Chapter Five

“What’s this,” I asked-my voice laced with panic.

“Come up here,” he said smiling, though my instincts said to just run away I couldn’t say no to him and came up the ladder into the ash-filled tree house.

“Do you mind telling me what’s going on now?” It never occurred to me that my dreams actually meant something. Maybe you’re dreaming now, I said to myself with a sigh of relief.

“I don’t have to, Emily, you already know,” when he said my name my eyes grew wide, I hadn’t told him my name-and he hadn’t told me his.
“Who told you my name? Is this just a big joke or something?”
“No it’s not, think hard, you know why we’re here.” Before he finished I was already out the door and climbing down the ladder. Whatever he thought was funny about bringing me to some old burnt house in a tree I didn’t understand-and I didn’t want to.
It took about an hour until I found my way back to the lake house and I was starving. After eating some berries and a fish again I laid down in front of the wood stove. That night my nightmare was back-I woke up screaming at about 2 am and I was in a cold sweat.

I realized then what he was trying to tell me the day before, he wasn’t really a teenage boy my age. My dreams did mean something and I wasn’t going crazy-the guy I was starting to like wasn’t even alive. But how did that make any sense? A ghost? Ghosts aren’t really- are they? After thinking of every possibility I could I finally fell asleep again, when I woke up at the regular time, I peeked outside expecting to see the nameless boy outside waiting for me-but he wasn’t there. I looked everywhere I could for him for the next 3 days, freezing in the cold of winter, I tried to find the tree house but I ended up getting lost every time.

After the fourth day I finally gave up, that night I admitted to myself that I really was falling for a ghost, as crazy as it sounded it was true.

Chapter Six

Even though I knew he wouldn’t be there, I checked every morning to see if anybody was outside standing by the now frozen lake. My life was totally boring without him to talk to or explore the forest with, even if it was winter. I was scared I’d get lost again if I tried to look for people, and there wasn’t anything at all to do in this old lake house. All I could do was skip rocks on the lake and feel sorry for myself, wanting to go home more and more each day.
It had now been about a week since I talked to the nameless boy, and I couldn’t take being by myself all the time. Instead of looking for him though, I packed some food and headed down the old dirt road again, towards what I hoped was a town. An hour after I’d left the lake house it started snowing, all i had to keep me away from the cold was a thin jacket, I kept trying to tell myself that I’d soon be at a town filled with warm food and people but after awhile the happiness started to wear off.
That night I took shelter under a pine tree that half blocked the snow that was still coming down a little heavier now. When I woke up I ate some of the fruit I had saved from the cold-and some snow since that was the only water I had- and started walking again. The snow was still falling and the piles were about knee-high.

It went on like this for another two days, the snow acted as if it would never stop, but was starting to lighten up a little bit. It finally quit on the third night but I was running out of food and still hadn’t found any sign of civilization. When I woke up the next morning the snow had stopped completely and I was out of food. I sighed and started off on my journey again, a couple hours later I came across footprints in the road-it was then I realized I had been walking in a circle. Not knowing what else to do I sat down in the snow and cried, scared I would die out here in the cold all alone.

Suddenly a voice-calm and soothing- said “Come with me, you’re not far from the town.” My eyes got wide when I heard the familiar voice, turning around I jumped up and hugged the nameless boy. He returned the smile and took my hand, ready to show me the town.

“I’m sorry about the way I acted, it’s just my friends are always trying to mess with me back home and-”

He laughed, “it’s okay. If I were you I would have done the same thing, how many times do you meet a ghost?”

I smiled again, thankful someone had found me, but more thankful that I could see him again. We walked down the road-the sun finally turned on the heat- as the snow melted and finally reached the town.