Chapter
18
By Julie
AJ watched in horror as the car neared Brian. He knew there was no time for it to stop or
swerve out of the way. But then,
something happened. A man appeared in
the road next to Brian. As the car was
about to hit him, the man pushed Brian out of the way. Brian tumbled back and landed on the pavement
on the side of the road.
“Watch
out!” AJ screamed to the man in the road, but he knew it was too late. The car was already there. AJ gasped as he watched the car not hit the
man, but pass right through him, as if he were made of air. AJ stared in astonishment at the man, who
still stood there, unharmed. No one else
even seemed to notice him there. Then AJ
realized the man was nearly transparent.
“He’s a ghost,” AJ whispered.
“They weren’t lying, there really are ghosts.” He blinked, and when he opened his eyes, the
man was gone. AJ stared at the spot in
the road where he had stood only second ago.
Then he remembered Brian.
Snapping back to his senses, he hurried over to his friend, who was
sitting in the grass on the side of the road.
“Bri,
are you okay?” he asked. Brian was
staring straight ahead, his hand holding onto his head. “Bri?” AJ asked again, but received no
answer. “Brian, look at me!” he said,
snapping his fingers in front of Brian’s eyes.
Finally, Brian slowly turned his head to look at AJ. “Are you okay?” AJ asked again.
“My
head,” Brian said, his voice soft. AJ
saw that his hand was still on the side of his head. He gently pulled Brian’s hand away and
gasped. Blood was dripping from a deep
looking gash in the side of Brian’s head.
“We
need to have this looked at,” AJ said gently.
“You might need stitches. Can you
stand up?” Brian nodded slowly and
climbed to his feet. As soon as he was
standing, however, his knees gave out on him, and he nearly collapsed. AJ
grabbed onto him and steadied him. He
could feel Brian’s whole body trembling.
“Come on, Bri, lean on me,” AJ said, putting Brian’s arm around his
shoulder. The two of them walked slowly
back to the hospital, Brian leaning heavily on AJ to keep from falling again.
***
Nick found himself sitting in the grass under a tree on a
hot summer day. He looked around,
confused as to where he was. He saw a
huge Victorian mansion sitting across the lawn in front of him. Just a few yards away from where was sitting,
a little girl was playing fetch with her puppy.
"Come on, Jack, get the stick!" called the little girl, who
looked about seven, as she threw a stick to her small black Scottish terrier
puppy. Jack raced over to the stick
eagerly, but didn't pick it up. The girl
sighed and wiped her hand across her forehead.
"Goodness, it's hot today," she said. "Come on, Jack, let's go
inside." She whistled to the dog,
and he followed her across the yard to the large Victorian style house that lay
before them. Nick tagged along after
them, very confused. Everything looked
so old fashioned, the girl, the house, everything. He felt as if he had gone back in time.
Once inside the house, the girl lit a lamp and walked
carefully down to the basement of the house, the only place that stayed cool in
the summer. Nick followed after her,
eager to get out of the heat as well.
The child picked up something out of a basket and sat down in a rather
dusty old chair. Nick realized it was
some kind of needlepoint picture as the girl began to sew on it.
A few minutes later, Nick heard the dog barking from
upstairs. He looked over at the little
girl, but she didn’t seem to hear the barking.
As the minutes went by, the dog’s barks grew more frantic sounding. Wondering what the dog could be barking at,
Nick went upstairs. As he flung open the
basement door, he gasped. The entire
kitchen was filled with flames! There
was no way out through the kitchen.
Terrified, Nick slammed the door closed and ran back downstairs.
“The house is on fire!” he yelled to the little girl, but
she didn’t even look up. “Hello? I said the house is on fire!” Nick screamed
again, louder this time. The girl still
didn’t hear him. Nick kept yelling at her, but finally gave up. He didn’t know where he was or what was
happening, but he knew the little girl couldn’t hear him.
A few minutes later, he saw her nose twitch as she smelled
the smoke. Confused, she got up and
walked to the steps. She screamed when
she saw the flames, already spreading down the stairs. The fire was spreading quickly.
“Get out of the way!” Nick cried, forgetting that she
couldn’t hear him. Just then, the flames
leapt up onto the girl’s dress. She
shrieked and screamed, twisting around, trying to put out the fire. It was no use, for the flames spread across
her dress. Nick squeezed his eyes shut,
not wanting to watch the child burn to death, but he could still hear her
agonizing screams, even with his hands pressed over his ears.
Only a few minutes later, the screaming stopped. Nick opened his eyes, but he could no longer
see the girl. The flames had enveloped
her and were still spreading towards him.
Then, Nick heard a creaking, splintering sound coming from above.
He screamed in horror as the ceiling caved in, the whole
house falling down on top of him.
***
