21st PAWW’s story

This one’s almost 2k words, and I’m too lazy to check for mistakes, so sorry about any you’ll see. I’ll come back later to fix them. Also it’s my birthday today! No better way to start this day than by publishing a story about ghosts and other creatures.

That wasn’t how I imagined myself dying. You always think that this kind of accidents happen to others and never to you. Sadly it did happen to me, and there was nothing I could have done to change that. Unless I’d had some kind of powers, which I didn’t.

So I died. Quite stupidly, I’ll admit, but I didn’t suffer at least, not really. I was on my way from work when someone crashed into me, for some reason. It all happened really fast, mind you. One second, I was singing along the radio, the next I was ejected through the windshield. My seatbelt had snapped on impact and physics did a fine job of throwing me as far as they could. I might have snapped my neck right there, or it might have been the trust not fast enough to break in time to dodge me, but I don’t remember dying. There was no welcome party, no one waiting for me at Heaven’s door. In fact, I never left Earth, let alone saw any door surrounded by ethereal light.

I woke up to see myself in a pool of blood, my limbs twisted at odd angles. I looked pitiful, was what first came to my mind, before I realized I was dead and I had no physical body anymore. My thoughts were still my own however, but nobody could see me. I watched as the man who’d crashed into me came out of his car and ran to me. He was frantic, not willing to touch me once he saw my state. He pulled out his cellphone and called 911. I watched as the ambulance arrived with the police, watched as the man was sentenced to eighteen months of prison. Somehow I was connected to him.

It wasn’t as much a will to haunt him and scare him to death as I simply wasn’t able to roam too far from him without feeling odd, almost dizzy – which was an exploit considering my lack of physical body. I followed him and watched him in prison without manifesting myself. I was waiting. As an excuse, he really looked sorry and had claimed guilty without hesitation at the accusations thrown at him. He went through his time quietly, he wasn’t the kind of person to move air around him. Still, he was able to achieve things I couldn’t anymore, and that angered me. Everybody would fuel that anger and hate for him. He could live while I was cursed to roam only around him for whatever reason. This was no peaceful death, let me tell you.

This was worse than Death. I was living with him, without the advantages. He was an attractive man, there was no doubt, but at least he didn’t seem to know about it, otherwise this truly would have been hell.

Once he got out of prison, he had to find a job, and I decided to help him. That meant to be ironic, of course. I’d discovered I was able to move objects, not by much because I was still a ghost noob, but just enough so I could play around with them. Employers didn’t see well to Iosif – because that was his name, I forgot to mention it earlier – when books began to fly around in their offices. Iosif simply didn’t think much of it and instead did some interviews on the phone instead. I then began to move the chair he was about to sit on, push his coffee mugs off the counter, start his alarm in the middle of the night; laughing at his clueless face. Then I scared him really good. At first he thought his apartment was haunted, but he took the clue when I carved I’ll kill you in the wall one night with a levitating knife. The only solution he found was to go see a medium.

Really, who think of naming their boutique Jay Minds You? I had some hope as well this could be my freedom, but now I wasn’t so sure. The man had a lot of trinkets and shiny objects just for show, but I was surprised to see so many other ghosts swirling nearby. It wasn’t the first time I witnessed a pal of mine, but it was the first time they were so many at one place. Maybe this Jay wasn’t a scam, especially when I saw him talk with them, dismissing them before he walked to the front of the shop to greet Iosif.

“Welcome to Jay Minds You.”

“You’re Jay?”

“Yeah, I am.” He then looked right at me, winking. “I might have a slight idea of the reason of your presence here.”

“Really?” Iosif was surprised, relieved even. Such a naive man, it almost had been sad to play those tricks on him. Almost.

“Come on then.” He led us to the back of his store, and the two humans installed themselves at the intriguing table. The runes carved in it were calling to me, I knew quite a bit on them as I was always had been a fan of the Norse mythology and had been watching Vikings – of course Iosif wasn’t watching it, so I’d never know the end of it, but I knew everything about Battlestar Galactica.

“Now, tell me why there’s a spirit connected to you.”

“What?” Iosif looked around, right through me.

“So you can’t see her. Do you feel her at least?”

“It’s a girl?”

“A woman. Here.” Jay took Iosif’s hand and placed it right through my chest. “Do you feel that?”

“Not really. I mean, I know weird things have been happening around me… I had a car accident two years ago, and I killed a woman. Do you think this could be connected?”

“Why not ask her directly?” Jay got up to get one of those famous Ouija board, and Iosif became even more nervous.

“Are you sure this is safe?”

“I’m a professional, trust me.” I laughed at that, and he glanced at me. “Beside, she doesn’t look like a vengeful spirit.”

“She carved I’ll kill you in my wall.”

“… I’ve seen worse. I don’t know if she can actually kill you.”

“Yet,” I mumbled, and Jay clearly heard me, for he chuckled. He set the board in front of Iosif, and I stood beside him.

“Alright. You don’t need to touch the board, as she can move the pointer on her own, if she’s been with you for two years. You see, spirits get more powerful over time, so you only need to ask questions.”

Iosif nodded, but seemed hesitant on how he should proceed. I grew impatient and picked the pointer to wave it before his eyes. “Ask away.”

“Don’t scare him right at the start if you want me to solve your problem,” Jay scolded me.

“Sorry…” I placed it back, pouting a bit. It wasn’t like there was much else I could do.

“My first question is quite simple… Are you the woman I killed?” Iosif asked, eyes intense on the pointer.

“Oh, interesting.” Jay commented when I pushed the object on Yes. “The kind of connection you have is actually common with this kind of accidents. Quick, brutal deaths like that don’t give time to the soul to recognize its death, if I can say, they can’t leave Earth and instead will be attached to the first living soul they come across to.”

“That would be me… I thought it was because she wanted to haunt me.”

I frowned and pushed the pointer to No. “Can you give him a message directly instead of using this stupid board?”

“Don’t insult my instruments, you feisty ghost.”

“I’m sorry, you’d be frustrated too if you’d be stuck to follow an idiot around who also happens to be the one who killed me.” I sighed, tried to calm down before continuing. “Can you tell him I didn’t decide to be stuck to him and his World of Warcraft addiction, and I don’t plan on really killing him.” Even if I sometimes felt like he deserved it. Jay repeated my words, and Iosif flushed, embarrassed.

“I can’t believe a ghost has been following me for two years.”

“I can’t believe I’ve had to follow you for two years…”

“What are we supposed to do then for her to finally be free?” I blinked at his question. He almost looked concerned for me. Jay hummed and got on his feet to look for a book.

“I can’t help her to find the way out of this world, but I can cut your connection. I remember I have a book about that, somewhere…”

The ritual was in fact pretty simple. It felt like a magical pair of scissors cut an invisible chain linking me to Iosif, and I suddenly felt lighter than ever. Something always kept me grounded on Earth, but now that cannonball was gone. I was free.

I didn’t really feel sad when Iosif paid and left, a happy smile on his face. He wasn’t a bad person, but shit happened to everyone, and I had been on the end result of that shit.

“You’re free to on your way now” Jay gently said, sipping his black tea.

“Thank you for your help.” Despite owning such a goofy-named shop, Jay was a real witch, which I hadn’t even believed in when I was still alive.

I flew outside. What would I do now? I was scared I would still be stuck on Earth with no real purpose, like those gloomy shadows who roamed in the darkness and liked to lurk around depressed humans.

I was shocked to say the least when a sort of shower of light appeared right in the middle of the street. Someone appeared in the middle of it, smiling at me. An aura of serenity and calm was surrounding him.

“Who are you?” I approached him slowly, dumbfounded in front of the creature’s beauty and apparition in general.

“I’m your guardian angel, you couldn’t see me until now because you had to cut your link to that living human.” It extended its hand in my direction. “I haven’t done a really good job of protecting you so far, my apologies. I’ll try to do my best from now on.”

The PAWW Project