My Guardian
June 23, 2013

“Ok! Who is ready to go on a ghost walk?” I said, clapping my hands together and noting that I probably sounded peppier that I should have.
Some of the people cheered and others cowered but no matter their reaction, I was excited. This was the first night of my new job as a ghost guide; it had been my dream to do this since I was fourteen.

“Alright, now tonight our story is about two young girls named Megan and Jessie.”
I waved them over to the fountain at the center of the park; this is where our story began…
June 21, 2003

I stared out at the pouring fountain its water like silk in the moonlight. I thought about what I was doing, going on this ghost walk. I was probably the most easily spooked person on the face of the earth, I could just go back and wait in the van for my youth group to come back I was sure Gina would let me. However, I wanted to be brave and I wanted to be strong, I just wanted to be able to prove to myself I could do this.

“Hey” said Megan placing her hand on my shoulder causing me to jump.

“Hey,” I said weakly.
I turned around to see Megan in all her golden glory, though I knew she would never ever admit it to anyone or herself she was the most beautiful person I knew. Her soft blue-green eyes looked at me with calm concern and the glitter she always wore around her eyes danced like fairies around her eyelids in the moonlight. Small wisps of golden ringlets smaller than my pinky escaped from the bun she always wore her hair in, for fear that if she let it down the wild mane of ringlets would poof out to the point where she looked more like one of those puffy poodles that prance around at dog shows.

“Jessie” she said unenthusiastically “your shaking.”

Trying desperately to calm my quivering body I asked, “how are you always so brave Megan? You’re the one who can actually see the ghosts but you’re never afraid.”
Her lips pressed into a line and she was silent. I could see the wheels turning in her brain; she was debating whether she was going to tell me something. With any other friend, I would poke and pry until they finally told me but with Megan, I knew better than to even ask.

“Come on” she said quickly grabbing my arm and pulling me away from the fountain.

“Wait” I said.
Stopping abruptly, she turned around “why?”

“Gina said to wait by the fountain for the ghost guide.”
Megan rolled her eyes still clutching my arm “oh so now you want to go on the ghost walk?” she said mockingly.

“Well…” I stammered.

“Besides” she said, “we have about twenty minutes and I need to talk to you.”
Not arguing I allowed myself to be pulled away from the fountain towards an opening in the trees. We stopped short when Will called Megan and ran over to us. Will had long since been crushing on Megan and took every chance he could to ask her out.
Turning to face will and his awkward smile Megan replied, “Will I only please one person per day and today in not your day.” Then before he could reply she answered his question for him “and tomorrow probably isn’t either.”
Once again being dragged off into the trees we plopped down onto the soft grass, I watched the wind blow the grass like waves on from the sea and ran my fingers across the waves.
Finally settled down Megan turned to me pointing her finger at me while she spoke “ok the only reason I am telling you this is because you’re my best friend , because you’re scared, and your probably the only person on the face of the earth who will actually believe me.”

“Ok…” I said slowly and suspiciously.

“You know how I always see ghosts when we go out places?”

“Yeah…”

“Well there is a reason for that…you see when I was little there was this black cat that would follow me around wherever I went, but no one else could see her and every now and then when I look back for her she’s gone, she was the first ghost I ever saw.”
I nodded while she spoke taking it all in I had no idea where she was taking this.

“So by the time I got older I got annoyed with it and started doing research to see if I could find out what the cast was. Turns out if a ghost, animal follows you around it means you has a guardian.”
For a moment, I thought she was going to burst out laughing and say, “I got you!” However, Megan was not much of a liar unless she wanted out of something…or if she hated you.

“Guardian how?” I asked.

“Well the cat is the reason I see ghosts…I think it has something to do with the fact that some ghosts are not so kind she keeps them from harming me…does that make since?”

“Yeah”
When I thought about it, the whole thing did make since. I always knew Megan was different and that she was special. I still could not help the pang of jealousy I felt, why did she get the guardian? Why was she the one who got to be protected, and why was I the one who had to go unprotected forever bothered by ghosts I could not even see the way she did?

“But what does this have to do with me?”
Smiling one of her un-evil smiles she said “she will protect you too because you’re my best friend.”
Then she reached over to hug me after getting over the shock that Megan was actually showing the caring kind of emotion I hugged her back, we did not have a lot of moments like this. Some people might have jumped back in fright thinking Megan weird or delusional but not me. I was either the most faithful friend or the most gullible but I am not quite sure.
Although I could not see ghosts, somehow I just knew that as Megan stared off into the trees that her cast was standing there, watching over her.

“Does she have a name?”
Megan looked at me and smiled “her name is nix.”
Just then, we heard Gina calling “MEGAN JESSIE!”
Quickly we ran back to the pouring fountain to find Gina with one of those “you know you did something wrong” looks.

“I seem to remember saying not to wonder off and staying by the fountain,” she said.
Megan and I both immediately dropped our heads an silently spoke “we’re sorry Gina.”
Gina rolled her eyes out our pathetic act “just stay with the group this time” she begged.

“Yes mama!” we said in unison.
We wondered over towards the group where a man was standing who I presumed to be the ghost guide. He was tall and lean probably in his mid twenties. He must not have liked his outfit very much because he wore a long black coat that buttoned all the way down and had the collar flipped up around his neck. I admit that he looked somewhat like a vampire.
I avoided listening to the guide as he told use about some haunted house but he kept turning to me and would stare with intent dark eyes as he spoke. Finally, I leaned towards Megan and asked, “Why does he keep looking at me!”

“Because you are obviously the one who is most afraid,” she whispered.
I knew she was right but nonetheless I stuck my tong out at her just to be stubborn and went back to ignoring the man.
After the first story, the guide led us over to the darkened graveyard covered by trees that loomed over the entire place as if they were weeping. I stared down at the cobblestone path instead of the graves. I had always hated death, the thought of leaving the earth not knowing for absolute sure what would happen to you frightened me.
However, the sight of Megan’s brilliantly painted, neon, sparkly, pink nails, sidetracked my thoughts. Not only did the color completely clash with her personality but also it did not match her pale skin tone, so of course I had to ask, “Megan, why on earth are your nails pink?”
She glanced down at her nails then back at me, and grinned evilly, “to annoy my mother,” she said proudly. “We got in a fight last night and she hates unnatural nail colors so naturally I painted my nails pink.
AS much as I despised the sight of the color on her, the fact that she was doing it to antagonize someone made it seem more evil, which made it seem more Megan, in turn making the whole thing more bearable.

“So, if I tell you I never want to see that color on you again you’re probably going to keep wearing it just to annoy me?”

“Yup” she said nodding her head as she spoke.
We had stopped at a grave and the guide was babbling on about “the lady in white” who had been murdered the night before her wedding. I was trying my best not to listen but found myself unsuccessful.

“I can totally see you doing this one day,” I whispered.

“I know!” Said Megan “I would get to use big words hang out in the dark and scare the crap out of people! Sounds so me right?”
I nodded in agreement holding back a laugh; I had to admit it did seem like Megan’s kind of profession. She always used big words that no one can understand, she loves to read, tell stories, and often enjoyed the sight of frightened people. So somehow, I knew this is what she would do one day and that another day she would find a way to loop me into doing it with her.
I was spot on “You should do it with me” she said.

“Maybe, I kinda have to get over my fear of ghosts before I start making other people fear them.”

“But that would make it more interesting, if the people saw that their guide was scared they would be really scared!” She persisted.

“Or they would think I’m a wuse.”

“Maybe, but we have Nix so you don’t need to be scared and” she said putting her arm around me “you have me.”
Now do not get me wrong I loved that Megan was actually showing some kind of emotion that showed her feelings but she was starting to use emotions so much tonight I was getting ready to shake her and scream, “Who are you and what have you done with the real Megan!”
Finally, the guide led us out of the graveyard and I could not help the feeling of relief that washed over me. Sadly, my feeling of relief did not last long when I realized Megan was not with me. Frantic I raced back down the cobblestone path, I admit I felt a bit like snow white running through the woods trying to get away from the huntsmen and the trees reaching out at her like the long scrawny fingers of a witch.
However, my dramatic moment of stress and fear ended when I found Megan standing there in the same spot staring at the same unmarked grave that supposedly held the lady in white beneath it.

“Uh Megan” I said waving my hand in front of her face “earth to Megan! Everybody left we gotta go!”
She ignored me. So typical, instead, she raised a shaking finger and pointed before the grave, and although I could not see for sure I just knew that standing before us both was the lady in white.
June 23, 2013
“So standing before these two fourteen year old girls is a ghost of a dead woman. So once they girls find out that not only is the just there she wants them to do something for her. With the help of Megan’s cat they find that when the women was murdered her fiancée was told that she left him and that is when Megan and Jessie are sent on a mission to find the fiancée and bring him back to the grave of the women he loved.”
I looked out over my group they all shared excited and fearful faces wondering what would happen next.
“Their entire mission took two days from the 21st to the 23rd,” I said noting their awed faces on the fact that today was 23 June, the exact day that their journey ended.
June 23, 2003
Megan and I stood there silently watching as James approached the ghost of his dead fiancée, I was awed because through the entire experience I had come to be able to see the ghost. I still could not believe that we had actually found him and his dad, who actually seemed resenting to the whole idea of her still being on the earth and wanting to reach him. But, as it turned out James was still living forty-three years old and had not yet even re married.
Megan leaned her head against mine smiling as we watched them stare at each other I could tell James was crying and wondered if she was too yet, somehow I doubted that ghosts could cry. We still did not know whom or why someone had killed her but now it did not even seem to matter to him or her.

“Come on” Said Dan (James’s father) coming out from behind the bushes “I ought to get you two to your homes.”

“Yeah” said Megan.
Before we left James came down with tears in his eyes “Thank you girls so much you do not know how badly I needed that closure.”

“Your welcome” we said.
Smiling we left him there, he seemed to want time with her before she finally passed on. Getting into the car, Megan and I both declared this the most exciting two days of our entire lives. I also knew from that moment of watching the two of them together that I would be a ghost guide with best friend and never be afraid.
As Dan solemnly walks to the car I tuned to see the lady in white who’s name turned out to be Jane become frantic at the sight of Dan. She raced down to the car and when Dan realized she was coming he quickly slammed the door and sped the car away. It was just then I heard a soft beeping noise of a countdown, I looked over at Megan and suddenly we knew. James’s own father had killed his fiancée because he hated her and now he was going to get rid of the only three people who knew what he had done, and it included him.
People say that when you know you are about to die you see your life flash before your eyes but for me I saw my best friend do the bravest thing that had to come completely from her heart, because before I could blink she had shoved me out of the car just before it was consumed in flames.

“MEGAN!” I wailed crying a river of sorrow wanting more then ever to reverse the moment.
I realized Nix chasing after the car, it was the first time I saw her. Her fur was as black as the night and her eyes shined like stars but now they were filled fire and anger. I felt a deep anger at her why could she not have saved Megan from this. Nix was her guardian she was supposed to protect her! Although I knew, Nix felt the same anguish and anger I did and probably wished to have saved her to but, there was nothing either of us could except to sit there crying as I watched my best friend burn.
June 23, 2013
I watched as the group walked away with tears in their eyes depressed on how the story had ended. As I tuned away I felt a tug at my sleeve turning to find a small girl who had been in my group.

“You never said what your name was.”
I smiled broadly she was a smart girl “Jessie”
As I walked back to the fountain dazed by my first night as a ghost guide I thought about the story. Reportedly, no one had ever seen my best friend’s ghost, but that was because they were only looking for the ghost of a girl.
Just as I thought it, I heard the slight pad of paws on the walkway. Looking up there was a cat with small curly loops of golden fur, and as I looked at my guardian, I was beaming with happiness.

“Hi Megan”