Out of Trouble... Sort of.

I finally got my laptop back! I was in trouble for about a week, and Mom is still pretty angry with me.
So far, I haven't really 'seen' Maude again. I know she is there, and sometimes I catch a glimpse of her out of the corner of my eye, but she hasn't come back as solid as she was the first night Avalanche and I saw her, and she hasn't been able to talk to me.

The other thing is something else. I've caught glimpses of him too (I don't know what it is, but calling it 'him' makes it seem a little less scary, although not much); but he's always dark shadows though. There hasn't been anything major happen since the first night, but lots of little things keep happening to make me jump, like things moving around or my alarm going off at random times during the night, even though it isn't supposed to. I haven't been able to sleep at all, and I'm always tired. It's also almost always freezing in my room now.
Maude seems like she's getting weaker, and this other thing is getting stronger. Since she was so strong to begin with, I sometimes wonder if he isn't feeding off of her strength and making her go away. I hope she doesn't go away completely, forever.

Mom still won't believe me about the ghosts, not even when I told her about Avalanche's Ouija board. I just got into even more trouble for messing around with one.
She also says Avalanche isn't allowed over any more... I don't know what to do! Avalanche is the only one who can help me, I'm really scared of the one ghost, but I don't want to get into any more trouble by sneaking her over.

Avalanche's e-mail

From: Avalanche Vitruvian = avalanchedownthemountain@gm.com
To: Edie Hastings = takemetoyourbeach@y.com
Sent: Friday, March 9, 2012 3:30 PM
Subject: You ok?

Hey Edie!

Guess what!? It turns out bringing spooky things through a Ouija board and destroying your room is the one thing my parents feel pretty strongly about, and they finally got mad at me about something! I can't believe it, I'm so excited! Of course, since it's my parents we're talking about, all that really happened was mom shook her head and said she was disappointed in my lack of respect and I got a strongly worded e-mail from my dad in Africa, but get this: Some of it was even in caps!

Anyway, back to business... How've things been going on your end? Is Maude still there, and have you been able to talk to her? What about the other thing that was causing all that damage? I'm pretty sure Maude didn't do all that. That thing really freaks me out, I hope you're ok!
I've been doing lots of research on our problem... I watched a whole marathon of Ghost Hunters yesterday, plus I flipped through a couple of my mom's books. I have some ideas we can try, but I have to be over there to try them.
Is there any way you can convince your mom to let me come over soon?

I honestly can't wait for spring break to be over, which is weird for me, but school is the only place I can see you!

TTYL!
Avalanche

Busted!

Maude

For the next few minutes, it seemed like a tornado had hit my bedroom! The curtains flapped against the walls and blew around wildly. They finally ripped in half from all the abuse. My posters tore off the walls and turned to tiny shreds of paper, dolls flew around, bouncing off the walls with their skirts blowing up over their heads, and the whole room was filled with flying books.

I snatched my special, autographed copy of Meet Marie Grace out of the air as it whizzed by my head, and Avalanche managed to snag the autographed Meet Cecile for me. The other books could be replaced, but I didn't know when I would have the chance to meet the authors again!

So, we each had a book in our hand when my bedroom door suddenly flew open and my mom stomped in in her PJs.

The paranormal stuff in the room suddenly stopped, and Maude faded away. I could just barely see her against the wall.

"What is going on in here?" Mom demanded, standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips. She looked around at the damage in the room furiously, then gasped when she saw the books on the floor and the two books in our hands.

"Are you two actually in here throwing books and destroying your room?!" she asked us in shock.

I shook my head and Avalanche and I both tried to explain what had happened with the Ouija board, but she wouldn't listen.

"Do NOT try and blame this on ghosts, Edith. I am furious at both of you! You're both far too old to be doing things like this, especially in the middle of the night! Avalanche, get your things together, I'm taking you home as soon as I get dressed."

She started to stomp out the door, but stopped and turned and looked at me. "Since you're apparently still wide awake, you'd better start getting this mess picked up while I'm gone.We'll be having a talk about this when I get back from dropping Avalanche off."

As soon as the door was shut behind her, I half expected the violence and winds to pick back up, but they didn't. Avalanche found her backpack under a heap of clothes and one of the curtains, and packed the Ouija board up.

"I'm really sorry about all this, Edie," she started, but my mom came back just then, and ordered her out to the car. "I'll do some research and figure out how to fix it," she yelled at me as she headed for the door.
My mom glared at her and she didn't try to say anything after that. No matter what she said, I had a feeling the only place I'd be seeing her was at school from now on.

I heard the front door close behind them, and had a sinking feeling that I was all alone, at night, in a haunted apartment.

The lights in my bedroom flickered as if I might need reminded of this fact, but I really didn't.

I was terrified.

Maude

Both Avalanche and I nearly jumped out of our skin when we heard the soft voice in the darkness, even though it didn't sound particularly threatening.

We knocked over our chairs as we jumped up and rushed to find the light switch. Unfortunatly, my bedroom isn't as tidy as it could be, and Avalanche tripped over some shoes and fell into my bookshelf. I don't think there was a book left on the shelf after that. With all the noise we were making, I was sure my mom would be in to investigate, but miraculously she never woke up.

I finally got the lights on and looked around the room, squinting in the sudden bright light. Avalanche was struggling to climb out of the bookcase with the shoulder of her shirt torn and her curls looking a little less bouncy than they had an hour ago.

"What was that?" I half-shrieked at her. "Please tell me that was you making funny voices!"

"No," said the soft voice from earlier, now coming from the opposite corner of the room. "It was me." Avalanche's mouth dropped open, and I whirled around to see a girl about my age standing there.

A transparent girl.

A ghost.

After my initial shock to have a freaking ghost girl in my bedroom, I noticed that she did indeed look like the girl in the photograph Avalanche had picked up earlier, and that she wasn't anything like what I expected a ghost to be like. She wasn't a hazy cloud that drifted around and she wasn't covered in a sheet with clanking chains. She was about my height with glossy, red hair that was tied back with a black ribbon. She was wearing what appeared to be a gray flannel dress, black tights and these weird, black boots with buttons up the sides, and her nose was covered with freckles. She looked a lot like me, actually. Only... did I mention she was totally see-through?

As weird as it sounded, she didn't seem threatening at all, and I sort of calmed down. Avalanche, on the other hand, did not.

"Wha-wha-wha!!!" was the only sound she seemed capable of making at the moment. Her mouth gaped open, and she kept pointing at the ghost girl.

"Who are you??" She finally forced out.

"I aready told you," the girl said impatiently. "My name is Maude. I heard your summon with the witchboard and drifted over to see what the ruckus was about, and when you broke the circle, you brought me in."

She appeared to think for a moment, then looked at me.

"You really should not have broken that circle, you know. You can let in all sorts of nasties that way."

I shivered and looked over at Avalanche.
'What does she mean when she said we broke the circle?" I asked. "What circle?"

I noticed Avalanche looked really pale, and she cringed. "You took your hands off the planchette as the lights went off. That's what opens the doors your mom talked about. I guess I forgot to tell you not to do that."

Maude nodded. "I do not wish you any harm, but I must warn you, I am not the only thing that got through."

Avalanche and I looked at each other in panic. "What else came through?" I asked. I was really regretting not listening to my mom at this point.

Just then, the lights in my bedroom flickered and two toy horses flew off of the shelf over my bed and hit the wall so hard, one of the legs of my favorite stallion shattered.

"That can't be a good sign," Avalanche said blankly.