I let the silence stretch between us, enjoying the scenery instead as I wondered why I couldn’t stop thinking about hugging Dylan when I returned home.
We’d walked for around fifteen minutes when I felt it. A tug on my conscience, like a mental tug in a certain direction. I stepped off the path before I’d even realized what I was doing.
“Mike?” Ivar’s voice was confused but also uncertain. I must’ve looked like a man on a mission as I stepped into the scrub and bushes.
What was I even thinking? There had to be snakes hidden in there somewhere just waiting to bite me with their sharp teeth. But this tug couldn’t be ignored. I’d never experienced anything like it. I simplyhadto follow it.
Ivar’s footsteps could be heard behind me and I felt bad for leading him into the snake trap, but I had to find the source of this feeling. Ihadto.
“You’re kinda scaring me here, Mike,” Ivar said, his voice almost a whisper.
“I have to find something,” I whispered back because maybe the snakes would hear me.
We wove through more scrub and trees and that’s when we heard it; the waterfall. We had to have taken a detour because it should’ve been at least twenty more minutes before we reached it. The sound couldn’t be ignored though, and that was definitely the sound of running water.
“Damn,” Ivar said behind me. We stopped and just stared at the small enclosed waterfall, to the right of it there was a trail right next to where the water led down, likely where we would’ve gone had I not taken us on an adventure.
Speaking of adventure…
I continued to the left, this time with Ivar staying put as he admired the waterfall and took some pictures. I was closing in on my search. Just a few more steps.
A small red object, a rectangular box it seemed, was hidden in the greenery, the red was slightly off in color, likely faded because it had been there for a long time. I kneeled close to it, hoping nothing would jump out and bite me.
It was a ring box! I held it in my hand and gently opened it, a little afraid as a rush of something swept over me.
“Finally!” a man yelled next to me.
A startled scream tore out of me as I fell on my ass, staring wide-eyed at the man, no not man,ghost, right in front of me.
Ivar came running. “Mike! Are you okay?” He offered me his hand and soon I was standing next to Ivar, but my eyes were locked on the ghost who watched me back curiously.
“You can see me, can’t you?” the ghost asked.
“Mike?” Ivar shook me a little. “If you got bit, we need to head back immediately.”
“Nosnake,” I replied, feeling my throat bob a few times as my gaze unwillingly found the ghost again.
“Take the ring with you,” the ghost ordered. “I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but it needs to be returned to Marcus.”
I had no clue who Marcus was or why I’d suddenly gotten my medium abilities. Mom always said I would get them someday. I wasn’t like her and Pete, they were born mediums, and I’d truly believed I would never get powers myself.
Not thinking about it, I slipped the box into my pocket and allowed Ivar to tug me away from the waterfall, the ghost following behind us the whole way back.
“I’ll grab you some food and water,” Ivar announced before leaving our hut. I didn’t even respond. He’d joked that I looked likesomeone who’d seen a ghost but my lack of laughter had only made him worry further.
“So…. he seems nice,” the ghost said, his tone conversational.
Now that we were alone, and I had processed my feelings on being able to see and speak to ghosts, I could take him in properly. He looked to have died around age thirty, maybe thirty-five? He had blonde hair and blue eyes and was grinning widely at me.
“So, you do see me!” he noted gleefully. “I’m Erik by the way. And you are?”
I cleared my throat. There was literally no reason to be afraid. “Mike.”
“Nice to meet you, Mike. Listen, I kinda need your help.”
“I figured.” Ghosts were either stuck to the area where they died or the person they touched as they died. The fact he appeared as soon as I’d touched the box meant it had become a cursed object and I was now stuck with him,literally. He couldn’t be too far from me until I’d freed him and I’d yet to learn how to do that.
“That ring.” He pointed to my pocket where the red box still rested. “I was going to propose to my boyfriend at the waterfall.”
