The cliff appeared before me as if conjured into existence by some magical spell, or perhaps it was a hallucination. I edged forward and curled my toes over the edge; it felt too real. Peering down, I looked for the bottom of the terrifying drop but only saw darkness.
“What do you think happens if I jump, John,” I said to myself. Being alone in the Spirit World has caused me to talk to myself frequently.
I’d overheard other ghosts talking about this. It was the Leap of Faith, and it appeared to a ghost when they were ready to leave the Spirit World and go to Earth. Every ghost comes to the Spirit World to learn something. They don’t know what knowledge they must gain before leaving the Spirit World, but when they’ve learned enough, the cliff appears.
“But do I want to leave the Spirit World?” I asked myself. “I could live in my bubble of reality forever. It isn’t a terrible place, but it is lonely.”
I lived in my reality all alone. Some ghosts reconnect with a friend or loved one and choose to stay in their fabricated world until the end of time. But that never happened to me. I’d been by myself in my reality bubble for, I don’t know, maybe a hundred years. It’s difficult to judge the passage of time in the Spirit World. I knew one thing . . . I’d had enough.
I stared over the cliff’s edge and into the endless dark that yawned like the gaping maw of some gigantic beast. It beckoned me into its shadowy embrace.
“But what will happen, John, when I jump?” I swallowed, my mouth dry as a gravestone.
My heart pounded in my chest. I assume that was something my imagination had created; after all, I was dead. I didn’t need a pulse, but the sensation felt real to me.
I glanced over my shoulder at all the different spheres of reality pressing against each other in the Spirit World. Ghosts walked around within their bubbles, each spirit with a bright halo of color hugging their heads. There were reds, oranges, yellows, blues . . . every shade possible. Somehow, the hue was linked to the ghost’s emotional energy, but I never understood how that worked.
The edges of the cliff started filling in with the featureless, gray floor of the Spirit World; it was slowly disappearing.
“I gotta do it before it’s too late . . . but I’m afraid.”
I clenched my fists as sweat trickled down the back of my neck. My heartbeat felt like the cannons at the end of a fireworks show, ba-bang, ba-bang, ba-bang . . .
The opening grew smaller and smaller.
“I’m doing it.”
I took three steps backward, then ran for the disappearing cliff. When I reached the edge, I jumped, falling through the shrinking circle of darkness.
I fell.
I fell.
I fell.
It seemed like it lasted forever. I tried to scream, but nothing came out of my mouth. There was no sound, no rushing wind, no anything other than darkness, endless black in all directions.
“Is this the Void?” Hot, spikey fear blurred my mind into a fog of nightmarish thoughts. My pulse sped up as my body shook. I felt the gloom closing in even tighter, the darknessness seeping into my mind until . . .
THUD
I opened my eyes, a blur of bright green light hugging my body for a moment, then faded away. Above me, everything was blue for as far as I could see. White fluffs of something appeared at the edge of my vision. The ground beneath me felt rough and scratchy, like . . .
“Grass!” I said aloud.
Leaping to my feet, I stared down at a beautiful patch of green grass. Above me, a clear blue sky stretched from horizon to horizon, puffy clouds drifting in from the west.
“Am I here?” I asked the world, but the world didn’t answer.
I turned and took in my surroundings. Around me, small mounds of grass stood like ocean swells on an emerald sea. Kids played, animals chased balls, and families sat on blankets. It was a park, but along the distant edge of the grassy field stood tall skyscrapers, the buildings forbidding the blades of grass from ever escaping their enclosure.
“This is Central Park in New York City.” I jumped up and down, excited. “I’m home.”
I glanced around the park and spotted a woman in a business suit walking her corgi. She stopped for a moment, put something to her ear, and talked. I moved next to her.
“Are you speaking to me?”
Goosebumps formed on her nearest arm. She looked down at the bumps, confused, then rubbed the arm with her other hand. The corgi sat in front of me and barked.
“Mr. Pickles, be quiet. I’m on the phone.” She patted the dog on the head, then continued talking into the small black rectangle.
The dog stared straight at me.
“Can you see me?” I asked the corgi.
The dog wagged its tail.
“I think you can hear me too, can’t you?”
The dog barked again, but the woman silenced the animal with a wave of her hand.
“Well, at least I can talk to dogs, but this place seems just as lonely as the Spirit World.”
Around me, the living went about their lives. I spotted clusters of ghosts milling about, the colorful auras above them making their pale, see-through bodies easy to spot. Pointing and shouting, I tried to get their attention, but they all remained within their groups, ignoring me.
I sighed and stared down at the dog. “I never had friends while I was alive, Mr. Pickles,” I said. “Apparently, I’m not gonna have any while dead. This place isn’t any different from the Spirit World.”
I lowered my gaze, but something flickered into existence in the corner of my vision. A ghost appeared on the walkway, her all-white eyes staring at me. A milky-white halo hugged the girl’s head, curving lines of light weaving through her long hair.
“You can see me, right?” I shouted. “I’m John, and I just arrived from the Spirit World. I have so many questions. Maybe you can . . .”
The girl turned and looked away, staring off into the distance.
A cold emptiness seeped from my soul, its lonely touch chilling every fiber of my being. The sensation had been my only friend in the Spirit World, but I refused to let it take hold. That girl didn’t want to be friends . . . but why?
“I’m gonna find out.”
I walked toward the girl. “I have some questions for you and . . .”
She disappeared.
How did she do that? I thought.
I’ve heard some ghosts can teleport, but it takes a lot of emotional energy. That girl’s aura wasn’t big enough or bright enough; she didn’t have the power to teleport. But maybe she had enough to become transparent?
I kept walking until I stood where she’d been standing.
“I know you can hear me,” I said, hoping it was true. “I’m all alone here and want to offer my friendship to you. Making a new friend can be a little scary; I get it. Will they like me or hate me? Do they have similar interests? Will their crazy work well my mine? I know rejection can be terrifying, but you’ll never have a new friend if you don’t take the chance. If we can just talk, then maybe we’ll see if we can be—”
Something dark flickered in the corner of my eye. A dark ghost materialized atop a grassy mound, his eyes inky black. A halo of jagged shadows hugged the terrible ghost’s head. The aura reminded me of something out of a nightmare, skeletal fingers of darkness reaching up from the ghost’s disheveled hair. I’d heard of these ghosts. Others called them dark-eyes, and now I understand. Before I could move, the dark-eyed spirit disappeared, then reappeared at my side.
“You have something I want,” the terrifying spirit said, his voice deep and scratchy.
Before I could respond, he grabbed my arm, and then the unbelievable happened. I felt pain.
Ghosts don’t feel pain because we’re already dead. But it was happening to me right now. Pain burned within me as if liquid fire surged through my veins. I tried to speak but couldn’t, my mind overwhelmed with agony.
The dark-eyes chuckled. “This will be easier than the last one. After I take all your emotional energy, I’ll find that girl you were talking with and—”
“You mean me?”
The girl appeared next to the ghost. She glanced at me and smiled, then spoke two words and only two words.
“Fight back!”
She grabbed the dark-eyes arm and squeezed tight. The evil ghost looked surprised. At that moment, I yanked my arm from the ghost’s grip. Instantly, the pain stopped. I thought about running, but I couldn’t leave this girl alone. We might not be friends, but that didn’t mean I’d abandon her. I grabbed his other arm and squeezed tight, unsure what to do.
“Do the same he was doing to you,” she said through clenched teeth. “Take his energy.” She gestured to the ghost’s aura. The shadowy halo looked as if it was seeping away from the terrible ghost and into the girl.
But then, the dark-eyes turned his full attention to the girl. The flow of energy reversed, her snowy-white halo leaking into the shadowy ghost.
“That’s not gonna happen,” I said.
Staring at the dark-eyes, I imagined his cloud of spikey shadows slowly flowing into me. I focused every fiber of my soul on it and pulled. Suddenly, the dark-eyes turned from the girl and brought his terrible gaze to me. He tried to pull at my energy. I glanced up at my purple aura. Some of the color faded, and I couldn’t stop it.
The dark-eyes shoved the girl back, knocking her to the ground, then focused all his strength on me. I could feel my energy seeping away, my body growing weaker by the second.
Was this the end? Was I going to end up in the Void, anyway?
Fear crept its way into my soul and sunk its teeth in deep. I shook as my energy flowed away even faster.
I can’t stop it. I’m not strong enough. I can’t—
A loud bark stopped my chain of thought. Mr. Pickles had escaped his owner and now stared up at the dark-eyes, teeth bared, a deep growl coming from the animal’s throat.
“What’s this?” the dark-eyes said, his concentration wavering.
Mr. Pickles barked again and again, the animal unafraid in the face of this terror.
“I’m not gonna give up,” I hissed and pulled at his dark energy.
The girl was back on her feet. She grabbed the shadowy spirit’s arm and pulled at his energy. Other ghosts had seen the battle and came running. Each one placed a hand on the dark-eyes and drew in his shadowy life force.
The dark-eyes realized he’d made a mistake but was surrounded. He tried to pull his arm from my grasp, but my hands were like steel bands. I pulled at his energy, as did the others. The dark-eyes’ halo grew smaller and smaller until it finally disappeared. At that moment, the ghost cried out in terror, then fell to the ground. When I looked down, instead of seeing a semi-transparent ghost, I found a dark shadow of the ghost burned into the ground.
I stepped back, confused. A hand settled itself on my shoulder. I turned and found the girl standing at my side.
“I wasn’t ignoring you,” she said. “I knew there was a dark-eyes nearby, hunting for a new victim.”
“I’m glad you were there.” I nodded.
“Me too.” She took a step back and stared at me with her all-white eyes. “I heard what you said and agree; making friends can be scary, but having no friends is even scarier.” She extended a hand. “I’m Mariah.”
“Hi Mariah, I’m John.” I took her hand and smiled. For a moment, I felt lighter, my body tingling as if electrified. A wave of relief and joy crashed down on me as my smile grew bigger. “I’m really glad to meet you.”
Mariah giggled. “I can tell.”
She chuckled and slapped me on the back, her laughter contagious. The other ghosts introduced themselves, then went about their lives, leaving the two of us and the burnt-shadow alone.
“How about I show you around, John,” Mariah said. “There are some great ghost places in New York City. You’ll be able to meet a lot of other ghosts.”
“I’d like that,” I said.
“Then come with me.” She smiled. “You ever use the subway system in New York.”
I shook my head. “I grew up in New York City, but the only line they had in 1906 was the IRT. They’ve probably improved the subway since I died.”
Mariah smiled and nodded her head. “You’re in for quite a surprise.” She extended a hand to me. “Come on. I have a lot to show you.”
I could feel my grin reaching higher as I took her hand and followed her to the subway stations, a friend at last.