Ghost Story
So here's a story I'm working on. It's more or less the accumulation of 5 years of Fine Arts Hell.
Promises are made to be kept. At least the ones made in the name of the Most Holy. Too bad no one had ever mentioned that to Maxine, who, after a particularly bad music theory exam, threw down her books in the spacious lobby of the Fine Arts Building and swore that she would learn this theory (By God!) even if it killed her!
Fate has a funny sense of humor, it seems, because the very next day Max was running across the street on her way to her Advanced Theory class and was struck by a speeding car. Max was halfway to the Fine Arts building before she realized she'd somehow left her body behind.
Tragic though her story may be, Max soon discovered that she wasn't unique in her predicament. She was pulled away from the grisly sight of her body being lifted into an ambulance by an insistent clearing of the throat. Max blinked and turned to find a portly looking man in a faded brown suit peering at her underneath bushy white eyebrows.
He cleared his throat once more, looking rather uncomfortable with the situation he found himself in. "Hello, my dear," he said, clasping his hands in front of his rather round belly. "I am Oswald Grier, resident historian and what you might call the 'spiritual adviser' on campus."
Max said nothing as she continued to stare at this extremely odd man. He looked like the quintessential professor from an old film, from the thinning white hair to the bushy eyebrows and equally bushy mustache. He had a kind, if not slightly pompous air to him that spoke of great knowledge. But what interested her most about Oswald Grier was that his feet were not touching the ground. He floated a good three inches above the pavement.
If ghosts could faint, Max would have blacked out right then and there. Unfortunately for her, she was doomed to stay awake and endure what she later learned was Oswald's standard "Welcome to Ghosthood" speech. After patting her awkwardly on the shoulder and with what sounded like words of encouragement Oswald vanished back to his haunt, leaving Max to slowly process what had just happened.
For the next several weeks, Max sat on the very edge of the campus and looked out at the site of her death. She found she could go no further than the boundary of the school's campus no matter how hard she tried. She cried, screamed and cursed everything and everyone who passed by. Finally, exhausted, she fell silent and let her mind finally relax and began to think. What had Oswald said? All she had to do was figure out what she had left to finish and then she could leave this miserable plane of existence.
She sat there in the bright afternoon sun, not feeling any of the warmth of the day, when she was startled by the sight of two pairs of floating feet. Looking up she saw a tall, lanky boy with a dour expression on his face and his equally tall companion who looked at her from under a long fringe of blond hair. The three ghostly specters considered each other for long moment.
Finally the first boy asked, "So what are you in for?" Max frowned in confusion and said nothing. Couldn't these guys see she was brooding. She turned back to her contemplation of the road.
Uncaring of her dismissive manner, the boys dropped to sit on either side of her. The dark-haired boy continued, "Jake and I think you're here because of a Holy Vow. You seem to be a bit more grounded than some of the others on campus."
At that Max looked at him with wide eyes. "What do you mean a Holy Vow?" she asked, ignoring the muttered 'She speaks!' on the other side of her.
"I mean a vow to finish something here on Earth made in the name or the spirit of God," he said in a bored tone. "Your story's hardly original. Jake and I made one too before we died. I've been stuck on this God-forsaken campus for over fifteen years now with no apparent end in sight." He grimaced shrugged his shoulders in seeming unconcern.
Max frowned again, her mind racing. A 'Holy Vow' had trapped her here?! She didn't remember making any such... She groaned and buried her face in her hands. Someone patted her consolingly on her head. She looked up and saw Jake grinning at her as he tousled her hair.
"Don't worry ghost child," he said. "Travis and I will take good care of you." Max felt a deep resignation settle over her as she looked back and forth between Jake's cheerful grin and Travis' sardonic expression.
"I'm doomed," she groaned and buried her face back in her hands.