An original horror story in chapter forms, written by our student Anvi Pandey.

Anvi is a student of Grade 6, studying at the prestigious Asian World School, Jaipur. We are proud to have her as a student of the Creative Writing Program through Applied Storytelling under the mentorship of Trainer Khusshbo Chokhaani. We congratulate aNVI for this exemplary true self-expression.

The Girl And The Ghost

Chapter 1 I The New Apartment

A story based in a busy city with skyscrapers taller than the eye could see, with the smells of all sorts of food from the different shops, doughnuts, pizzas, bagels and so much more wafting through the air. Loads of people hurried down the crowded streets, car horns honked so loudly they could make someone’s ears bleed. In this city a young woman named Sofia was walking down wearing headphones and listening to music as she walked. She stopped by a shop and purchased a bagel with cream cheese, she then started walking to the subway.

Once she reached the subway she hopped on a train and by some miracle she found a seat in the utterly jam-packed train. As soon as she sat down the train began. Once the train arrived at the station Sofia along with many others exited the train. Sofia then left the subway and headed to her new apartment on 57th Street. As she opened the door to her apartment, it truly did look like someone had just moved in with boxes which were stacked up from the floor to the ceiling. The walls of the house were cream-colored, the doors and furniture were made of wood and the floor was laid with white marble tiles.

While Sofia steered into her new apartment, she whispered to herself ‘‘Well for only 1000$ a month this place is nice, guess I better start unpacking’’. She spent the next couple of hours unpacking and arranging all her stuff and by the end of it, she was so exhausted she practically collapsed onto her bed falling asleep almost instantly. The next morning when Sofia woke up she noticed that something was different a lot of her stuff wasn’t in the same place that she had left it. She thought that she was just tired so she went to the kitchen to make herself some coffee. But as soon as she got to the kitchen, she had the shock of her life as the words “Be gone from this place’’ was written on the kitchen counter in blood-red writing. At this point, Sofia was full-on freaking out and started to pace around the room while repeating the words “Oh my god” to herself repeatedly. As she continued to panic, she heard the phone ringing (tring, tring, tring) Sofia checked the phone and realized that it was her best friend Piper “Hi girly” Piper said. At first, Sofia did not answer “Girl you good?” Piper asked, sounding perplexed and slightly concerned. Sofia told Piper what was happening but Piper did not seem scared at all she blurted out the words “That sounds cool” “Please, stop fan Girling over nightmare fuel for one minute and help me” Sofia remarked. Piper composed herself and told Sofia that she had to conduct a salon, a game played by kids for fun.

Chapter 2 I The Summoning

Sofia was utterly terrified at the thought of summoning a ghost but agreed and asked Piper how to do so. Hours later once everything for the salons was prepared, all the lights were off and the house was dark, a circle made from red sand and surrounded by candles was in the center of the room. Sofia recited a summoning ritual. Suddenly a strong wind blew through the room blowing out the candles. From the center of the summoning circle, a ghost appeared, the ghost was a woman wearing a dress with a lace trim and an apron on top the dress seemed to be from the late 19th century, and her hair was in net braids that were white as snow with a bonnet on top and her feet hung a few inches above the ground. As Sofia and the ghost stared at each other both dumbfounded and scared. The silence was finally broken by Sofia as she threw a pillow at the ghost, the ghost seemed less than pleased at this and asked her “Why did you do that?” To this Sofia replies without breaking eye contact with the ghost “I wanted to see if you were a ghost” “Of course I am a ghost your idiotic child” the ghost said angrily. “Hey, first of all, there is no need for that language and second I am not a child I’m a full grown woman” Sofia replies “Well your acting like a brat,” said the ghost too this Sofia just rolled her eyes and said “ well anyway could you just like leave because I just bought this apartment and I don’t want a ghost haunting me” “oh you foolish child if I could leave I would have you see I’m trapped in a place called limbo. Limbo is a place between the afterlife and the mortal realm. I have been trapped limbo for so long I can’t even remember how long it’s been ” said the ghost “ well if you can’t get to the afterlife can’t you just haunt a different house ” said Sofia “ unfortunately I can’t as ghosts are bound to the place they die ” replied the ghost “Oh god, what did I do to deserve this all I wanted was a normal life I work full time in retail I have a blog where I post about my day to day life I pay my taxes I just bought this apartment so why on earth is this happening to me, like isn’t there anyway to get you to leave” said Sofia agitatedly “There is one way to get me to leave” replied the ghost “and that is?” asked Sofia “to fulfill my final wish” said the ghost “and that last wish is?” asked Sofia “my last wish is to see my daughter smile” replied the ghost “well then just go and see your daughter smile” said Sofia “have you not heard a single word I said I can’t leave this house and also I have no idea where she is” replied the ghost  “well I don’t know about the first part but I can help you with the second part’’ said Sofia “what do you mean” asked the ghost” oh right I forgot you were from the 19th century well basically there’s this thing called the internet and you can use it to find people and so much more with just a click of a button” said Sofia “ that’s incredible can you really find my daughter?” asked the ghost “Yes, I can I just need your daughter’s name” said Sofia “well my daughter’s name is Maya Bolgard” replied the ghost “Perfect so I’ll just type it in and found her” said Sofia “really” said the ghost “yep I know where she lives and I’m booking a ticket now , now we just have to figure out the bound to the house thing” replied Sofia “that’s incredible and there is one way for me to leave . A medallion even though ghosts are bound to the place they die they are also bound to their medallion which is an object that they have a close connection to my medallion is a black butterfly pendant” said the ghost “Well the funny thing is I have that pendant I found it when I was arranging my staff” said Sofia “ splendid so we can get going then?” asked the ghost  “well actually you see the earliest I could book a ticket was for next week so we’re going to have to wait for that” answered Sofia “lovely so I’m going to have to spend a week with you” said the ghost in a snarky tone. “Hey, you don’t have to be so rude,” said Sofia. To this, the ghost just rolled her eyes. “Well, we must spend the week together whether you like it or not. And if you are going to haunt me then could you at least tell me your name?” said Sofia “Well my name is Catherine Bolgard and yours?” asked Catherine “My name is Sofia Williams and could you please stop being so mean to me for no reason” said Sofia “I’m not mean you’re just ignorant” Catherine remarked. The two of them began bickering and at the end of it, they both walked away angry with one another.

Chapter 3 I The Goodbye

The two of them did not get along very well, getting frustrated at each other’s small habits. Fighting constantly or simply not talking at all to each other. They were not having a nice relationship until one day when Sofia was struggling with some calculations Catherine helped well, also stating that children these days have no idea how to do simple calculations. Sofia just smiled slightly at her comment. over the next few days, they grow closer and realized that a lot of their arguments were unnecessary and they had many shared interests. Catherine would help Sofia with her work, tell her stories about the past, and teach her how to do household tasks acting like a mother figure to Sofia and Sofia likewise would teach Catherine about the advancements of the world. By the end of the week, they were extremely close and thought neither of them was looking forward to saying goodbye. But neither of them was willing to say anything. As the day of the flight had come Sofia and Catherine went to the airport, boarded the flight, and arrived at the house of Catherine’s daughter. As Sofia knocked on the door of the house a lady with short brown hair and a very colorful dress “Maya Bolgard?” Sofia asked “I’m sorry but I think you have the wrong person” the lady replied well closing the door. Both Sofia and Catherine both looked extremely confused until the realization hit them. As it has been more than 100 years passed and Maya died. They went to visit her grave which was in a graveyard a little away from the house. As Catherine sits by her grave she begins to sob loudly while Sofia stands by her. Sofia then shows Catherine her phone which had some lines about Mabel Bolgard Maya’s daughter and Catherine’s granddaughter she lived one hour away so Sofia along with Catherine called a taxi and went to Mabel’s house. Sofia looked at the door and said, “Are you Mabel Bolgard?” “Yes, I am, can I help you?” said Mabel “I know this is random, but could you smile for me?” Mabel did so and then kindly close the door. As Sofia looked over at Catherine and saw that she was glowing and fading. At this point Sofia was crying and was begging Catherine to stay as she finally had a mother figure after such a long time and did not what to lose Catherine just hugged Sofia and told her that “change is inevitable but if you embrace it your life will be so much better” those were her last words before she completely vanished into a ball of light floating into the sky. The moment was all too bittersweet, Sofia felt a melancholy yet hopeful feeling looking up at the sky well imagining Catherine watching over her from heaven. From that day onwards Sofia always wore the black butterfly pendant as a reminder of Catherine and her last words.

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