Ghostly Aura
The wind blew in the dusty autumn afternoon. Leaves skidded across the parking lot and it was quiet. Such weather was bliss for the town of Dinville. The swings creaked with only one little boy sitting on the swing looking at his feet.

"What's wrong?" An innocent voice broke the silence.

The little boy only looked up to the swing next to him, seeing a little girl with her brown hair in pigtail braids. She had a concerned look on her face and her jumper was covered in finger paints. The little boy looked around the playground then back at her.

"Where did you come from?" He spoke in a quiet voice. The little girl smiled "From the school silly!" She gestured to the school behind them. The little boy looked at his feet again slightly moving himself back and forth. "Did your mommy forget about you too?" he asked. "No." "Oh." The little girl clicked her shiny black shoes together. " Where's your mommy?" "She said she'd pick me up after school.I don't know where she is.."

The two children were quiet for a moment and the little boy debated whether or not to say anything, but the little girl seemed persistent in not keeping the silence.

"You know what sounds good right now?" "What?" The little boy said still looking at his feet once again. "Some chocolate chip cookies" She said with a big toothy grin. The little boy smiled. "Sometimes my mommy makes 're so good and melt in your mouth."

The little girl giggled.

The little boy looked up toward the parking lot to see if his mother had come yet. There was still no sign of her car. He sighed and kicked some of the gravel. He was a slim and scrawny and had short brown hair, blue eyes, and was a little short for his age.

The little girl watched him intently. "Does your mommy love you?"

He seemed a bit intimidated by her but he answered reluctantly. "Yes."

"What's it like..?"

He stayed quiet and glanced back over at the parking lot and saw his mother's car drive up. He smiled really wide and hopped out of the swing. The little girl looked at him puzzled.

The little boy turned to her. "My mommy's here, so I have to go."

The little girl frowned. "I wish my mommy would hardly ever comes to see me anymore except on special days."

An overwhelmed looking woman stepped out of the car seeing her son and smiled. She pulled her coat around her and walked towards him.

"Ben! Come on, Let's get home, and maybe I'll make something special!" The little boy smiled and turned to his mother running to her open arms. "Mommy!!" The mother laughed and hugged him close. "What were you doing while you were waiting?" "I was talking to that girl over there, Mommy." Ben replied. His mother looked at him puzzled and looked behind him. "What are you talking about?" She said as she let go of him. Ben turned and pointed to where he had been talking to the girl. "I was talking to.." His voice trailed off.

The little girl he had been talking to was no where in sight.

"Ben, hunny, I didn't see any girl when I pulled up. I just saw talking but I thought you were mumbling to yourself." "No, Mommy, I was talking to her. She said she missed her mommy lots and I talked to her, mommy, she was right there!" The little boy spoke protesting. "Ben, All the children have gone home, you were just imagining things." "Mommy I wasn't!" The mother sighed and took his hand. "Come go home."

The woman led him to the car getting into it on the opposite side. The little boy looked out the window frustrated and looked over at the playground once more and saw the little girl. She was waving at him and vanished out of thin air.

This incident was minor, yet he still had an eerie feeling and slight remembrance of the little girl. Ben was only nine then. Eight years had gone by until it was only a fragment in time. The chill of the evening's air breathed upon his neck as he walked home from school.

He walked up the steps onto his porch and opened the door. The house was silent. Ever since his mother started working double time, the house was nothing more but a box like structure with inaniment objects of no use. Such loneliness and quiet for a normal person would be enough to drive him crazy.

He sighed heavily; walking into the tacky kitchen which had murky water in the sink from supper the night before. Ben set his things down onto the cold tile floor and the phone rang. Ben grumbled and answered the phone, hearing a concerned voice on the other end.

"Hey." It was Jen, the closest friend he had. "Hi Jen, what's up?" "Ben are you okay? You've been acting weird lately." She said, avoiding the question. Ben slouched into a large olive green armchair that squeaked underneath his weight. "Everyone keeps asking me that, I feel fine." "You seem so distant from your mom okay?" "Jen, you're being paranoid. My mom's fine." "You're always alone in that house, Ben, it's not healthy." "Give me a break!" He said, raising his voice irritatingly.

Jen was quiet for a moment then spoke "Meet me at the old playground and we'll talk." "What? You mean the elementary school? Why? The high school's closer to-" "To you, Ben, I know but maybe not for me." Jen said quickly and hung up the phone.

Ben clicked the phone off as he ran a hand through his hair, leaning back in the chair. Jen sounded angry with him for something and he knew that it was serious. He grabbed his coat and headed out back into the cold. After a couple minutes his feet were standing in the loose gravel of the playground. His thoughts drifted to all those times his mother would pick him up late while he waited on the swings. He called Jen's name a couple times; surprised that he beat her. He walked around, his hands in his pockets and heard something. They sounded like small sobs, as if someone were crying.

Around the corner he caught sight of the swings and saw a little girl sitting and crying. She looked familiar. He walked to her and kneeled by her.

"Are you okay..?" He asked the little girl.

She looked up at him and instantly he remembered her. It was the girl he had saw so many years ago that he had thought a ghost.

"You left me." the little girl whimpered, ".and never talked to now you're different." " remember me?" he said slightly startled.

She still had messy pigtail braids and a stained jumper. She didn't look ghostly at all. In fact, she was almost as real as he was.

Ben looked at her, puzzled. "Why are you crying, little girl?" "No one talks to can't see me." The intrigued teenager looked around to see if Jen was near, then looked back at the little girl. "Do you have a name?" She looked up slightly".Kara."

He was about to speak when he heard his name being called. He looked up seeing Jen among the slides.

"Wait here." He told Kara.

She nodded.

Ben stood up and went to greet Jen. He went to her and quickly grabbed her arm.

"Come here, I have something to show you. Quick!" Jen scowled at Ben trying to worm her way out of his grasp. "Ben! Let me go! Calm down!"

Ben ignored her protests and dragged her to the swings. But when he came to the swings the little girl was gone. He let go of Jen's arm looking at the swings baffled.

"Strange."

Jen came up behind him and looked at the swings in front of them. She sighed heavily turning towards Ben.

"What joke are you playing? There's nothing here but a bunch of swings." Ben shook his head. "She must ." "Who?" Jen looked at Ben with concern. "There was a ghost." Jen rolled her eyes. "A ghost? I came to talk to you about something serious and this is what you do!" "I'm serious! I talked to her!" 'What are you talking about Ben? You were talking to no one." "well of course I wasn't talking to someone. It was a ghost."

Jen sighed.

There was a pause between the two of them until Jen broke the silence.

"It's things like that that makes me worried about you, Ben. You're acting so different now." "What things? The ghost? I'm not lying Jen." He said, serious now. "It's not only now that you've been acting like since I met you you've been slowly slipping away." "I don't understand." "But that's not the reason I came to talk to you. You take everything so lightly and only think of you. I asked to talk to you. I just wanted to let you know that I'm sick of this." "Sick of what?" Ben asked concerned now. She turned her back to him. "I'm sick of waiting Ben." She didn't say anything more but started walking back.

This was all a blur to Ben and he ran to catch up with her but she ignored him. He stopped in his tracks frowning, hoping that it was just a little fight. He let out a deep breath and turned, heading back to his house.

So now Ben sat within the confinments of the study, sitting in front of the computer screen. He thought about Jen and didn't want to lose her as a friend. She was basically his only friend and he didn't want to be alone. The tired young adult rubbed his tired eyes, he had spent the last couple of hours trying to find anything about ghosts.

"Whacha doin?" A clear voice said hanging in the air.

Ben jumped a bit, looking to the source. His eyes observed the room until he looked by the desk seeing Kara.

"Geez Kara, you scared me there," He relaxed, "Sneaky little ghost aren't you?" She gazed at him confused. "Ghost?" "That's what you are. Now how did you end up here." "Followed you."

He began to talk to her. Ben's hands hovered over the keyboard ready to search. Kara slowly unfolded everything she could think of. He typed everything up so he'd remember. It was strange how easily he could talk to her. It was almost as if she didn't have a ghostly affect on him. Hours of this continued until Ben glanced at the clock, fatigued. 11:47pm, it read. He yawned and looked at the computer and was going to tell Kara that he was going to go to sleep, but when he looked over at the place where she had been sitting she was gone. He shrugged guessing that she had disappeared once again. As the hour grew late, Ben trudged up the stairs and went to bed.

Morning came sooner than he wanted. He groaned hearing his alarm go off and went to take a shower then got dressed. He could smell eggs and bacon in the air and was alarmed by this. The scent carried him downstairs into the kitchen where he saw his mother cooking away happily. Ben's eyebrows furrowed.

".Mom?" Ben's mother turned and smiled, a steaming plate of food in her hand. "Well good morning sleepy head." "What are you doing home? Don't you have work?" She set the plate on the table for him. "No not today, it's Saturday, honey." Ben sat down, and began to eat as she sat across from him. "How are you these days?"

Ben swallowed, he hadn't realized how hungry he was.

"I'm alright." "Jen called me this morning. She said she was worried about you." "She called!?" Ben asked astonished. His mother nodded. "Yes, she did. Anything you want to tell me." "Mom, you gotta believe me. There's this ghost that I keep seeing." She sighed. "Ghosts, is it?" "Mom, don't say it like that! I'm not lying!" "Why don't we get some fresh air?" "Maybe later" He compromised.

His mother grinned and stood going to get dressed. Ben finished his breakfast and headed back to the study, pulling up the document he had typed out when he was talking to Kara. He had typed everything she told him and started looking for things on the Internet. About an hour passed and his mother peeked in on him. "Ben? Come on, let's go for a walk, and maybe go see a movie."

"I'm busy Mom, maybe some other time." She frowned. " promise me that you'll get out of here for a little bit today."

He nodded, his eyes fixed on the computer screen.

And so this went on for days. Ben continued to isolate himself into the deep studies of ghosts and paranormal. Although his mother worried about his mental instability, she didn't have time to help. Ben still tried to talk to Jen everyday with new information, but she wouldn't listen to him. This hurt him and left him sprinting home. He never knew how to find the little ghost girl. He had tried to take pictures of her, but everytime he pulled the camera out, she disappeared. She always seemed to appear and disappear when she pleased. He looked through everything. One day, he went to the library and looked up everything in newspapers to try and find more information about Kara. But he found nothing.

He was in the library once again, talking in hushed tones to Kara who seemed to follow him along. Ben was looking through more newspapers when something caught his eye. The title read "Little girl killed by runaway robber" He read the article until he stopped, almost choking. He had found it, the missing piece to the puzzle.

"The eight year old child, Kara Marchivitz, was waiting for her mother at a local school when she was found dead with the robber's weapon. More information is being processed at this time."

It was Kara. It had to be. He looked at the picture but it seemed to have been cut out. He looked at it perplexed and then at the date. 1992, it read. Fourteen years ago! He was only three!

"Kara! I found it! I f-" he looked over and saw she had disappeared again.

He didn't waste anytime looking for her and copied the article. Finally he had proof.

He hurried home, excited to finally tell Jen and his mother. He got home and ran to the nearest phone, picking it up and dialing Jen's number. She answered and wasn't the least bit reluctant to coming over. Ben was a little suspicious to why she was so passive and easy to persuade but then he shook it off, calling his mom and asking her to come over as well right after work, which ended early for her. After a few minutes there was a knock at the door and Ben answered it. It was Jen. He moved out of the way, showing her in.

Jen seemed to look nervous as she walked in.

"Please sit down." Ben asked. Jen sat down, tucking her hair behind her ears. "So what's the big deal, Ben?" "Hold on, my mom will be home in a little bit, I want to tell the both of you." It wasn't long until Ben's mother arrived and walked in the door. "Ben? I'm home." "I'm in here mom." His mother came into the sitting room, setting her keys down and smiled at Jen. "Hello Jen, how are you doing?" "Just fine." Ben's mother looked up at him. "So, Ben, you wanted to tell us something?" Ben nodded and took a deep breath. "Ghosts are real."

Jen and Ben's mother looked at each other warily.

"But before you think anything, I have proof. I have researched and there are millions of ghosts encounters and sightings across the nation. Now some of those are fake. But most of them, however, are real. Despite many people's views. I have met a ghost here myself. "Her name is Kara Marchivitz. I remember seeing her when I was younger. Remember mom? At the playground?"

She nodded.

"Anyway, that same ghost has seem to have been haunting that playground. She is very lonely and sad. I have been talking to her for the past couple of days and she's told me everything she knows. So, I searched through most of our city's records of newspapers at the library to see if I could find an article about her death." He pulled out the copy of the article he found. "I found this article about her. The picture is cut out of it but I know this is her, and there is no other way I would've known this information."

Ben's mother frowned, looking distressed and handing the article to Jen who was also looking just as troubled. The mother stood up and opened a drawer at the side table, digging around until she found a scarp of newspaper picture and looked at the article once more. She matched it up. It was a perfect fit.

"Ben, honey, I found your picture."

Ben's eyes widened and he snatched the article and the picture looking at it. It did fit. The only thing that troubled him was the picture itself. It was a picture of a tan, black-haired girl and "Kara Marchivitz" Under the picture.

"Mother, this can't be right. That's not her. She had brown pigtails and light skin." "Ben, I think your mother's right." Ben looked startled at Jen. "Jen! Don't back out now! I have the proof!" "Kara was your best friend when you were in preschool, Ben. She was older than you and did die, but this picture is real." His mother said. Ben had to admit the face was familiar. But then who could his ghost Kara be? Jen took a deep breath. "Ben?" "Yes?" "Think about it. You're ghost Kara just appears and disappears, but she has no ghostly aura about her." "I've heard you talking to yourself." Ben looked frightened. "Wait. you're not implying that-" "Ben, the Kara you speak of is not real." "No. No! That can't be true!" Ben protested.

Jen and his mother tried to talk to him but he plugged them out of his head, running to his room and locking the door. He leaned against the door, his hands intertwined in his hair.

"I'm not crazy. I'm not. Kara is a 's got to be." "Don't you think it odd though?" Came a hallowing voice. He looked around trying to find the source. "Everytime you talk to this so called ghost everyone around you never sees her." "Who are you?" Ben raised his voice. The voice chuckled. "Are you that dense? Look by the window."

Ben stood and looked out the window, seeing nothing but his reflection.

"I don't see anything." "Are you sure?" "No just my-" "Reflection. Yes." Ben looked horrified seeing his reflection speak to him and fell backwards. "I'm not crazy! I swear!" "Where's your Kara, Ben?" "She's a ghost!" "A ghost?" a feminine voice rang out into his head. He looked by his bed seeing Kara. "Kara! Thank god! I know you're a ghost. And if people believe me maybe they'll understand you more and you could be happy!" "Happy?" Kara's voice sounded behind him and he looked toward the voice and saw Kara and looked back at his bed.

Two of Kara?

"I am happy." Came Kara's voice now sounding muffled coming from the closet. "All I need is someone to talk to." Came the same voice but from over head.

Ben panicked looking around him at four of Kara now starting to scare himself.

"Kara! What's happening! Leave me alone!" "But Ben, Don't you see?" came the hallowing voice which sounded like his own.

Ben shut his eyes.

"You are alone."

He opened his eyes to see his room completely trashed with only him in the room.

THE END