The Lonely Ghost

The Lonely Ghost B: Vanessa Huang

A long time ago, in a forestland, a young and beautiful woman named Mary lived in a castle. Although she had many friends that were around her, she took them for granted and became bossy because she felt ennui of people following her. A witch that had disguised into a young lady who was one of Mary’s friends was disappointed with her and decided to turn her into a ghost until she could treat friends sincerely. For years, the castle had been abandoned since everyone thought the woman had been murdered in the castle. Doubtlessly, there were people that wanted to steal jewelry and gold from the castle; however, there was a rumor spreading, saying that Mary had become a ghost living in the castle, “She will punish anyone who wants to come inside the castle.” Lucas and Luna were twins ignored by their parents; therefore, they no longer wanted to be complaisant children (c). They found this rumor very interesting and decided to go inside the haunted castle to explore. They traveled down to the forestland and found the ragged castle crawling with withering vines and blossoms. As they approached the castle, they felt the chiliness(cx). The wind was a freezing cold hand touching them gently. They held each other’s hand tight, took a deep breath and then stepped on the stairs (pl). Suddenly, the front door

slowly opened, making a striden and cracking noise, and seemed to be welcoming them inside the castle. They entered the castle and found it spacious. They visited each room one by one, and smelled something unpleasant, like something was rotting in each room. As they explored the upper floors, malodorous odors stalked them. When they went back to the lobby, the candles were put out all of a sudden. Little did the twins know, Mary had joined their room tour along the way. “Do you admire my castle? Do you envy my beautiful furniture? Do you appreciate my company when you visit my rooms?” Mary was hung upside down and asked with great interest. The twins looked up and saw a woman with blue skin and messy long hair grinning at them. Lucas found her awesome while Luna was extremely terrified by the scene, so she did her best to drag Lucas out of the castle. Lucas whispered to Luna, “What are you doing! This is freaking cool! I wanna stay!” “Are you crazy? I wanna leave!” Luna whispered back. Mary watched them arguing with embarrassment. No one dared to ignore her. She raised her voice and again she said, “Do you admire my castle? Do you envy my beautiful furniture? Do you appreciate my company when you visit my rooms?” Now the twins finally ended their argument.

Even though Lucas was still not afraid of Mary, he found Luna about to burst into tears and scream, so he replied to her, “Sorry! We have to go!” Mary frowned and yelled, “Go? Go where? You children have to stay here! Isn’t the castle gorgeous? Isn’t it beautiful? Why don’t you stay here forever?” The questions from Mary had kept the twins on edge. They shivered like leaves and broke out in cold sweats. Slowly, they moved themselves to the front door and tried to open it; however, the door had been locked and Mary also found them leaving. She raised her voice even louder than before, “Why are you leaving? No one’s leaving here! Servant!” Instantly, the furniture started to move and cornered the twins. Broomstick, dustpan, lit candles, and chairs all moved automatically to enclose the twins. The witch, in order to punish Mary seriously, turned the servants into furniture. Mary stood with her arms folded and said, “ Either you stay or you die (pcc). Servant! Kill them!” Lucas, realizing that something was wrong, quickly grabbed Luna’s hand to escape. The furniture and Mary followed closely behind. They ran through the hallway while Lucas loudly asked Mary, “Why are you killing us?” “I want you twins to stay to accompany me. But you want to leave me alone. I’ve been here alone for years and years, and I’ve had enough of this! So, the best way to let you twins stay is to force you. Once I kill you, you will stay here forever and ever.” Mary smiled viciously.

Lucas and Luna never thought the reason for Mary to kill them was to have someone to accompany her. The rumors were totally wrong! Mary just needed someone to accompany her, but no one had ever come inside the castle because of the rumors. They started to feel bad for Mary (s). After a long time of escaping and chasing, the twins found a place to hide. When they were resting, they thought, “How about being Mary’s friend and staying with her in the castle? Our parents didn’t care about us.” They decided to face Mary and asked Mary whether she wanted to be friends with them. “Mary, would you like to be our friend? We know that you’re lonely, and actually, we need company too!” Lucas said it earnestly. “Since our parents never take care of us, we can never get their attention and work is always more important than us!(ccx)” After hearing that, Mary stopped with tears in her eyes. After years and years, someone finally wanted to be her friend. Now she understood the importance of cherishing every friendship and treated them sincerely. With the determination of treasuring friendship, Mary finally turned back to human and deactivated the spell. Mary, Lucas and Luna lived happily ever after in the castle. The vines and flowers were no longer wither, and the disgusting smell disappeared too.