Purple Ghost Lady

Winter was setting in early.

At least, that's what I told myself to excuse why it was so cold.

I retreated further into my sweater, relishing the warmth in my torso and wishing I had worn more clothing. Shoving my hands in my pockets, I stared at the ground in front of me and focused on not tripping over anything in the field. The dry grass crunched under the sound of our footfalls.

@Miggie walked beside me, better prepared for this sudden cold than I was. She had a scarf around her neck and black fingerless gloves on her hands. Her lipstick was the same shade of burgundy as her jeans and, as always, her face was on point. From the first day I saw her, she only seemed to have gotten prettier. I made a mental note to ask her, once we got back to the hotel, if she could teach me how to makeup. In this instance, Miggie was the mom I never had.

Just the thought made me feel extremely guilty.

If Miggie was my mom, then @Lsu11, or Lisa, was definitely my godmother. She was always looking out for me from above and making sure things worked out. She was the clear, cloudless sky in my life that I could always depend on to warm me. Lisa trudged on ahead with a smile on her face like always, @paintingskies at her side.

If there was a single one of us that I had to look up to, it would be Sam. She was the palm tree in the hurricane that always made it out still in tact. Sometimes her trunk would bend and her leaves would get frazzled, but you could always depend on her to come out stronger. You could see the thunderstorms in her eyes, but you knew that she had sunshine somewhere in her, even if she didn't feel it and told you it wasn't there.

Last, but not least, was @Lynn in her yellow skinny jeans that did so well portraying her personality. She herself was quiet, maybe even shy, but I knew inside her was a person with fire in their eyes and flowers growing in their chest. I didn't have to look behind me to know she was the only one of us looking up at the sky, probably dreaming about plays she could write or reciting the lyrics to her favorite song.

"Am I supposed to be seeing my breath? I couldn't three minutes ago." Lynn's voice.

"I don't know," I said honestly. "Maybe it's the water." At the other end of the field was a small bridge leading across a trickling stream. It lead off into the forest that surrounded the field at every point. Autumn leaves drifted from their places in the branches and skidded across the wooden slats of the bridge before falling into the stream and drifting away. Those that didn't land in the water were piling up on the ground and against the trunks of the trees.

"Maybe," Lynn responded doubtfully- we both knew it wasn't the water. In truth, all of us knew it was the forest itself that was making the air chillier and radiating the unsettling atmosphere, but none of us would've said it. Honestly, what was there to say? That the trees were 'scary' and that the forest was 'spooky?' No, none of us wanted to seem dumb in front of our newly met friends.

We had all accepted the invitations from the Prose. headquarters inviting us to their gathering of sorts at one of the hotels in the city. The five of us had decided to take a stroll on one of the paths in the nearby woods for some alone time. It was a once in a lifetime chance, being together, and if just for a moment it would have been nice to say in person what we'd been saying to each other over the internet for so many years. But we'd gotten lost when I, with my marvelous ideas, decided I wanted us to go exploring. Now here we were, who knows how many miles away from the highway we'd stopped on the side of. I guess the mighty @Prose profile was mad at us for branching off from the rest.

We paused on the bridge, balancing on the edge of two worlds. The field behind us with its hard, stout grass and the forest ahead with its slender trees.

Sam shrugged her shoulders. "We could go back."

"Or we could keep going," Miggie said. "Not like we know where we are anyway."

I looked around at the others, shrugging my shoulders. "She's kinda got a point."

"Most the time she does." Lynn pointed out. The rest of us agreed silently before walking the rest of the way across the bridge. If I thought it was cold before, this side of the stream was definitely colder. I huddled slightly closer to Miggie, seeking her body heat. The forest floor was made spongy by the fallen leaves.

I gazed up at the tree branches sprawling out above us- at the leaves and how the branches intertwined. A couple crows were seated there, eying us up and down. "Fall is always my favorite season," I said to no one in particular.

Lynn stepped up beside me. "Mine, too. I always love how you can wear shorts and skirts or pants and still be comfy no matter what. Plus, there's Halloween and jackets. I love jackets."

I was about to respond when Lisa called out to us. "I think there's a path over here!"

We all clumped together around the spot. Indeed, it did look like a path. There was a clear absence of undergrowth leading deeper into the trees, even if the path itself was blanketed in fallen leaves. "Do we want to take it?" Lisa asked after a couple moments.

"Might as well." Miggie stepped past us and started down it.

I turned to Lynn, smirking. "Well there you go, I guess."

Inside the woods it was dead still, although the branches in the upper parts of the trees were rustling against each other. The sky was mostly covered, but in a few places where more leaves than average had fallen, it peeked through. I could tell by the color that it was nearing sunset.

The whole scene was veritably aesthetic. What with the colored leaves and the little path and the sky, it seemed straight out of a Tumblr mood board. I was glad I had friends here to share it with me, but I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was... off.

Sam's voice was swallowed by the trees. "It's cold."

"It's almost too cold," Lynn said, wrapping her arms around herself. Her voice, too, was quieted by the woods. "I don't like the feeling of this." She had just voiced what all of us were thinking.

In truth, it seemed colder than when we were out in the field and the temperature had dropped. And tied together with the overall aura of the forest, it radiated a very ominous demeanor.

I glanced around warily at the shadowed undergrowth, suddenly uneasy. As I watched, it seemed to close in, threatening to swallow us and the entire forest whole. The cawing of the crows reached a crescendo and the tops of the trees shook violently.

I crashed into the back of Miggie and the images melted away. I peeked over her shoulder to see why she had stopped and through the trees I saw a house about a hundred yards away.

"Sorry. Why is there a house out here?" I asked, then squeezed my eyes shut. I had a tendency to blurt out my questions before I thought about the answer.

"I guess we're closer to the road than we thought." Miggie muttered.

As we neared the house, I realized that it was most definitely abandoned. The windows and doors were boarded up, even though some had been smashed through again, and the roof was sunken in in some places. The tree branches completely blotted out the sky here, leaving the area in shadows and the ground without foliage. Spiderwebs sprawled out in the corners of the dilapidated porch.

Lisa cleared her throat. "I don't mean to be a Debbie downer, but it's about night and I'm not sure if we should walk through the forest at night."

We all stared at each other in palpable silence. "Do any of you have reception yet?" It was Lynn.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket, tried a call, and sighed as it didn't go through. "Nope." The other's phones didn't work either. "I kind of agree with Lisa, guys." I said, biting my lip. "I don't really want to walk through this forest at night either. Maybe… we could stay on the porch? I don't know. I just don't want to go inside."

"It probably wouldn't be safe anyway," Lisa pointed out. "I agree and say that we stay on the porch." Lynn, Sam, and Miggie nodded their heads in solemn agreement.

I picked a dead branch off the dirt ground. The others looked at me with a face that said, "What is that for?" I shrugged, and said, "I do not deal with spiders."

The three little steps of the front porch creaked as we walked up them. I took my branch and waved it around in front of me, taking down webs and hopefully scaring away the spiders in the process. I wasn't aiming to kill them, considering I was the one that had come into their home and chased them out of it. I just couldn't deal with them being near me. Once I was satisfied, we sat down across from each other- some with their backs on the railing and some on the house.

We sat in silence for awhile, in which I spent picking at my fingernails. It was a bad habit of mine. "Sorry I got you all lost," I mumbled.

Lynn shook her head, placing a hand on my shoulder. "We all agreed to go with you, so it's on all of us."

Sam sat forward. "Yeah, and besides. This'll do for some good inspiration."

I smiled even though on the inside I was squealing from their kindness. "Thanks guys."

Soon, the sounds of insects died out and were replaced by the silent nightlife. An owl hooted in the distance.

Miggie's stomach rumbled and she placed her hands on her stomach. "I'm starving."

"Me too." I agreed, giggling with her. "Also, thirsty."

"Wait. Did you see that?" Lisa blurted.

"See what?" Miggie asked.

"I saw it," Sam said, her eyes wide. I could barely see her in the darkness.

I looked over my shoulder at the tree line, shivers wracking my body. "Uh… no. But that's honestly terrifying that you saw something."

Lynn scooted closer to me. "What was it?" We stared at Sam and Lisa.

"I don't know. It was white, I think," Sam said, her eyes darting back and forth. "It moved too quick to get a good look at it, but it looked like…" she trailed off.

"A person." Lisa finished.

I decided it was a good time to make a joke. It was how I handled stress. "Oh my god, it was the demogorgon from Stranger Things."

"The what?" They said in unison.

I gaped. "You haven't seen Stranger Things?!"

"I have." I jumped as a voice came from behind me. Lynn screamed. I whipped around to see a- a purple ghost? I squinted my eyes in confusion. The ghost was definitely a lady and she was holding a chicken in one arm and a martini in the other.

"Why are you purple?" Sam asked her.

The purple ghost took a sip from her martini, then set it down on the porch rail before stroking her chicken. "White was already taken."

"Fair enough," Miggie said, her stomach rumbling again.

The purple ghost turned to look at her. "I would offer you some food, but I'm afraid humans can't eat the tasty morsels we ghosts can."

Lynn piped up. "What's your name?"

Purple Ghost Lady turned to look at Lynn and me, but her chicken continued to stare at Miggie. "It's @AnitaRosner, but you can just call me Anita. This here," she gestured around at the trees. "is my forest. I see you've already been acquainted."

"It's very pretty," I said. "But we've kinda gotten lost in them. Are you able to show us a way out?"

Anita stroked her chicken, deep in thought. "I suppose I could. But since you've trespassed in my woods, I'm afraid I'm going to need to ask you all for a favor. It's written in the Ghost handbook that I must.

"Oh, no. Not like a sacrifice or some impossible task." Purple Ghost added when she saw Lisa's worried face. "The media always shows my kind off as selfish and sadistic. But really, I just want you to find my cow."

"Your cow?" We all blurted in unison.

"Yes, my cow!" Anita stomped her foot in frustration. "Oh, sorry. I'm not frustrated with you guys. It's just that my lawn ornament cow, Buttercup, ran away from me long ago and I haven't been able to find her! I miss her terribly so. She was my chickens best friend!" Her chicken clucked as if in agreement.

"That's so sad!" Lynn tried to place a reassuring hand on Anita's shoulder, but she slipped right through. She hesitated before continuing. "I'm sure we can help you find your cow."

Anita plucked and ate the olive from her martini in celebration. "Thank you! Now, Buttercup's favorite snack was Snowdrops. If you'll follow me…"

The five of us followed Anita Rosner around to the back of the run-down house. In a little square garden bed, a clump of snowdrops were growing.

"If you take these and go looking for her, you'll be bound to find her. I would have done so already, but I can't pull them out of the ground, since I'm a ghost and all." She shrugged. "I'm so glad you all are willing to help! It's so tedious filing a report to the ghost council about unwilling human trespassers."