Young Writers Society

*This is the origin of a character under my folder titled “Christopher + Morgan’s conjoined bond”. Gacha Club character designs are under my forum titled “My character designs<33”. Enjoy!*

It was a bright summer’s day outside. The sun was casting its glow over the many cozy suburban homes, but ten year olds Morgan and Sabrina were at Morgan’s house, searching for something interesting to watch.

Morgan was holding the remote, flipping through all of the channels. Sabrina sat on the couch, patiently waiting for her friend to find a movie or a show to watch in order to pass the time. While the sun made everything look pretty and Morgan’s Mom told them to both go outside as “staying inside was ruining them”, the girls didn’t want to burn up in the overwhelming heat.

So she stood in front of the TV with the remote, growing increasingly frustrated that none of the channels seemed interesting. They were either too babyish or too adult.

Why couldn’t people make something that was fun for everyone? Why did they have to be either childish or “too much”? Did they not know how to make stuff that was in the middle? Did-

“Do you want to watch a show about ghost sightings?” Morgan asked, for she had stopped at a channel titled: “100 Creepy ghost sightings caught on camera!”.

She had heard ghost stories around Halloween that had given her quite a scare and she saw cartoons with friendly ghosts in them, but she never saw real ghosts before. Her heart was piqued with interest, her head swam with fanciful frights.

“Sure!” Sabrina said in a bright, excited voice.

With that, Morgan turned on the TV, her summer day saved.

…………………………………………………………

A few minutes passed, they both went through ten episodes in five seasons and still had five more seasons to go. The both of them were scared for the first three episodes and grasped tight to one another whenever a ghost appeared, but after a while, they had gotten used to it all.

And as Morgan watched more episodes, she made note of how all the ghosts had suffered some tragic fate and yet people were afraid of them, as though they chose to look scary. But weren’t people taught to not judge someone based on their appearance? Why did that change with ghosts? Even though the ghosts freaked Morgan out a bit, she still felt bad for them, for she thought about the ghosts all alone in the buildings, trapped with no real way out, people coming in the places to record them, to take photos. They invaded their privacy and then got scared when the ghosts fought back.

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. It-

“I’ve heard of this show before. It’s all fake.” Morgan’s Mom said from the hallway.

How could she just say that it was fake?! What did she know?! It was real! There had to be something more to the world, it couldn’t all be completely boring!

“No it’s not!” Morgan cried out, hoping that Mom would leave her alone.

But Mom did that sigh that meant she didn’t think Morgan was thinking much and said:

“It’s fake. The “ghosts” are just people in makeup and costumes. It’s all staged. Ghosts aren’t real, scientists don’t believe in them.”

The ghosts couldn’t be people in makeup in costumes! They looked too scary to be dressed up, to be living humans. Besides, why would a TV show lie? If it was filmed, then it was supposed to be the truth, right?

Nevertheless, the thought of it being fake lingered in Morgan’s mind long after Mom had left to do whatever she was doing and she watched the TV more closely.

A close-up shot of a ghost appeared on the TV, only there was a smudge on the side of the face that showed a circle of human skin and then, more ghost videos and photos appeared, except the more Morgan looked at them, the more she saw that there were certain lines on the face that only appeared when face paint was being worn too long and it began to crack. Some of the things that the “ghosts” were wearing looked like Halloween costumes she saw. Quite a few of them had hair that looked too bright and dry to be real hair, the telltale signs of wigs.

Morgan’s joy deflated within her. Ghosts not being real was somehow more unpleasant than ghosts being real. It was more than unpleasant, it was disappointing. So what? She was going to become dirt after she died? That was boring. Why couldn’t she be something more? Why couldn’t there be more interesting things out there? Maybe Sabrina could be a ghost with her and she wouldn’t be lonely! But why couldn’t ghosts be real? Why-

“I know that the ghosts here are fake, but maybe there are some that are real. Maybe we can’t see real ghosts.” Sabrina said suddenly.

Huh. Morgan hadn’t thought about it like that before. She did hear that ghosts were made of air, so it did make sense that people couldn’t see them.

“Do you think there are ghosts in my house?” Morgan asked, haunting hope blooming within her.

Another thing she had heard was that ghosts were supposed to be everywhere. Maybe they were in her house! Maybe if she and Sabrina found them and became friends with them, the both of them wouldn’t have to worry about anything!

“Maybe. I don’t know.” Sabrina said with a shrug.

“Do you want to stop watching TV and look for them?” Morgan asked, her good spirits rising again. There was still a sense of horror inside of her at the prospect of facing a ghost, but she had her friend with her and ghosts would probably be nicer if people didn’t scream at them all the time.

“Yes!” Sabrina said in that same delighted voice she had used earlier.

Morgan grabbed the remote on the couch and turned off the TV. Then, she and Sabrina got up from the couch and began to search around the house, careful not to disturb Morgan’s Mom.

Looking for ghosts was scary, but it was also exciting and fun! Especially since Sabrina was around!

Besides, scientists and parents didn’t know everything. Maybe there was more stuff to be found. Maybe life would be a lot cooler if people looked for magical things.

Either way, Morgan was grateful to have a friend like Sabrina to remind her that things weren’t set in stone just because somebody older said so.