Ever since I was little, I've been able to see ghosts.
Sometimes, they're harmless- with them being little floating white balls in my vision, like dandelions in the wind.
And other times, not so much- with some of them being scary-looking vengeful spirits, looking to find a host to haunt to death if they could.
Thankfully, as my dad, Luthor Bishop, a renowned Exorcist, he's given me training to deal with ghosts ever since I first began to see them.
"Jay, it's in the Bishop blood to see the supernatural- it's just something we have to deal with; as much as my dad did, and his dad, and so on."
"I'll give you three rules for you to live by to never be bothered by a ghost in your life:
Rule 1: Do not give ghosts attention. Ghosts grow in power the more they're given awareness by the living, as long as they're slowly forgotten by those around them, eventually they'll just disappear- a lot like those little wisps you see floating around, those are spirits on the brink of joining paradise.
Rule 2: Do not anger local gods. These are powerful spirits that control and protect pockets of land scattered throughout the world. They will not harm people as long as they're left alone and not disrespected. Angering a local god is paramount to ending your life, so avoid doing so at all costs!
And lastly, Rule 3: Do not fall in love or hate a ghost! This is a continuation of Rule 1. It's one thing to give a ghost attention, but to feel deep love or hatred for a spirit is a whole other problem. As I had told you, giving a spirit any kind of attention gives them power- so what do you think happens when you feed a ghost one of either the two of our most powerful emotions?"
"Uh, what dad?"
"Possession."
"I'll be possessed if I really love or hate a ghost!?"
"Yes! So don't ever do it!!"
Ever since then, I've made a special effort in life to ignore the spirits that I would often see every day in my life.
But it hasn't always been so bad having ghosts be in my life. Sometimes this ghost policeman warns me about something dangerous happening in a lonely street when I'm walking at night. Or other times one of the local ghost grannies tells me about a good sale happening at the local farmer's market.
But even so- I try my best to not give them too much attention, not because I'm scared of them now, being a grown high school student now, but because I'd like for them to 'pass on' and become another spirit dandelion, ready for their long overdue paradise.
...
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wak-"
"Stop, stop- just... five more minutes..."
!?
"7:40!? I'M GOING TO BE LATE FOR MY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!"
I jump out of bed and dash into my closet, grabbing my uniform that I've spent an entire week ironing to hell and back for today- my first day transferring to Blackwood Academy for my junior year.
"Crap crap crap! Dad!? DAD!!" I call out to dad, hoping that he was still here before he left for his commute- hoping that he would give me a ride.
But no dice, no response came from me calling out to him- he was already gone.
'AGhhhh!!! Guess I'll skip breakfast!!!" I say aloud as I whizz past by the living room and outside, now already blazing through the neighborhood as I made a mad dash to get to school before I was locked out for being late.
"The gates! They're still open!!" I happily shout as I make a sprinting finish to the daunting black gates that surround the Academy, I had managed to get here just before eight.
But as I get into the courtyard, I notice something odd-
No one was here, there were no students or teachers buzzing around.
Even if I was late for my first day, there should still be some commotion happening around the outside of school.
My phone then got a notification.
"I set your alarm one hour forward so you wouldn't be late for your first day of school, hopefully you see this in time and not do something as silly as getting to school a whole hour early- love, dad."
AGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!
...
Now being a solid twenty minutes away from home if I ran back at full speed like I had before, I decided it was better to just wait out the hour until school began.
Might as well take this as an opportunity to explore the grounds so I don't get lost finding my classrooms later today.
I bring up my phone and check out the campus map that I had been given through email- the school's campus was huge.
Hmm? What's this area? It looks faded out on the digital map, but it's still barely visible- might as well see what's up with that.
I begin walking to the strange area of listed on the digital map on my phone, it being labeled as the old grounds on the campus.
I circumvent the campus in an L-shape, following the edges of the gates that enclose the campus until I reach the weird destination.
I find a large, old building roughly a fourth of the size of the new main building that makes up the campus in front of the school's gates.
It looks really worn down, with a lot of visible broken windows and such.
I can already see some spirits wandering around it- but all of them were dandelion spirits- that must mean this is a good place, right?
If there are no vengeful looking spirits here, then it's likely a good karma spot, something that dad had told me once about.
"Son, sometimes there are hotspots in the world that are naturally high in what's called 'good karma', these are places that spirits naturally drift to to find peace in death."
"If you ever encounter one, don't be scared of going there- as usually, they're quite serene places to visit."
I mean you say that then dad, but this old building doesn't at all look serene- it just looks really creepy.
I think I'll leave instead; I just can't shake off this bad feeling that I have about the place- I think I'll just take a nap inside the new building until school officially begins.
But as I was just about to leave, I heard the slow opening creak of a door.
The old doors that were closed leading into the old grounds were now open- a girl was standing there, she had long an old, outdated uniform, long flowing white hair, and piercing red eyes.
"Rrrruuunnnn... leeeeeaaaavvveeeeeee..."
"..."
"Goooooo... awwaaaaayyyyy...."
"..."
"Booooooooooo..."
"......"
Is she, trying to scare me?
"Oi, ghost."
"!" She jumped a little with me directly calling out to her.
"You're not really 'scare material' if you're just groaning out cliche's like that to people trying to visit this old building you know?"
"Uwaaaahhhhhh??"
"And stop it with the long-drawn-out words! Definitely NOT scary!!" I pointed a finger at her, she looked pretty upset now.
"But, but! But everyone always runs away when I do this!!" Now dropping her lame movie ghost act, she began to talk normally- but kept half of herself hidden with the doors as she spoke.
"Well, that won't work on me, it's just too lame."
"L-Lame!?"
"I'm not l-lame!!"
Egh, might as well humor her while I wait for school to start. But I'll keep it short, so she doesn't get any more attention before she start's getting any funny ideas.
"W-W-What're you doing!!"
"OoOOoooOOO!!!" She began to rattle the doors rapidly as if I couldn't see her moving the doors with her arms myself.
"I can see you moving the doors stupid, just stop it already."
"Eep!" She cried out as she took off running into the building from the doors, disappearing into the dark.
"Agh, guess I did the scaring- maybe I should go apologize." I said as I crossed the door's threshold, now entering the old building's interior at last.
As I entered, I noticed a kind of warmth envelope me- unlike the chill you would expect to experience entering such an obviously haunted place. It felt welcoming in here, even though visually, it did not.
Everything was run down, with the walls a decaying yellow and overgrown vines making up a lot of the ceiling. Glass shards were everywhere on the floor, so I made sure to watch my step as I made deeper into the building.
"Hello? Ghost girl? Sorry if I called you lame! It's just your act is really outdated; you need to get with the times!" I called out to the empty hallway, pushing past more spirit dandelions the deeper I went in.
But she gave no response, I was now in a large open space within the building- I think this used to be the cafeteria.
"Hello? Hellooo- ooh?"
Before me, just a couple feet ahead atop of a half-destroyed lunch table, sat a pristinely wrapped sandwich from the best sandwich shop in the city.
"Crazy Ray's Subs!? Why's a sandwich from them doing in here!!" I asked aloud, hoping that the ghost girl could answer me; but still, nothing.
Letting curiosity get the better of me, I walked over to it, and inspected it- it looked perfectly normal, and really fresh- as if it was just picked up today from the shop.
*GROWL*
"..." I felt my ears get hot from embarrassment as my stomach grumbled loudly, it echoed throughout the abandoned building.
"Oh boy, I sure do hope this sandwich isn't for anybody arooound here!"
Nobody, nothing- not a soul spoke up to claim the sandwich's ownership.
Well, I've eaten stranger things from even stranger places before- what's the harm in eating a perfectly normal sandwich in a long abandoned, haunted school building?
"Thanks for the meal!" I said happily as I took a big chomp out of the delectable sandwich- surprised that its bread was still toasty from the oven.
But as I ate the sandwich, scarfing it down hungrily from me skipping out breakfast earlier from today, I began to sense the warmth around me go cold.
The spirit dandelions also began to wildly shake around in the air, almost as if-
they were afraid.
"AHHHH!!! WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!!!???" The ghost from before suddenly appeared behind me, her eyes were popping out of her head as she looked at the empty wrapper in my hands.
"Eathing." I managed to say, still chewing on my meal.
"Dummy! Moron! Stupid, Stupid- STUPID-FACE!!! AGHH!!!!" She cried out; she was visibly shaking.
"Phew. That hit the spot."
"What's the problem, if that was your sandwich, I'll just go get you another one- wait, why would a ghost need a sandwich, you can't even eat." I asked, as I dusted breadcrumbs off my shirt.
"That wasn't a 'just' a sandwich..." For a ghost who was already pale, she looked even paler now.
"That was an 'offering'."
"He's- He's HERE! GO, HIDE OVER THERE- AGH!!" With surprising strength, she managed to push me into where the lunch ladies would serve food from- I was obscured by some growing foilage as I rolled down into it.
"Woah, a ghost's never been able to touch me before! How'd you do that!??"
But my question was ignored as the ghost before me was confronted by something that I had never seen before once in my life- it was a large, twin-headed white fox- the size of a polar bear, it gracefully prowled into the cafeteria room as one of its heads eyed the girl and the other the wrapper that I had let fall to the floor when I was pushed away.
"Child- where is my promised tithe?" The head that had its black eyes eyeing the girl spoke.
"Where is it? My feast is nigh." And the other head spoke as it continued to eye the Crazy Ray's Subs wrapper suspiciously.
"Ah, Ah, great spirit! It is coming as promised, trust me- I am simply, ah-" She briefly eyed where I was hiding in the grass, "'preparing' it for your palate!!"
Both of the heads then focused onto the ghost girl intently, they both began to snarl maliciously.
"You lie, child." "Yes, you lie."
"Lying to me" "Lying to me"
"Is punishable by-" "By-"
Just as they were about to open their twin jaws at the ghost cowering before them, I decided enough was enough.
"I ATE IT!" I shouted, now standing next to the white-haired ghost.
"Intruder!" "Trespasser!"
They shot a murderous glare at the girl.
"You failed your task!" "You failed your duty!"
"Allowing a Human," "A living soul!"
"Into my sacred ground!!" They roared at her with a synchronized crescendo.
But not soon after they roared at her, they then focused onto me- the air around me felt like it was below freezing now.
"Bug." "Filth."
"You defiled my offering." "You took my promised tithe."
"For that,-" "For such crime,-"
"You shall join the afterlife!!"
But even though they did open their jaws at me, both of their mouths extending at a speed faster than before I could blink as they lunged at my head- they stopped just short, without taking a bite.
"A protected one." "A child of karma."
"Regrettable." "Misfortunate."
"We cannot kill you."
"But we can curse you-
karma begets karma, Human."
"Your deepest desire." "Your deepest wish."
"A seeker of love." "A fool of romance."
"You shall be damned to redeem those who had failed in their conquest."
"You shall be damned to love those most misfortunate."
"And disguised are they, in hopes of a second chance."
"If you fail before your greatest day-
"Your soul shall be damned just the same."
"Hahaha,-" "Hahaha!"