HELLO, GOODBYE
Playing With Fire
The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. This shouldn't cause such discomfort to young Ann, but she's all too familiar with the story of the property. She watches from her window, peering through her curtains in the slightest fashion, afraid that something might peer back. Even being blanketed by the cover of night, Ann still clutches the curtain tightly, her knuckles white with tension.
The house still stands, even after the fire. She was just thirteen when it happened. Old enough to remember, but too young to comprehend the trauma it induced. She'd lost her closest friend that night ten years ago. No one knew the story the way she did, but Ann could never bring herself to tell it to anyone. But then again, no one had ever asked. Ann wasn't supposed to be out that night, and to her parent's knowledge, she was warm in bed when they had went to sleep. Safe from any harm, but they were wrong.
God, were they wrong.
***
July 21st, 1977.
Ann knew she was too young to be there, but Jude was always butting into her older sister's plans and dragging Ann along with her. Jude's sister Janet didn't mind much, as long as they didn't go telling her father what kind of trouble they were all getting into that night. He rarely paid attention anyway. He spent most of his nights passed out on the love seat with a half-drunk bottle of bottom shelf whiskey wedged between his thighs.
Janet was an experimental kind of teenager, always doing things she knew her father wouldn't like. Ann was always a little afraid of Janet, but Jude wanted to be just like her. Janet had offered Ann her first cigarette, but worried her parents might have smelt it on her breath, she declined her offer. Jude was already sneaking the occasional drag by that time.
On this specific night, Janet has a few friends over. They all gather in the basement, her usual spot; assessable from the outside and easy enough to sneak into without disturbing the drunk asleep in the living room.
Janet and her friends were known around their small Christian town for their peculiar interests and practices. They were obsessed with all things occult. So, as they sat in a perfect circle, they all hovered their fingers over a spirit board; Ann too, reluctantly. Janet called, beckoning any spirit to answer their questions.
"What is my name, spirit?" Janet asks. The planchette shifts slightly and Janet's friend Mary giggles.
J-
"Someone is pushing it." Her other friend Lana says. "Jude, if it's you, cut it out."
"I'm not pushing it, you are!" She responds, Janet hushes her as it continues moving across the board. Jude glances to Ann briefly for comfort, but Ann is far too focused on the moving piece in front of her.
A-N-E-T
Jude sighs, a brief moment of relief at it not spelling her name.
"Ask who's going to die first." Lana says, unable to contain her laughter.
"No, don't ask that. Why would we want to know that?" Ann responds, a chill moving up her spine at the thought of the knowledge. She stares at the planchette, willing it to sit still.
Janet laughs and shakes her head at Ann, then in a cruel manner she says, "Spirit," She pauses dramatically, staring at her. "Who here will live the longest?" Janet, Lana, and Mary all share a laugh at Ann's discomfort, but become silent as the planchette begins to move again.
Clear as day it reads, A-N-N. All three older girls snicker at Ann's clear discomfort.
"Good for you, Ann." Janet giggles.
"I'm younger than you." Jude states with one of Janet's cigarettes tucked behind her ear. "Why do you get to live longer?"
"Well, Judy, young Ann here doesn't have black lungs." Janet replies. "Each one takes two days off your life, didn't you know." More laughter fills the dark basement, but it is quickly silenced by the scraping of the planchette on wood. All the girls instinctually jerk their hands from fright, all but Ann who stares as the planchette carries her hands in figure eights all across the board.
"You didn't say goodbye!" Ann yells. "It's the rules, you have to!" The girls rush to place their fingers back into place.
"What happens if we didn't say goodbye?" Jude asks looking to Janet.
"I don't know, opens a portal or something. Don't look under your bed tonight." Janet replies smirking, she looks to her friends again to lighten the mood, but they just stare at the planchette that is still dancing across the board. "I'm just kidding guys."
"We should just say goodbye, I don't wanna play anymore." Jude tells Janet.
"We didn't even get to ask anything good yet." She replies.
"I think I'm over this, too, Janet." Lana adds, her face serious now as she stares down at her hands. Janet rolls her eyes.
"Spirit, would you like to talk more?" She asks. The planchette stops its motion abruptly, then slowly creeps to YES. "Is there anything you would like to tell us?" All the girls stare at Janet until the piece begins to move again.
B-U-R-
"Janet, we don't want to play anymore." Lana tells her.
N-E-M
"Burnem? What is that, a name?" Janet asks.
"Spirit, we are saying goodbye now." Lana yells. Janet rolls her eyes again, but nods. The planchette begins moving again, landing over NO. They all look around to each other nervously.
"Burn 'em." Ann says glancing anxiously to the other girls. "It said Burn 'em." The planchette cuts across the board again landing over YES.
"Everyone slide it to GOODBYE, now!" Lana yells, her face flush. The girls all slide the piece to GOODBYE and unanimously speak it. One after the other they remove their hands from the spirit board, all but Janet. She sits crisscross with her head hanging low, her dark hair shielding her face from the other girls. Her hands begin to move in a fast zig-zag motion with the planchette.
The girls are silent for a moment before Mary speaks. "Janet, take your hands off now. You're not being funny; you're just freaking us all out." Janet's head begins to bob up and down with quiet laughter. As the volume of her laughter grows, her body begins shaking. The board rattles loudly in front of her as the other girls distance themselves. Janet's fingers begin to contort and lock at the joints.
"Janet! Cut it out or I'm getting Dad!" Jude yells. "Stop it, just stop!" She crawls to Ann as Janet lets out a deep growl. Ann can't keep her body from shaking as Jude holds onto her for support. Suddenly Janet's shoulders relax and her head raises. Her eyes open and she smiles at them in a deviant manner.
"Hello." She whispers.
"What the fuck, Janet? That wasn't funny." Mary yells. "I was about to fucking piss myself, why would do that?"
Janet rests her hands by her sides before responding, "I'm sorry." Ann watches Janet closely as Jude yells at her, taking a drag from her now lit cigarette. Ann is paying no attention to the smoky words coming from Jude's mouth, but fixated on Janet's right hand that is just out of view from all the other girls. Her pointer finger scratches viciously at the cement floor, bloodying her fingertip and pulling back her nail.
Ann's breath gets stuck in her chest as Janet turns to look at her, smiling. "Are you sleeping over, young Ann?" Janet asks. She just stares back at her silently. Ann has always been a little afraid of Janet, but in the typical kind of way a young girl would be. As she looks into Janet's eyes, her stomach sinks in a way she's never experienced before. She can feel all the hair on her body prickle, even her scalp.
"Can you please stay?" Jude responds, oblivious to any sort of tension.
"I can't, my parents would freak." Ann musters up quietly. Janet's smile broadens as she continues to stare at Ann. "Jude, you should sleep over my house." She adds, louder now.
"Your parents never let me sleep over." She says. "They don't like us hanging out too much." Jude states, knowing all too well that it's not just her sister who stirs whispers through their small town. Her father is well know in the local bars, but not well liked.
"They won't mind." She states shortly, looking back and forth between the two sisters.
Mary pipes in with, "I'm staying, it's too late now to call Jason to come pick me up. His mom will hate me if I call the house this late."
"Just come stay with me, Jude. Please." Ann says, ignoring Mary who couldn't be anymore oblivious to the severity in Ann's tone.
"I was hoping Jason would just drop me off when he took you home." Lana tells Mary. "Are you sure it's too late?" She asks, nervously glancing at the spirit board.
"What are you still scared, Lana? Janet was just being stupid; she was probably pushing it the whole time." Mary replies.
Ann leans in towards Jude, and quietly says, "I really think you should stay at my house tonight."
"I want to hang out with them. You should just stay at mine." She whispers back.
"Yes, Stay the night." Janet adds.
"You don't understand, somethings not right." Ann replies in a heavy tone. Ann grabs hold of her hand before adding, "Please leave with me."
"It's ok, she was just messing with us." Jude says as Janet continues staring. Ann wants to tell her, that's not Janet anymore, but she can't muster up the courage to say it being watched so intently. "Jeez, Janet. You really freaked Ann out. She's never gonna wanna come over again."
"I'm leaving now, but I'd really like you to come." Ann says, hoping Jude would just say yes, but Ann couldn't stay there for another minute. When Jude denied her request for the final time Ann's feet barely touched the ground as she sprinted home. She let herself in through her window and climbed into bed. She'd left the lights on all night, but that wasn't why she didn't get a wink of sleep.
The night was quiet at first, but still, Ann watched from her window. She was just beginning to doze off, her head resting on the sill, when she sees Jude. Ann can see straight into her room as smoke is building behind her. Jude struggles to open her bedroom window as Ann climbs to her feet.
Ann runs to her parent's room, banging on their door. "There's a fire! Wake up!" She yells. "Fire! Their house is on fire!" She can hear her parents stirring from behind their locked door, but Ann doesn’t wait for it to open. Ann flys down the stairs and out the front door. When she gets outside the fire is visible and growing quickly.
"Ann! Come back!" Her mother called after her. Ann doesn't look back as she sprints to their cabin. Jude bangs on the glass and screams. She pulls at the window aggressively, but it only lifts a few inches.
"Help me, Ann! Please, I can't get it open. Please, Ann!" She begs through the cracked window. Ann falls to the ground in search of a something to break the window. She feels around desperately on her hands and knees, a few nerve racking seconds later she finds a large rock.
"Stand back or to the side!" She yells. "Move!" Jude stands to the side and covers her face as the flames grow behind her. Ann launches the rock through the glass panel. It shatters, raining down on Ann, a few pieces nicking her face. "Come on, Jude!" She tries to maneuver out her window the best she can, but she cries out as the fire grows hotter behind her and glass slices at her palms.
"It's too high!" Jude yells climbing to the sill.
She's getting ready to jump as Janet appears through the flames, unscathed. Jude peers behind her, startled.
"Jump now!" Ann cries.
"Janet? We have to jump." She says grabbing hold of her older sister’s arm. Janet looks past her to Ann one last time and gives her a smile.
"Jude, Jump! Please, Jude!" Ann begs as Janet moves closer to her.
Janet grabs Jude in a tight embrace, pulling her closer to the flames. Jude begs Janet to release her, but fear just fuels the demon inside of Janet. As she screams, pleading with her sister for her life, Ann watches hopelessly from the ground crying.
"Janet! No!" Ann screams, but Janet just looks down at her as if to say, Janet's not home.
As the fire rages stronger, Janet stares at Ann with black pitted eyes and mouths a final, "Goodbye".
Ann stumbles back from the house, watching the demons true form emerge as parts of Janet melt away. Their silhouettes slowly disappear behind more flames and the night sky is polluted by evil.
About the Creator
Kelly Peppe
Writer and illustrator from New York.
SOCIALS
Personal Instagram: @kelso_peper
Art Instagram: @artby_kelso
Reader insights
Outstanding
Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!
Top insights
Easy to read and follow
Well-structured & engaging content
Excellent storytelling
Original narrative & well developed characters
Expert insights and opinions
Arguments were carefully researched and presented
Eye opening
Niche topic & fresh perspectives
Heartfelt and relatable
The story invoked strong personal emotions
On-point and relevant
Writing reflected the title & theme
Comments (2)
Wow this was such a captivating story! I really enjoyed reading this!
A perfect ghost story to tell by the fire (ironic?). Love that you did your own art work. It added depth to Janet's character.