Ghost Pond 2; The End

Ghost Pond Part 1

Noelle sighed as she stepped through the school doors. It had been three days since her two best friends had been brutally murdered in the forest around Ghost Pond. 

The police investigated the forest but found no evidence of a murderer. They closed the case when they hadn’t found bodies and wrote them down as missing and presumed dead. Noelle wasn’t any help for the police since she had run away. 

Another wave of guilt washed over her as she thought about it, and her sneakers squeaked in the school halls. No one even glanced at her as she walked by, making her feel invisible. They chattered loudly and in between it, Noelle could hear Avery and Brody’s names being said. 

The whole school had been ‘mourning’ them and the teachers held an assembly in respect to their deaths. The popular kids were acting as if they knew Avery and Brody their whole lives and cried during their classes, using it as an excuse to seem caring. 

Noelle knew they didn’t actually care. They didn’t even know them like she did. To the popular kids, Avery and Brody were just background characters until they had died. 

Of course, their sad act worked and everyone felt sympathy for them, giving them flowers and sweets in respect. 

Noelle opened her locker and shoved her backpack in, making a thump when it hit the bottom. She stared at herself in the plastic mirror that was connected to the door by a magnet. 

Her greasy hair was loosely tied in a bun after not having the motivation to shower the night before and her once bright blue eyes were now dull with bags underneath them.

She blinked slowly, her eyes feeling heavy, and the loud bell sounded above her. It sounded quiet compared to her thoughts but she grabbed her pencil case from the shelf in her locker and slammed the door shut. A clanking sound came from inside the locker and Noelle knew that it was the sound of the mirror falling off of the door. 

Letting out another sigh, she turned and headed towards her English class, trying her best to ignore all of the ‘depressed’ kids around her and glared at them when they looked at her.

In the corner of her vision, bright colors caught her eye. She glanced over and saw Avery’s locker decorated with streamers, flowers, and written pieces in blue, purple, and white colors. 

Another spike of guilt poked her heart. ‘I should have done more to help them,’ Noelle thought. Looking farther down the hallway, she saw Brody’s locker was decorated with similar things. Her legs felt weak when she trudged through the halls.  

Her English classroom was empty, except for the teacher, because the second bell hadn’t rung yet. Everyone always came in late due to hanging out with their friends, but Noelle didn’t have anyone to hang out with anymore. 

“Good morning Noelle,” Mr. Barlow, the 10th grade English teacher, greeted her softly. He was one of the few people in the school who knew that Noelle was actually friends with Avery and Brody. 

“Hi Mr. Barlow,” Noelle replied quietly, not in the mood to chat. 

“How are you feeling?” he asked, and when Noelle looked up to meet his eyes, they were filled with sympathy. Her throat began to close up at how much he genuinely cared about her, but before she could reply, the second bell rang and students began flooding in. 

Noelle just turned around and headed to her seat. She plopped down in her chair and took a deep breath. ‘I’m not going to be one of those kids crying in class for attention,’ Noelle scolded herself silently while blinking aggressively to get rid of her tears. 

She felt Mr. Barlow’s eyes still on her but she continued to stare at her empty desk like it was the most interesting thing ever. 

After all of the students had come into the classroom, Mr. Barlow began his lesson. He passed out a worksheet but all Noelle could do was stare blankly at it, not even writing her name on it. 

* * *

The school day had finished and Noelle hadn’t done any work in the past three days. She didn’t care how much work was overdue; she only missed her friends. Anger filled her up while she stared out of the school bus window. 

‘I could have helped them fight that guy off, but instead I ran like a coward,’ she grumbled. The memories of that night flooded back to her. The gunshots and Brody’s screams rang through her ears, making her heart race. 

‘It’s my fault’ she thought, blinking away more tears. ‘I heard Brody calling my name and I only kept running.’ 

The bus screeched to a stop, breaking Noelle out of her thoughts. She looked up and noticed that it stopped in front of her house. Quickly grabbing her backpack, she scrambled off of the bus. 

Noelle unlocked the door, stepped in her house and slipped off her sneakers. Her mom appeared next to her, always within three feet of her whenever she’s home since the incident in the forest. “Noelle! Welcome home, how was your day?” her mom asked eagerly. “Fine.” Noelle snapped and quickly ran up the stairs. 

Surprisingly her mother didn’t follow her up and Noelle closed the door behind her. She could hear her mom sigh through the door and Noelle immediately felt bad for snapping at her but she had more important things to worry about. 

Grabbing a bag from her closet, she shoved a flashlight, water, a pocket knife, pepper spray, and a few other things in it. She then threw a flannel on and rushed back downstairs. 

“Where are you headed?” her mom asked when Noelle had her hand on the door knob. “Um… to a friend’s…” 

A huge smile spread around her mother’s face. “Oh! That’s amazing! I’m so glad you made a new friend! You have fun, okay? You want me to drive you?” She talked quickly, jumping over her own words. 

“No mom, I’m fine. I’ll just walk,” Noelle replied, and leaned in for a hug. “Bye, see you later. Love you.” 

Her mother wrapped her arms tightly around Noelle. “Okay, be safe please. I love you too.” The hug felt like it lasted forever and Noelle was able to squeeze out of it eventually. 

She had walked down the block and then called a cab to pick her up since she didn’t have her own car. 

* * *

The cab drove away after she paid the man and she coughed in the smoke of it. She stared up at the fence in front of the eerie forest of Ghost Pond, remembering how Brody had climbed it in one try. Glancing over at the hole in the fence that she and her friends had used to enter before, Noelle saw that it was boarded up with wood. Caution tape covered it forming an X.

Looking back to the fence in front of her, she sighed and stepped towards it. Putting her foot in between the chain, she hoisted herself up and began climbing. Her breath got shaky as she reached the top, not liking being so high up. 

Noelle carefully made her way to the other side of the fence, making sure not to lose her footing. She then climbed down and jumped off, mud soaked into her sneakers and she felt the cold touch her feet. 

Shivering, she pulled her feet out of the mud and began walking through the forest, towards the pond. It felt just as creepy as the first time she came there, fog still curled around the trees as if it had never left the forest. Reaching into her bag, she grabbed a hold of her pocket knife, just to feel a bit safer.

Hearing a twig snap behind her, she jumped and gave a small yelp. Flicking out her knife, she turned and pointed it towards the sound. Instead of a murderer, she only saw a squirrel nibbling on something. When it realized she spotted it, the squirrel darted up the nearest tree in fear. 

She took a deep breath and closed her knife, keeping it in her hand. “It’s fine. It’s fine. I’m fine,” she whispered to herself, her hands starting to shake. 

Just then she spotted the old cabin that had started it all. Somehow it seemed older and more destroyed than before. Noelle shivered again and made her way towards it, watching her breath in the cold. 

She kept looking over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t being followed and stood in front of the cabin for a moment, listening to the little sounds of the forest. Slightly startling her, Noelle heard whispers coming from the inside of the cabin. 

Afraid yet curious, she walked onto the single step of the cabin, pressing her ear to the door. Her sneakers made loud noises on the wood and the whispering went silent. She waited for a couple moments, still checking behind her to make sure she wasn’t being watched and from inside the cabin she heard a raspy cough. Seconds later, a female voice shushed them. 

Noelle was so startled that she stood, frozen on the step. She grabbed her pocket knife and opened it again, unsure of what to do. 

‘Is that the murderer? No, it couldn’t be, there was only one. What if it’s Brody and Avery?’ Thoughts swam through her head and she felt like she couldn’t move. Her heart ached at the idea that her friends could be alive after all. 

Breaking her from her thoughts, she heard the female voice speak very softly, she could barely hear it. “Do you think he’s gone?”

Noelle stayed silent and covered her mouth to quiet her breathing. The other person responded, but it was too muffled for her to hear. She could tell it was a male voice though. Her heart began racing, still unsure if she should go in or not. Another cough from the male sounded and that time Noelle recognized it immediately. 

Last year when Brody had the flu, Noelle came to his house to bring him some soup that she and her mother made. He was thankful for it but when he came back to school after he wasn’t sick anymore, for the rest of the week he had the worst-sounding cough…

Noelle’s heart felt like it stopped beating and she used her shoulder to break open the door. It swung open and she stumbled to get her footing in the doorway. The people gave a short scream in surprise and the male’s coughing continued after. Noelle looked up from the floor to see a very pale and skinny girl with short ginger hair and next to her was Brody. Both of their arms and legs were tied with tightly bound rope and they had very obvious bruises and scars. Brody had a large cut of his face that had scabbed over but obviously wasn’t healed yet. 

His eyes locked with Noelle’s and she felt like she couldn’t breathe. “Noelle?!” he wheezed. Noelle dropped her knife in shock and ran over to him, wrapping her arms around her friend. She felt tears flowing down her cheeks and she couldn’t make out any words. 

“Noelle-” Brody started again, and she leaned back wiping tears off her face. “I’m sorry- I’m just so glad you’re okay!” Realizing she should probably untie the two, she crawled over to reach her knife and took Brody’s hands. 

Noelle began to cut up the rope but it wasn’t cutting very quickly. “Well, sort of okay,” Brody gave a short laugh. After the ropes on his hands had split, he moved his arms to reveal a gash in his side. “It’s okay, I’ll get you to the hospital and they’ll fix you up, you too-” Noelle said, looking up from the rope on Brody’s legs to the ginger haired girl. “Robin,” the girl told her. 

The rope on Brody’s legs broke and Noelle scooched over to cut the ropes on Robin’s hands. “Wait a minute, Robin? Like Robin Moore?” Noelle gasped, staring at Robin whose face was covered in freckles. 

“Yeah…” She replied, moving her arms a bit to remind Noelle to keep cutting.

Noelle looked back down at the rope and kept cutting while talking. “They said you were dead after you went missing at only fourteen!” The rope broke and Noelle started working on her legs. 

“Yup, a whole 3 years ago if I’ve been keeping track of time correctly.” Robin shrugged. 

Noelle nodded and continued working. “They closed your case and said you were dead.” 

“Nope, I’ve been here the whole time,” she replied. “Where were you guys when the police were looking?” Noelle asked, the rope getting harder to cut since her knife was getting duller. “We were all under the floor boards. There’s a whole room under there and he made us stay quiet or he’d kill us.” Robin explained. “I was tied down there while you, Brody, and Avery were exploring, but I had tape around my mouth so I couldn’t yell for help-” 

Noelle interrupted Robin and looked at her and then at Brody. “Wait, where is Avery?” she asked, a glimpse of hope in her eyes. 

“She… she was killed,” Brody said, looking down at the floor. 

“Oh..” Noelle replied, choking up. She looked back down at Robin’s ropes and was finally able to break them. 

“We have to get out of here before he comes back.” Brody coughed and struggled to stand. Noelle quickly got up and helped him, letting him lean on her. She leaned him against the wall and took off her flannel and wrapped it tightly around his chest to try and stop the bleeding. 

“Thanks,” he said when she tightened it around him and once she was done Noelle put her arm around him to let him lean on her. 

Robin got to her feet and stood on the other side of Brody. They wobbled to the door before Brody stopped walking and said, “Wait-” nodding his head to the table next to them. On it was a single barrel shotgun and Robin let go of Brody and picked it up. She searched the counter and then the drawer and found a single shell. 

Robin clicked open the gun, looked inside briefly and then closed it. “We’ve got two shots,” she reported. “Let’s make them count.,” Noelle replied sternly. 

“Hopefully we won’t need to use it,” Brody added. 

* * *

They walked slowly through the forest, Robin behind them with the shotgun. 

“We’re almost to the fence,” Noelle breathed. The forest was eerily silent and she couldn’t even hear any birds chirping as if they didn’t want to be in the forest either. 

The three stayed silent most of the way listening for the killer. Robin and Brody had told Noelle that it was a man who lived in this forest, unknown to anyone and he barely left the cabin. When he did, they assumed he was out getting food from wherever he found it. 

Suddenly, they heard rustling in the bushes near them. Noelle and Brody froze and stared into the thick woods. Noelle saw a large shape dart from one tree to another and she yelled, “There!” At the same time, the sound of the shotgun rang through the forest and after it left, the forest was silent once more. 

While Robin was reloading, the killer jumped out of the trees and tackled Robin. She fell to the ground and the shotgun fell a couple feet away from her, along with the last shell. As Robin did all she could to get away from him, Noelle shoved Brody away from them. “Brody run!” she demanded and he limped forward, attempting to get away. 

Noelle grabbed her pocket knife and ran towards the man. Robin was struggling to get away, but she was stuck underneath him and Noelle opened the knife and sunk it into his thigh. He groaned in pain and whipped around to face her. Robin immediately scrambled away from him towards the shotgun. 

The man grabbed Noelle’s arm tightly making her yelp and he used his other hand to lift her off of the ground. She kicked her legs to try to get away from her but it was no use. She looked from his face twisted in anger to Robin behind him, reloading the shotgun. 

His grip squeezed her arms and she felt like they were going to snap in half. Her legs grew tired from struggling and she stared into his eyes, hatred spilling from them. 

His grip tightened even more and Noelle squeezed her eyes shut. The sound of the shotgun rang in her ears and her eyes snapped open. To her surprise, instead of hatred in the man’s gaze, there was fear. His grip loosened as his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to the ground, Noelle falling on top of him. 

She quickly got off of him and saw that Robin had shot him in the chest. 

“That’s what you get,” she huffed. Pain shot through Noelle’s arms but she only winced at it, just glad that it was all over.

Looking in Brody’s direction, she saw that he had fallen to the ground. “Brody!” she exclaimed, getting to her feet and rushing over to him. Robin followed closely behind her 

When they reached him Noelle saw that he was unconscious. “No, no! Brody wake up!” She wailed. 

“He’s lost so much blood,” Robin said softly, kneeling down next to her. 

Noelle quickly looked behind her and saw her bag on the ground where she had dropped it before leaping at the man. She ran over and rummaged through it, grabbing her phone. As she made her way back to Brody and Robin, she clicked the emergency dial button. 

Noelle put the phone to her ear and from it a woman said, “911 what’s your emergency?” She dropped back to the ground and clutched her phone. 

“Please come quickly! He’s dying!” She sobbed into the microphone. 

“Okay please calm down,” The woman began and Noelle heard typing noises. “Where are you?” 

“Uh- Ghost Pond-! The forest around Ghost Pond!” Noelle responded and Robin just stared at her with wide eyes. 

“Police and paramedics are on their way,” the woman on the phone said. 

* * *

The next moments were nothing but blurry. Noelle couldn’t remember a lot, but she did know that when the police got there they carried Brody away on a stretcher. 

They were all brought to the hospital and Noelle was given a sling because the killer broke her arm, but she had no idea where Robin was. After all the commotion, she was sitting in Brody’s hospital room. He had just gotten out of surgery for his wounds and Noelle was allowed to see him although he was still asleep. 

The only sound that filled the room was the beeping of his heart monitor. 

“I hope someone told Robin about her parents,” Noelle said to Brody, hoping he could hear. “She’ll be devastated to hear about them dying in that house fire,” 

A few more moments of silence passed and she just sat and stared at him, his chest slowly rising and falling with every breath. The silence was interrupted by the door of the room quickly opening and her mother sped in. 

“Noelle!” she gasped, hugging her tightly after she had turned to look.

“Ow-” Noelle squeaked and her mother immediately let go. 

“Oh, I’m sorry!” She began, looking at Noelle’s arm. “Are you okay? How do you feel? Is-” her mother rambled but Noelle interrupted her. 

“Mom!” she said and her mother fell silent. “Did the doctors say he would be okay?”

“Yes but he won’t wake up for a while, his parents are on their way though.” She responded. Noelle didn’t say anything but smiled and turned back to face Brody. 

* * *

By the time Brody’s parents left, it was 11 o’clock at night and Noelle had refused to leave Brody’s side. Her mother had been in the room with her but had fallen asleep in a chair in the corner. Her eyes felt heavy but she wasn’t ready to leave yet. 

Then Robin walked in the room, jolting her awake.

 “Hey Robin,” she said, rubbing her eyes and Noelle noticed a bandage wrapped around her head, covering some of her ginger curls. 

“Oh, hi” Robin responded and looked at Brody. “Is he going to be okay?” she asked and sat on a stool on the other side of his bed. 

“Yeah, thankfully.” Noelle told her, neither of them looking away from him. “They said he won’t be awake for a while, he had to get surgery.” She paused and Robin let out a sigh of relief. “What about you?”

“What?” Robin asked, looking at her in surprise. 

“How are you doing? Did they tell you..?” Noelle asked her, sympathy rounding her eyes. “Yeah, I know.” She said, looking back to Brody. “It was only a couple months ago… If I had been there, it might have been different.” Robin fidgeted with her fingers. 

“You don’t know that Robin,” Noelle said softly. “What matters is that you’re here and safe now.” 

Robin just shrugged and locked eyes with Noelle. “We all are.” Noelle couldn’t help grinning but it felt so bittersweet. ‘If only Avery could’ve been here too,” she thought while Robin smiled back at her.