Miko's Ghost

I wrote this a while ago, it is unfinished, but I thought I would share it anyways as it is no longer cannon and probably won’t become a full story. The story is completely stolen from Elizabeth Glaskell’s ‘The Old Nurses Story’.

Carol Alphin, now with CHASER and Sarah-Van, have been called back to Jasper Nevada by Jack.

He had written that Miko had been acting weird. And by weird he meant scared. Scared of her own home here in the states.

Of course, Jack was concerned but being a teen boy did not feel like he could ask out-right.

Carol, Sarah and CHASER meet Miko as she came out of school.

“Hey! What’s my two best human girl-friends doing back in no-where no-where?”

 Miko bent down to pet Silver.

“New ride.” She looked at the black van.

“We thought we would come to see you. We have a job here.” Sarah answered.

Miko hesitated a touch. “Who squealed?”

“Who said it was you?”

“Please, nothing has happened here since…Forever. It was Jack, wasn’t it?”

“Our sources remain privet. But something is wrong isn’t it?”

She stood up. “I can take care of myself.”

Miss. Green spoke. “No one can take care of themselves. You know that.”

Sarah spoke. “What is it? We will believe you, or at least we most likely will. You know that.”

“I…I…”

“If you won’t tell us we will figure it our ourselves.” Carol made a move away.

 “We’ll try to make this easier. Can we come have a sleep over?”

-Sarah and Carrol had talked over it earlier. Whether it was supernatural or not would be easier to tell if Miko would even let them in the house-

“Yes! No. I have to ask my host parents, but they’ll say yes.”

The entire ride back to Miko’s house was filled with that they would do. From pillow fights to s’mores. Sarah and Miko mostly. Carol listened.

Miko’s host parents were not home, they were staying overnight somewhere else, but they Okayed the sleepover.

“I was going to stay over at Betty’s house, but now if you’re here.”

She glanced at the sky for the fifth time.

Carrol followed her gaze.

“It rains allot less in Jasper than in Tokyo doesn’t it?”

“Yah, I guess.”

The weather had been more unpredictable over the last year, between the after effects of Unicron and the Weather Wizard, it had been raining in the desert.

They pulled up in the driveway. Nothing about it stood out. Either its architecture or its location.

The only thing out of the ordinary was some ghost dolls hanging from the house’s eves.

 “It’s a bit early for Halloween.” Sarah said.

“I believe they are Teru Teru Bozu dolls. They are supposed to keep bad weather away.” Carol gave a questioning look towards Miko and continued with a question. “What do you see in the rain? It’s not dogs is it?”

“Why would I see dogs?”

Sarah could remember the lightning hounds they had seen in the Ukraine. It had not gone well. 

Carrol kept looking at Miko who started to squirm.

“No, it’s not dogs. And I don’t just see them. Other people do too. I’m not crazy.”

“No one said…” “All of us can sleep here in the Livingroom, right? On the floor like a real sleep-over. We can make popcorn and watch Warehouse Rumble.”

“Them? Two or more?” Carrol wasn’t going to be distracted.

“I’ve only seen two.”

“Two what?”

“I don’t know. You are seriously dampening the mood Carol.”

“She does that.” Sarah said.

Sarah and Carrol had brought in things they might need. A camera for Carol an IPhone for Sarah. A sketch book for Carol an IPhone for Sarah. A hand recorder for Carrol an IPhone for Sarah.

Sarah had tried to convince Carol to get a smart phone as well. But she had a personal grudge against the new device that had replaced half of her Guardian Artifacts.

They also brought snacks, an infrared device and holy water.

They looked over the house, getting familiar with the floor plan. Miko’s room was pink and Goth. There were photos of her and her parents, and a shelf full of tacky stuff over her bed. Sarah was not pleased to see a picture of Bulkhead just turned backwards.

Sarah also caught the fact that the Livingroom was the only main room with no windows.

As Carol and Silver went over everything again Sarah set down with Miko and made her finish her homework.

Carol came back in without the sleeping bags.

“It is fixing to rain. It would be best if we knew what was going to happen. What do you see?”

“Rain.”

“If you are going to be smart, we will leave.” The threat was not an idle one. Carol had little tolerance for liars.

Miko squirmed. She did not want to talk about it, but she was even more afraid of being alone.

“A girl.” She finally admitted.

“Two girls?”

“No. I saw the woman once when I was like 8.”

“Was she with the girl?”

“Not really. The girl took me to the woman.”

“No one else saw the woman?”

“Not that I know of.”

“The fact that others can see the girl is both good and bad. Good that we can eliminate mental illness with little hesitation. Bad that usually only those approaching the power levels of the ‘Wee Folk’, gods, and the like are so constant. The fact that the entities followed you so far could be a very bad sign.”

“Well I can’t see how it could be good.”

Sarah spoke up. “That she is following you means that it is one, personal. You did something you shouldn’t have. Two, its hereditary, an ancestor did something they shouldn’t have. Three, someone laid a curse on you for one of the former reasons. Or four, you have an artifact in your possession. The older the better.”

She gestured towards the objects in the bedroom. Sarah could see that most of them were new souvenir type things. Unlikely to carry a curse.

“My dad bought most of these things for me. He’s always buying me stuff.”

“So, she might be Japanese after all, an Onryo?”

Bookmarks, clothe flowers, snow globes, a folding fan, and quite a few beckoning cats.

Carol picked up one of the clothe flowers. “Edo Tsumami Kanzashi?”

“Yes, my mom got those.”

Carol was going to keep talking but we could now hear the rain starting.

Sarah stayed and watched a cooking show with Miko. She had wanted to see one of her creature features, but Carol had vetoed anything the least bit scary or imaginative.

As the night wore on Sarah went in search of Carrol. She found her in Miko’s room, sitting at the foot of the bed.

Sarah followed Carrol’s line of sight to the window. There was a girl at the window, she would have been about ten. She was Asian and wore what Sarah thought to be traditional Chinese garb from around the 40s.

She was crying and banging on the window, soaked to the bone. There was no sound coming from her, however. Just the pattering of the rain.

Unlike most apparitions she looked fully solid and alive. Just the fact she was completely silent stopped Sarah from running to the window and opening it to let her in.

“Looks alive, doesn’t she? She appears colder that the air temperature on infrared though.” Carol held up the devise.

“Any chance she is real and living?” the poor thing was shivering.

“I suppose. But even when she hits the glass, she doesn’t make any noise.”

Sarah looked again at the child. She was not starved but she did have a sever wound in her shoulder.

“And I can’t get her to respond to anything.” She held up papers with several different languages written on them

“I can’t hear her at all.” Sarah said. It was always good to compare notes to make sure everyone was seeing the same thing.

“I can.” Miko was now standing in the doorway. She hugged herself and was quite subdued.

“I can hear her whenever it rains. She wants in. She’s begging to be let in. The first time I saw her, when I was eight, I opened the door. She took me by the arm and out into the woods. We ran for I don’t know how long. But she took me to a woman. She was tall, I remember that much. She took me on her lap and cuddled me. She sang to me, but I couldn’t understand her. I fell asleep. A beggar found me in the snow, I guess she left when it started snowing.”

“Did you see either afterwards?”

“My ‘little cold girl’ here,” she gestured at the girl “yes. Whenever it rained. My parents saw her too. They sent me to a cousin,

but it became obvious that she was following me. So, they sent me out here where it never rains. Or at least it isn’t supposed too.” She glared out at the rain.

I don’t like the red dress. “A Nu Gui sometimes wears red. They can be pretty vengeful

Carol took a deep breath. “I feel as if the girl is a ghost. And most likely doesn’t want to be here. The woman…I don’t like that. One ghost can keep another trapped here. But she wants you correct? But can’t get in. that’s following rules. Like the ‘wee folk’ or named demons.” She shrugged. “Vampires.”

 “The good news seems to be that Silver doesn’t seem to think your ‘little cold girl’ is a threat.”

“Is silver a ghost hound or something?”

“Or something.” Carrol answered. “Me and Silver will go out and try to see what’s what.”

Sarah sat with Miko on the bed and watched Carol and her dog leave.

About the time Carrol would have made it to the front door, the cold girl paused and moved in a blink.

-Carol talks the girl into going through to light-

Sarah looked at Miko. “We should be able to eliminate personal grudge and ‘artifact’ though. Have you ever caused a death?”

“No!”

“Have you ever stolen something?”

“No. well…define …”

“Something that could have been important to someone?”

“No.”

“Something old?”

“Nope.”

“What is the oldest thing you have?”

Then they went over Miko’s family’s history. She was the only female on her father’s side for the past two generations. At least as far as she knew, the subject was not exactly of interest to her.

As morning was breaking the rains slacked off.

“You didn’t do much.” Miko complained.

“History takes time. We will sleep for a few hours, then go to work researching.  And you will go to school.”

They settled down in the front room. After a nap and a breakfast that a nutritionist would faint at the sight of, they went back to work. As the sun light just started peeking over the edge of the hills, Carrol wanted to get one more bit of information from their host. Who may or may not have been slipping pieces of pop-tart to the dog.

“I want you to describe the woman’s face. About how tall was she?”

“Oh gosh, I don’t know. That was years ago, and she was sitting down.”

“Sitting down where?”

“At the edge of a pond? We were under a bush.”

“What kind of bush?”

“Green.”

“Do you know the exact location?”

She gave the name of the town.

Carol started sketching.

“It was raining that day, was it warmer near the woman?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t feel cold.”

“Was the rain child afraid of the woman?”

Miko screwed up her face in thought. “She was there. She let go of my hand when we got close and I walked up to the woman. I don’t remember her being there or disappearing. Hey, how are you drawing? I haven’t said what she looked like.”

“Because I have the live model.” She gestured towards the doorway. In it stood an unnaturally tall woman. Maybe she was more unnatural than tall though. Her handsome face was framed by loose, jet-black hair. Her clothes were well-to-do but ragged red dress

Like the girl, she wore an older Chinese style of clothing.

And she was cold.

She looked calmly at all of them, then focused in on Miko.

Carol looked her in the face. “What is your name?”

The specter ignored her.

“You want Miko. Why? Is it personal or family?”

The room was getting colder. But that was not what was scaring Sarah. What was unnerving was she was starting to want to go into the cold. She wanted to go up to the woman.

Silver had gotten up, but she had not changed forum into something bigger. She was standing between the living and the dead.

“Why are you in the house? If Miko has an object you want, take it and leave.” Carol asked a lot calmer than Sarah felt.

The Cold Woman did not look at her, she kept looking at Miko. Carol got up and stood between the two.

“You are not just a ghost, they are not this powerful, why are you still here?”

No answer.

“Why are you forcing your daughter to relive this hell over and over again instead of letting her go on?”

Sarah could feel the Cold Woman’s hold lessening a bit as she was distracted by that question.

“My Father Did This. He Made Me Do This.”

“No, he didn’t. If you were bound by him, you could only react through him or an object he cursed. You cursed your own afterlife. But you blame your father for your problems? Is Miko a dissident of your family? But why her and not one of her parents? Can you only torcher girls?” Only the weakest.”

“Hey.” Miko said. Sarah was glad to hear she was not completely under the Spector’s spell.

Carrol looked around. “Where is your daughter?”

The woman didn’t answer.

“You don’t know, and you don’t care. You are only using her for revenge.”

The cold grew much more intense.

 “My Father Threw Me Out Into The Cold. I Will Make Him Pay With The Blood Of His Granddaughters.”

“You’re a wako-sicko.” Was Miko’s opinion.

“Where are you little girl?” Carrol asked. “Can you help us?”

Miko stiffened. “Someone’s touching my hand.” But she didn’t back off in fear. “It must be the little girl’s”.

“Good. Can you tell what she wants?”

“No. but she’s squeezing really tight.”

“Traitor!”

Carrol threw her snake bracelet at the Cold Lady. For a moment Sarah thought it would work, it grew and uncoiled like it did before wrapping someone up. But it fell to the floor on the other side, looking like a normal bracelet again.

The three were standing between the cold lady and her child, trying to protect her

But the action did tick off the ghost. Or specter or whatever it was. It turned on Carol.

 Carrol used her faith and burned the lady when she touched her. The screech was close to the volume that the banshee had uttered. 

“No! Stay With Me.” she had turned to where Miko was standing.

“She let go.” Miko grabbed a broom and clutched it to her chest. Sarah wasn’t quite sure what Miko though she could do with the broom, but she held on with grim determination.

“Your daughter has left you. You should follow.” Carol said

The Cold Lady shrieked and lunged towards Miko. Sarah and Silver were in-between them though.

The lady went right through Sarah and she blacked out. Silver however could grab on. She had changed to a large white fox of unknown origin, probably something special as it had blue swirls mixed into its fur. A fox doesn’t have much of a bite, but it is a noticeable bite.

“Get out of here!” Miko said.

“You cannot continue to walk this earth without anchors. You have no choice but to leave.” That was Carrol.

With one last wail the lady melted away.

Carrol bent over Sarah. “You Ok?”

“So…cold.”

After a few minutes they were recounting what had happened.

Carol turned to Sarah. “I don’t think you should go back to your super-heroing for a day or two. I want to make sure the Snow Lady isn’t inside of you.”

“I don’t think so. I’m getting fairly good at telling when I’m being possessed.”

“Fairly good isn’t perfect.” She turned to Miko. “I want to stay her a few days as well, as I don’t want the daughter here either.”

“She didn’t mean to hurt me. She wasn’t a bad guy.”

“No but almost any ghost that stay longer than a day leads to demons getting in the family. We have to make sure she understands she hast to leave.”

There wasn’t any sign of either one though.

-endings are hard-