Writing Exercise #4

First exercise using original characters! This is a mentioned but never written vignette between Allie and Charlie from The Witch of November:

Prompt: shadows
Fandom: original characters (The Witch of November)
Character(s): Allie Sullivan, Charlie Davis

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“Do we really have to?” Allie Sullivan asked as Charlie Davis turned his bike down Lancaster Road. She knew she was whining, but she didn’t care.

“You don’t have to do anything,” Charlie returned over his shoulder, the implication of course being that she could always go home if she was just going to sulk.

As they pulled their bikes into the vacant lot where Charlie had decided they needed to play this summer, Allie glanced at the old, abandoned house across the street. She hated that house. Feared it, really, and for good reason: everyone in the town of November, Maine said that house was haunted.

Charlie thought all the stories about the house being haunted were lame, though, and constantly told Allie that she was being kind of a wimp. As a matter of fact, this sudden insistence of his that they needed to play across from the old house was his way of getting his best friend to face her fears.

The kids hopped off their bikes and unceremoniously dumped them in the sand. As Charlie looked for rocks he could use to mark the bases for their game of Wiffle ball, Allie fearfully raised her eyes to the house.

And then she saw it. A dark shadow filled the old master bedroom window. The shadow, though small, was person-shaped, and whoever it was appeared to be staring right down at her and Charlie. She tried to call out to Charlie but her voice came out in a small, uncertain whisper.

“Charlie!” she managed to croak a moment later. “Charlie, look at the window!”

“What window?” Charlie asked distractedly.

“The bedroom window.” She glanced over at Charlie to try to capture his attention. By the time she looked back at the house, the figure had vanished.

“I don’t see anything,” Charlie said, rolling his eyes. “You’re imagining things.”

Allie opened her mouth to argue that there was something there, but she knew it would have been pointless. Besides, it didn’t matter what Charlie thought anymore. She now had unequivocal proof that the old Blackstone house was haunted: she’d just seen the ghost.