The haunted house loomed over me, with its ghosts and owl roosting in a broken window. The owl was real. I had seen it fly out once or twice before when the sun started to go down. The ghosts were white plywood. The line for the ride was short, about a five-minute wait. The haunted house ride was usually busy, so I had taken advantage of the short line. The car rolled over to me and I climbed in. The ghouls and decapitated bodies painted on the side glowed as the car rolled inside the haunted house. The mechanical shark turned toward the car, displaying scraps of cloth in its “bloodstained” teeth. The ride was more weird than truly scary. The only thing that had ever scared me was the bloodcurdling screams that had once blasted out from random points along the track. (They had taken those out a few years ago because someone who’d never been freaked out and thought someone really had needed rescuing.) Creaking noises came from up ahead as the fake the-house-is-falling-down part loomed ahead. The car jerked to the left as the “ceiling” fell and stopped about six feet from the floor. As the car left it behind, I heard it being pulled back up for the next person.

A dimly lit room opened around me. Up until now, everything had been the same as I’d remembered, but now something new appeared. A cloaked figure appeared to the left of the car. It was dark gray and about 6 feet tall. When it turned to look at me, all I could see of its face was 2 burning red eyes surrounded by a black darker than I could’ve ever imagined. It terrified me more than the recorded screams ever had. The thing floated across the tracks and through the opposite wall like a ghost. I knew that it was no projection, nor was it a person in a mask and cloak. I barely noticed the rest of the ride. I couldn’t get the image of the black face and burning eyes out of my mind.

I got in line for the house again. I wanted to get another look at the gray ghost, but I was also dreading it. When I got to the room again, there was no ghost. As my car left the room, I breathed a sigh of relief. Then, I heard a scream from behind me. I turned and saw a flash of gray and burning red. Then, the dim lights went out completely and the car ground to a halt. A bluish- white glow, like fresh snow at night, appeared more or less where the other car had been. As it moved left, its glow illuminated the car behind mine. The blur started toward my car, and I crouched down. I knew I should have been afraid, but I wasn’t. As the blur got closer, it resolved itself into the shape of a woman, glowing blue. She looked like a ghost.

“Just before the ride stopped, did you see a dark gray figure, a wraith with eyes like flames?” she demanded without introduction or preamble.

“Y-yes, and last time too,” I stammered.

“Twice? Twice in a row?”

“Yes, twice. Why? What’s going on? Who are you?” I asked.

“What’s going on is the wraith’s getting careless, or confident,” she said, which explained absolutely nothing at all.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“You can stop trembling.” I hadn’t realized I was.

“I’m not a wraith, I’m a ghost. There’s a difference,” she continued.

“But…”

“If you think ghosts or wraiths don’t exist, think again. What do you think shut down this ride?”

“It’s a mechanical problem”

“No, it’s the wraith. He possessed the operator and made him shut down the ride.”

“So they’ll just start it up again?” I inquired.

“No the wraith then fried the wiring. It’ll take a long time to repair.”

“So, what do we do?”
She hesitated for a second, then said “The wraith fears three things. Fire, sunlight, and steel, for some reason. If we can lure it to the sunlight, we can defeat it.”

“Which will be easier said than done. Hey, what happened to the person who screamed just before the ride stopped?”

“You really, really don’t want to know that.”
I started toward the other car.

“All right, I’ll tell you. Just don’t look in that car.”
I turned back toward her.

“The wraith can break electronics, possess the living, and take their life energy, leaving them on the edge of death. The more life energy it takes, the stronger it gets. The only way the energy can be restored is if the wraith is defeated. That’s what happened to her.” The ghost gestured to the other car.

“So do you even know how we’re going to lure it into the sunlight?”

“I’m Karen, and I’ve been hunting down these things for almost 50 years. If anyone knows what to do about wraiths, it’s me.”

“Talking about me, are you?” a voice like crackling fire and groaning ice filled the room.
I whirled around and there was the wraith, burning red eyes just a foot away from me. I felt like I was trying to breathe ice water. Then the wraith leapt forward and into me, and I collapsed against the wall of the room.
My mouth opened but it was the wraith that spoke. “If you care for these humans so much, get me out of her.”
“You know I could undoubtedly do it, but you would ensure her death if I did.” Karen said with barely controlled rage. She knelt down beside me.
“I know you can hear me, so listen. You can force the wraith out and regain control. You just have to focus with all your will. Just try to move. It’ll try to keep control, and it’ll be distracted from everything else. Find out what it wants!”
I focused on moving my arm. It took all my strength just to move it a few inches, but I kept trying and managed to move it a good amount. The wraith gave an angry hiss and fled the room. I fell against the wall, gasping.
“What..” Karen began, but I interrupted.
“It thinks if it can drain enough people, it can get strong enough to live again.”
“Okay, we might be able to use that. Are there any emergency doors along the track that lead outside?”
“Yeah, two rooms ahead on the right, but I don’t know if it leads outside.”
We walked (well, I walked, Karen floated) along the tracks to the door. Karen looked outside without opening the door. She came back through, blinking hard.
“It leads outside, all right.” She said.
“So how do we get it here?” I asked.
“It’ll be after living people, but they’ll have begun evacuating them. It knows they’ll be heading toward the outside and the sun.”
Karen turned toward me, her expression serious.
“It’ll come after you again.”
“So you want me to wait for it here, and when it shows itself, open the door.”
“That’s about it.”
So I waited. The wraith didn’t. It appeared after about 5 minutes, which seems like a very long time when you’re acting as bait, and can’t see a thing. The wraith appeared from behind the screen where the ride usually projected dancing skeletons, and advanced menacingly. Karen had hidden, so it was completely dark except for the wraith’s darker face and burning eyes. I waited until it was 4 feet away, then, opened the door. Sunlight streamed in, illuminating the wraith and revealing more than I cared to see. The light burned away the darkness around its face, revealing it.
Karen shouted at me to get down, and I did. She launched from her hiding place, shoving the wraith forward until it stood in the full light of day outside the door. It turned to me and lunged at me, trying to possess me to shelter from the sun, but it burst into flames and disintegrated inches in front of my face. I just stood there, gasping for a few seconds until Karen spoke.
“Better go now. Walk along the tracks until you meet up with one of the evacuating teams. Just act normal. If you tell them about ghosts, they’ll think you hit your head and went crazy. You’re a pretty smart girl, I’m sure you’ll be able to think of some excuse.”
“Yeah,” I said. “And… thanks. For helping me.”
“No, thank you. If it weren’t for you, the wraith would still be here, doing its dirty work. I owe you for that.”
I heard a voice calling, “Hello? Is anyone here?”
“I’m here,” I called back.
I turned one last time to Karen.
“Goodbye, Karen.”
“Goodbye and good luck. You know, you remind me of myself when I was your age.”
“Thanks.”
I ran off to meet the evacuation team, wondering if I would ever see a wraith or a ghost again.