Ghosts
I could see them, not just ghosts, but I could see when a person was about to die, how and when, and I could see their souls leaving their bodies even before they died. But no one knew about my mysterious powers apart from my grandma. My adopted parents were too nonchalant to notice my gifts, as my grandma calls them, while I saw them as a curse, she saw them as gifts to communicate with the dead.
My name is Naomi Scott. I was rejected by my real parents for reasons best known to them, and I was adopted by the Scott family. I was blind in the left eye, blind to reality, of course, but in actuality, I could see dead souls, ghosts, bad auras, and pure souls. My good eye was very normal. I started seeing ghosts and dead souls when I was five. I never really understood why or what made me see them. I was blind, so why was I seeing such things? And of course nobody believed me. Who will believe a five-year-old seeing ghosts? They all thought I was mentally deranged, so I stopped telling people and kept it to myself. That's until I knew grandma; she was one of the few that understood me. She told me to ignore those bad spirits; if I pretend like I didn't see them, then they will go away. Of course I tried; it was pretty hard for a five-year-old me, but I got the hang of it, and now I just pretend they weren't there. But that didn't stop me from seeing how the souls of people left them.
And to crown the juicy list, my birthday is coming up, and it falls on Halloween. You may as well call me the queen of the ghost or the spooky girl. But that won't change the fact that I see these things.
We moved into this new neighborhood a few months ago, and ever since then I have been living among ghosts and walking shells of human beings in my school, my neighborhood, but mostly my house. And it got even more terrifying and intense since my birthday was fast approaching. And it's a ritual in the Scott home that everyone must celebrate their birthdays.
"How's your eye, Naomi? Are they still itchy?" My mom asked, rushing to get the boxes filled with decorations for the Halloween party and of course my birthday.
"What happened to her eyes, honey?" My dad pressed a kiss on mom's lips, indirectly asking me if I was okay with concern in his eyes.
"I'm okay; it's just a little itch." I murmured, looking at the dark, ugly ghost standing in between my parents with a weird-looking smile. I looked away, clearly not wanting the attention of the ghost.
Before I could see or hear their faces, they were like piles of dark smoke hanging around everywhere, on people, houses, and even animals. But now I could see their faces, feel their emotions, and they also knew I could see them, at least most of the time.
And tonight wasn't any different; tonight was even worse since it was my birthday. I could see them entering through doors, I could hear the cries of children, I could hear people calling my name, asking me to lend my body to them, asking me for help, calling me selfish for ignoring them, and asking me to look at them!
"Don't you just want to look at me?" a soft voice whispered into my ears, causing me to shudder as goosebumps appeared on my skin for a good reason. I ignored the voice, but that only agitated the ghost further. "I said LOOK AT ME!" The voice screamed into my ear.
"Mom, I'm going to my room." I mumbled, getting up, as I felt my whole body quake in fear.
"Yes, you can, darling, but be back down in an hour; your classmates will be arriving soon." Mom answered with a small smile across her lips.
I rushed the stairs into my room, breathing profoundly and my heart pounding rapidly. Why was all this happening today? I asked no one in particular as my eyes began to itch terribly, and the more I itched on them, the more I saw the ghost clearly.
I quickly stood in front of the mirror to examine my eyes. My good eye looked perfectly fine, but my blind eye was crimson red. Tears slowly dropped out of it. I gasped shakily, feeling someone's hand on my shoulders. It felt like my legs were rooted to the floor. I couldn't move or breathe.
"I know you can see us, feel us, and hear us, you can't hide from us!"
"Naomi, come down the stairs. Mom said your classmates are waiting for you." My older brother Luke entered my room with both of his ears blocked with earphones and his hands typing on his phone like he was playing a game. I signed shakingly, feeling the weight on my shoulders gone. I quickly made my way down the stairs. The house was already decorated with Halloween decorations. I wasn't much of a costume person; I was in my baggy jeans and big hoodie, making sure my face was hidden in my hood.
"Oh, there's the birthday girl!" my mom screamed excitedly. And almost at the same time, everyone started singing the birthday song for me.
I was still in shock and felt a panic attack coming. My eyes locked on the guests dressed in different costumes in the living room; none of them had a soul, or more like their souls were separated from their bodies; it was like they were empty shells of a human body. My parents and Luke were most likely to be the only humans with souls; my mom was going to die from a car accident in her late 50s while my dad would die from cancer in his early 40s; grandma had just 2 years to live; only Luke had a longer life span.
My breath hitched as they continued to sing the happy birthday song while clapping their hands. It seemed like it wasn't just them clapping because there were so many ghosts and spirits doing the same thing.
"I know you can hear me. Give me your attention, child! Give me your body!!"The voice of a ghost startled me; my hands were ice cold, and even my hoodie wasn't warming me enough because my hands were shaking.
"Help me! Please help us!!"The voices were loud and frightening. "Don't let me die; don't let them take us away, please!"
It was getting dark, and I was anticipating all the bad things that would happen to me. The ghosts were boldly approaching me; I could hear whispers and feel hands on mine without seeing the entire body of the person touching me. At 6:30 pm sharp, my grandma walked into the house in her witch costume and a fake broom stick in her hands while she handed over the gifts she got for everyone to Mom, they shared a short discussion and both of them kept looking at me in concern, one thing I didn't like about this family is their pity towards me, they looked at me like I was broken, just like the ghost I ignored their stares. Grandma then came over to the couch, where I was sitting alone. It seems everyone found the birthday girl weird not to be around her, but grandma came to sit right next to me anyways.
"Hello there, my little pumpkin," she said, wrapping me in her warm embrace before pressing a kiss on my forehead. "Care to tell me why the birthday girl is sitting here alone?" She inquired.
I gave her a stained smile that wasn't reaching my eyes. "They are all dead, granny, all of them." I told her, but I wasn't done yet, and she was listening, as she always does. "I have been seeing a lot of ghosts lately; they even know I'm seeing them now, and ignoring them is becoming super hard." I told her, recalling my incident in my room, and a shudder ran down my spine.
"Oh, you poor child. Do your parents know about this?" She queued, rubbing my frozen hands with hers. "I doubt Granny, and you know I don't want this to be a problem for them." I responded then lay my head on her lap, my head facing the table so I could see beneath the table, and that's when I saw a ghost creeping out, tilting its head to the side looking at me like a zombie would, I wanted to scream, but instead my body jerked up, and I immediately closed my eyes in order to make the ghost leave since I wasn't paying attention to it.
Grandma sighed, then pulled something from her bag. I thought it was cookies or something, but she wore something on my hand, and when I opened my eyes to see what it was, the ghost wasn't there, and I sighed in relief, then fixed my gaze on Grandma.
"I hate it when you go through so much and nobody is there for you, so I went to see a seer, and she gave me this bracelet. Those ghosts won't be coming around anytime soon as long as you don't take this bracelet off."
I sat up immediately, staring at my grandma in awe. Then, on the bracelet, it was just a plain white bracelet. Suddenly the itch in my eyes stopped, my hands were no longer cold, and what was even more surprising was that I couldn't see any ghosts, and nobody looked like a lifeless body just walking around, I could see my classmates looking normal.
That's when I cried, because this was the best and worst Halloween birthday I had ever had.
But what happens when Luke breaks the bracelet?.
