladder make its way toward the ground. Anthony began to climb up the ladder, looking around once more. He was just about to enter the attic when he noticed a carving where the ceiling connects with the wall. He squinted his eyes in order to see what the carving said. it read:

DO NOT ENTER OR CURIOSITY WILL TAKE YOUR LIFE

Anthony stopped climbing the ladder and was instantly confused. Take my life? he thought. What does that mean? He shook his head and entered the attic. The attic was a dark and dusty part of the house, rarely visited by the family. There were boxes and boxes of the parents' old belongings. There were even boxes that belonged to previous owners of the house, which were long forgotten.

An old projector sat to the left of Anthony, where there was a blank wall that Anthony couldn't see, due to the darkness. Oh yeah, he thought. My flashlight. He took his flashlight and switched it on. Unfortunately, the batteries were dead.

"Aw shoot," he mumbled. "I need new batteries."

He then turned around and went over to the door, when suddenly the door slammed shut. To his horror, he heard the rope wind back into place.

"Oh my glob, what just happened?" He tried to feel around in the dark attic when all of a sudden he heard a whirring sound. He felt his heart pump as fast as a cheetah runs.

Unexpectedly, the once turned off projector came alive and played a short film. Anthony turned to the light of the projector and saw a somewhat pleasant scene. There were green bushes, lots of green grass, and a small gazebo in the middle of the green area. There stood a tall dark figure behind the bush on the left. Slowly, the mysterious figure began to make its way closer and closer to the camera, until its face is shown closeup on the screen. It had long, dark, messy, and greasy black hair, with scary dark eyes and a completely emotionless expression on its face. Anthony became terrified and ran for the door and tried to locate a heavy object that was light enough for him to hold, but strong enough to break down the door.

He found an old barbell and tried to pick it up. This one was about 40 pounds, so he picked it up slowly, then dropped it on the door. It made a loud crashing sound, but didn't do much damage.

Anthony picked it up again, quicker this time, and dropped it, putting a little bit more force into the drop. It crashed through but it only made a small hole, as the barbell wasn't very big. He dropped to the floor, reached his left arm through the jagged whole, cutting his arm up while doing this, and opened the latch. The door swung open, but Anthony's arm was still caught through the hole.

He fell through and screamed in pain as a piece of sharp wood from the door stabbed through his arm. Tears of pain and terror fell from his eyes as he ripped his arm out of the hole and fell the long distance from the ceiling to the floor. The ladder had extended and Anthony fell onto it, hurting his back. He landed on the floor, but his terror was very powerful, he jumped up, sorely and bleeding, and ran to the safety of his bedroom, slamming the door with his right hand. He slumped against the door, sobbing, his chest heaving, when suddenly, his eyes sprang open, and he was motionless. He sees words, written messily in blood on a wall. The words read:

KILL YOUR PARENTS, OR I'LL KILL 'EM FOR YOU

Anthony sees his room, back to normal. He rubs his eyes slowly, and thinks to himself. I can't, I won't! Not my parents... He stood up, still sore and bleeding badly, his head dizzy from loss of blood, and opens the door. He peeks around very slowly, and notices nothing is changed. The ladder is back up in the ceiling, the door is shut and fixed.

"What in God's name...?" Anthony said out loud. Suddenly the front door of the house opened. His parents walked through them, calling his name.

"Anthony? We're home!" his father Robert called out.

"Honey, not so loud." Emma hushed her husband. Anthony closed his eyes and more tears fell. I just can't kill them, he thought. He opened his eyes to see his mother coming up the stairs. She took one look at him and screamed.

"Oh my goodness Anthony what happened to you?!?!" Emma cried. Robert came running up the stairs and looked at Anthony. He didn't say anything, but he began to cry as he hugged his injured and weak son.

Two days later, Anthony's arm is in a sling and he is once again sitting on a couch. This couch however, is in the basement, where all of Anthony's larger toys and other forms of entertainment were. He couldn't stop thinking about what the ghost in the video said to him in his hallucination. Out of nowhere, he heard a clattering sound on the hardwood floor above him. He ran up the stairs and saw his father on the floor, with a screwdriver jammed into his forehead, thus penetrating the brain. Anthony stared in complete shock. He froze once again, and had another hallucination. The same wall appeared before him, but the words read:

YOU HAVE ONE LAST CHANCE. YOU KILL YOUR MOTHER, OR I'LL DO IT FOR YOU.

As he snapped back to reality, he decided he was going to protect his mother. He would try to fool this ghost by creating a dummy to replace his mom. That night, after all investigations by the alerted police were finished, and everyone went home, Anthony was no longer upset, but determined to protect his mother. He stayed up all night forming a dummy to replace his mother. Then it struck him; he didn't know when or where this ghost would strike. He planned to put the dummy in the kitchen, since his mother is usually there.

The following day, he rose early in the morning and eagerly put his plan into action. He would put the dummy in the kitchen, the ghost would kill the dummy, and think the parents were both dead, then leave him alone. He smiled. It has to work! he thought. After the dummy was in place, he waited. And waited. And waited. Then he heard something fall, but it wasn't in the kitchen. He ran towards the sound, and stared in shock at the mother's dead body, where a high heeled shoe was sticking out of her chest. The boy froze; another hallucination. The words on the wall read:

YOU MADE YOUR CHOICE. NOW YOU GET TO EXPERIENCE DEATH.

Anthony was terrified. Oh no.. he thought. Now its my turn.. No No NO!! I CAN'T DIE!! I DON'T WANNA DIE!! and then he fainted.

He woke up in the attic, standing motionless. What the... how am I standing if I was... this doesn't make any se- He stopped as he was now face to face with the ghost. He gulped loudly as the ghost walked very slowly towards Anthony. He leaned in to Anthony's ear and whispered,

"Now, it's your turn to die."