“Being different is cool, right?” (Continued)

*This is the last chapter of my story “Being different is cool, right?”. This story is under my folder titled “Paranormal Showgirl”. Gacha Club character designs are under my forum titled “My character designs<33”. Enjoy!*

Chapter Ten-I, the lone, honorable hero…isn’t this supposed to feel triumphant?

“When we went downstairs this morning, I found that the doll Fleur was in was cracked, so I think that her spirit was set free. I’ve never seen any of the ghosts ever again, so I think that they’ve all gone off to the afterlife. But yes, it’s one of the craziest things that ever happened to me and your Uncle Aiden.” I say.

I’ve finished telling my two daughters, thirteen year old Alexandria and six year old Caroline. It’s a stormy night, not even October, but Caroline insisted that I tell a “ghost story”, so I went along and told them the truth. I know that I’m a paranormal author, but I wanted to tell them a true story to let them know that ghosts are real instead of one I made up.

Caroline looks fascinated by the story, my husband, Josh looks disturbed even though I told him the story before, and Alexandria looks…disappointed at me? Why? There’s nothing to be disappointed about.

“Really? That’s the best you could come up with? That was literally the most boring story I ever heard. Come on Mom, you can do better. Why didn’t the ghosts just take their energy from the parents? Why did it just have to be Fleur? And what was this whole thing about “taking happiness” from a random family? Why was there a witch involved with royalty? What were the green streams of light? Why did the very convenient Earthquake appear to save you and Aiden and how the Hell did our Grandparents not wake up throughout all this? That whole entire story was one big clichè!” Alexandria rants, her brown eyes simmering with exasperation.

I take a deep breath. Reel in my feelings. Josh didn’t react that way to my story, he nodded politely and said: “I’m glad you feel like you can trust me.” I could see it in his eyes that he didn’t believe me, but I didn’t comment on it. He loves me, but he never believes this story. My once two best friends, Amber and Charlie, didn’t believe me and actually stopped being friends with me because of it. It still hurts even now as an adult that they left me, because they were the only real friends that I had, but it’s gotten better to deal with now.

I’m going to try and explain it in a way that makes sense so that not only both of my daughters believe me, but Josh does, too.

“It’s not a story. It really happened. A quick note before I try my best to explain everything, Alexandria: Not every ghost story is a horror story. Remember that. Now, as for your very well-thought out questions: Fleur was trapped inside of a doll. The parents were not. Since a doll is physical and a little girl more vulnerable than two grown adults, Josephine was able to hold the doll and use Fleur’s spirit trapped within to find their house. Their house is a physical building where the family made memories together and holds all of their energy within the walls. By living in the house, the three of them could use the energy trapped within to steal away happiness from memories of the former owners of the house. You all know about how the Albrecht castle was invaded by the public for the standard reason of not having a monarchy and how puzzling it was that the Albrecht family members were not present, along with Josephine? You learned that in school last year, yes? You also know how Josephine is a witch, correct? I told you she was a witch, as was what many of the town believed, another reason they didn’t like the Albrechts. Josephine may have found a way to veil the presence of her and the Albrechts from prying eyes once she and the Albrechts made it to Fleur’s family house. Maybe if a relative or family friend of Fleur’s family came over to the house they would have found nothing? And if they repeated that story they would have been thought up as “off their rocker”? I don’t know if the police back then were like the police now, with search parties and all that jazz. I’m not even sure if there were police back then. Maybe Josephine may have also induced a kind of spell that would make people uninterested in coming to the house where Fleur and her parents lived and thus, people would forget them. Or semi-forget them, because they would have a general idea of their existence but no real desire to visit them or ponder much on what they were doing and if they were alright. As for the “taking happiness” part, I very do much believe that Josephine and the others wanted to steal happiness because they all lived in royalty and royalty isn’t something that guarantees pure happiness, but you will learn this more once you get to high school and learn about monarchies. They invited everyone in town to find where the happiness was the most prevalent in individuals and found that in Fleur and her parents. It makes sense for it to be Fleur and her parents because peasants wouldn’t have a lot of happiness and Fleur and her parents looked like they were fairly wealthy, but not as much as the Albrechts, of course. Why kill them to obtain happiness? Perhaps because Josephine believed in the idea that energy lies within one’s soul and that harvesting their happy energy would make her and the Albrechts truly happy. The Queen and Prince must have been used to doing unfavorable things to get what they wanted and they were desperate. Royalty can be desperate in a way much more depraved than the poor ever could be. Why didn’t they just kill the whole town, then? The energy would have been imbalanced with all of the opposing people and it would have been too much of a scandal! The green streams of light is actually the easiest thing to answer: It was energy. Energy from Fleur and her parents connecting to physical body parts of Josephine and the Albrechts to let the ghosts stay and be “happy”. Physical parts of a ghost can allow them to stay bound to many things, including energy and a building. Onto the Earthquake…it wasn’t an Earthquake, but it was like an Earthquake to me. Fleur and her parents told me they were trapped, so I think Josephine may have bound them to different rooms in the house so that they would not reunite and pass on and so that the physical items the family formerly owned would be more effective with the ghosts of the family in the house, kind of like charging a battery? Yes, I know the ghosts were miserable, but the ghosts’ present energy was irrelevant to the energy in the items that were around when they were alive, because their presence helped to fuel the items’ energy to be more vibrant. Without them, the happiness would have been there, but not as alive without the original owners or their spirits. That’s why Josephine might have trapped the ghosts in the house and used them and their items. What was I saying? The Earthquake-thing, yes. I think that after reuniting the parents with their daughter, they felt a little more confidence in freeing themselves and so tried their hardest with their energy to get out. Since they ascended up to Heaven as fast as rockets, the energy was transferred to the ceiling, the attic, and coming off in quick waves. It was the result of pent-up anger and sadness from many centuries that helped me and Aiden be free, loosen the energy chain that held us hostage, slightly loosen the energy chain between the hands and the times, because the ghosts were starting to not be quite bound to anything physical anymore. It helped us sever the connection and send the ghosts on their merry way. As for my parents…I can’t answer that question. They’re just heavy sleepers, I guess.” I finish, letting out a breath.

In all my life, I’ve never let out that much words. I hope that I’ve covered all the important points of my hypotheses based off of my understanding of the paranormal.

Caroline yawns, her eyes are starting to close a little, but she’s trying her best to keep them open, as though she’s determined to stay awake. Josh has let Caroline rest her head on his lap, but Alexandria looks like the most aggravated person I’ve ever seen.

“That was a lot of words, Mom. I still don’t believe you. Why didn’t Josephine make the parents dolls? Why didn’t Uncle Aiden talk about this?” She asks, furrowing her brows.

“I don’t know, because it’s easier to make kids as dolls than adults?! Uncle Aiden doesn’t like to talk about this story! Go to bed, the both of you.” I say.

I’m tired. I’m done with this. Clearly, she’s never going to believe me, so why bother?

Alexandria heads off to bed, Josh nudges Caroline awake and tells her to go to bed. She looks over at me with a smile and says:

“I believe you!”

I smile back. It’s nice of her, but she might not believe me when she’s older. She walks back to her room, rubbing her eyes as she does so.

Josh gets up and hugs me. He tells me not to worry about what Alexandria thinks because those are just her thoughts and that I don’t need to try proving that the story is true.

But he’s just trying to be nice. He doesn’t believe me, just like Alexandria. My parents don’t believe me. Nobody but Caroline and Aiden believes me. Caroline will stop believing me one day and Aiden will never speak up. I know that I don’t need to talk about this, but I can’t let go of this experience. Me and Aiden could have died. Our house was haunted. Ghosts are real. More people need to know that ghosts are real so that they can have an idea of what’s in the afterlife.

I can’t be alone in this.

But I let Josh hug me and I hug him back, in an attempt to make him think I’m fine. Once he’s satisfied, he heads up to our room upstairs. I listen as he goes higher and higher until I can hear him reach the top.

I should go upstairs and join him, but I don’t feel like moving. I poured my whole heart out and still, nobody really believes me. I’m grateful that Caroline believes me, but…when will I be taken seriously? When will I be listened to? When-

“You didn’t really think that Amber and Charlie were those kinds of friends, did you? The fake ones? It’s pretty selfish of you to think that they just stopped talking to you because of some ghost story. What if they went missing? What if…they were taken?” A woman’s voice ends with a little laugh.

No, it wasn’t in my imagination. I heard a woman speaking. An older woman, with mystique and secrets woven into her voice, making it sound slightly demonic, but something I’ve recognized deep in my memories, something that I can only link back to…

I don’t believe it. I thought that they were all gone. I did hear her though. Loud and clear, right in my ear. Right when everybody else is gone. I heard her amidst the rain pattering outside with the crackling thunder and lightning, I heard her…

Josephine. Josephine is here. Josephine must have taken Amber and Charlie. But didn’t they move? No, no…they never said anything about moving…but everyone said they moved…but that doesn’t feel right…but where would she have taken them? Why would she tell me? To hurt me? Tease me? If she’s lying, then she’s a rotten witch, but if she’s telling the truth…oh my god, I’ve been such a bad friend. I thought horribly of my own two good friends. They could be somewhere dangerous, somewhere where they’re being tortured…are they okay? Why would Josephine take them? How would she find them? With energy from something of mine? But me and Aiden got rid of her and the Albrechts…we got rid of them…

Did we?! How am I supposed to save them if they are trapped?! How…

I’m not sure Aiden really wants to help me with this. It was nice of him to come with me to the attic, but after what happened, I doubt he wants to think about ghosts ever again.

I’ll try my best to figure this out by myself.