Hey everyone! Here is the second installment of the new story that Matticus and I are working on. We hope you enjoy it!

Jake tried grabbing at the ghost hands that were wrapped around his neck, but his own hands went right through them. There was still no pressure being applied to his wind pipe, yet he couldn’t force air down into his lungs. Black spots flashed into his vision at the lack of oxygen and he felt like he was on the verge of passing out. Just as everything was going dark, his mother’s face appeared in front of him.

“I hate that Amazon delivers this late,” she muttered, looking down at the package she was carrying. “Now, what were you up here yelling about?”

The ghost hands vanished from his throat when she walked in. Jake fell to his knees, taking deep breaths in between coughing fits. “Oh my god,” she said, rushing to his side. “Are you OK? What happened?”

Not knowing how to answer the second question, he started by answering the first. “Yeah,” he croaked out. “I can breathe now.”

“Your drink go down the wrong pipe?” she asked as she stepped back over to his desk. She picked up the notebook sitting on top of it and smiled. “That’s better. You almost had me fooled with those pages of gibberish.”

Jake took the notebook out of her hands and looked it over. Gone were the doodles and nonsensical equations. Instead, it was the report he had originally written out. Also gone was the notebook containing the sentences the ghost had forced him to write out.

Jake looked from the paper to his mother and half-smiled, “Sorry, it was a failed attempt at humor.  Long day, you know?”

She looked at him questioningly, “You feeling okay?”

She reached out to touch his forehead and he jumped away from her.  He couldn’t help it.  The sight of a hand coming towards his face, his neck, was too much for him to suppress the terror that still filled him.

“What’s wrong with you?” She demanded.

Jake didn’t know how to explain what had happened. 

She won’t believe it.  She’ll think I’m making it up and she’ll double my workload of chores as punishment.  I can’t tell her…

His lack of response was all the response she needed to say, “Maybe you should just head to bed and get some rest.”  Jake started to protest but she held up a hand and continued, “I’ll look over your paper and leave any notes I have so you can make any needed changes in the morning.”

Jake knew it was no use arguing with her.  He could see that her mind was already made up etched in her face.  He also knew it was highly unlikely he’d be getting any sleep.  Whatever had attacked could come back at any time. Still, eventually, tiredness overcame him.

He wasn’t sure how long he laid in bed before succumbing to his fatigue. It was long enough for him to read half of Unprepared, the book that was left on his bed by the ghost earlier. When he awoke, it was the middle of the night and the book was sitting on his chest, opened to the page he’d left off. Jake hoped that the book contained answers to what was going on. If it did, he certainly couldn’t see them.

Actually, the more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that he’d thrown it away months ago. Unprepared wasn’t a book that he’d paid for. He, along with every other person in his class, had been given a copy of the book at the beginning of the year. It was a guide on how to get ready for college and tips on how to improve your application to make yourself look better to the universities. 

It came back to him in a rush. He had thrown it away. He’d wanted to do it the day he got it, but his mother told him to hold on to it, just in case. So, he waited until he was sure she’d forgotten about it and tossed it in the trash. Had she found it and put it back in his room? 

Jake shook his head.  No, that’s not something she would do.  If she’d found it in the trash she’d have shoved it back into my arms with a lecture.  So, how did it get back on the shelf?

He closed the book and set it on the night stand.  Stretching out, he pushed aside some of his covers.  It was a hot night and now that he was awake he was too warm beneath the full assortment.  His curtain shifted as the hint of a breeze pushed through his open window.  The sound of the night filtered in and grew in his mind as he focused on them. 

A car backfired two streets over.  An owl was calling softly in the neighbor’s tree.  Some teenagers were laughing about something as they walked down his street.  He couldn’t catch the words but could hear enough of the inflection to guess they were doing something they shouldn’t be.  That time of night, that wasn’t really a hard guess anyway.

Sighing, he closed his eyes and tried to get back to sleep.  Suddenly, a weight began to press down on his neck again.  His eyes flew open and searched the room but there was nothing there.  And yet, the weight persisted.  His airway choked off and his hands came up to his neck to try and free himself from whatever was attacking him but there was nothing there. Panic gripped his heart as he realized he would soon be dead. His mother worked overnights, so she wouldn’t be there to save him this time. 

Jake’s mind went blank. The only experience he’d ever had with the supernatural before this happened as he viewed them on screens, whether they were big or small. None of them even came close to preparing him for actually living through one of his own. All he could do was flail one of his hands helplessly as he prayed to knock whatever was pressing down on him off. His other hand reached all around, hoping to find some weapon to fend off this assault, though he doubted anything in his room would be useful against an unseen assailant. 

As the air became scarce, his eyes lost focus. His mind went from blank to begging somebody, anybody, to save him. His hand, still searching, brushed up against something solid. Jake grabbed it and used it to try to smack whatever was hurting him. To his surprise, it worked. Seconds after waving the object in front of him, the pressure started to subside. A minute later, his eyes righted themselves and he finally saw what he had in his hand. It was the book. He’d used Unprepared to defend himself. 

The surprises didn’t end there. There was now a man standing at the foot of his bed, a man who looked exactly like the author’s picture on the back of the book.

He motioned to the bookcase and said, “You have everything you need here.”

Jake stammered, “Wh… what?”

His throat was raw and the word hurt coming out.  He didn’t want to think about how close he had been to being gone forever.  He didn’t have time to think about that anyway.  Something crazy was going on and this man, seemed to know something about it.  Jake needed answers.

“Who are you and what is going on?”

The man didn’t answer.  He motioned to the bookcase again, gave a half smile, and then started to disappear. 

“Wait!”

Jake jumped out of bed and tried to grab hold of the man but his hands passed through him and then he was gone.  Jake was once again alone in his room, with a sore throat, a headache that was just forming behind his left temple, and no idea what in the world was happening to him.

He turned to look at the bookcase and his mouth fell open.  He didn’t recognize any of the books.  Gone were his classics and his spy adventures, his comics and his fantasy series.  In their place was a whole slew of spines he didn’t recognize.  The books, now that he was looking at them, seemed to pulse with darkness. 

“Everything I need is here.”

With a shudder, Jake reached out and pulled one of the books off the shelf.