Prologue

“A…Are you sure?” I stuttered, phone up to my ear.

“Hell yeah!” answered my friend at the end of the line, Mike Roberts.

“I don’t know…” I answered back. “It seems kinda…”

“What?” he scoffed. “You scared?”

Mike is my childhood friend. Ever since kindergarten, he’s tried to find “adventurous” ways to get us into trouble, claiming I was “scared” if I didn’t. Regardless, I still liked and cared about him. He was like a brother to me after all.

I gulped. “No! Of course not!”

“Then what are you waiting for? We’re going to the cemetery in fifteen minutes. It’s already 1:45 a.m.”

That’s right. Mike woke me up in the middle of the night just to do some haunted cemetery crap where we “speak to the dead” or whatever. I don’t believe in it.

I sighed. “Fine.”

“Great. I knew I could get you to agree.” He chuckled mischievously, and I could feel his grin spread from ear to ear.

“Bye, then?”

“Byeee!”

I threw on my favorite shirt and pants, then drove the car I’ve had for four years to the local cemetery, Walnut Grove Cemetery.

I walked down the steps to my house and hopped in my silver Subaru Outback.

I shivered a little in the brisk October air. I should’ve brought a sweater with me.

I drove past all the houses next to each other, several restaurants, apartments, all going by in a blur while my favorite song, (your favorite song) by (that artist), played in the background.

Finally, I arrived to meet Mike at the cemetery. It was cool and obviously dark, as it was two in the morning. There was a large white fence and many graves from as early as 1874 standing by each other.

“You know, with your hair blowing in the breeze like that, you’re very (handsome/beautiful).”

I could tell he was smiling despite the darkness. He teased me a lot, after all.

“Ya ready?” he asked as my foot reached for the entrance of the fence.

I took a deep breath. “As I’ll ever be.”

While on one hand, I’d never done this before, I don’t know why I was so scared. It’s not like we were digging up the corpses or anything, just talking to ghosts I didn’t believe in.

With my phone flashlight, I could see the grave I was standing next to was that of Maria Karlsson, a Swedish-American girl I went to school with who died when we were 13 in a car crash.

“H… Hi.”

No answer. See, Mike? It wasn’t real. Maria was just a corpse rotting in the ground, and she definitely went to Heaven if it even existed.

“HEY!!!”

Mike and I jumped. “Yes, sir? Ma’am… uhhh…”

“Assistant,” said the person. They were carrying a shovel. Their skin was oddly pale, their neck-length hair shaggy and dark brown. Their eyes were a reddish-brown, and they wore a black turtleneck with a white shirt covered in dirt over it.

“Ok then, Assistant. What do you want?” snapped Mike.

“Michael!” I called him Michael, as if he were my own son, when I scolded him. “Let’s not be rude.”

“Take some advice from them,” the assistant replied. “What the hell are y’all even doing here?”

I stared at their blue jeans and black shoes with white soles. “Oh, I’m so, so, sorry. I can explain…”

“We’re here to speak to the dead,” finished Mike, coming up behind me.

The assistant blinked. “Excuse me?”

“He dragged me into this,” I replied.

“I don’t think the dead can talk back to you.”

“Believe me, I don’t either.”

They crossed their arms. “Now, I don’t want to see you two for a long while. You’d best leave.”

Mike sighed. “Fine.”

Walking back to our cars, Mike scoffed. He did that a lot.

“A worker, here to spoil our fun.”

Truth be told, Mike had more fun than I did, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

So I just nodded. “Yeah.”

“I mean, just let us have fun! I want to speak to the dead, maybe even be haunted.”

I nodded again, not quite knowing what to say.

“Well, I’d better get to bed.”

“Me too. That was…” Not fun, but… ”…interesting.”

“Why, thank you, (your name).”

“You’re welcome, Mike.”

And so I got in the car and drove back to my house, driving back past the buildings and watching everything become a blur as my favorite song played yet again.

…

I plopped down on the bed, lying on my back. As I closed my eyes, I saw no one other than the worker.

They were certainly creepy. Almost like a ghost or something with that pale skin. Wow.

I slowly but surely fell asleep.