There's No Such Things as Ghosts: Longer

“Oh come on, ya friggin' pansy!” the tall blond-haired jock pushed the sniveling young boy, his taped glasses falling down the beaked slope of his nose. “I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts!”

“I-I don’t, man…it just…” reluctantly eyeing the morbid drapes and scorched surface of the abandoned house behind him. “E-ever since what happened yesterday…”

“What the HELL? That was such a hoax! I can’t believe you fell for that!”

Licking his lips and glancing back and forth, the four-eyed boy stammered, “A h-hoax…r-really?”

“YES! R-really! Jimmy’s fine, man! Dude, we ALL had to do this before you.”

The slamming shudders on the upper story and eerie wind that whistled through the cracks and crevices of the house filled the background as the young, frightened boy held his head, trying desperately to find a way out of this predicament.

“Well?” the jock shoved the boy again.

“Alright! Stop pushing me!” Turning around, the boy shuffled towards the crooked front door, the old wood of the porch whined under his weight.

Slowly opening the front door, the hinges screeched and dust fell from its settlement on the wood. With a curling smirk, the jock, in a single motion, shoved the gangly little nerd into the darkness of the old rusted house.

“Hahaha!” the jock folded in half, his hand holding his sides from the pain of his laughter.

“What did you do that for, asshole?” the boy yelled from within the shadows.

A lively tune sounded from the jock’s jersey jacket, and he retrieved from it his cell phone.

“I gotta take this…now remember, you have to stay in there for five minutes. No wussin’ out!”

“Yeah, yeah…” the nerdy boy brushed off his dust covered jeans and stuck his hands in his pockets. With an uneasy sigh, he planted his feet and waited.

“Go ahead…” the jock spoke on his phone, “he’s being 'initiated' right now…"

"Hey, man," the four-eyed boy in the house called out in a strained voice as if he were trying not to alert someone of his presence, "this isn't some elaborate Halloween trick you're pulling, right?"

"Shhh...!" The jock waved back at the nerdy boy in the house. "Sorry, Bo...what about Jimmy?"

"Um...hey...please don't scare me, okay?" the boy strained his voice a bit more.

"For God sakes, Steven! There's no such things as ghosts!" the jock barked at the barely visible young man inside the shuddering house and turned back around on his phone, "Bo, I'm SORRY, please continue! I can't wait for this germ to give up so we can kick him out of...what...?"

"Hey, man...dude...Frank...please...I hate being scared," the whispering squeek of the young boy's voice was barely overcoming the autumn night breeze, but the jock, Frank, ignored it just the same.

"What are you talking about, Bo? No...wait slow down...he's with you, right?"

"Frank...who did you hide in here with me?" the faint, choking whisper never even reached the preoccupied jock, his mind had completely forgotten about the skinny little, bleach-white nerd he had been in charge of initiating.

"Dude! You told me it was just a hoax!" Frank yelled on his cell phone.

"...is s-someone...there...?" Steven glanced about the still shadows of the house, every once in awhile a flicker of movement would make his hair stand on end as he held his breath, hoping to see a buddy of Frank's leap out in an attempt to frighten him.

"You were with him! Didn't you see him leave the house!?" Frank was pacing back and forth on the dead front lawn, the fallen leaves crackled like tiny skeletons under his large feet. "Alright, alright! Just keep Jimmy's mom calm...I'll be over to help find out where he might've gone. I'm gonna pull the plug on this initiation...hehe...just as well, the kid's such a baby...yeah...okay...later."

Shaking a sinking feeling in his chest, Frank pocketed his cell phone and turned back towards the house. "All right, wuss...you're off the...hook?" Frank squinted at the doorway, but the tiny white figure of Steven could not be found.

With a heavy sigh, Frank trotted up the rickety stairs and reluctantly stepped through the doorway of the old house, a wave of cold air passed over him like he had been baptized in darkness. Looking about in the shadows, Frank's eyes took their time adjusting, but eventually the moonlight that flooded the windows and cracks of the house were enough for him to get an idea of what the innards of the house were composed. The shadowy tendrils that fingered across the wooden floor were still, yet Frank felt an insane thought creep into his mind that they were actually lying in wait. Chuckling aloud to himself, Frank called out into the long forgotten ruins, "Hey, Stevie-boy! Did you already run away!? Come out, come out!"

A stir of motion caught Frank's eye and he whipped his head around to see only silent shadows, stretching out towards the front door. Another insane thought arose in Frank's mind...they were reaching for HIM. Frank chuckled softer this time and with less mirth. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he began to feel stupid for allowing himself to get psyched out over frickin' shadows.

"Steve, ya stupid-ass! I'm gonna leave ya here, I swear!" Frank shouted a little louder than he had wished. The shadows made him feel closed in and his mind raced with stupid, illogical thoughts: the shadows were closing in on him. Since when do shadows move towards the light? Frank felt a cold bead of sweat trickle its lone course down his temple, when a loud noise made him leap off the ground.

Cursing foully under his breath, he ripped his chiming cell phone from his pocket. The lights flashed on the little screen: Incoming Call From: 'JIMMY'.

Frank heaved a large sigh of relief as he flipped his phone open and answered:

"Dude, where the HELL are you?! You're mom's freaked!" Frank could not contain a laugh of happiness as he spoke. No one answered Frank except cold, heavy static. Frank's mind raced again: not static...breathing. "Jimmy?"

Frank leaned into his phone and could barely make out a subtle whispering in the earpiece. Turning up the volume to the max, the whispering sounded like gibberish between a crowd of people. Frank's mind zoomed out of control: THE SHADOWS!

Frank shook the thoughts from his mind, trying to maintain control of the situation, even though he had never felt so lost. "J-Jimmy...?"

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An inhuman shriek blasted from the phone and ripped through Frank's brain shaking him down to his very core, causing warm urine to flow down his leg. Instinctively chucking the cell phone away and into the darkness, Frank heard the expensive device hit the floor and shatter. His eyes were wild as he leapt back from the blackness which seemed to persue him from the deepest bowels of the hellish old house. Frank heard glass break and something give under his foot. Stumbling around, the little moonlight left in the house illuminated a pair of destroyed, nerdy glasses on the dusty wooden floor. Frank could feel his heart trying to escape his chest. Tripping back towards the entrance, Frank felt icy fingers around his throat as the hinges screamed and the door slammed shut.