October 27

It took awhile to get out of school. First, I had to pretend to be sick and then pretend to call my mom. But soon, the principal let me through the doors, and I made my way towards the woods, still wondering why Cece would choose such an odd spot to meet.

I walked towards the entrance, giant trees looming over me. Thankfully, the bright sun seemed to die down the terror of the woods, and I entered slowly, shouting. "Cece!"

I heard a twig crack behind me and I spun around, finding no one. "Cece!" I called again, beginning to become frightened now. This reminded me of several horror movies, and I couldn't think of one that had ended well.

I  began to run now, the town becoming farther and farther from where I was. Suddenly, I crashed into something--or more like someone. Cece was laying on the ground, groaning as she rubbed her face.

"Sorry, Cece!" I exclaimed, lending my hand to help pull her  up off the ground. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, wiping orange and yellow leaves off her hair.

"So why am I here?" I asked, expecting answers. She didn't look sick or dying, like I had suspected. I didn't know what was up.

"I have to tell you something. It might change how you think about me a lot," she admitted, hiding her face from me.

I raised my eyebrow, curious. "Well, go on," I said as she continued to remain silent.

She glanced up at me, her brown eyes focused on mine.

"I'm a ghost," she told me in a serious manner.

Unable to control myself, I began to laugh.

"Really? That's what you pulled me out of school for? To play some Halloween joke on me?" I wasn't so much amused anymore, but angry. "Do you have any idea how much trouble I went through to get--"

"I'm serious, Harry!" she exclaimed, cutting me off. There was a silence, and then she glanced at me again. "Watch."

I watched as she vanished from my view, as if she had never been standing there in the first place. Immediately, my heart began to pound. What sort of prank was this?

"Cece?" I yelled, confused. Was this only a dream? Was I asleep in bed?

"Yes?" I heard behind me.

I turned, spotting her in an entirely different spot.

"How-how did you do that?" was all I managed to say. It couldn't be possible. Ghosts didn't exist. In horror movies maybe, but not in real life.

"I told you, I'm a ghost," Cece replied in all seriousness. "I understand if you want to see me again," she sighed.

As stupid as I was being a fifteen-year-old boy, I never expected myself to ask this stupid and crazy. "No, I do," I replied.

Cece's eyes lightened up. The idea was still a shock to me, and for a moment, I still thought of it as only a prank.

"But now you won't be confused anymore," Cece spoke excitedly. "I died three years ago. On October 25, I would've been eighteen. But now I'm permanently fifteen. Remember how I said I'd only seen that first zombie movie?"

I nodded, recalling it from the day before. I had still been confused about that.

"Well, I saw that the night I died," Cece explained. "Not my friend's party. I never even knew there was a second or third. And my mom, she's still alive. She runs the recycling plant in town. My grandma, she used to take care of me, but she severely limited my freedom. In fact, I cancelled yesterday because she found out about us."

"You said used to. What happened?" I wondered, my mind still jumbled and disoriented.

"We can't be ghosts forever," Cece admitted. "At a certain time, we move on, or we're banished. Grannie had been a ghost for several years, and it was time for her to move on. I'm all alone now. Grannie can't stop us now," she spoke quietly, a little joy coming from her in that last sentence.

I paused, unsure whether that was good or not.

"And this is all true?" I wondered. "I'm not dreaming."

"You're not," Cece said, pinching my arm. I let out a shriek in response, causing her to laugh. As our laughs settled, she placed her hands on her legs and sat down on a stump. "I know it's bizarre news, but we shouldn't let it affect our relationship."

I wanted to agree, but I knew that this definitely did affect our relationship. Still, it didn't necessarily have to affect it in a negative manner. Dating a ghost was odd, but at the same time, it was really cool.

"Come on. I want to show you some stuff," she said, extending her hand. I took it, and she pulled me away, disappearing farther into the woods.

I walked in silence, wondering where she was leading me. At least, we stopped at an old swamp. I expected her to stop, but she began to walk through it. I was forced to follow behind, mud beginning to coat my shoes.

"Why are you pulling us into the swamp?!" I gasped.

"You'll see," she said, still smiling.

"What's even so special about this place?" I asked, glancing around at the spooky trees and evil-looking crows that squawked at our every movement.

Suddenly, the trees of the swamp began to open, and a sole dirt pathway appeared. I didn't know if it was safe, but I decided to trust Cece and follow inside. The trees immediately shut behind us, trapping us in darkness.

"Um, why are we here?" I asked, my hand still clutching onto Cece's. I didn't want to lose her in the darkness.

Suddenly, a lantern was lit up, and I turned, seeing Cece had located one. From what I could see from the light of the lantern, we were still in the swamp.

"Follow me, and be careful," she warned. 

I held onto her hand as we continued  on the path, trying to ignore the sounds of scurrying rats and bubbling fluid of the swamp. But as we continued, a light appeared in the distance--an opening. As we approached, Cece set down the lantern, and we entered a large room.

I glanced around, blown away. It was a large room decorated creepily, as if for Halloween. Thrones were set around the room, and I wondered what this place even was.

"This is the Monster Council room," Cece explained, as if she'd read my mind. "The Monster Council controls the monsters in this world. There's a Ghost Council too, in charge of all the ghosts." She turned towards a black cauldron and took a handful of whatever was inside. She brought her hand close to me and opened it, revealing individually wrapped candies. "Want some candy? They keep a stash in here."

"Should we even be in here?" I asked nervuosly.

"It's fine. Have some candy," she said, dropping a blue colored candy into my hand. I popped it into my mouth, the sugar washing away the insanity from the day. Still, she hadn't answered my question...

Suddenly, we heard a crashing sound.

"Quick! They're here!" Cece shouted, grabbing my hand. "Hurry!"

Dropping my candy, I ran alongside Cece quickly, hearing someone shout, "Who's there?!"

Cece and I were too fast for them to see us though. I watched as Cece immediately raced through a beam of glowing light, and I followed, unsure where we were going.

The next thing I knew, my eyes opened to find myself sitting in a haunted house.

"What happened?" I asked, finding myself sitting sorely on a wooden floor.

Cece was already standing up, still looking nervous. She helped me up, and I glanced around.

"We went through the portal to my house. My grandmother used to be the caretaker of the Monster Council's room, so we installed a portal there. Luckily, the monsters can't use the portal unless I grant them entrance."

I nodded, glancing around the creepy mansion. Cobwebs hung from walls, the furniture was dark and dusty, and a quiet wind swept through the creaky rooms.

"This is our house," Cece explained.

"Much bigger than my house," I noted, simply blown away. How neat was it that she was actually able to live in an abandoned mansion!

"Yeah, it looks great, but remember all those chores i had to do?" she asked. I nodded, and she responded, "Well, I was cleaning this house. I hate this place," she grumbled, kicking a dust bunny. "When I was a live, I lived in a very small house, and I liked it much better."

I paused, unsure of how to respond. She seemed to break out of her complaints though as she grabbed my hand again.

"Come on, you have to meet Professor."

Unsure if I wanted to get into another one of her schemes, I unwillingly followed.

After walking in the woods for a few moments, we stopped at a trap door. At first, I hadn't even noticed the door, simply walking over it. But upon seeing Cece stop, I did the same, and I watched as she kneeled down and knocked on it.

"Professor created all the monsters on the Monster Council," Cece explained as we waited for him to answer. "This is his laboratory."

"Cece, hello!" Professor called, opening the door.

Cece began to descend down a ladder, and I did the same, placing my feet down beside her.

Professor turned, his eyes widening as he saw me. "Who-who is this?"

Cece quickly explained to Professor about how I was her mortal boyfriend, mentioning to Professor some other schemes about sneaking off to a party and so on. I stood there, watching Professor eye me nervously. Something told me he wasn't pleased to see me.

"Cece, I don't know about this," the crazy old man muttered. "What if the Ghost Council finds out?"

"They won't," Cece promised.

I tilted my head. I'd questioned whether dating a ghost was a good idea or not, but perhaps it meant more trouble than I thought of. Cece hadn't mentioned any danger to me, but I wondered if perhaps she was planning to keep the danger from me.

"Well, good luck," Professor muttered, turning back to his experiment.

We left his laboratory, finding ourselves back in the forest. I glanced down at my watch, seeing that school had just ended.

"I have to go now," I told Cece. "My mom's going to wonder where I am. See you later, okay?"

Cece nodded, waving her hand as I walked away.

As I made my way back to town, thoughts flooded through my head. What had exactly happened today? What else was Cece keeping from me? Had I made the right choice? It seemed that the decision I had made today would impact my life forever.