So I'm sitting in math class and doodling in my workbook. Mostly pumpkins, because it's going to be Halloween soon. Dennis, the boy who sits beside me, passes me a note. It says:
“Why are you passing me this horrible note?” I ask Dennis.
“Because, the note says she'll murder me if I don't!” he replies. “I don't want to get murdered!”
“So, you're going to let me get murdered instead?”
“If you don't want to get murdered, you better do what it says.” he says, avoiding eye contact. The bell rings and he quickly walks away.
I spend all of lunch sitting alone in a corner, thinking about the note. Obviously I don't want to get murdered, but it would be wrong to pass it on to someone else. I decide to ask my friend Jenna about it. She seems to know everything.
I walk over to her. She looks up and smiles.“What's on your mind, Emma?” she asks.
I show her the note.
“Oh!” she says. “That's no problem. My aunt has loads of stuff for catching ghosts. I'll invite you over to her house for a sleepover tonight.”
I convince my parents to let me go. We have dinner with her aunt and then pretend to go to sleep. When the old grandfather clock in her room strikes eleven, we get up and prepare our supplies.
We wait. The clock strikes 11:30. 11:45. 11:50. I'm not scared, I tell myself, but my hands are sweaty and trembling. 11:55...
Midnight. Just as the minute hand reaches the twelve, a cold wind blows through the windows. A chill runs up my spine, and then a horrible figure appears in front of us. There is a bloody hole where her eyes and nose should be, and her mouth gapes open. She gives a ear-piercing scream,
GGGGYYYIIAIAIIIAIAIAIAIAIIAIAI--
and then Jenna pounces. She lights a candle. “Spiritum vestrum, Spiritus tenemini!”, she intones, her voice echoing weirdly. It's hard to say exactly what happens, but the air feels heavier somehow. Lonely Sally stops screaming.
Howww, have you bound me here, child? She rasps. Freee meee, or I will claw out your throat, I will make blood flow from your eyes and ears....I am beginning to think that this was not such a good idea. “Don't worry,” says Jenna, “she can't really murder you. Pretty much all she can do is scream.”
“Alright, Lonely Sally,” I say, “here's the deal. I really don't like receiving these notes that claim that I must copy them or a ghost is going to come and murder me. So I have a favour to ask you.”
Whhhhyyyy should I obeyy an innnsolent child?“Because if you don't,” says Jenna, “we're going to keep you here forever. And the whole time, we're going to be playing this --”
Jenna presses a button on her CD player. Kidz Bop Halloween begins to play at full volume.
Lonely Sally screams. “Well,” yells Jenna, “what do you say?!”
GYYyaaahh! What is it that you wish me to do?!“I just want you to pass on a note.” I say. I hand her the note. It says:
Lonely Sally reads the note. It's hard to tell exactly what she thinks of it. After a long pause, she says I will pass it on. Then Jenna blows out the candle and Lonely Sally vanishes, leaving only a chill gust of air.
Me and Jenna went to sleep. I never got another note from a ghost.