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Carrie had a peaceful smile on her face as she walked through the woods, enjoying the familiar sounds of her feet hitting the dirt and the occasional sound of a leaf or a twig snapping or crunching under her boot.
She always loved taking walks in the woods, even before her family had moved to Wanderingsville. And now that she lived near it, she could do it whenever she wanted.
Yessiree, from ghosts, to new friends, and now walking in the woods, everything seemed to be coming up Carrie!
The woods of Wanderingsville were full of trees of all different shapes and sizes and colors. From the skinniest and frailest of fastigiates to the big and mighty oaks and maples. Leaves were dropping everywhere, getting in Carrie’s hair and coloring her path. She didn’t mind though one bit.
Sometimes, if she saw a really large tree, she would stop for a moment to sit near it, or to climb up and sit in the branches. She’d enjoyed climbing trees ever since she was a kid.
Occasionally, she would spot an animal, such as a deer, or a squirrel, or a mouse and watch them until they noticed her presence and ran off, wanting to get away from being in the presence of a human.
One thing that surprised her, however, is that she hadn’t seen any ghosts at all yet. There had definitely been reports of ghosts that haunted these very woods, yet there weren’t any to be found! She’d been hoping to find at least one somewhere. She’d love to make another friend. But, it was alright. Maybe they were just in other parts of the woods. The woods in Wanderingsville were large after all. She only explored a small portion so far, as not to get lost. And if she didn’t find any out there, she had three ghostly companions already waiting for her at home that would love to keep her company. It was fine. For now, she’d simply enjoy the woods.
“Going somewhere?”
Carrie flinched as she heard a voice behind her. Was there finally a ghost around here? Was she being followed? Was she being followed by a ghost? Only one way to find out…
“Hello?” She turned.
“Hi!” Said a familiar looking cryptid hanging from a tree.
“Jinx?! What are you doing here??”
“I followed you out here!” It said, giving her a sharp-toothed grin.
“...why?”
“Because I wanted to! Can I please come on your walk with you?”
“Oh! Of course you can come, Jinx. You could’ve just asked me. You didn’t have to follow me around like that.”
Jinx hummed before flapping over and landing on Carrie’s head.
“Remember when we would walk through the woods together whenever we went camping?”
“Yeah! Those were fun ti- WOAH!!”
Carrie yelped as she tripped, falling flat on her face.
“Hey! I’m riding on you, remember?? Be careful!!” Jinx huffed at her.
Carrie groaned before sitting up. Blood was trickling out her nose and down her face.
“Ugh…” Carrie groaned dizzily as Jinx winced.
“Oooohh… well, that doesn’t look good. Not at all.”
“Ohhh… I think I need to go home.”
“You’re losing blood very quickly! You’re going to pass out before we get there!” Jinx poked her nose judgmentally as it frowned. “And I’m not carrying you.”
“What should I do then??” Carrie asked, growing worried.
“Stay here. I’ll go home and get your ghost friends to help you out.”
“Will you? You’re not gonna get distracted or anything, are you?” She asked with a hint of concern.
“I’d never get distracted when it comes to helping a friend! Just watch, I’ll be back with help in ten minutes!” Jinx huffed before flying off, but not before licking some blood off her face, which she quickly told it to knock it off.
Carrie sat there, sniffling as she tried to get the bleeding to slow down. She was getting very nervous as was getting all over her cardigan.
Oh dear… she wished she hadn’t forgotten her phone. If she hadn’t she could’ve just called the ghosts and they would’ve been there right away without having to send a messenger. She didn’t think it would be any trouble, but she was wrong.
For now, all she could do was what she usually did when this happened. She leaned forward and pinched her nose before she started breathing through her mouth.
After a minute or two, she looked over at the leaf pile where she tripped. She grew curious over what exactly she’d tripped over. Leaf piles weren’t supposed to be super solid, as far as she knew.
She pushed herself up a bit as she crawled over, still holding her nose in a pinch, until she was sitting right in front of the leaf pile. She leaned over, the leaves crunching a little under her knees. With one hand, she began brushing away at the leaves gently, until she felt her hand brush against-
…
“Jinx?”
Jinx was staring over at Mary as was mixing strawberries into a pot in order to make some jam for some baked goods for later. It had asked her multiple times if it could have some, and she gave it one, but it kept asking for even more. After many refusals, it was now just staring at her intensely, hoping that it could use the small amount of cuteness it had to get an extra.
Its quest for berry goodness, however, was interrupted when it heard a stern sounding voice. It turned to see Xavier standing there, arms folded.
“Oh boy, what did I do this time? …seriously, I don’t know. Did I break something again? Piss on something? Eat something I wasn’t supposed to?”
“No! Where is Carrie? I thought you went out with her.”
Mary looked up from her baking. “Oh dear, did she not come home? Surely you two should have come home together, shouldn’t you?”
“Huh…? oh, yeah, she got hurt or something while we were walking, and she’s bleeding a lot.”
“What?!”
“Yeah, I was supposed to tell you.”
“Well, why didn’t you?!” Xavier scolded.
“I forgot. Can I have another berry?”
“Mary, get your husband, we’re going!!” Xavier shouted, already heading toward the front door. Mary quickly gilded up the winding stairs that almost made no sense half the time. Wherever you wanted to go, you just got there. No matter if it was the basement or upstairs. Mary floated anxiously through the hallways, following a sort of artificial beat in her dead chest growing louder, before stopping in front of a room.
She stepped through the door to see a room full of bears. Stuffed bears, to be exact, all stacked on top of each other. And on top of it sat Teddie, though he wasn’t wearing his suit jacket or top-hat, just his swirly-star waist coat underneath.
“Teddie!” Mary called out to him.
Teddie’s face immediately lit up as he recognized her voice, looking down upon her from his throne of bears. In a literal sense, of course. He could never think any less of her.
“Mary-poo!! Hello, dearest!! I’m a little bit busy at the moment, I’m afraid. I’ve lost Sir Snuggles within my bear collection and you know I can’t sleep without him!” Teddie fussed as he kept digging through the bear pile, muttering things as he tossed bears back and forth such as “no, not you,” or “You’re very handsome, but you’re not him.”
Despite the immense amount of worry, Mary still couldn’t help but feel her dead heart melting at her husband’s antics.
“I’ll help you look later, dear, but we have an emergency, I’m afraid! Carrie got hurt in the woods and we need to go find her!!”
“WHAT?! Carrie’s been hurt?!” Teddie yelled, nearly falling off the bear pile before bringing himself to a hover. He quickly snapped his fingers, causing his suit jacket and top hat to appear on him with a poof!
“Quickly, we need to go find her!” He quickly swooped down and grabbed his wife’s hand, dragging her quickly, yet gently alongside him.
…
Carrie had found a skeleton.
Yes, a whole human skeleton. Laying there in the leaf pile. The thing that had caused her to trip and bleed was the skeletal remains of some poor soul who had died in the woods quite a while ago.
She was shocked, yes, who wouldn’t be at least somewhat surprised if they found human remains on a hike? It didn’t exactly scare her or gross her out though. If anything she just felt bad for whoever this was. She also was quite curious. She liked collecting bones of small animals she found sometimes. She thought bones were pretty cool. She wasn’t going to do that here, though. That’d be disrespecting someone’s corpse, after all, and she wasn’t about to disrespect the dead.
She gently pushed some more leaves away, just to see if she could find any signs of how this poor soul perished out here. None of them seemed to be broken, however. Every bone seemed to be intact and none of them were missing. Different ideas ran through Carrie’s head. Starvation? Poison? Some sort of internal injury?
“I see ya found my corpse!”
Carrie jumped before turning to see a ghost standing there. He was tall and gangly. He wore a plaid button up shirt, suspenders, torn up pants, and an old fashioned looking pioneer hat. He had a friendly looking gap-tooth grin on his face, with a rugged looking, scruffy chin.
The most noticeable thing about him was that his left arm and his right leg were both completely exposed to the bone.
She looked back and forth between him and the skeleton. “This is you?”
“Yep! It was a while ago, prolly’ over a hundred years at least, but I was huntin’ out here with some buddies and then I got attacked by wolves. That’s how I lost ol leftie and ol righty here. Lemme tell ya, slowly dying while yer limbs don’t got any skin no more? It ain’t fun. Not at all.”
“It certainly doesn’t sound like it.” Carrie frowned sympathetically.
“Yeah… ‘didn’t even happen here! It happened way in the back o’ the woods. It just kinda appears wherever it wants to. I dunno why. I don’t like lookin’ at it, but no matter how many times I tell it that, it just won’t listen.”
“Say, do you want it?” He asked.
“...Are you… asking me if I want your skeleton??” Carrie asked, extremely confused.
“Yeah! You look like a young lady who likes skeletons!” He grinned at her.
“I-I- well- I do, but I can’t just take home an entire human skeleton!” She explained.
“Why not?” He asked, looking genuinely confused as to why.
“Well, because people will think I robbed a grave or something! And I’d feel bad about taking it. It is your body after all.”
“Well, at least take one.” He said, handing her a bone from his arm. “I insist.”
“I-I… thank you??”
“Yer welcome! Nice meetin’ ya! See ya ‘round!” He said before disappearing before Carrie could say anything or ask any questions.
She sat there, holding the bone in her hands, extremely confused, still trying to process everything that just happened.
“Carrie!!”
Carrie looked up to see Xavier running towards her with Jinx on top of his head.
“Xavier!” She called out, barely pushing herself off the ground. Her legs were shaking from the blood loss, and she had to lean against a tree for support.
“See? I told you I’d be back with help!” Jinx boasted proudly. Xavier gave it a quick flick to get it to be quiet.
“Are you alright??” He asked her with concern. She nodded as he gently let her lean against him, wrapping his arm under hers to keep her standing up.
“I think I just need to go home… and lie down… eat something sugary…” She muttered, clutching the bone tightly.
Xavier looked down at her hands, finally noticing the bone she was holding.
“Is that a bone? Where did you get it??” He asked, looking confused and a little concerned.
“It’s a weird story.” Carrie said, looking down to see the leaf pile with the skeleton was now gone. She felt too dizzy at this point to be too surprised or curious though. “I’ll tell you about it on the way home. But I have to take it with me.”
“I guess-” Xavier began before hearing something quickly approaching through the trees. That something quickly jumped out with a look of panic on his face and his wife right behind him.
“CARRIE?!? ARE YOU ALIVE?!?”
Teddie and Mary froze at the sight before them. Carrie standing there, all bloody while holding a bone in her hands.
“Oh dear…” Mary whispered, looking horrified.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have worried so much. She certainly looks like she can take care of herself.”
…
“So, he just gave you part of his skeleton??”
“Yeah! He just gave it to me! He didn’t even let me say anything. Jinx, no! Let go of that!” Carrie shook Jinx off of the bone as it was actively trying to chew on it like a dog. It pouted as the four of them stepped into the house. Mary had cleaned Carrie up with her ghost magic on the way home, so while she still felt quite weak, she at least wasn’t covered in blood anymore. Xavier was carrying her in his arms, as he was the tallest of the group. She didn’t mind one bit, though.
“Can you set me on the couch, please?”
“Of course.”
Carrie lay down on the couch comfortably, resting her tired, weary bones. She set the arm bone beside her on the floor.
“Let us know if you need anything, alright, dearie?” Mary fretted, looking at her with concern.
“I will. Thank you, Mary.” She said with a tired smile.
With a sudden POOF of stars, Carrie was suddenly in her pajamas. The couch was covered in pillows and blankets and she was holding a glass of apple juice.
“Thanks, Teddie.” She giggled.
“Of course! You need to be comfy while you get your rest.” He patted her on the head.
Carrie smiled at her three ghostly friends before suddenly frowning in a concerned manner. Her nose twitched.
“Does anyone else smell smoke? Or is it just me?”
Mary gasped.
“Oh dear!! I forgot to turn the stove off before we left!!” She exclaimed before running back into the kitchen. Teddie quickly followed behind.
“Does that mean there aren't gonna be any berries left?! Come on!!” Jinx whined as it followed behind with a small amount of hope that maybe there was still some left.
Xavier sighed deeply. “There's always something new going on in this house…” Before entering the kitchen.
Carrie took a sip of her juice before laying down. Her eyes grew heavy. She felt herself practically sinking into all the pillows and blankets Teddie left for her.
Somehow, the sounds of three ghosts panicking over burning jam just made the perfect white noise.