The Ghostly Grammar Boy

by Sandra Thompson

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  Shane roared angrily as his knees knocked on the ground, where they had previously been resting on Chris' arms.

  'Get up!' I croaked. 'He'll be back any second.'

  Shane obediently scrambled up, his breath still rasping from his near strangulation. 'Let's stand back to back,' he suggested. We dragged our exhausted bodies over to each other and pressed our backs together. I had to admit I felt a lot more secure having Shane's solid back covering me from behind.

  Carly was still whimpering in the corner, her face buried in her hands. I glanced at Nicole. It looked like she was stirring.

  Steering Shane with my arms, I shuffled over to Nicole. I nudged her with my foot.

  'Nicole! Wake up! We need your help!' With Ella's disappearance, Carly's complete uselessness, and Shane and me virtually on the point of death by exhaustion, we really needed Nicole to be conscious right now.

  'Uggghhh!' she objected unconsciously to my poking.

  Suddenly, I was distracted by a strange scratching-sparking sound behind me.

  'Oh. My. God,' Shane groaned. Breaking our form, I peered around Shane's shoulder.

  Chris was lighting matches. Luckily the first few had flickered out before he'd had a chance to throw them into the box of old newspapers in the corner.

  I was no science freak, but I knew there was enough combustible material in the garage to start a fire that would burn down the entire house. Worse than that, when the fire reached the petrol tank of the Ferrari, we would all be engulfed in a fiery explosion.

  Shane and I stood there helplessly.

  Complete mind blank.

  My brain was churning out … zilch. I had no idea what to do. Wrestling with Chris was out of the question. He'd already proven beyond a doubt that this was not an even playing field. In fact, there was no playing field. We were completely at Chris' mercy.

  'Chris, I'm so sorry about everything. Can we talk about this?' I pleaded, attempting a final appeal to his humanity.

  Chris stopped lighting matches for a second. The look that he gave me was pure, spiteful, hatred. I swallowed loudly and cowered behind Shane. I had the feeling I was really going to regret that.

  Suddenly a wind whipped around the room and Chris was in front of me.

  'Shut. Up!' he exploded, punctuating his words with two brutal slaps across my face.

  I cried out in pain and collapsed to the ground beside Shane's ankles.

  The air in the room whirled again, then there was silence except for a menacing…

  Scratch-spark … scratch-spark…

  My face ached. It was probably nothing compared to the pain of melting, burning flesh that I would shortly experience.

  Then I noticed…

  Nicole was rousing. Chris' uproar had woken her.

  She groaned softly. I glanced at Chris. He was too busy unsuccessfully lighting matches to notice. As inconspicuously as possible, I tried to get her attention. Finally her blurred eyes focused on me. I motioned for Nicole to be silent. I pointed towards the internal door.

  'Unlock the door,' I mouthed. I desperately hoped that Nicole was a talented lip reader.

  My hopes were shattered instantly.

  'Unlock what?' she asked me loudly in confusion.

  I slapped my hand on my head. We were really done for now.

  The ominous scratching-sparking sound stopped. Sadly, that wasn't a good sign. Especially when the sinister wind whipped around the garage again. I cowered, ready to defend my face against another attack. A cry from Nicole alerted me to the fact that Chris had chosen a different victim this time.

  'You people are really starting to get on my nerves,' Chris snarled as he dragged Nicole up from the floor from behind, his arm wrapped tightly around her neck. Nicole whimpered as he dragged her over to the box of newspapers.

  Then, to our horror, he did it.

  Holding the box of matches in the palm of his free hand, he leaned forward, pursed his lips, and blew out a supernaturally hot breath. The match-box exploded into flames. With a smug expression on his face, he dropped the flaming box into the pile of newspapers. Immediately, the top layer caught fire, curling into black tendrils. The rest of the pile began to catch fire, and soon the whole box was blazing. Adjacent to the newspapers, a plastic bag of dirty rags began smouldering, and soon, it too was alight. Toxic, acrid smoke oozed from the melting plastic bag, filling the garage with a poisonous stink.

  The temperature in the room began to climb. The heat from the newspapers and rags was unbelievably intense, radiating strongly towards us, even though we were far away in the opposite corner, and they were the only things that were currently alight. Suddenly I was reminded of my dad's annoying science tirade whenever we watched an unrealistic Hollywood fire scene. Dad would rant that the hero would suffocate from the smoke and be roasted by the flames if he tried to run through a room engulfed by fire. I'd always rolled my eyes and shushed him. Now I was in no doubt that he had been right, judging from the outrageous heat emitted by a small pile of rags and newspapers. My skin felt like it was about to melt off, and the fire had only just started. I started to wheeze as the poisonous fumes from the fire burnt the back of my throat.

  'Get down!' I yelled to Shane and Carly. The air closer to the ground was more pure, if you could call it that. The smoke stung my eyes but I forced myself to keep them open anyway. There had to be some way out of here!

  Chris stood next to the furnace. He caught my terrified gaze and laughed hysterically. I saw him say, 'Hot enough for you?' but did not hear the words above the crackling of the fire, and the blood pounding in my ears. He was still holding Nicole in a rough head-lock. Her eyes were squeezed shut in fear, but both of them were oblivious to the physical threat of the burning heat and poisonous fumes. I dragged my petrified gaze away from Chris. If I was going to die, I did not want him to be the last thing that I saw.

  The fire was now licking at the wooden shelving along the wall of the garage. Luckily it was taking some time for the thick planks to catch alight. The heat was searing. I've never been a big fan of saunas, but right now a sauna would have been a cool relief. At least there was oxygen in a sauna. The air in the garage was becoming increasingly putrid. I could feel myself suffocating. Instinctively, Shane, Carly and I crawled closer towards the internal door to the house.

  As we approached the door, our breathing became faintly easier. There was a crack at the bottom of the door frame, allowing a trickle of fresh air to enter the room. The three of us raced towards the crack and pressed our lips to the frame, greedily sucking in the semi-sweet taste of clean air.

  That's when I saw it.

  A small fire extinguisher, hanging next to the door.

  I hadn't taken any notice of it during my initial inspection of the garage. I took a deep breath through the crack, then struggled to my feet. As I stood up, my face prickled with the heat of the higher air. My eyes stung like crazy. I grabbed the tiny bottle then dropped down to the floor again, dizzy from the intense heat and noxious air. Leaning down to the gap under the door, I sucked in another lungful of fresh air. I estimated we had less than thirty seconds before we all passed out from the poisonous gases in the room.

  Grimacing, I forced myself to jump up again. Ignoring my instincts to stay as far away from the fire and Chris as possible, I raced towards the blaze. I edged as close as I could, whilst still being outside Chris' arms' reach, then ripped off the release on the fire extinguisher. Aiming the nozzle at the base of the closest flames, I pressed the trigger.

  A cloud of powdery white gas exploded around me. Through the fog, I could see the targeted flames fight a losing battle with the white powder. A patch at the front flickered out and died. I tried not to look at Chris' seething face as he contemplated how to deal with my insolent behaviour, and I continued to blast powder at the remaining flames. It would take a few seconds, but the white cloud of fog would suffocate each patch of flames I aimed at. The fire was almost out. I could almost feel a
cool change coming into the room.

  Then something devastating happened. The tiny fire extinguisher bottle began to cough and splutter. The saviour white cloud became patchy. Then it disappeared.

  The bottle had run out. The flames began to grow again.

  Abandoning the bottle, I stumbled back to our huddle at the door crack and took another breath.

  I looked around to reassess the situation. The white powder had done a lot of damage to the fire, but the torrid air, noxious gases and elevated room temperature still plagued us. We would need to stay down low and close to our fresh-air crack.

  Chris' eyes narrowed into menacing slits. He shook his head slowly in disapproval. In a split second, and without even moving from his position, he undid all my good work.

  He pursed his lips and blew a supernaturally hot wind around the room. Immediately, the white powder became airborne. This time the cloud of white powder did not have the same angelic lustre, but swirled through the air with sinister motion. Shane, Carly and I began to cough as we breathed in the powder-contaminated air. Embers from flames that had previously been smothered surged with a spiteful vengeance.

  We were truly done for now. The shelving had finally caught alight. I covered my face with my arms. I wanted to cry, but gulping in mouthfuls of scorching gases was probably not the best idea. Besides, I didn't have any moisture left in me for tears. I was completely parched from the sweltering temperature. The now familiar pinpricks of light indicating oxygen deprivation began to swim before my eyes. I couldn't do this anymore. I was going to pass out. Blissful unconsciousness would take me away from the pain.

  Just as I was about to slip away into oblivion, a sudden change snapped me awake. A cool wind rushed around the room. I yanked my eyes open.

  Ella!

  She stood defiantly next to our crouched huddle. She looked at Chris threateningly, puffed up her cheeks and, to my skin's immense relief, blew an icy wind around the garage. The flames obediently shrank away, as if they had a new master now. Something had changed in Ella. She was … powerful, in control, as if she knew she was going to win this, no matter what.

  Without saying a word, Chris glared aggressively back at Ella. With hurricane force, he blew a diabolically hot breath around the garage. The disloyal flames tripled in size. I groaned silently, as my nerves exploded with pain. I didn't need to die to go to hell. It was right here in this room. Then, as if to one-up Ella, Chris viciously punched Nicole in the face. Nicole shrieked in pain.

  'When will you learn?' Chris yelled above the roar of the fire. 'You're not going to win this. Leave now, or not only will your sister perish, but I'll make sure your friend here experiences indescribable pain.'

  I watched Ella despairingly. She was trapped. There was nothing she could do without endangering Nicole, and I was going to die anyway. It was pointless to fight. She would have to leave. To my surprise, Ella's face didn't even register a flicker of fear. Ignoring Chris, she looked directly at Nicole, who was by now whimpering helplessly.

  'Nicole, listen to me carefully,' Ella said. Nicole's teary blurred eyes, focused obediently on Ella's. 'I've found your diary. I put it in Fiona's bedroom so that she can fix this. Everything will be okay. Fiona will sort it out.'

  Nicole's bleary eyes turned to me, laden with hope and thankfulness.

  I had no idea what was going on.

  'Will you really do it, Fiona? Will you help me?' she spluttered. My heart ached. Nicole looked so forlorn, so helpless.

  'I promise, I'll do everything in my power to help you, Nicole,' I rasped, 'but it might be a bit difficult considering I'm burning to death right now,' I added.

  The relief on Nicole's face lit up the room. That is, it would have if the room wasn't already alight with flames. Peace radiated from every inch of Nicole's being. Obviously, she didn't take the fact that I was about to be asphyxiated as a serious concern.

  'Thank you,' she whispered.

  'You can go now,' Ella said gently. 'Everything is going to be okay.'

  Wow. It was really touching that Ella had decided to broker me new ghost business, but … priorities! I was burning here!

  The ceremony continued despite my internal protests. Nicole nodded solemnly.

  'Thank you Ella, thank you Fiona. Thank you for everything. May you both find peace,' she whispered. Her eyes were already staring right through us. She was seeing into another world—her next plane of existence, her next adventure. Nicole smiled a grin of happiness, fulfilment and acceptance. She was ready to move on, and she obviously liked what she could see of where she was going. I recognised this expression from other ghosts I'd helped to move on. It was a beautiful thing to witness. Normally, though, their smiles didn't come from a face that was brutally tucked into the head lock of a murderer, next to a blazing bonfire; and normally I wasn't suffocating while I watched it.

  Nicole's ghostly form exploded with white light. She seemed to grow larger than life. The white light spread from her heart outwards, encompassing Chris in its rays, then it began to shrink, as if tugging Nicole into a portal to the next life.

  That's when Chris started to panic. The encompassing white light was tugging on him too!

  'Stop! I'm not ready!' he screamed.

  Chris' face flashed with panic, fear and frustration. Then his eyes widened as he, too, had a vision of where he was headed. It all happened so quickly, that I couldn't be sure, but I could have sworn that as Chris looked into his new world, his fear transformed into shame, then sorrow, then … a wicked smile of desire? I'd never seen a reaction to the next world like that before. An instant later, both Nicole and Chris had shrunk into a pinprick of light, and disappeared, like a television screen turning off.

  It was over. Chris was gone. Despite the hell that was still erupting around me, I felt overwhelming relief.

  Chris had passed on. The murderous beast was gone. Not only that, but Nicole had finally found peace too.

  Then I realised. Ella hadn't abandoned me to Chris' devices. This had been her plan all along. She had managed to save all of us—Nicole, Shane, Carly, me—in one swift move. She was one smart cookie. She'd just saved my life.

  Again.

  The flames were already subsiding and the smoke clearing as Ella smothered them with her icy ghost breath. She smiled at me protectively. We were going to be okay.

  My nerves were still screaming out in pain. Despite the supernaturally cool air around us, my skin still felt like it was on fire. My bruises ached all over, trying to compete for attention with the cries from my tingling skin. My eyelids drooped as I struggled to stay conscious. Between my heavy blinks, I saw Ella unlock the internal door and disappear. Shane scrambled out. I could hear his voice from the upstairs corridor as he phoned the ambulance and fire brigade.

  It was over now. I could finally allow my body to succumb to the pain.

  I passed out on the floor.

  A few hours after the big confrontation with Chris, I woke in hospital, receiving treatment for smoke inhalation.