Spooked!

Introduction (the given prompt)

It was the same routine every single night. Or at least for the last 78 nights. Drink warm milk with a teaspoon of sugar. Brush my teeth. Make sure the curtains are closed all the way to the very end (no gaps, thank you!). Moisturise. My pillow fluffed just the right amount. Set a redundant alarm for 6 am. Go to sleep.

All for what? I open my eyes to see it is 3:13 am, every single night!

At that moment every night, all I hear is silence. The silence is so loud, I can barely hear my pounding heart. An eerie feeling creeps over me as I see through the (now open) curtains, the ice glazes over the windows from the sudden cold. A smell wafts through. One that is so familiar. I know what it is, I have definitely smelt it before, yet I cannot name it. All these days, I have never been able to remember it. I have tried day after day, night after night, still zilch. What now...?

CHAPTER 1

It was just another night, precisely, the 79th night that I had been waking up to the strangely familiar smell at exactly 3:13 am. And just as usual, I did my daily night routine before going to sleep. And just as usual, I woke up again, to the smell tickling my nose. My bedroom was eerily silent. I slowly sat up, the bed creaked as I got off. I flinched as my feet touched the cold floor. But ignoring it, I walked to the window and gently pulled the heavy curtains open and looked out. It was a bit hard to see, because of all the icy frost that had settled on the cold surface of the glass. Intricately patterned snowflakes gently fell from the sky, floating down to land on the edge of my windowsill. I couldn't resist the urge to open the window, and as I did, the cold air blew into my face, bringing the familiar smell to my nose again. I looked up at the sky as if it could answer the hundreds of questions storming my mind. Through the grey clouds, I could see the full moon. Desperately, I started to sing to myself, in a voice softer than the sound of the snowflakes falling:

"Every night it's just the same, 

few hours past midnight, this fragrant game.

Looking out of the blinds, something's calling me.

Though it is a mystery of what that 'something could be......

Bursting boldly out, fear's a thing of the past,

hardly knowing how long this restlessness could last,

looking up to the white moon,

I'll figure this out soon...

My thoughts are flashing in front of my eyes,

even though I'm just a girl of twelve,

into the deepest pockets of my mind,

curiously my fingers delve,

trying to find....' something',

Something that's true, something that's making me rethink, 

my mind's blurry with these thoughts,

wish I could solve this mystery,

I wish I could, a lot...

And I'm trying to recall....' something'."

When I was done singing, I thought overall the lyrics, and.. it was just so weird! The words of the song didn't make sense. At least, not to me. I don't know why I even sang that totally meaningless song and how on earth those lyrics even came to my mind. There. 'Mind'. That word - 'Mind' was the source of all this. This 'Mind' of mine was a total blur, and it felt like somebody was stirring up my brain with the kind of ladle you would use to stir the hot soup. It felt like somebody was controlling my mind, and I have a feeling that this was the same 'somebody' that put those lyrics in my mind. It seemed like somebody got into my mouth and sang those words through my lips. Thinking about weird stuff like this would do me no good, I thought, and I decided to just go back to sleep, or I would have a headache tomorrow due to lack of sleep. Shutting the blinds, I turned around and walked to my bed. Enough is enough, I thought. Tomorrow I would tell my mom about all this 'weirdness'. Just before I got on the bed, I turned up the heat a little. It was strenuous waking up night after night to the strangely familiar smell. As I got back to the bed, my eyes fell on the corner of the room, where a dog crate was kept. Inside it was a comfy dog bed with a pile of blankets. Between the folds of the fleece, I could see two silvery-white paws and a small dark chocolate coloured nose sticking out. That cute sight made me smile. I love my dog, Mickey. Mom has let me keep him inside the house ever since winter arrived and it became much too cold to keep Mickey out in the backyard. I let him sleep in my room in his dog crate at night. Just looking at him made me feel better. With a smile on my face, I pulled up the fleece blanket over myself, closed my eyes and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. 

CHAPTER 2

It was another beautiful day. I was getting ready for school. I glanced at the clock to find that it was already 7:30, and school would start in an hour. I had to catch the school bus, which would arrive at the bus stop at 8:00 on the dot. Getting to the bus stop in time was the only thing on my mind. I had no time to think about weird smells and strange feelings that overcame me night after night. Speaking of that, I had forgotten something very important I had planned to do today. Every night, I tell myself, that I would tell my mom about what happened every single night at exactly 3:13 am. But come morning, I forget in the rush to get to school. It would suddenly strike me during class time, that I have to tell my mom, but by the time I get back home from school and my mom comes back from work, I forget. So I never really get around to telling her. I have no intention of telling anybody other than my mom about personal stuff like this. But for now, I decided to ignore a million things going on in my mind or else I won't be able to concentrate on my studies. 

Once at school, I switched to my usual self in order to avoid prodding from my friends. After a usual day at school, immersed in thought, I walked over to school bus route no. 5. Putting my school bag beside me, I settled on my seat on the bus. Today I just had to tell my mom about the smell and the things that happen every night. The only problem was, my mom worked the evening shift on Saturdays. She would leave for the hospital where she works just as soon as I get back home. I hoped I would have enough time to tell her before she left. I didn't talk to anyone on the bus today, lest I forget to tell my mom. I got off at the bus stop. Surprisingly, mom came to pick me up in the car instead of walking. The stop is just a couple of mutes walk from home. "Hi, Mommy!" I smiled when I saw her. "How was your day at school?" She asked me. "Great, as usual." I said in a cheery voice." She told me that she had to get to the hospital earlier than usual today so she drove instead. "Oh, ok." I looked at my hands in my lap. I suddenly remembered something. "Mom, I have something to tell you." "What is it, Alicia dear? Anything serious? Are you unwell?" She looked worried. "Nothing like that. Something's been bothering me for a while. It's actually a long story..." I began, but we were already home. My mom stopped the car and opened the passenger side door. Mom looked at her watch. "Shall we talk about it once I get back my dear? You understand, don't you?" "Yes, mom." I looked down. I said goodbye to her. She hugged me, got into the car, and drove away. I watched as she left, and then turned to open the front door. "It's ok. I'll tell mom when she gets back. I hope I won't forget," I mumbled.

CHAPTER 3 

I went inside the house and locked the front door. I went and took a quick shower and changed my clothes. I hadn't forgotten that I had to tell my mom about the smell and everything just as soon as she got back at dinner time. But in the meantime, I had to find something to do to pass the time. Excitedly skipping to the living room, I switched on all the lights to brighten it up. Switching on the TV, I pulled out some fleece blankets, dumped them onto the plush velvet cushioned sofa, and got comfortable with the remote in my hand. Flipping through channels, I finally found a cartoon movie that I liked. I wondered if Mickey wanted to watch with me. Burrowing out of the blankets, I got up and walked to the storeroom. The sleepy-snout must have heard the doorknob turn because he had already woken up as I went in and I got a wet slobbery greeting on my face. "Hey, little fella, what do you say we sit and watch some TV together?" He licked my hand as if in response and I picked him and carried him to the living room. Setting him down on the luxurious red velvet carpet, I snuggled onto the sofa, but after a while, I had to get up again. It was so cold that I had to turn on the small portable electric heater. Adjusting the heat, I went back to the sofa and settled in. Just as I sat down, I saw Mickey get up, yawn, and walk slowly towards the heater. Wondering what he was going to do, I waited and watched. He slowly positioned himself, and carefully, gently pushed the heater back to his spot on the carpet and sat down in front of it. Goodness me! He must be the smartest dog I've ever seen! I petted his head and he wagged his fluffy tail in return. As the two of us settled down, warm and toasty, and started to watch our movie, I got a weird feeling in my head. "This happens all the time. I really don't need to bother." I thought and went back to my movie. But just then, the sky became overcast and the clouds blocked the signal from the dish antenna and a big sign that said 'No Signal' displayed on the screen. "Aw, bummer!" I grumbled. "Now what, Mickey?" The puppy looked at me with his cute face, the face that instantly made me feel better. I smiled and ruffled his fur. Just then, the familiar smell, the one I had been bothering me every night, just wafted in. I was speechless for a while."Th-bu-bt-t-the f-fam-familiar smell!" I managed to stammer after many seconds. The smell kept growing stronger. "That's the same scent that I smell every night at 3:13 am! But, it never turns up in the daytime! Am I just imagining it?" My question was promptly answered, and you'll never believe it, by any other than Mickey. "No, sis, you're not imagining, I can smell it too." "Goodness me, Mickey! You really can talk!" "Yes, I can! And you know what? You wake up at 3:13 am every night to a certain smell, I do too. You get weird feelings in your head, I do too! You can talk, I can too! Tell you something, sis. I know where this smell is coming from!" "You do? Where, Mickey? Tell me!" "Well, I can't TELL you, I don't know the NAME of that place, but I can follow the smell and find its source! Us pups are experts on smells, you know." He winked at me. "Can you lead me to where it's coming from, Mickey?" I asked him. But then something struck my mind. Mom had specifically instructed me not to go out of the front door for anything. As if reading my mind, Mickey said, "don't worry, we don't need to use the front door, we can go out of the window in your bedroom. Follow me!" I chased Mickey up the stairs and into my room. According to his request, I slid open the plush tapestry and opened the sliding glass window. A gust of chill blasted into my face. I shivered. It was not freezing enough to snow outside, but too cold to go out without wearing at least ten layers of clothes. Just when Mickey was about to hop out, I grabbed him. "Where do you think you're going, Mickey?! That's dangerous! We can't jump out of the window, we'll fall and break our bones!" "Na-uh. We're not gonna jump out, we're gonna fly out!" To my utter surprise, Mickey rose up high in the air and whooshed and swooshed around outside the window, causing such a strong gust of wind that it blew me out too! "Look, a cloud! We can ride it!" Mickey zipped away, with me on his tail, being blown along by winds that were amazingly strong. I was quite helpless. This was so unlike me taking Mickey out for walks on a leash. Mickey can talk, and fly and take me flying along with him! Whoa!

CHAPTER 4

"Mickey, take us down this instant," I instructed firmly. My words just bounced off the rambunctious ten-month-old puppy. We flew for what felt like forever, chasing clouds and birds. I would've enjoyed it except I could almost hear my mom's admonition. Boy! I am grounded for life! Just then, I saw something up ahead. It looked like a black hole, the kind that is there in the centre of galaxies. I have seen pictures of those in the space encyclopaedia books I read. I was sure though, that we were still on earth and had not reached the centre of the Milky Way. Trying to figure out what it was, I squinted and concentrated. As I did so, it kept growing bigger and wider. It looked like a whirlpool of gravity in deep space. Hoping nothing out of the ordinary would happen, I held on. But my prayers weren't answered, because the exact thing I didn't want to happen, happened. Mickey and I got sucked into whatever that thing were and I shrieked. Mickey started to cry and howl. Just before it closed in on us, I stuttered, "No, no, no, I am too young to say goodbye to the world!" A single tear flowed down my cheek. I was quite sure those were my last words. 

My eyes fluttered open. I found myself lying on something soft. Before sitting up, I spoke. "Is this heaven? Am I in heaven?" For a second there, I thought my voice sounded just like it did in my past life. I suddenly realised something. "Mickey! Where is Mickey? Did he reach heaven too?" I bounded up. I could see a faint, flickering light in front of me. My question was answered by a tiny soft paw on my arm. It was Mickey! He looked just like he did in his past life. By this time, I was actually starting to wonder if I did really die being sucked into that black-hole like thing. Maybe not.....

I looked around. I was in a room, sitting on some sort of sofa that seemed quite familiar. I was covered with a thick fleece blanket. It was warm and comfortable.

I could see a large screen in front of me. And it didn't take me too long to realise what had happened. I was in the living room at home, watching TV when I dozed off. "Drat! I fell asleep. Pretty interesting dream, though." Just to make sure, I tried something. "Mickey, can you talk?" The little pup looked at me with his cute face and blinked. "Answer my question, can you talk?" Mickey stood up on his hind legs, put his paws in my lap and wagged his tail. Yeah, just a dream. 

CHAPTER 5

"Well, that was weird." I got up and switched off the TV. I was even starting to wonder if I had just imagined that I was smelling the familiar smell, and singing weird songs, and thinking strange thoughts at 3:13 in the morning. But then again, I wasn't imagining everything that usually happens at night at 3:13 is. If was just imagining, then how could I be waking up at 3:13 on the dot every night? Whoa. This was all very scary. I actually like mysteries. I have read stories and watched fiction programmes about detectives who solve exciting mysteries. Spies, agents. I love all that! I have even imagined myself as the leader of a huge top-secret spy agency, or the boss of a detective case. But this nighttime mystery is quite scary, and not at all something I'm excited about, and I was beginning to imagine all sorts of spooky things. Was there a wicked devil with his evil eye on me? Was he watching me at night, and casting magic spells on me? He must be using that smell to lure me out of the window so that he can catch me. Brrrr! Just thinking about it gave me goosebumps. Was it a bloodthirsty vampire creeping into my room? That strange smell must be his perfume. Was there a dark zombie lurking in the shadows of my curtains? Was it a human-eating witch wanting to snack on a little girl like me? These thoughts were too much for my mind. I ran my fingers into my hair and buried my head into the folds of the blanket, terrified. Was I going crazy? Will I be sent away to a mental asylum? These thoughts would haunt me day and night, allowing me no peace. Was this smell a bad omen? Some sort of warning, or some kind of sign that soon, something terrible was going to happen to me...

Just then, I felt two paws in my lap, and two puppy eyes looking at me. Mickey's sweet face made me feel better. I hugged him and pulled him close. "Thanks, little buddy," I sighed. "I really needed that!" I really needed something to take my mind off this! I couldn't watch TV anymore since the overcast sky was still blocking the signal. 

Unable to stand it anymore, I bounded up and stormed off to my room, with Mickey trailing behind me. I turned on all the lights in my room and then switched on my music player and turned up the volume. Letting the peppy numbers play on, I switched on my bubble-blowing machine and let it blow bubbles by itself. While Mickey jumped and tried to pop all the bubbles, I played with my favourite rainbow-coloured bouncy ball. After a while of Mickey and me horsing around, I just thought I felt a little tap on my shoulder. "This happens all the time, I keep imagining these unrealistic things," I thought, and just ignored it. A few seconds later, I felt the tap on my shoulder again, much harder this time, so I was sure that something or the other did tap my shoulder. My ball dropped from my limp hands and I momentarily froze. Kicking the ball aside, I flew down the stairs screaming, "OUR HOUSE IS HAUNTED!!!!" 

CHAPTER 6

The ghost must be living in my room and slowly, night by night, it may be eating up my brain, I thought. Then it struck me that Mickey was still up there! The ghost might do something horrible to him! "I'm coming to get you, Mickey!" I fled up the staircase, and to my utter shock, I saw Mickey shaking paws with a hand. A ghost hand that was not even attached to a body but just floating in mid-air. "Mickey! What's going on here?!" I gasped. From behind me came a "Hello!" that scared the living daylights out of me. Grabbing Mickey, I ran downstairs for the second time, with a faint floating figure hot on my heels, saying "Hi! Hello! Hello there!" I rushed this way and that running around the house with the ghostly figure following me room to room. But I guess it finally got fed up of chasing me, because it employed a trick, spinning around to the side, dodging me, it came from behind and cornered me against a wall. As it came closer, I could see that it was not even a ghost at all! It was a kid that looked just a bit younger than me. To my surprise she looked an awful lot like me except for one difference, her hair was much longer than my short black hair. And yes, she was floating in mid-air instead of walking. "Don't run away! I just wanted to say hello!" She sounded an awful lot like me too! Holding out her hand, she came closer. A chill rushed down my spine. I didn't hold out my hand to shake hers. What if this was a devil's trap to lure me into his spell? She introduced herself to me. "I'm Alanie. I'm actually a spirit. I used to live in this place called Gloria, the residential place of angels, fairies and spirits. There are guardian angels, who watch over souls, happy fairies who keep Gloria as one, and spirits, each with their own job to do. I was the youngest of all of them, and the most playful one too. I was the one who was always playing tricks on everyone, putting the fairies' magic dust in their tea, painting the angels' snow-white wings with bright colours, and other silly pranks. Quite harmless, don't you think? I was just having a little fun with them, with no bad intentions, but after a while, everyone had had enough and I was banished from Gloria, no one ever wanting to see me again. I still can't understand what I did wrong, but I came down to earth because there was nothing else I could do. I knew no one here and wanted to make some friends. Then I found this girl who looked exactly like me...you!" "Really??" I asked with a suspiciously raised eyebrow. "Yes! I thought I'll make friends with you! Plus, what could be better to start a friendship than a little trick!" She laughed. "What little trick?" I asked her. "Oh, the familiar smell, and the strange feelings you got in your head and that song you sang, the black hole dream you dreamed, it was all my doing! I just built up the suspense and thrill to get you excited just to know it was a trick, in the end!" The spirit girl burst into a giggle fit. When she was done chuckling, she had to do a lot of explaining and convincing to make me believe what she told me. That's because these spirits, angels and fairies don't even exist in real life! At least I thought so until I met my new bestie, Alanie! And we didn't just look and sound alike, we actually got on splendidly together! Also, just like my dream, Alanie used her magic to make Mickey talk, so the three of us would chat and play for hours together. Mickey, Alanie and Alicia made a wonderful team! I would have to come up with a really good explanation to tell all this to my mom since grown-ups can't see fairies and spirits. 

I eventually got around to telling my mom all about it over breakfast on Sunday morning. To my surprise, she took it all like a good sport. She probably thought I was in some sort of a phase and will soon grow out of it. Anyway, Alanie, the mischievous little spirit has been my friend ever since. She still loves to catch me off guard with her tricks, but I am not spooked anymore. I wonder why people think that there are only evil spirits lurking in dark shadows. There could even be friendly, guardian spirits who help us throughout our lives. Guess I was just lucky to find mine. 

THE END