Haunted

• Brianna Cooper, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2018

I walk out of maths, knowing I’ve flunked the exam. I didn’t do well, and I know it.
‘Did you see that exam?’
‘Yeah, so simple. How did the class do so badly?’
That’s them. The voices. One speaks formally, and the other very loosely. I look around again, but no one is talking, not near me.
‘These guys are sixteen, and they can’t do Pythagoras?’
Where are they coming from? Are they… are they talking about me? I’ve never been good at maths though. I’m not that bad am I?
I stumble over a step as I near the library, and hit the ground hard.
I hear a snigger, sounding the exact same as the whispers I heard before, but no one spoke.

I wake up in a pool of sweat, for what must be the millionth time this week. Ever since the first time, the voices have gotten worse and worse. I don’t think anyone else can hear them, but I’m not too eager to tell anyone I’m hearing things either.
I’m breathing heavily, although most of the nightmare has faded from my memory. I close my eyes and shake my head. What is happening?
I reach for my water botte on my dresser, and of course, I fall out of bed. I just… I curl up in a ball and cry. I’m being so childish, but I can’t get up.
‘Hey, hey, hey, are you okay?’
My eyes pop open, and I feel my heart speed up. Who is speaking? Is it another one of the voices? I slowly get up, and jump to the corner of my bed, curling up with Scruff in the corner of the bedframe.
‘Wh-who’s there?’
Something shimmers in the air a few metres away from the foot of my bed. There’s a…a person? No, too transparent. And…there’s only a torso.
It’s a person, but I can only see to their hips, and the body fades. But it’s not a person, it’s like a projection, and tinged blue.
‘I am Ryan.’ It’s the same airy voice as I’ve been hearing. The same formal tones, the same light whisper
‘Wh-what?’ Scruff whimpers beside me, and I feel just as scared.
‘I’m Ryan. I am your Guarding Ghost.’
‘S-sorry…?’
So right now, it’s about two in the morning, and the top half of a semi-visible human is floating metres away from me.
Ryan sighs, ‘Every human has a Guarding Ghost. We look over you, but do not do anything. We are a second conscience.’
‘Like an angel?’
‘Yes, but we do not work for God.’
I laugh. It’s two in the morning, and I’m laughing at a ghost?
Okay, this can’t be right. I watch Ryan float around my room. I’m definitely hallucinating, probably overtired too.
‘Why didn’t I notice before?’
Ryan pauses, and looks over at me.
‘A very small number of people have this ability. You are Para-Auditory. It only presents after the sixteenth birthday. There are symptoms at younger ages, but they are barely recognisable.’
I ponder over this; how had I not noticed before?
‘What other symptoms?’
Ryan appears to be thinking deeply about this.
‘Okay, you know how sometimes you are lost in your own thoughts, and it feels as if you are not controlling your movements? As if you are watching life pass right past you? That is one of the symptoms. Non-Auditories do not experience this.’
This makes sense. But it also doesn’t. Wouldn’t I have recognised this?
‘Go to sleep, it will make more sense in the morning.’

----------

Its three months after I was introduced to my Guarding Ghost, and things are running smoothly. Ryan and I have a great laugh at school. He chats to me in class all the time; it’s a great distraction.
‘Mr Toro, pay attention please!’
I snap out of my daze.
‘Yeah, pay attention Ray.’
I curse inwardly; Ryan can be a nuisance sometimes.
But I’m not worrying about grades anymore. I sleep fine, and have a best friend with me all the time.
Thankfully, the bell rings, and my class rushes to the door.
Just as I grab my bag, Jasper comes up to me.
‘Hey dude.’
‘Hey, um, Ray?’
I look at Jasper as we start walking. He seems worried. Scared. There are hollows in his face I didn’t notice before. There are purple dark shadows beneath his eyes. He looks exhausted.
‘I-I think I’m hearing voices…’