It was a cold winter night, as me and my friend, Sarah, were walking along a snowy road. My head was down, watching my feet stroll along against the sidewalk. I decided to look up when I sensed there was something familiar around me, and that’s when I realized we started to approach that one spot I swore that I would never go through.
“Why won’t you walk through there?” she asked me.
I couldn’t answer, so I just kept walking in silence.
“Come on, it’ll be exciting and fun,”
Again, I just remained quiet, as she was getting impatient. But, after a few minutes of begging, I finally decided to go along with it. I then started to take very little steps as we started to get closer. I could see Sarah had a very confused look on her face.
“Are you paranoid that something is going to pop out?”
I shook my head no, still being filled with fear. We then slowly entered into the place where my worst memories were held, which was in this graveyard. I looked around, unable to move. She pulled my arm aggressively, and I started to shriek.
“Don’t be a coward, have some fun for once,” she said.
I felt like the only way to knock some sense into her was to raise my voice, but I was too frightened to even do that. As we walked around for a few minutes, I saw the grave. I tried to distract her the best I could from the grave, so that I wouldn’t have to mention anything. Obviously, it didn’t work, since she was smart enough to know I was hiding something.
“Are you okay? It seems as if you are trying to hide something,” she pointed out.
I swallowed the truth, then the words started to come back up as lies.
“No, everything is fine. I’m just still a bit nervous about walking around in here,” I said. I’ve always been a terrible liar.
She then gave me that look, but proceeded walking. As we were walking in silence once again, my mind zoned out. That’s when I finally realized we stopped, and there showed a look on her face filled with horror that seemed permanent. I didn’t even need to look down to see what she saw, since I already knew. But, it didn‘t mean that I didn‘t hesitate to see. Then, I saw that grave where I promised myself that I would forget about. It had the name “Melanie Smith” written in stone, which is my name.
Sarah looked up at me with horror still in her eyes, and I could tell she wanted to flee from me. Yet, I’m surprised she hasn’t already, because who would want to be face to face with a dead person? I looked away, so that I wouldn’t have to see her face. That’s when I heard her finally speak.
“…I thought you said you survived,” she said, still frightened.
With my head still turned away, I finally spoke out.
“I lied,”
We just stood there for the next ten minutes as I had a flash back, which it was something I promised myself that I would never look back on. I was remembering the day of where I was trapped in my closet, with my eyes closed trying to go back to sleep. I then heard my step father screaming bad things to me as he was trying to attack the door open, then eventually succeeded. Everything else went black, and it wasn’t long until I awoke to my own funeral. Ever since then, I’ve pretended like nothing had ever happened.
As I finally got out of my worst memory, my head was still turned away. I could still feel Sarah’s fear right beside me. I looked down at my own grave, trying to find the words of how to explain this, since I honestly wasn’t sure myself. After a few deep breaths, I finally built up the courage to speak.
“Please, don’t let anyone know about this,” I said. It was the only thing I could think of to say for now.
Sarah’s eyes closed, as if she was going into deep thought. After a few seconds passed, she quickly opened them again, and I was returned to a hateful glare.
“Why couldn’t you tell me about this? Most importantly, how are you even still here?” she asked, trying to disguise the fear inside of her.
I let out a huge sigh, wanting to get out of this situation.
“I couldn’t tell anyone, that’s the thing. Don‘t you understand?” I said, angrily. “Also, how am I supposed to know how I became some horrifying ghost?”
I felt as if I just wanted to break down in tears, but managed to hold it all in. I glanced at Sarah, and she had on a face that showed sorrow for my visible pain. My fists were closed, but they opened back up as I was starting to calm down. For a good period of time, we both just stood there, out of words.
I was visualizing of how everything would be if everyone else found out, which made me grow paranoid towards Sarah. I looked over at her, and noticed that she had turned around, walking away. I accepted her decision of no longer seeing me, since I couldn’t blame her. But, as I watched her, my paranoid thoughts grew stronger. That’s when I called out to her.
“Wait, before you leave, you have to make a promise,” I said, noticing the sad tone in my voice.
Sarah turned around, which got me surprised. “What?”
I slowly took a deep breath. “Promise me, that you will be the last one to know,”
She nodded her head, and turned back around. I know she promised, and I know she was my friend and I should‘ve trusted her, but I couldn’t take any chances. As we were walking, I lagged a few feet behind her and I noticed a heavy rock on the path. I picked it up, felt it’s heavy weight in my hand, and lifted it high over her head.
