Ghost

After volleyball practice was track with Tori, and then after track practice was soccer. Autumn was embarrassed that she was constantly be begged by every coach to join their team; like that woman in Africa a couple years ago. Some people had said she shouldn't be allowed to compete because she was just pretending to be a woman, but she was really a man.

Autumn felt like that all the time, a freak. People looked at her with fear, and all she could do was hold her head high and try her best to be as nice as possible. But talking was so hard. People always took things the wrong way. Most of the time is was just easier to not say anything at all.

The ghosts didn't make her feel normal either.

Autumn saw another one waiting for her at the edge of the field after soccer practice. This time it looked to be a twelve year old girl. Autumn grimaced. The younger ones always made her so sad. She walked over slowly, waiting until the rest of the team was headed towards the showers and the coaches were involved in a heated discussion by the water jugs.

The girl was crying, but Autumn didn't say anything. She just motioned for the girl to follow until they got behind the bleachers.

She had heavy makeup on her face and wore a floral pink shirt with ruffles on the bottom. Her white shoes were scuffed and her blue jeans were sun bleached and had holes in them.

Ghosts never said much, or maybe it was just that Autumn couldn't understand what they said. All she heard was a soft mumbling, like a radio turned down too low to distinguish the words. Words weren't necessary though. Autumn reached out and took the girl’s hand. 

The images started flickering immediately. She saw the girl's parents, a stern faced man with gray streaks in his black hair, a soft woman with sad eyes, dressed in pale green. She saw a sharp-eyed friend or brother, laughing on a swing set with the girl. She saw teachers, a preacher, more friends. Quickly the images piled up on top of each other, a lifetime of memories, faces, places. Spring, winter, summer, fall, all passed by in flashes. Autumn witnessed a fuzzy bug-like Halloween costume, a broken china doll, an apple tree in a small backyard. Time held no meaning; one image she was a toddler, the next blowing out ten candles. Autumn saw the girl's fall into the canal where she'd drowned. She saw her mother holding a newborn. It took only moments, but it was a lifetime.

She said, "Rachel Wong." 

Rachel glowed brighter and brighter, and then faded, and then she was gone.

Tori ran up a moment later. 

Meeting

“But why not!?” Tori wailed, stomping around in circles, arms thrown back and talking to the sky.

“I told you, the librarian freaks me out. I don’t want to mess with her.” Holly replied. They had caught up with Holly and Adelaide after school. Adelaide was heading to the sports medicine room and Holly was with her. “Sure she is great if you want to know something but I wouldn’t mess with her.”

Autumn hated to admit she was a little jealous of the other three girls. All three of them were average height (well, maybe a little taller than average), and pretty. Even Tori with her crazy fashion was considered interesting and fun. She had heard Adelaide with her ghost-like complexion compared to an angel, and then there was Holly. She was fiery and always seemed to know what to say. People liked her. She had freckles, like Autumn, but in a cute line across her nose and cheekbones instead of dark and all over her face like Autumn's were. Autumn had even considered calling her own freckles ‘the Legion’ a time or two. She had emerald green eyes compared to Autumns hazel and to top it off, Tori had told her that Holly had a boyfriend!

“I’m all tied up too.” Adelaide said. “Besides what makes you think that the librarian is from another world? She seems pretty normal to me.” This brought Tori’s head down and she started to rub her hands together as she made a little smile.

“Well I’m glad you asked. Well Holley…” Tori began, looking over at Holley who Autumn saw shake her head vigorously. Autumn cold tell that Tori changed what she was about to say and instead she held up a finger and began pacing back and forth with her other hand behind her back, “First…Everyone seems to do what she says. Second, she doesn't seem to have a real name; believe me, I checked. Third, since she has been here no one has turned in a late book. Ever. Fourth, sometimes she speaks in a weird language; and Fifth, I heard … she was a vegetarian!”

“Hey! I’m a vegetarian!” Holly said aghast.

“I know dear, and we try not to hold that against you.” Tori said, patting Holly’s cheek.

“Ya, but I don’t see why not having late books and speaking in another language makes you an alien.” Adelaide broke in.

“Because this is high school! Come on, out of all the students here, don’t you think that it’s a little strange that not a single one has ever had a late book since she has become the librarian?”

“Okay that is a little strange. “ Adelaide relented. “But I heard she was from Norway, so it makes sense that she can speak another language.”

"Ya, but when Norwegians speak do they turn the air different colors?”

“What do you mean?” all three girls asked in unison.

“Well…” Tori began. “I don’t think she knew anyone was there, and I was just setting something up, and I saw her talking to the air, and I swear that I saw the air around her turn different colors.”

There was a moment of silence and then all three girls said “Uh huh.” in unison.

“No, guys you got to believe me! I really did see it!” Tori began.

There was a buzzing in Autumns pocket and she pulled out her phone. The little screen read Coach Baker. “Shoot, I have to go! I’m late for volleyball practice.” She looked over at Adelaide and Holly. “Don’t let her do anything until I get back.”

Tori

Despite herself, Autumn grinned. "Gee Brain, what do you want to do tonight?" She turned around to face her best friend of the past 2 years, Victoria "Tori" Bourne.

She'd changed her hair color again. Last week it was blue and green. Next week would probably be white and black, or neon yellow and orange, or some other crazy combination. She was also wearing purple boots with pink leggings, a short purple skirt to which she'd pinned some paper stars, and a pale blue button up with a cute little bowtie that matched the pink streak in her hair. Autumn frowned in consternation. "Oh no, you didn't."

"Yep!" Tori grinned, "Twilight Sparkle. You like?"

Autumn groaned. Lately Tori had been on a cartoon craze, and her most recent favorite was the one with the ponies. Last Saturday Tori had made Autumn watch an entire movie devoted to talking horses turning into rainbow-colored people. Now, apparently, she wanted to become one.

"You only wish that you could pull it off with me," Tori said sympathetically. "I'd make you Nightmare Moon. She's the bad guy for the first episode, and then she turns into a good guy. Sort of like you in the morning."

"I think I'd be Pinky," Autumn complained as she made her way to her locker. Everyone gave her a wide birth. She stood up straight, and tried to look as nice as possible, but everyone still shrank away from her. Most days it wasn't too bad, but today it was really getting to her.

"Pinkie Pie? You want to have luxurious, curly pinky locks and be the life of every party?" Tori nodded her head sagely. "Good idea. I think you'd look gorgeous with pink hair."

"No, I meant, you know, Pinky and the Brain?" Autumn self-consciously brushed her straight brown hair behind her ear.  "'Cause of all your brilliant plans to take over the world and stuff?"

"Ewe, no. I'm a horse," Tori said confidently. "Look at me run with my wild mane catching the wind!" She ran down the crowded hall, neighing, and Autumn hid a grin as she dialed open her locker. Tori had to be the craziest person she knew. Who else would be best friends with the freaky giant girl?

Tori was back a moment later, a huge grin on her face, completely unembarrassed. "So guess what we're going to do today?"

Autumn laughed. "The same thing we do every night Pinky. Try and take over the world!"

"You're right, I am way more Pinkie Pie than you," Tori laughed. "But guess. You'll never guess. Okay, I'll tell you."

Autumn simply nodded and smiled. When Tori was like this, the best thing to do was nod, smile, and be ready to haul butt as soon as their next escapade landed them into trouble.

"We're going to discover a secret world," Tori whispered, eyes flashing.

"Really."

"Yeah. I have it all figured out, just like in the My Little pony movie. The Librarian is obviously an evil hag who stays young by sucking out the brains of students. Or an alien, I'm still not sure which. So we wait till after night time, sneak into her private library, and find the spell that lets her go back to her home dimension!"

"Really."

"Yeah! Only, we're going to need help, so I decided to get Holly and Adelaide in on this. It's going to be epic!"

"Tori, I don't think finding a new world like that is even possible."

"Autumn, how often do you tell me that my plans are impossible?"

"Every time."

"And how often do they end up working?"

"Every time. But you gotta admit, this is way more far-fetched than anything you've ever come up with before-"

"Have a little faith, sis," Tori faked an agrieved tone.

"And we also always, Always get into trouble." Autumn finished.

"Well, that's why I always bring you with me, to get me out of it," Tori grinned and waved as she raced off to her next class.

Autumn

            “You got asked by who!” Autumn snuck a glance at the back of the class where two girls were excitedly talking their heads close together.

            It was lunch time and the class was just emptying out everyone heading in separate directions. Some of the students stayed though. Mr. Clark, the classroom teacher, didn’t mind if you ate lunch there. Mr. Clark even pulled a brown paper bag out of his desk opened a book and began reading as he ate his lunch. Autumn didn’t pay much attention to anything else. She was mostly interested in what the girls at the back were talking about.

            “I know and it was sooooooo cute too!” The second girl said. Autumn thought her name was Sarah or something. “He left a bunch of chocolate kiss on my doorstep with a note that said ‘now that I’ve kissed the ground you walked on will you go to homecoming with me?’” Both girls fell into a fit of giggles.  Autumn sat on the edge of her chair trying to catch what they were saying.

            “awww I wish that something like that would happen to me.” The first girl said dreamily. Autumn was pretty sure her name was Becky.

            “Well what about Todd? Weren’t you going to try to get him to ask you?” Sarah inquired. “I thought you guys were getting pretty close.”

At this point Autumn almost fell out of her seat and had to readjust. The two girls stopped talking for a moment to look up, their eyes widened for a moment when they saw Autumn and the quickly looked down talking in quitter tones.

Autumn sat there frustrated. She was missing the best part! How did you get someone you liked to ask you out? She had no idea! Not that it had really ever happened before. Actually it had never happened to her at all. Boys didn’t really want to ask you out when you could look them in the eye not to mention look down on them most of the time even without shoes. That’s what it was like when you were a girl and 6’3”. And even if that wasn’t what it was about, it sure felt like that’s what it was about! And now Sarah and Becky were talking about how to get a guy to ask you out and Autumn couldn’t even hear!

Well she wasn’t going to hear what they were saying if she just sat where she was. She grabbed her lunch bag took a deep breath and stood up. The few students that were left in the class room looked up at her, including Sarah and Becky but they all quickly turned away when they saw who it was. Autumn felt a little prick somewhere deep inside. Her whole life people had acted scared around her and she never understood why.

She walked to the back of the room and stood in front of Becky and Sarah. They looked up at her there eyes going wider. Crap! Autumn thought I have no idea what to say! I can’t just ask them how to get boys to ask you out. That would be way too weird! Why don’t I ever think before I just do things!? Maybe if I just ask to do something else they’ll talk to me. Wait what else do I ask them to do?! Maybe sports, I know about sports. Wait they don’t look like sports girls they look like girly girls. They probably don’t know anything about sports. But I don’t know any girly girly stuff to talk about! Oh now I’m taking too long, and I still don’t know what to say! Oh right I brought my lunch bag I’ll ask them to eat lunch with me!

“Lunch!” she said triumphantly, setting her brown lunch bag down in front of the two girls accidently hitting the desk pretty hard as she did so.

Both girls looked at her with panic stricken eyes, along with everyone else in the classroom except for Mr. Clark who was still reading. “Here” they squeaked in unison putting their lunches next to hers and getting up and practically running out of the classroom leaving there bags and books in their rush. Autumn sighed as she gathered up there things. She had to have the worst people skills in the world.

“Mr. Clark” Autumn said placing the items in front of the teacher. Mr. Clark looked up from reading gave a little shocked surprise at seeing Autumn and knocked his desk a little bit sending an apple rolling.

“What can I do for you?” Mr. Clark said. He kept setting the apple down and then it would roll and he would pick it up and set it down only to have it roll again.

“Becky and Sarah left some of their stuff here can you give it back to them when they come back?”

“Certainly” Mr. Clark said still messing with the apple.

Autumn exited the classroom walking down the long hallway. She would like to say that today just didn’t seem to be one of her days but it actually was pretty normal for her so far. Autumn was just contemplating what she was going to do for lunch when she was assailed from behind and a mass of purple and pink hair obscured her vision as a voice whispered into her ear.      

“I have the perfect plan today Pinky.”

The Big Bad

Brett clambered up the branches of tree, wary that a wolf might hear the sound. It was still buzzing and in a moment he had the cold plastic pressed to his ear. The cold light illuminated the puffs of his breath in the night air.

"Hello?" Brett whispered. 

"Brett, this is Adelaide. We're up a tree. They have us surrounded." Adelaide's voice shivered. "They're just standing below us, nineteen... twenty eight wolves and three that look like humans. It seems like they're waiting for something." 

Brett cursed and dropped to the earth, bending his knees and tucking into a roll. He sprang up and was running, the phone never leaving his ear. "I'll be there in a minute." 

"No, don't! Emily's doing something, I think we're going to try a flying spell or something." 

Brett was already closing the distance. The woods were silent except for his own panting breath. The moonlight was now edging above the horizon, and by its light Brett could see the clearing. A semicircle of wolves, eyes gleaming yellow, waited for him. 

Emily and Adelaide were standing on a slim branch roughly twenty feet above the ground, Levi supported between them. 

The wolves just stood their in the cold. As he approached, the three human-looking ones Adelaide had mentioned were in the process of completing their transformations to wolf. Slowly Brett stepped into the circle of moonlight illuminating the clearing.

"Ah, you've arrived," a voice growled out of the darkness. The other wolves stayed still. "Well, we didn't want to kill them without you here."

Slowly, melting out of the darkness, a monster wolf appeared, and Brett's heart sank. Each of the other wolves was the size of a small horse, but next to this new one they were like puppies. This new wolf had red eyes the size of dinner plates, and a head the size of a dumpster. Its shoulder brushed tree limbs fifteen feet off the ground. Despite its size, the great black beast stalked as silent as an owl. Its great claws tapped the ground gently. It sat on its back haunches next to the tree of the girls and Levi. Adelaide stifled a scream as the great beast snuffled inches away from her leg, the air from its nostrils blowing ruffling her shirt and hair. She kicked at the nose, and it twitched.

"I like my dinner with a little kick," The beast purred, a rumbling sound that caused Brett's whole body to vibrate. It licked its lips hungrily, eyeing Brett's friends just above its head. Then it glanced back at him. "I could eat them all before you had a chance to cross the clearing," it crooned.

"But you won't," Adelaide interrupted it. Her voice shivered, thin and flat in the cold air, but she continued. "You're a bully and a coward. You don't want to face all of us. You're afraid." She forced herself to look down into the eyes of the wolf.

"Coward!" Levi shouted angrily. "You send four giant wolves to kidnap a scrawny guy like me?" He pointed out into the darkness, "How many wolves do you got, fifty? Yeah, my pal Brett's got you running scared." He coughed, and Adelaide held on to him as speckled of blood stained his lips. Still, he continued. "They follow you because you're bigger and meaner, but none of you could win an even fight if your life depended on it."

Next to them on the branches, Emily was chanting quietly. Pale lights, a sphere of runes, bloomed around her and the two others.

The monster creature opened its mouth, tongue lolling to the side. "Oh, this is too much!" A yipping kind of horrible gurgle erupted from its throat, and Brett realized it was laughing. "Yes, you caught me. I'm a bully." It leaned against the tree the three were in, rubbing its shoulder against the bark. With every movement the tree shuddered, tossing Adelaide, Emily, and Levi around. "I'm completely defenseless against a cripple, two little girls, and a child with a sword." It rubbed more vigorously, and Levi fell out of the tree. A crack was heard when he hit the ground, and Levi screamed in agony. Brett could tell that his leg was broken.

"Let them go!" He screamed, finally finding his voice. "I'm the one you want. They've got nothing to do with this!"

Adelaide dropped out of the tree and rushed to Levi's side. Emily made her way down as well, but as she was stepping from one branch to the next the great wolf grabbed her by the leg and flung her into the center of the clearing. The brilliant glowing runes she'd summoned winked out.

"Let them go? But they're godspawn, just like you, little boy," the beast purred.

Brett made to run to the center of the clearing to check on Emily, but two of the smaller wolves sprang into his way, teeth bared and growling.

Brett felt and answering growl escape his own lips. A low rumble echoed in his ears, and the ground shivered again beneath his feet.

"Oh let him pass," the huge one said, and the two smaller wolves slinked away, snapping and growling, but leaving.

Brett ran to Emily, who was just sitting up. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Well, I have a slash on my leg from that thing's teeth, and I just got thrown thirty yards." She said, holding her head in her hands. "Despite a killer headache, I think I'll be okay." She grinned up at him. "I did it."

Realizations

            Brett ran his breathing coming heavy and fast. This was nothing like he was used to. He had never had to run like this before. He was used to running, he ran every day for football. That was easy, he never felt like he was pushing himself. Running away from a pack of wolfs, now that was challenging.

            At first it was easy. Adrenaline and anger had combined giving him the strength and speed that he had needed. The nail that turned into a sword had helped keep the pack leaders at bay along with rocks that he could pick up and throw. Even in the night and on the run Brett still had the arm of star quarter back and now he didn’t have to hold back. He could throw as hard as he wanted. A couple of his throws he could hear bone breaking. But no matter how many he slowed down they kept on coming.

            As far as he could tell there were three behind him. These ones were smarter more agile. Two ran on the sides the third behind. Brett couldn’t help thinking that they were trying to herd him somewhere. Well whatever they were trying to do Brett had to stop it. Brett tried to clear his mind. It was time to use the cuts he had been practicing in football.

Chopping his feet he quickly turned left pulling out the nail. The wolf on the left jumped back as Brett swung in a wide arc, anticipating the move. That was fine, it wasn’t his target. The swing of the sword had brought Brett into the perfect position and he threw the fist sized stone in his hand as hard as he could at the wolf in back of him. The stone connected with the canines head and it fell to the ground without making a sound.

            By some instinct Brett ducked and thrust upward with his sword catching the wolf that had been herding him on the right in the chest and dropping it to the ground. Brett stood shakily to his feet the last wolf watched him warily pacing back and forth. Its lips were pulled back and the dull light reflected off its razor sharp teeth. Time to go all out Brett thought as he prepared himself to attack and run. Before Brett could act the wolf sniffed the air turned around and run back the way it had come.

            Brett turned around quickly. In back of him up on a ridge was a wolf. This one was bigger than all the others that Brett had seen. It was as big as a horse and had silver fur. Its bright blue eyes shined in the darkness. Brett readied himself, he had no idea how he was supposed to fight this new wolf but he had to try. He didn’t know if he could out run this one. He didn’t even know if he could run at all. The new wolf just looked at him and time seemed to stretch by. The silver wolf raised its head and howled into the night. The whole thing sent shivers down Brett’s spine and he closed his eyes for just a second but when he opened them again the large wolf was gone. Brett spun around looking for it but it was no use. He couldn’t see it anywhere.

            Brett sank to his knees and tried to gulp in large breaths of air. Emily had no idea how right she had been when she had said this was his fault. He felt it now, an ice in the pit of his stomach. If he had only trusted Levi, if he had only gone and helped him maybe none of this would have happened. A couple of hours before Emily had shown up at his house Brett had gotten a phone call from Levi. Levi had said someone was following him home. He said they looked like the wolf kid from school. Brett hadn’t listened, instead he had yelled at Levi told him to get lost and that he never wanted to talk to him again.

            Brett beat his hand against the earth. The ground seemed to rumble and roll as his fist connected. He felt a buzzing in his pocket. At first he thought it was his imagination. Realizing it wasn’t he reached down and pulled out his phone. The little screen blinked at him letting him know that Levi was calling.