“You’re ignoring me again.”

Penny closed her eyes and deliberately avoided looking at the source of the child’s voice.

“Please- I don’t have anyone else.” It whined.

The air in the library grew colder.

Penny cringed as the voice spoke from next to her ear. “I need your help, Penny.”

Whirling around, Penny snarled, “Leave me alone!” She found herself face to face with a pouting ghostly ten year old girl. This was the first time she had seen the ghost up close. Lines of decay gave the cherubic face the impression that she stood behind a cracked and warped window.

Penny jerked back from the apparition, a flailing arm knocking her school work to the floor with a crash.

Muttering to herself, she knelt down and stuffed loose papers and books into her backpack, repeating the mantra, “I don’t see you- I don’t see you- I don’t see you.”

As she reached for her special purple sparkly pen, a translucent hand covered her own, sending a numbing chill up her arm.

“You will listen to me!” The ghost girl hissed.