The Mystery Of The Ghost(Archisha Srivastava) Once upon a time, there was a girl named Susan Lawrence. She was 15 years old. She was very fanciful. She believed that a ghost lives in her house. No matter how many times she tried to convince her parents, they just wouldn’t believe her.
“But, mom, why don’t you believe me? I am telling you honestly that a ghost lives in our house!” Susan said to her mother, who was doing the dishes. “What proof do you even have, Susan?” her mother asked, rinsing a plate. “Mom, we live in an old, 2 floored house! The wooden stairs always creak with our every step! And it’s not normal creaking, either. It sounds like someone or something is howling! Also, on some days, I hear weird, whispery voices outside my room! Sometimes, even stuff disappears from my desk!”
Susan whined. Her mom chuckled at her child’s foolish imagination. “The disappearing stuff happens because you must be forgetful! The voices are coming from the wind which howls outside! The wooden stairs creak because this house is old! What else do you expect from an old house like this? Sweetheart, you have watched too many horror movies!” Her mother replied.
Susan stomped upstairs to her room, defeated. “Why doesn’t anybody believe me?” she thought, feeling upset. Suddenly, a light bulb popped in her head. “Ah! I know! What if I PROVE it to my parents that a ghost lives in our house! I mean, after all, it is for our own good. I will capture the ghost, show it to mom and dad, then kill it!” Susan said to herself, feeling excited.
In the night, she put her plan into action.
After everybody was fast asleep, Susan rose up from her bed and went out of her room. She tried not to make a sound, but the wooden floor creaked anyways, despite her efforts. “Ugh! If only these floorboards stop creaking!” Susan thought angrily.
She went room to room, until she got all the supplies which she needed. After she gathered everything, she went to her room and checked again if she had everything. “Duct tape, cookies, couple of boxes, rope….” She mumbled to herself. After she finished checking, she began setting up the trap. It took her a long time, but she finally did it.
“Perfect. This is the perfect trap.” Susan thought happily. She put a cloth embedded with LED light and laid down on her bed. “The ghost can get lured in with the cookies and as soon as it grabs it, the ghost will be swept up, where the boxes are. Then, as soon as the ghost’s body is pressed against the box, the flaps will close and the box will slide right into my room! When the ghost gets trapped in the box, the sensors will turn on the LED light, which is in the cloth over my eyes. The sudden blare will wake me up, and by the time I remove the cloth from my eyes, the ghost would already reached my room!”
Thinking repeatedly about her plan made her fall asleep.
The next morning, Susan was woken up with the LED lights, blinding her eyelids. She groaned. She had forgotten about last night. She took off the cloth from her eyes. She saw a box in her room. Suddenly, all the memories came flooding back to her. She gasped. Her plan had worked!
She ran up to the box, with her Nerf gun, loaded with darts. She had stuck needles on the front of each one, to make the weapon more harmful. She planned to use it in case of a burglar attack but, there she was, standing with her gun in her hand, staring at a box that possibly contained a ghost.
She carefully opened the box, with her finger on the trigger of the gun. She peeked inside.
She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. A white blanket was inside, staring right up. It had EYES. The white figure levitated out of the box and set itself down to the floor. It removed the blanket and let it drop to the floor.
Now, Susan could see a boy. Younger to her. The boy seemed human, except that his body was pale, and he had empty eye sockets. Susan looked down to the ghost boy’s feet. They were twisted back. His whole body seemed as if it was cut at places with knives. Susan looked at the boy’s face again. He smiled at her. Susan fired her gun at his shoulder, but the needled bullet went right through his shoulder.
The ghost immediately became scared, even though the bullet never hurt him. “P-Please don’t shoot! I beg of you!” The ghost said. Despite the ghost’s unsettling appearance, it’s voice was surprisingly smooth.
“Who are you?” Susan asked, trying to make her voice sound brave. “I- I- I-”The ghost was only able to stammer. Susan put the gun away, trying to ease the ghost so that it would speak. Once she put away the gun, the ghost calmed down. “I- I’m Sam Washington. I’m a- a- ghost.” Sam said, looking scared.
“I know that! Otherwise how will you be able to levitate and the needled bullet will go right through you?” Susan asked. “Wait a minute…. Are you the one who has been howling in front of my room and taking stuff from my desk?” Susan asked angrily, before Sam had a chance to answer her first question. “Well… you guys are so loud here!” Sam complained.
“I tend to relax during the daytime, and you, your mom and dad are as loud as a construction site! I wanted to get revenge, that is why I troubled you! But now that you have discovered me, I am leaving!” Sam said. “Wait! Don’t go. You don’t have another home, I’ll bet! I want you to stay here.” Susan said, feeling pity for Sam. “You’re right. But let’s make a deal. If you stay quiet , then I won’t trouble you at night anymore. Do we have a deal?” Sam asked. Susan smiled and said “yes.”.
They both shook hands. “Hey… if you don’t mind… can we be… friends? Or at least not enemies.” Sam asked, feeling shy. Susan chuckled and said, “sure, I don’t see why not!”.
And they became good friends and lived happily, without any troubles. Susan was happy that the mystery of the ghost was solved, and Sam was happy that he won’t be disturbed anymore, and also because he made a friend.

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