A short story by SimScope
When you talk to the non-living, as much as I do, sometimes they ask for help. Today was one of those days.
I had showered, had my coffee and was about to pour my normal second cup, and grab my minty mocha cupcake for breakfast, when I felt the pull.
Here I was just minding my own business, having a really great time, when a ghost voice interrupted me. Well naturally I ran to my crystal ball.
“Help me, please!” The voice was faint. The pull was getting stronger, and the room vibration shifted.
“Help you? Help you, how?” I was fearing the worst. Most vibrations this strong have a deep connection to the living, but a loss to the dead.
“Where can I find you?” I asked. I have always been close to the other side, but this was different. This time there was a chill in the room I had never felt before. The room, I swear was so cold, ice could form on the windows. If I couldn’t feel my own heart beating in my chest, I would swear I was dead myself.
I waited a moment longer. This time the woman’s voice was like ice water being poured down my neck, “SimScope, I know who you really are. Come Now!”
“Pease come to the Guardian Tree.” Then I felt the freezing hand on my shoulder as she continued.
I didn’t know what she was trying to do, but I don’t scare easy. No, Crystal “SimScope” Bailey doesn’t scare easy.
I was headed out the door, leaving my coffee to get cold, and my cupcake to get stale. I had to know if I could help her.
I approached with caution; the ghost was just standing there. “Excuse me,” I said, not wanting to scare her. “I think you asked for my help.”
I knew she wasn’t okay. Her blue aura was giving off the saddest vibes known to man. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me.
As she moved towards me, I could feel the pain in her heart. It was the worst kind. The loss she must be feeling, I could feel it too.
Her voice began to crack as she spoke, “As sand rained down in my final resting bed and I clenched the red flowers in my hands…all I could think of were my children. What happened to them? I don’t know where they are, but I can feel their location…their Essence. Please I must know what became of them.”
Well, I couldn’t say no. The woman was distraught. I had never had children, so I didn’t understand her grief, but I did know a little about death.
She began to cry again as she explained where she felt her first child’s Essence. “Deimos was my first born. Oh, how I loved him. He gave me reason to live.” I waited as she poured her heart out. She cleared her throat and simply stated, “He rests where many others rest…in the darkness…underground.”
“Don’t worry Alice.” I promised. “I will find them and report back.” I had to think, where do many others rest? Then it hit me. No, not a cemetery, I thought shaking my head, but the crypts. Turning towards the nearest crypt, I began my search for him.
In the darkness I could hear the dripping of water somewhere in the distance. However, I was not thinking about that.
“Just get in and get out.” I told myself as I shuffled my feet forward. Dark spaces, no they don’t scare me. This was just a little different. I was looking for a ghost. Good thing I have a flashlight with me.
Stumbling around in the darkness I felt something, a sarcophagus! Turning on my flashlight I realize a name can be read in the stone tablet next to it…Deimos.
“This must be it!” my voice echoing off the dark, damp walls of the tunnels. “This is one of Alice’s children!” I heard moaning answer back.
To avoid disturbing the resting souls, I quietly read the tablet.
Deimos
“Ok, ok, I found you.” I whispered.
Son of Alice. Skeptical, Genius, and Macabre.
“Oh, you are a genius, who likes dark things and is leery about it?” I thought.
I continued to read.
Lived a full life and passed away as an elder from…. a Cowplant?
“Huh, future me may need this information.” I made a mental note. Cowplant. Got it.
His very last word as he accepted his fate of getting swallowed whole was “Sentenced…”
Leaving the crypt, I could tell it was getting late, but I knew I had to find these children.
“Freddy, well now where can I find him.” I thought about the things Alice told me about her children.
“Freddy has forgotten his Sim nature…but as they say, it takes a village to raise a child.” I heard Alice’s voice in my head.
Freddy could be anywhere. Then it dawned on her. “Family Day is held in Crow’s Crossing.”
I headed off to the playground by the cemetery. I just knew he had to be there.
Reaching the playground I could see three glowing lite blue orbs. “Specter!” Freddy had to be one of them.
As I approached the different looking specter, I noticed he had a mustache and a bowtie. He is cute little guy.
“Hi, are you Freddy?” I asked as the specter turned in my direction. The specter bounced up and down. I assumed that meant yes.
“I’m SimScope. Your mother Alice asked me to find you and make sure you were okay.”
The specter hummed for a moment, suspended air. “Alice? Hmm…Alice…Alice!” Freddy thought.
“She was…my…Mother!” He continued as though the thought just came to him. “I remember her face as much as I remember my Sim nature, which is to say, not much at all.” His voice trailed off as he finished speaking.
Then as though his mood had shifted, he finished, “There is one thing I do remember though—her unconditional love.”
I sat with that for a moment. He can’t remember his own mother. How can you forget the face you saw every morning of your life?
“Is that why you became a specter?” I asked. Then I continued, “To help people who are greaving? When they don’t know who to talk to, you give them unconditional love?”
Freddy didn’t answer, just floated. I guess he just didn’t know.
Now it was time to find Ann. I wonder how she made out. But where could she be? Freddy was still floating around so I asked.
“Freddy, your mom needs me to find Ann.” I paused, not sure if he would even remember his sister.
Freddy floated for a moment and then his reply was simple. “Always by my side, but now remote and at peace…”
Freddy paused, then began to speak again. “Surrounded by fields and water…an island.”
Following the pull, I began down the path towards the water. Lucky it was a warm summer day, I was going to get wet, and the water looks refreshing.
As I approached the water I began removing my clothing. Stepping into the water I saw a few minnows playing in the mud.
“What a perfect place to spend eternity.” As I bent down to read the inscription on the stone, a fish jumped in the distance. The splash startled me a bit. I was after all hunting ghosts, for a ghost. Anyone could guess what was lurking round.
“Ann dedicated her life to the education of children,” pausing to think for a moment, “and inspired so many. She was the one Sim everyone agreed on.” “Someday I want that written on my tombstone.” I spoke to the grave like Ann was standing in front of me. “Okay Ann, where to now?” I waited for the answer to come
Then anger washed over me. I didn’t feel like myself. Then the fear came with it. I felt like I was mad at the people who came to drop their coins in hope of becoming something they are not. Just then it hit me. The old wishing well. I couldn’t believe what I was feeling. I had been to that well a thousand times or more. I had never felt anything like this before.
As I approached the well, I felt anger again. Only this time it was much stronger. That’s when I noticed her. Edith. Angry and really, red!
I quickly pulled a coin from my pocket and flipped it in the well. Speaking aloud, “Allow me to have the courage to talk to Edith.”
With the flick of my thumb the coin left my hand. As the coin clanked and bounced off the rocks, I held my breath.
A moment later the Well responded. Spewing red flames high into the air. I pulled back covering my face to avoid the flames.
I knew my wish had not been granted. I could hear the ghost child taunting me from beyond her grave, “Ha, ha, your wish did not come true.”
I didn’t get any courage from the Well today. But I wasn’t going to let that stop me. Alice needed to know what happened to her children.
I walked right up to that girl’s tombstone, “Edith, your mother sent me!” The firmness in my voice shocked me. “She thinks you ran away because of her.”
“AHHH!” Edith screamed. I wasn’t scared. She was just a child. I could feel the hair on my arms rise a little. Her scream was ear piercingly high pitched. I sure she could do some damage if she were alive.
Then the sweetest smile crossed her face. Her aura began to change. A paler red. Maybe I had reached the Sim part of her existence. I knew I had to keep trying to talk to her. It didn’t matter what I feel.
“I just need to let her know.” I said softly. “She worries about how you parted when you were living.” I looked at her ghostly form and could see the girl was trying to form words. Before he could speak, I continued, “She thinks she is the reason you are no longer living.”
“Mother…She is not the reason I died…no…but I drowned here and am now bound to this accursed well forever!” Edith explained. My heart broke. This poor mother thought she was the reason Edith was gone. In reality, she fell in a well and drowned. My heart, I could feel it in my chest breaking.
“Your mother will be so happy to hear that she was not the cause.” I told her.
“Go back to Mother, tell her I am bound to the well. She will feel better.
Heading back, I knew Alice was going to love me for helping her. As I approached the Giving Tree, the sadness washed over me again. That feeling of uncontrollable grief.
“Alice? Are you still here?” I called out. I knew she was still here; I could feel her pain.
“Yes, I am here.”
I told her how I found her four children and where they were so she could visit them. Suddenly overcome with happiness and joy, I knew I had helped this ghost out.
As I finished reading my notes she just nodded.
When I was done, she looked at me as gently said, “A weight has been lifted… I no longer wallow in this ocean of sorrow; unshackled from these chains that kept me down.” Then she pointed to the tree, “Thank you…Thank you for finding my children. My Guardian Tree now opens to you.”
So grateful for my help, I now have access to fill any and all my needs at any time I was near the tree and the ability to scavenge things from its roots.
“All in a day’s work.” I told her proudly.
She gave me a hug and whispered in my ear, “You’re my new best friend.”
THE END
