text: Timmy lay all cozily curled up in bed, his slow rhythmic breathing only ever so slightly audible. A gentle breeze blew the curtains upwards, making them balloon out a little bit. A pile of clothes lay on his chair next to his bed, as if to protect him while he slept. Outside, the night was still. An occasional bug hopped onto the windowsill, but soon hopped off again as it realised it couldn't get past the screen. Unbeknownst to the dreamer, a shadow appeared in his room. It glided soundlessly across the cool tiles, bent over to pick up a lump of blanket on the floor, straightened up again and - "G'mme back my blankie, mommy," Timmy sleepily mumbled with one eye open. He clamped his arm down by his side to keep the blanket on him, but it was too late. The blanket was off him. "Give't back," he mumbled again, stretching out both arms insistently. "Mommy?" he asked, this time more awake. "Wh-" He stopped mid-sentence, frozen. All sleep seemed to have left him. He couldn't scream, he couldn't move, he couldn't do a single thing except stare in shock. For there stood before him a glowing white creature with only sockets for eyes and a tongue that permanently hung out of its jawless mouth. Putrid green saliva (?) escaped onto the floor with a steady "*drip, drip, drip*". Its limbs were unnaturally long and seemed to be able to bend in directions that its apparent joints should not have allowed, and within its translucent chest was a cold, grey stone which Timmy could only assume to be what was once his heart. And as the creature extended its right limb closer and closer towards Timmy, its face cracked into a demented smile, if it was possible at all, since it had no jaws. Then the creature cleared its throat, as if to speak. Timmy squeezed his eyes shut and stuck his fingers in his ears, his heart pounding faster than the time Claire from class gave him a chocolate valentine. And the creature spoke in a deep, booming voice that resonated within Timmy's skull. "Hey kid, my name's Jonathan, but you can call me John. Didn't mean to scare ya, sorry about that. You're...Timothy, right?" \-- "Sooo...you've been living in my house for *how long again?"* Timmy asked in a tone of incredulity. I nodded. "Yep, you heard me. Since 'way back when your Grandma and Grandpa were still young, like you are now. They just didn't know I was around, see. And back then I didn't have my pals with me." I stopped short. "You mean there's more like you?!" he almost screeched, eyes widening in fear. I quickly realised my mistake and hurriedly tried to calm him down. "Hey, hey, they're not bad guys. They just need a place to stay. We got kicked out of this house when your Grandma and Grandpa were grown. I think it's called an...exoricism or something like that? Anyway, we got kicked out, and couldn't find anywhere to stay. Have you ever seen a man sleeping on the streets, Timmy?" He nodded. "Yeah, Mommy said that's because they're something called *homeless.*" "That was us. We wandered around, until we heard your Grandma and Grandpa had died. That meant that the protection surrounding this house had died with them. So we snuck back in. We were careful at first, not wanting to scare your Mommy and Daddy away in case they kicked us out again." "How did you manage that?" Timmy asked breathlessly. \-- Christa slept away, blissfully unaware of the time. The clocked ticked and ticked. Seconds passed, then minutes, then a full hour. Abruptly, she sat upright in bed and glanced at the clock. "Ugh, late again!" she cried out in distress, and scrambled out of bed to the bathroom, berating herself for having partied too hard the night before. Now her boss would certainly disapprove of this, and she wouldn't get that promotion she was eyeing. That goody-two-shoes, show-off, Little Miss Perfect Samantha would get it instead. " 'At Shamangda on'y knowsh 'ow 'oo show off anyway," she mumbled through a mouth full of toothpaste. She quickly finished the rest of her morning routine and came back out to the room, then stopped dead in her tracks with surprise. A nice outfit, admittedly pretty well-chosen, had been laid out nicely on the bed for her, along with her purse neatly sitting next to it. She rubbed her eyes to make sure this wasn't one of those dreams where you think you're all ready to go out the door and then you wake up, but she wasn't mistaken. This was real. "Must be losing my mind," she thought, and put on the outfit. She checked through her purse. Everything she would need for the day was in there. "I probably packed it last night in advance," she thought, and then left the house. That night when she came home exhausted from work, she caught a whiff of...grilled salmon? "That's funny, I don't remember buying salmon at all," she said to herself. "Eric?" she called out. "Are you home yet?" No answer. "I know you're in here somewhere, trying to surprise me with dinner!" she giggled, "Come on out now, I could smell that lovely dinner the minute I entered the house!" No answer. "Eric? C'mon, stop fooling around, I know you're in here. Jig's up. Let's eat, I'm starving," she called out a little louder, but no answer. Just then her phone buzzed. It was a text from Eric. "*Hey honey, I'll have to stay late at the office tonight, so sorry ): there's some pizza in the freezer if you want xx"* Chills ran up and down her spine. She went to the kitchen table, which had a single plate of grilled salmon and some asparagus on it. There was even a slice of lemon. Gingerly, she poked the fork, and then picked up the fork to use it to prod the salmon several times. It fell apart in pink, soft flakes, just the way it should be. Slowly, with a trembling hand, she brought a slice to her mouth. The taste was otherworldly. After finishing the whole plate, she lifted it up when she noticed a note underneath it in unfamiliar handwriting. "I hope you liked it. Please indicate your choice of breakfast the next day by putting a check mark next to any of the following: pancakes with maple syrup, fried bacon and scrambled eggs and toast, waffles with chocolate fudge and strawberries," she read aloud. Shaking her head and telling herself she would try to make things out later, she went to wash her plate. Plate now washed and dried, she dragged herself up the stairs to her bedroom. Halfway up, she tripped and fell flat on her face. She flailed out to catch the railings, but it was too late. She wouldn't have needed to catch the railings anyway, because she fell on something soft. Looking down, she could see the stairs a few inches away from her face. She was actually hovering above the stairs. Before she could react, whatever it was that held her started to push her back up into standing position. "Uhh...thanks?" she said out loud, and a booming "No problem!" made her shriek and sprint the rest of the way up into her bedroom, slamming the door firmly shut. A knock on the door startled her. "Lady, you forgot something," said the same booming voice from just now. "I believe you dropped your glasses." Cautiously, Christa opened the door a crack. There was no one outside, but her extremely battered glasses were floating in mid-air. She opened the door a little wider. "Sh- show yourself," she commanded bravely. There was a sigh. "Look, just get your glasses and go. I guarantee you, if you see what I look like, you won't want me in your house. It's a bad idea." They argued back and forth, until the creature finally relented. "Get a mirror and stand with your back to me," he instructed, and she did so. "Now, just wait. It takes a while for me to un-invisible myself using this method. Aaaand, yup, there we go. That's me." Christa's scream was enough to curdle the blood of any neighbour within a 5 mile radius. \-- "So, I finally managed to convince your parents through all the anonymous favours that I did for them, that although I look horrible enough it's a wonder the mirror didn't shatter, I'm actually just the spirit of a regular good guy that continues to be good even after he's dead," I finished proudly. An awestruck "Woooww!" was the only response I got from Timmy. Then, "You can make yourself invisible? Why didn't you make yourself invisible when you first came in? How do you do it? Wh-" "Hey, hey, buddy," I interrupted gently. "It's about 3am, time you should sleep, You were asleep before this anyway. I'll see you in the morning, okay?" "Okay," he replied, and gave me a huge smile. "Can I hug you goodnight? It must be lonely being a ghost." I could've sworn my cold stone heart felt a flicker of warmth right then, and I agreed on the hug, but reassured him that I had 2 other ghost pals and it wasn't quite as lonesome as he thought. "Goodnight, ghost-John. You're really cold, but I guess you give good hugs. You're a funny guy," he laughed. "Goodnight Timmy," I said, smiling, and softly exited the room.