Most children make new friends growing up. I did too—lots of them. Well, I guess it depends on what your criteria is for a friend.
My friends were a little different than others. They were ghosts. I know what you’re thinking, and no, I'm not insane.
Sorry, I’m a bit nervous. This is my first attempt at creating a video. It’s possible I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me rewind a bit.
Hello, my name is Alex. I’m 16, and today's date is April 16, 2005. If you’re watching this, it most likely means my time is up, and you were the lucky individual to get my laptop. Or possibly unlucky. I’ll let you decide.
Regardless, you're probably curious how I died. Honestly, it’s probably not as exciting as it might sound. While it’s possible I ended up tailing some bad guy and found myself deep in a large undercover kidnapping ring, it was most likely the cancer.
I guess the bald head and skinny frame might have been a pretty good hint. But yeah, I have stage IV acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it.
My mom always complained that I shouldn’t tell people I just met that I’m dying. I’m not ashamed of what I have, although I think she might be.
As someone with multiple friends in the afterlife, as you’ll soon come to see, it’s really not that bad. While the dead don’t directly talk to me, they’ve given me a lot of insight into what to expect . When I reach the other side, it’s hard to fully put into words how that works. It’s something you'll have to see to fully understand.
To be totally real with you, anything is better than being trapped in this house all day with my parents. Since the diagnosis, my parents have been on edge. I know it’s because of me, but I’m hopeful that one day I won’t be a burden on them anymore.
Anyway, these videos I made for you aren’t just me rambling on about my impending doom, I swear on my life. Well, my life right now at least.
I’m here to help you adjust to your new life. I’m hopeful that you haven’t already experienced any phenomenon prior to watching this video. If so, well I guess you can just fast forward this section.
If you haven’t, you might want to sit down for this, if you’re not already, pause the video and find a place to sit before you continue.
Ok, ready? You've inherited my ability to see the dead.
###
I paused the video. The room was filled with a heavy silence, the kind that comes when you discover something life-altering. Murph and I sat in his bedroom, huddled around his desk, the used laptop between us showcasing the nervous face of the boy now known as Alex.
“See, I told you!” I said, breaking the quiet.
Murph's eyes were wide, disbelief etched into his features. “Wait, let me get this straight. Joe, You’re telling me you found this video on a disc in the laptop you bought off Craigslist?”
I nodded. I pressed the eject button. The laptop whined before it finally spit out the disc. I held it up, angling it so the light caught the handwritten labels: "Important!" and "Please Watch."
“Yeah, this disc was in there. Do you think it’s some kind of hoax? Remember when LonelyGirl15 turned out to be fake? Maybe this is like that. Someone could’ve made this video, and left it on the laptop as a prank. Plus ghosts aren’t real… right?”
Murph took the disc from me. He flipped it back and forth in his hands, studying all sides of it. His brows furrowed in that way they do when he’s deep in thought.
“It’s possible it’s a hoax. Do you see any dead people now?”
I looked around the room, “Nope, just you. Are you dead?”
“I’m pretty sure I’m alive,” he said.
He handed the cd back, “Did he say anything else?”
“Oh yeah! Sorry.”
I slid the disc back in. Windows Media Center opened, the familiar blue screen illuminated our faces. I scrolled to the video labeled “Watch this first” and fast-forwarded a bit.
We both leaned in as Alex reappeared on the screen. He reminded me a little of Xander Harris from Buffy the Vampire Slayer as he sat there in his computer chair.
Like Xander, his skinny face was offset by large ears that protruded out from his head. Unlike Xander, he lacked the long shaggy hair to help hide those ears, which made them look even larger against his skinny frame.
He was still a good looking kid, who was probably relatively athletic before his diagnosis. Although his black Iron maiden shirt and black painted nails screamed teenager in his heavy metal phase. Most kids I knew with that aesthetic had long unkempt hair.
To be honest, the aesthetic didn't work quite as well without the shaggy hair to complete it. It turned his look from metal head to teen with apparent anger issues. Maybe he had long hair before the cancer.
I caught Murph staring at me. Oh yeah, he was waiting on me. I pressed play and watched as he continued to speak.
###
I’m sorry. I know right now you’re probably thinking this was some kind of hoax. I sincerely wish it was and for your sake I hope I’m wrong. Perhaps I should probably explain.
I haven’t always been able to see dead people. It started right after my cancer was diagnosed two years ago. My parents bought me this laptop to help pass the time between treatments. That’s when the first girl showed up. Wow, two years ago. Time really flies when you’re slowly dying. Sorry, dark humor is kind of my thing.
Soon after, a young blonde haired boy showed up with a small scar above his left eye. It didn’t stop with him.
Quickly, the silent eyes that watched over me as I slept multiplied. From what I’ve gathered, the dead don’t sleep at night. Instead they seem to watch almost enviously as I do.
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The more of them that showed up, the less I found myself able to sleep. There’s something about a crowd of people that watch you sleep that leaves you uneasy, even if they aren’t really there. I’m sure you’ll experience that soon enough.
Sleep aside, I didn’t question where they came from. Honestly, I thought maybe they were imaginary friends I manifested to keep me company during this whole thing.
That is, well, until I heard my parents mention a missing boy with a small scar above his eye on the news. They never did realize how much sound travels up the vent in this house.
When I mentioned the boy to my parents, they exchanged worried glances. Later, I overheard them whispering about side effects, using words like ‘hallucinations’ and ‘imagination’ as if my brain couldn’t be trusted anymore.
My body may be slowly dying, but my brain is sharp. I need you to know that.
I decided that if they wouldn’t believe me I had to find proof. I had to make them believe. I started researching the disappearance of the boy. That was when something happened, something I honestly can’t explain.
Like I said before, we don’t exactly talk with words. It’s more like talking through feelings. It’s a bit like Raven from Teen Titans; hopefully, by the time you see this, you’re not too young to know what Teen Titans is. If not, totally go check it out. Great show!
Sorry, I tend to go off on tangents.
What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, the boy.
I was watching some of the footage of him, you know local news reports and such.
After a few hours of combing over the footage, a man with a dark gray beard, thick rimmed glasses, and a ragged old army coat came on the screen for an interview. I later found out the man was his uncle, a fact that still haunts me to this day.
Right as the man came on the screen I watched as the boy tensed up with fear. It was with that moment I could feel what happened to him.
The feeling of fear as he yelled at him.
The smell of the whisky on his breath as he… I honestly would rather not say. It was too horrifying.
The feeling of being crammed into a small cabinet under the stairs, each breath becoming somehow harder than the last until it just became too much to handle.
I contacted the cops where I talked to an officer named Naomi. She obviously had questions on just how trustworthy of a source a young teenage boy who claimed to see dead children was.
Luckily, she gave me a chance. Maybe it was the fact she believed in the afterlife. Maybe she was just desperate. I’m not sure she’ll ever tell me exactly why she trusted me.
Either way, they found the body and arrested the son of a bitch.
As soon as they announced the arrest, the young boy smiled, before slowly vanishing into thin air. That was when it clicked.
At first, I thought the gift of seeing the dead was related to my cancer. You know, something like one foot between this world and the next that allowed me to see both realms. That’d make a lot of sense. Way more sense than some laptop giving you some super power.
I believed it right up until I looked in my computer's files and saw an out of place readme file. When I opened it, I was shocked. Like my videos here, it detailed my abilities in shocking detail. Apparently the previous owner of the laptop also had this power, and before him some lady with an old book. Honestly, I’m not sure how far it goes back. They didn’t say exactly, but it goes back to way before you or I were born.
So yeah, my gift, and now yours, is to help these spirits find their way home.
###
With that, the screen went blank. I felt the hair on my arm stiffen. I grabbed my laptop and navigated to the CD folder.
“That’s… insane!” Murph’s voice broke the stillness.
I watched as the folder opened and a collection of files filled my vision. I scrolled down. I wanted to find the last file he uploaded.
“Check this out, the last file he uploaded was two months ago." February 6th, 2007. Do you think he actually died? Maybe I’ll see him?” My voice trembled.
Murph pulled out some chips from his backpack, walked across the room and sank into a large bean bag chair he had under a picture of Master Chief from Halo. He turned off the television, the background noise had been playing the melodic intro music from the game. I hadn't even noticed.
The room grew uncomfortably silent as he started devouring the chips, clearly in some sort of deep thought. I was always envious of how he could eat so much, yet still look so thin. Especially when he would nervous eat like this. He reminded me a little bit of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo in that way.
Murph fully finished his bite before continuing. “You know, my dad has that big collection of newspapers. Maybe we can find something about this Alex guy or the young boy in there?”
“That’s brilliant! If we can prove that he’s not really dead, we can prove this is a crazy hoax.”
“Yeah, at least my dad's newspapers have a purpose now instead of them piling up on the fireplace.”
“Well what are we waiting for?!” I said. I got out of my chair and started to make a turn toward the stairs, but the clock on his nightstand stole my attention. My heart sank. In all this excitement, I completely forgot my parents' rule to be home by seven. I was already thirty minutes late. I looked out the window and saw the sun start to set on the horizon.
“Shit. I’ll have to take a rain check! I’m late for dinner. You know how angry my mom gets!” I started to collect my belongings into my bag to make the mile-long run home.
Murph spoke up, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll check tonight and see what I can find. My dad is taking my little brother to scouts anyway, so he won't even know I touched anything.”
“Sounds good! Send me a message on AIM. I’ll try to be on tonight if I’m not grounded,” I said. I turned and bolted down the street.
“Get home safe,” I heard him yell as I ran off into the distance.
###
The sun started to dip below the horizon, as I sprinted down the quiet streets of Ravenwood. I felt the wind pick up as darkness settled in. I'd been out after dark more times than I could count, and never once did I feel a shred of unease. But tonight was different.
I darted through neighbors' yards, my usual shortcut to shave off precious minutes from my run. As I neared the old farmhouse, the last yard to pass on my way home, I hesitated. Normally, I'd dart through the yard and down the drainage ditch without a second thought, but tonight, I found myself frozen, staring at the house like it had just grown eyes and was staring back at me.
The farmhouse, old and creaky, stood there as the final hold of a time long forgotten. With the darkness outside, I could see right into the old man's living room. There he was, hunched over a TV dinner, chewing methodically.
My gaze wandered around the room—was that a deer head mounted above the fireplace? And were those guns hanging on the wall?
I’d run past this house countless times, never giving it a second thought.
Now, thanks to Alex’s comments, I couldn’t stop myself. It was like something was calling out into the night to stop and watch. This was the creepiest house in the neighborhood. Kids used to joke about how he locked children up in his padlocked garage. It made me wonder what he was hiding there.
The thought felt absurd, yet it stuck in my mind like a splinter.
Calm down, Joe. You're just letting that kid's story get to you. This is Ravenwood, for crying out loud—people leave their keys in their cars here!
The porch creaked. I flinched, my eyes snapping to the rocking chair that swayed gently. It must have been the wind. Just the wind.
I turned back to the window—the old man was gone. My stomach tightened. Where did he go?
Then, a hand slapped against the glass, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Dark, beady eyes peered out, locking onto mine. My heart thundered in my chest. Behind him, a shadow moved. It was a teenage girl. There was something different about her though. A slight glow to her silhouette. I thought he lived alone. As the curtain was drawn shut, my legs finally obeyed, and I bolted.
I dashed down the side of the house. My feet hit the edge of the drainage ditch, and I stumbled, crashing face-first into the cold, hard concrete.
Pain attempted to shoot through me, but I barely registered it, adrenaline was taking full control. I glanced at my hand, wet and sticky with... blood. I was bleeding, and it wasn't just a scrape. Blood was gushing down the side of my cheek, coating the grass in a red silky substance.
I scrambled to my feet and ran, adrenaline pushing me forward. I didn't stop until I reached my house, my sanctuary.
As I turned the final corner, I caught sight of my mom sitting on the porch steps, arms crossed, a stern look etched on her face. Oh man, I was in for it now.
I peeked into the window of my bedroom, visible from the driveway. There standing in the window staring down at me was the young woman I had seen from the farmhouse.
I pointed up to the window, my mom turned to look.
“What are you pointing at? What happened to your face?” she asked, turning back to me.
She didn’t see her? Oh, the boy was right. Fuck...