I sat in the dark, mossy woods, listening to all the noises of the night. I heard crickets chirping their high pitched chirps, and I heard the wolves howling and growling, making a low scary noise. I heard the bullfrogs making loud croaking sounds. I heard the soft breeze blowing through the trees’ branches. I turned my head towards my house. I looked at my watch and it read 12:30. I decided to get my stuff together and go back home. I started to walk towards my house when I heard a low hungry growl. It was right next to me and scared me. I jumped up and screamed. I started running towards my house. I got to my house, stepped inside, and then locked the door behind me. In the distance I heard an alarm ringing. I looked around for the noise, but couldn’t find it. I decided to try to ignore it and I fell asleep.

My eyes snapped open, and I jumped off my bed, looking around at my surroundings. I was back in my room, and I was back to myself. I was happy to be out of the dream, and I felt myself smile. My smile faltered a bit as I thought back to the dream I had.

I took my mind into my dream the night before. I have had many dreams like it before. There was always the same girl with strange gray eyes. She was always doing different stuff in my dreams. Her name was Isabelle Jones. Isabelle was 16 in my dreams, just like I was in real life. I didn’t know anyone named Isabelle so I had no clue why I was having dreams about her. I looked back at my dream, and I examined her face. I knew that I had never met or seen Isabelle. I would have remembered her because her gray eyes were so unique and different from other peoples’ eyes. Her eyes had dark circles underneath them and it looked like she was sad. I thought back to other dreams I had, and realized that she always looked sad. I have been having dreams of Isabelle since the time I turned 14, when I moved here to Indiana. I didn’t have dreams of Isabelle every night but every time I got close to forgetting about her I would have another dream about her the next night. I was done with Isabelle, and I just wanted to forget about her. I hated thinking about a girl that I didn’t even know. I did feel bad though, because I felt like she needed me. Every time I saw her in one of my dreams, she always looked as if she needed help.

I felt like I was having the dreams of Isabelle for a reason but my mom said that I just made Isabelle up, because she knew that I didn’t know any Isabelle. My mom said that Isabelle was someone I made up and was having dreams of. I knew that she believed that and I wanted to believe it, but part of me just knew that I was having the dreams for a reason. People don’t have dreams of people they have never meet, unless there was a reason for the dream. I asked my dad and surprisingly enough he said the same thing my mom did.

I decided that Isabelle wasn’t my problem and decided that I would make myself forget her. I didn’t even know if she needed help. I was just making a guess, based on something that I “just knew”. I decided to listen to my parents about Isabelle being made up. I needed to stop thinking about her all the time and stop trying to figure out if she needed my help. It took about two weeks, but I finally forgot about her. I was back to hanging out with my friends and not trying to figure out who Isabelle was. We went to the movies and we all went and spent the night at one of our friends houses. They were happy that I was hanging out with them again and I was happy to hang out with them again. Not worrying about Isabelle lifted a whole lot of stress from me which made me feel free and happy. I knew it was too good to be true, because Sunday night I had a dream of Isabelle.

She was in a graveyard and she was walking around looking at all the different gravestones. She walked slowly as if she were reading every name, date and poem on each gravestone. I couldn't make any of the words out. She stopped at one gravestone and she knelt down in front of it. Next thing I knew she started crying. Everything started to fade, until it was all black.

I woke up and I was mad. I knew then that there was a reason that I was having dreams about Isabelle and she wasn’t going to let me forget about her. I decided to tell my friends that I was going to have a break from hanging out. They got confused and I explained everything to them. I told them how I had been dreaming about Isabelle and I told them that I felt like she needed me to help her with something for some reason. I explained to them how that was the reason for not hanging out the first time, and they understood. They told me that they would help me in anyway I needed.

One of my friends, Cassie looked up with her face serious and asked me, “Wait. Did you say that her name was Isabelle? What is her last name?” I told her that Isabelle’s last name was Jones. She looked confused and told me that Isabelle Jones was dead. She told me that Isabelle had been dead for 2 years. Her house burnt to the ground and she died in her sleep. She told me that I probably hadn’t heard the story because when she died in the fire I still lived in Florida. I asked where her grave was, and they decided to take me. I looked at her gravestone and I started crying. I didn’t even know Isabelle, but the fact that she died at such a young age and thinking of the life that was taken from her, made me cry.

I decided to go to the place where she died and see if her spirit lingered there, waiting for my help. Once I got to the place where her house once stood I looked around examining everything. You could still tell were the ground got burnt because there was grass growing in the spots, but other than that, everything looked normal. I heard a faint voice say my name and I turned to see Isabelle right next to me. I jumped up startled. She started laughing and then she said sorry for scaring me. I said it was okay, and I asked why she hadn’t moved on to the afterlife. She told me that she didn’t get to live her life, and told me that she couldn’t leave until she did. She told me that something held her back from leaving so I decided to help her. I was going to help her do some things that everyone should get to experience at least once.

“Why did you ask me to help you?” I asked. “Because you seemed to be pretty open to the idea of ghosts,” she said. “I didn’t want to end up scaring anyone,” she added. “I understand,” I said, regretting ever being mad at her.

I decided that there were 3 things that Isabelle had to do before moving on into the next life. We asked what the one thing was that she never did and she said she never had a first kiss. She had her first kiss with a guy who also hadn't moved on. We also took her to one of our school dances because she said she skipped them all because she thought they were stupid. The last thing she said she needed to do before she moved on was to see her family. She wanted to know that they weren’t worrying about her, and she wanted to say her goodbyes’. She saw that her family knew that she was in a better place, and she said she was ready to go. She told us thanks for helping her, and she told me thanks for not forgetting about her.

It was sad to see her go because we became great friends. I knew that for her to be truly happy, that she needed to move on. Her and the guy that she had her first kiss with both walked into the next life together holding hands. As they disappeared into the light I felt so much relief and I felt my mind be cleared of all the stress. I was glad that I helped Isabelle and I was happy that she finally moved on and went into the afterlife. I looked at my friends and I saw their eyes watering. I told them that we had helped her move on and to be happy. I told them that she didn’t want us to worry about her and be sad from her absence. They agreed and we all knew that we would never forget her. None of us forgot her and we still felt her presence. Everyone had different ideas why we felt this way but I knew the real reason why we felt her presence. She was watching over us.