The Lost Chronicles

The Blue Girl Cont

 

That evening, as the sun set, we headed back into the forest, Avalon waving her flashlight in front of us while I held tight to my brand new electric lantern.

 

We managed to find the same path as before, to my dismay. Apparently we had made a definitive trail when we bolted, and we had the map in the notebook to guide us.

 

I stayed close to Avalon, ready to run if she did, though she insisted we were fine.

 

The sky turned a dark blue as the sun tipped past the horizon. I could just see the sunset colours through the trees as Avalon pointed out the rock.

 

I went to fiddle with the strap of my messenger bag out of habit, but came up empty. I had left it back at the house.

 

We stood there for a minute, the forest quiet. Not even the wind dared rustle the leaves. Avalon wasn’t going to take that.

 

“Come out,” she called, her voice breaking the silence. “We’re here, and I know you are to. You won’t leave, you’ve been here for a century.”

 

“Avalon -” I grabbed her arm, wanting her to be quiet, but she talked over me.

 

“We know what happened, so just show yourself already.”

 

“Know what happened,” a voice hissed. I screamed, flinching when I saw a sparkle, followed by the blue image of a girl.

 

She stood in front of us, fully visible in the near dark. She looked just as she had in the notebook sketches. Unfortunately she looked like the angry ones.

 

“We know about the attack,” Avalon told her, a little less confident than before.

 

“The attack, the attack, the attack . . .” The ghost muttered, gliding around us to the rock.

 

“We know about the raiders, and what happened.”

 

“What happened,” she hissed, glaring at us.

 

“We aren’t leaving-”

 

“Leaving, leaving.” She paused, tilting her head. “Avalon.”

 

“You remember us?” I asked, my voice quiet and not nearly as confident as Avalon’s.

 

“You remember. Remember, you,” she replied. “Leaving.”

 

“You’re repeating us,” I realized. “You have to rehear words before you can use them.”

 

“Repeating,” she hissed. “You, leaving, Avalon, leaving.”

 

“You died in the attack,” Avalon said. She paused for a moment, thinking. “I.”

 

“I,” The ghost repeated. “The attack. I, the attack.”

 

“You attacked?” I whispered. “You were part of the attack on the town?”

 

“Attack on the town, attack on the town.” She screamed, flying off into the forest.

 

“Oh no you don’t,” Avalon snapped, chasing after her.

 

I bolted in the same direction, following the bouncing light from Avalon’s flashlight and the blue glow.

 

We ran and ran until it felt like my lungs were on fire and my legs about to give out. Finally I saw the ghost, hovering at the edge of the forest, screaming.

 

I stopped, covering my ears and trying to breathe. Avalon halted by the ghost.

 

The ghost kept screaming, looking like she was trying to flee the forest. I closed my eyes for a moment, and the screaming stopped.

 

I stood up, opening my eyes, breath coming easier.

 

“You’re trying to attack the town,” Avalon accused. The ghost turned and hissed at her.

 

“Attack on the town, attack on the town,” she hissed.

 

“Yeah, we got that bit, you were screaming it loud enough,” Avalon scoffed.

 

“I screaming, attack on the town, attack on the town, I no screaming it loud enough. I died in the attack.” She glided back and forth along the edge of the trees. “I screaming attack on the town. No part. No leaving. No . . .”

 

She stopped and stared out towards the town, the landscape ghastly shades of grey.

 

“What is she talking about?” Avalon whispered to me. “I know she’s a ghost, but she isn’t making sense.”

 

“I – I think I know what’s she’s saying,” I said before turning to the ghost. “They, listen, did, not, save, them,” I told her, giving her the words she needed.

 

The ghost spun around to face me and I stepped back.

 

“I did not save them. I screaming attack on the town. They did not listen.” Her features softened as she turned away again, and I could swear I heard sadness in her voice as she said “I did not save them.”

 

“You warned them about the bandit attack, but they didn’t listen, and they died. You’re like Cassandra from Greek mythology, doomed to know the future, but never to be believed,” Avalon said.

 

“But how did you know?” I asked. The ghost looked at me for a moment before taking off back into the depths of the forest.

I was really not a runner.

 

Following Avalon, we ran back along the trail we had plowed, chasing the blue shimmers through the trees.

 

We arrived at the rock once again, and once again I was out of breath. Finally accepting the fact that Avalon was right, and that the ghost wasn’t going to kill us or anything, I dropped down to the ground by the rock.

 

No sooner than I had sat down, the ghost started hissing and screaming at me. I leapt back to my feet and hid behind Avalon,

who stood her ground.

 

“Bandit,” the ghost hissed. “Bandit screaming.”

 

“Here?” Avalon asked, looking around.

 

“Bandit here, I screaming attack on town, they did not listen. I attack bandit here.” She paused, her scowl softening slightly.

 

“I died here.”

 

“No one would have found you,” I said softly, still hiding behind Avalon. “No wonder you’re still stuck here, after all these years . . .”

 

“A trauma like that would definitely let her remain, and if she was never buried, she wouldn’t have a way out,” Avalon agreed.

 

“So how do we help her?” I asked.

 

“I thought you were afraid,” Avalon pointed out with a smirk.

 

“And you weren’t?” I asked. “She needs our help – she needs someone’s help. People didn’t listen to her before. Someone should now.”

 

“Good. First step, find the body. Or bones. Or whatever’s left. Then we’re gonna need a shovel and a spot to make the grave. After she’s buried, she should be able to leave, or at least be at peace.” She turned to the ghost. “Where did you die?”

 

“I died here,” came the reply.

 

“There isn’t a body here,” Avalon told her. “Where did your body go?”

 

“Body . . .” The ghost looked around, almost like she couldn’t remember. Maybe she couldn’t, having been dead for so long. Maybe her body had broken to pieces, or been taken by animals.

 

“If you can’t remember where your body is, we can’t help you,” Avalon said, crossing her arms.

 

“Help? Body help?”

 

“Yeah, your body would help. We can’t exactly make a grave without a body.”

 

“Maybe she doesn’t remember where she died,” I suggested. “They could have moved her body – dumped it in the creek or something.”

 

“Creek . . .” She floated off deeper into the trees. At least this time she moved slowly, almost lost in thought. Avalon and I only had to do a fast walk to keep up.

 

She paused, coming to a creek, the one Avalon had found the day before. “Here.”

 

“She must have fallen or been thrown into the creek,” Avalon said. “So she would have been washed down over the years . . .”

Avalon wandered down the side of the creek, following the current and shining her flashlight into the black ripples, stopping when the banks bent and curved in a different direction.

 

I watched Avalon crouch down by the water, searching it with her flashlight. “The body would have been able to roll here, but I don’t think the water would be able to turn them in a different direction, the curve is too sharp.”

 

“How do you even know this stuff?” I asked.

 

“I watch too many criminal investigation shows,” she replied.

 

“Well, how do we know if you’re right?”

 

“I’m not dragging a shovel out here unless I’m sure, so . . .” She dropped her flashlight on the ground and pushed her sleeves up higher. “Shine your lantern over here.”

 

“This is beyond wrong,” I muttered, doing as she asked while she stuck her hand into the water and started shoving around the silt at the bottom. “We’re in the middle of the forest, searching for a ghost’s bones, lost a century ago, so we can put her to rest. This was not the vacation I signed on for.”

 

“Man this is cold . . .” Avalon muttered, ignoring my ramblings. A second later she muttered a curse, recoiling and pulling her hand out of the water and shaking it off. “Gotta admit, part of me was really hoping I wouldn’t find a bone.”

 

The ghost hissed at her, scowling.

 

“So now what?” I asked.

 

“Now we leave and come back in the morning with a shovel,” Avalon said, wiping the last of the water off on her pants and pushing her sleeves down to her elbows again. The ghost hissed again and I turned to keep an eye on her while Avalon grabbed her flashlight.

 

“Leave . . .”

 

“We’re coming back,” Avalon told her. “We’re getting what we need, and then we’re helping you. If you don’t like it, then do something about it.”

 

I could see the tightness in Avalon’s shoulders as she challenged the ghost. I could see how worried she was the ghost would take her up on it, even though her face was straight and calm.

 

A few moments passed, the ghost watching her, before the blue of her form shimmered and faded. Avalon let out a breath, as did I.

 

“Let’s get out of the forest, before she changes her mind,” I decided. Avalon nodded and we started back on the path we’d travelled too many times that night.