Free Shadow of a Life by Mute8 Page A

doing this to me?” Her
voice betrayed her hurt and her eyes glistened as tears threatened
to spill out onto her cheeks.
    I looked to Sophia for help,
but she just sat there staring at her hands. I tried to tell the
story of the pirates who had attempted to take over the Mary Celeste, hoping that
I wasn’t leaving out any important details, but I think I only made
matters worse.
    Frustrated, I said, “Sophia I think
you should show her. When you told me, I didn’t believe you at all
until you showed me what you could do.”
    “ Fine, but Camille, please
don’t scream. I promise I’m not going to hurt you.”
    Camille scooted across the rug until
her butt hit the back wall of the playhouse and had nowhere else to
go. She tucked her legs up under her chin and wrapped her arms
around them.
    Sophia decided to employ the same
method she used with me. “Now you see me,” she said as she
disappeared, “now you don’t.”
    I couldn’t see her, but judging by the
sound of the last statement, she was hovering somewhere at the top
of the tree house.
    Camille let out a blood-curdling
scream, the likes of which I’d never heard before. At first she was
frozen in place and then she jumped up and began to run in circles
around the floor of the tree house, screaming and flailing her arms
all the while. I finally managed to grab her and pull her into my
arms where she began to sob. She shook uncontrollably and I was
concerned that we’d permanently scarred my best friend.
    Sophia reappeared near us and Camille
screamed again.
    “ Stay away from us, you . .
. you . . . demon .
Get away from me.”
    “ Camille, look at me.” I
forced her head up and held her hands in mine as I spoke. “She’s
not going to hurt you. Please let her explain her story. I’ve promised to help
her and I intend to keep that promise. I really want you with us,
too.”
    Camille slowly nodded her head, but
she wouldn’t look at Sophia and she wouldn’t stop clutching me. And
so, Sophia retold the story that she’d already told me. Her voice
so gentle and reassuring that by the time she finished Camille had
relaxed a little and only held onto me with one hand instead of
two.
    “ Can you hurt me?” she
asked. Apparently we were more alike than I realized because that
had been one of the first questions that came to my mind,
too.
    “ Honestly? Yes. But I won’t.
I have no reason to. I really just want to move on,” Sophia
answered.
    Camille asked a few more questions and
then with a raspy voice asked, “Where do we start?”
    I smiled and put my arm around her.
“How do you feel about going to a graveyard . . . in the
dark?”
    “ I’m starting to regret this
already,” she groaned.
     
    *****
     
    One theory Sophia and I had come up
with about her unfinished business was that maybe she was left
behind because of something to do with her brother Arthur since he
had, in a way, been left behind by the rest of his family. He’d
been taken in by his mother’s brother after his parent’s
disappearance back in 1872 and had younger cousins to grow up with.
Sophia told us that in the early 1900’s she came back to Marion in
hopes of meeting Arthur. When she saw that he had his own little
family and was trying to move beyond the tragedy, she quietly left
town. It’s very difficult—almost impossible—for a ghost to show
themselves to someone who knew them on earth. Arthur looked so
happy with his family that she didn’t want to try something that
would only freak them out and bring back sad memories.
    Arthur was buried in the Evergreen
Cemetery in Marion. We wanted to see if he was permanently gone or
if by some miracle he remained as a ghost. According to Sophia,
ghosts tend to hang out near their bodies when possible. Apparently
it was comforting to most of them. It had taken Sophia a long time
before she dared venture very far from her own grave. Living people
are often scared to visit cemeteries at night because they’re
afraid of ghosts