I was running so fast I barely was paying any attention to what I was doing at all. Howie was still screaming at me to stop in the background. There was NO way I was stopping though, not after the way he was acting. I could see me stopping and him walking right up to me and then ripping his head off and flinging it at me. That would NOT be cool! Not even a little bit.
“Wait!” I heard him and he sounded like he was getting even closer to me now. How was that even possible? I could outrun Howie D even if both of my feet were tied and I had a blind fold on. The guy was very slow to be honest and not many people knew that either. I mean the man could dance his ass off but when it came to running he kind of was a bit of a…how do I say this nicely? Let’s say he ran like a girl and leave it at that.
“Nicky why the hell are you running! Come back here!” He sounded like he was running out of breath and he also sounded pissed at me. Now there was no way I could stop, no way because even if he wasn’t evil Howie he was mad Howie and I have a feeling both Howie’s could kick my ass.
Suddenly his screaming stopped, I mean he was mid scream and then nothing. It made me turn around which I shouldn’t have done because I tripped over a fallen tree limb and landed on my back.
I was completely out of breath as I laid there, probably looking like a lump on a log. The trees were SO tall; I have never seen trees this tall before, ever! They looked monstrous from my position on the ground which I probably should have remedied and once again started running.
“Did you hurt yourself?” Okay…who the hell was that?
I slowly sat up to see a little girl staring at me, yes you guessed it, the one who took her head off in my dream. This was getting a little out of hand now. “I’m okay.” I said for whatever reason. She just kept staring at me and tilted her head and smiled. She was carrying a teddy bear in her hand and as she came towards me she clutched it tightly.
“Are you losted?” She asked, now squatting down next to me. She seemed real enough.
“I…uh…are you?” She nodded at me and instantly started to cry. What the heck?
“I can’t find my mommy and daddy.”
“I’m sorry sweetheart, just please don’t take your head off okay?” She looked at me confused and then started crying again. The weird part of this, yeah I know…anyway work with me here, the weirder part of this was she came right up to me and sat on my lap. Can ghosts do that?
“What’s your name honey?” I asked in a soft voice, trying to act like I was totally not freaking out on the inside and wondering where the hell Howie was now.
“Mary Beth.”
“That’s a very pretty name.” Mary Beth please do not take your head off please please please!
“Thank you.”
“I’m Nick.”
“I know.” Okay…I’m not even going to ask about that one.
“Mary Beth!!!” The little girl got off my lap and instantly ran towards the sound of a woman’s voice.
“Mommy!!” She yelled sounding so happy. Great a ghost reunion…fabulous!
“Oh thank GOD” The woman said running towards her daughter and grabbing her into a hug. “You never go running away from mommy again do you understand me?”
“Yes momma I’m sorry.” The little ghost said as I stood up, unsure of what exactly I should do now. The woman looked over at me with a glare. When the little girl noticed she took her mom’s hand and walked her over towards me… Fantastic.
“Mommy this is Nick, he is losted.”
“Oh is that right?” She asked, eyeing me suspiciously as if I had nothing better to do than to hang in the woods talking to small dead children.
“Yes, I kind of got myself lost here and ran into your daughter. I’ll be going now though.”
“Do you know where you’re going? Is your family here?”
“Oh…um…no I came here with friends.”
“Are you hurt?” She asked looking at my arm. I hadn’t noticed it was bleeding but now that she said that it kind of did hurt like a bitch. She didn’t give me a chance to answer, she walked over and grabbed my arm gently and examined it. “You know our camp is right down here about a quarter of a mile, why don’t you come back with us and let me get something on there and than maybe we can get you back to your camp site and your friends.”
I glanced back, hoping that at any second I would see Howie running through the trees to save me but when nothing of the sort happened I smiled at the woman and did my best to get out of it. “I’ll really be okay, I mean I just fell it’s no big deal.”
“I would feel better if you came back to our camp, at least then my husband could walk you back to your camp. You know we were told not to go into the woods off the path.”
“I know.”
“Come on sweetheart,” she started walking me towards her camp so I just kind of followed.
In about ten minutes we walked through a clearing and there was a huge tent set up and the smell of hot dogs cooking up on a fire. This seemed eerily familiar as well. It was exactly how I had dreamed it, “Do you know a Casper?” I decided to ask.
“Casper? No, should I?”
I shrugged at her and she looked at me as if she was concerned. “There you are! I was just about to set off a flare.” The dad said walking towards us and stopping and giving me the same look his wife had just moments earlier, that ‘oh look it’s a teenage pervert in the woods’ look.
“Honey this is Nick, he is lost but found our Mary Beth.”
His mean, scary look was replaced by a smile as he shook my hand. “Son, your parents are probably worried sick.”
“I didn’t come with my parents, just some friends.”
“Aren’t you a little young to be camping with just your friends?”
“They are older than me.” The husband and wife looked at each other the same way that Kevin and Howie do. That thought made me laugh for some reason.
“Looks like you hurt yourself son.”
“I’ll be okay.” That got the ghost mother moving, I was wondering when the gopher was going to pop up because clearly this was another dream. She came back a few seconds later with a First Aid kit and instantly started bandaging my arm up for me.
“It felt good, it was weird really, she was so motherly and I didn’t even know her, yet I wanted to give her a hug and call her mommy. It made me realize how much I missed that, the way my mother used to treat me before all of this garbage with the band started happening.
“Are you okay sweetheart?” She looked at me with loving eyes and gently brushed the hair away from my forehead, “You look pale suddenly and sad….my goodness I think you are running a fever.”
“I’m okay…” But as I said it, I felt a tear fall from my eyes, what the hell?
She used her hand and wiped it away, “What’s wrong baby?”
“Nothing, I just…I need to get back to my friends.”
“Okay…my husband will help you get back to your camp sweetheart.” Once again she placed her hand on my forehead. It felt so cool to the touch and I for some reason, found myself hugging her. She grabbed me back, “Everything will be okay Nick your mom and dad both love you very much.”
“Why did you just say that?” I pulled away from her a little defensively. She seemed surprised by my reaction.
“I’m sorry, I just…well I could tell you needed to hear that.”
“Nick!”
This time it was Kevin’s voice I heard through the clearing so I turned back towards the woman and smiled, “They found me.”
“I see that.” She said looking towards the woods just as Kevin and Howie broke through the clearing, neither looking very happy at all.
“Why didn’t you answer us?” Kevin screamed at me as he approached.
“I’m sorry…I just heard you now.”
I placed my hand on my shoulder to work out a kink as he came to me and quickly grabbed me in a hug, “Don’t you EVER do that again Nickolas Gene Carter! Did we not just have an earthquake? Weren’t we told to NOT go into the woods?”
I felt so embarrassed I can’t even tell you, this was worse than when my mother pulled out my naked baby pictures on my date with Kim Weathers in 6th grade. “I’m really sorry…It was an accident.”
“What? You accidentally ran away from me?” That was Howie, a mix of angry and concerned but luckily no evil, at least that I could see.
“I am sorry about all of this.” Kevin said to my ghost friends…wait a minute…
“You can see them?”
Kevin gave me a very odd look, “Of course I can see them, I’m not blind or anything.”
“I think he’s running a fever.” The ghost woman…well not ghost woman said.
“Really?” Kevin placed his hand on my forehead and shook his head, “He’s been ill, do you guys by chance happen to have a phone?”
“No…” The father said and I decided I needed to sit down because I was completely confused as he continued, “We have a cell phone but it died. I do have flares though, just two.”
“My names Kevin by the way and this is Howie.”
“Matt and this is my wife Sarah and our daughter Mary Beth.” They all shook hands as the little girl came and sat on my lap again.
“That was one hell of an earthquake wasn’t it?” Matt said motioning for Kevin to sit by the fire and eat a hot dog.
“Oh no thanks, we have two people that are probably worried sick about this little guy.” Oh my God did he just call me a little guy? Shoot me now!
“Well maybe you guys can all come over our way and have dinner with us tomorrow.” Sarah insisted looking over my way and giving me a warm smile.
“Thanks. That would be awesome if we hang around, since Nicky is sick, we might take off early; that is if we can manage to get out of here. It seems like a tree is blocking our way.”
“Really?” Matt asked looking at his wife with an air of apprehension on his face.
“Yes, we tried to leave earlier but the road was completely blocked.”
“If you need our help with anything just ask okay? Now that you know where to find us.”
As the ‘adults’ all talked and I knew that I was among the living, I decided to go back in time and hit on something that scared me earlier. “Mary Beth…” She was holding her bear and making it clap its hands together but when she heard her name she looked up at me and smiled. “How did you know my name? Remember back in the woods you said you knew my name? How did you know?”
She went back to clapping the bear’s hands together, “Casper told me.”
“Casper? You mean he talks to you too?”
She nodded and then had the bear kiss my cheek. “What else did he say?” I asked her as I hugged the bear back.
She shrugged at me and held her bear tightly again. “Hey are you ready Nick?”
“Just a minute…” I said to Kevin, and then I whispered into her ear, “Did he tell you that you have to run when someone comes for you?”
She looked at me and shook her head, “No, but he told me to tell you that you should.”
I felt my heart start beating faster and my eyes go wide, “Nick, come on buddy we need to go, Brian was worried sick and so was AJ, kind of sort of.”
Kevin grabbed my hand and helped me up, but my eyes were still fixed on the little girl as she clung to that teddy bear. I wanted to stay and ask her a thousand questions but she got up and went over to her dad and sat on his lap.
“You okay?” Kevin whispered to me, once again feeling my forehead.
I nodded at him, “Let’s just get back okay? I want to take a nap.”
He nodded at me, “Thanks for helping him out.” Howie offered as we left.
“Nick…” I turned towards Sarah who was smiling at me. I just wanted to go back and stay with them, isn’t that odd? “Everything will be okay sweetheart, if you need us just come find us okay?”
I nodded at her as we left the clearing and headed into the woods. Once out of ear shot of the nice family, Kevin’s happy pills wore off, “I can’t believe you Nick! Seriously…”
“Can we not talk about it right now? I have a headache.”
“Do you have any idea how worried we were? When Howie came back and said you ran into the woods! I mean what the hell?”
“I said can we not talk about this?”
“Why run away from Howie? This isn’t some kind of game. I mean you passed out on us already, which scared the crap out of us, now you do this…how much attention does one kid need?”
“I SAID LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!!! I HAVE A HEADACHE!!!!” Both Kevin and Howie stopped when I screamed at them. I swear for a moment I thought I was going to get back handed.
“Okay….okay.” Kevin said patting my back and walking on in silence.
When we got to our camp, daylight was giving way and fireflies were brightening up the sky. None of us spoke for the rest of the walk back to camp, which wasn’t really that long of a walk to begin with.
“Thank GOD!” Brian said running towards us as we walked closer to the tents. “Are you okay?”
I nodded at him but didn’t feel much like talking to him either. He followed me closely as I walked into the tent and dropped down onto my sleeping bag, “Are you going to tell me what happened or what?”
“Or what.” I turned away from him, my mood was foul and I didn’t want to say something mean to him. The others it was okay but for some reason, I couldn’t be mean to my Frick.
“Well looks like the roaming gnome has returned.” AJ said strutting into the tent like a chicken with constipation. Yeah, I know it made no sense but he was annoying me.
“Not now Bone.” Brian spoke in a hushed tone.
“Oh pardon me, I’ll let the little prince rest then.”
Once AJ was out of the tent I heard Brian plop down next to me, “He was worried about you Nick.”
“I’m sure.”
“He was… actually worried sick. I was too.”
“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“Why did you run away from Howie? He said you ran from him like he was going to murder you.”
“I thought he was.” I said almost under my breath.
“What?”
“Nothing, Brian I’m really tired…”
He placed his hand on my back, “Okay Nick, I won’t push. You want me to stay in here while you sleep?” I nodded at him.
“Okay buddy, get some rest and we’ll talk more when you wake up.”
I nodded once again and wiped a tear from my eyes. Luckily since my back was turned, he didn’t see that I was crying but I was scared and didn’t know what to do anymore.
All I knew was that time was running out!
Thanks for reading and have a very Merry Chritsmas. I'll be back in the new year! :O)
