Passing On

• Temika Hickey, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2009

Ash looked up at the manor he could feel something was wrong. The townspeople had heard of him and leapt at the chance of saving the little girl and ridding themselves of ‘Mira’. Ash was a ghost hunter, sending the spirits to the other side his job. The townspeople of Aarvy watched as the young hunter and some villagers cornered the prey, they soon dispersed hoping for a miracle.
Mira could see him, a hunter, and young for his age. There were two scared villagers with him. They were looking frantic while the hunter was taking readings from a digital thermometer, as expected it was growing colder as Mira moved closer.
“She’s here” Ash stated, noticing the temperature plummeting. The other men started looking vividly around for the ghost and screaming whenever they caught sight of a shadow.
“Get out! “Go away!”
The words rang out. Ash grabbed a small box on his belt and threw a ring of salt around the men. An angry ghost flew towards the men, but was knocked backwards through a wall.
“Please Mira don’t hurt us, we’re sorry,” The men yelled together. Ash stared at the wall, waiting anxiously but nothing happened. The men stood up shakily and Ash nodded at them.
“You can leave now” he said hastily.
“But what about you?” said one of the men but was only met with a cold stare. The men hastily ran outside the manor.
“You can leave with them” a strong voice called out and a figure materialised. The figure became clear, it was defiantly Mira. The ghost had a slim figure with long brown locks cascading down her face towards her neck, her clothing was dark and tattered with age but the most striking feature of her were her eyes. They were of the greyest colours Ash had ever seen but still had traces of pale blue, like a cold winter’s day.
Ash followed Mira down the darkened hallway, listening for the little girl who was kidnapped. Mira stopped and went upstairs.
“Where are you going? She is probably downstairs.” But Mira just continued upstairs, Ash sighed and followed. At the top of the stairs, Mira waited; behind her was a mirror, its pieces on the ground.
“It’s the only thing that can defeat the other ghost.” Mira stated as she picked up a shard of the ornate mirror. They ran downstairs to the lower level and then into the basement where they heard sobbing.
In the corner was the girl; Ash consoled her as Mira went over to a darkened corner. Another ghost materialised and attacked her but she just pulled out the mirror shard and threw it at him, he disappeared and we all ran back upstairs.
The girl was safely returned to her parents and Ash was off onto his next job but Mira, the ghost who protected everyone disappeared from the manor and it collapsed. She found out why she was killed, it was because she was different.