So there I was, contemplating whether to wait for my knight in shining armor, who didn’t seem to be getting my telepathic pleas for help, or to formulate a plan of escape from the dire situation I was in. I weighed my options; I had no idea where I was, so I could escape from this small room and end up dying outside in a tropical forest for all I know. On the other hand, if I wanted to escape now was the time because no one was here to guard--

“Boo!” a ghost screamed behind me.

I jumped up from the cool breeze that brushed along my skin, leaving tiny hills of goose bumps on my arms when the ghost passed through me.

I glared at him. He wore a silky robe with embroidered Chinese characters that seemed to shift every time I blinked. His face was covered by a painted mask with high arched eyebrows and two holes the size of a penny for his eyes. I shivered. My eyes were unusually dark already, but his were the color of a bottomless well.

“Did you really have to go through me instead of around me?”
The ghost cackled, making the hairs on my arms stand up in alert.

“Do you remember me, little girl?” he flew so his face was inches from mine. “Can you see what you have done to me? Are you ready to pay the consequences?”

He let the word “consequences” roll of his slithering tongue slowly, as if savoring the word. Perhaps how is not a good time to say I’ve always been bad with names. And faces. Even psychotic mask wearing faces.

“I think I remember you…You’re….” Come on dude, give me a hint here. A letter? The amount of syllables?

For a second I swore I saw a flash of disappointment in his eyes, but they quickly returned to their soulless look.

“Hmmph,” he said. “I guess you don’t remember…well that’s okay too. You’ll never forget my name once my Queen deals with you. In fact, I might even pity you a little, but then again, maybe not so much.”

“Wait what queen? What did I do? No, come back!” I screamed.

I dragged my hands, which were chained together with metal handcuffs connected to a long chain attached to the wall.

Suddenly, the brick walls around me shifted. The floor below me collapsed and I was soon falling, which direction I couldn’t tell, but falling and falling fast.

***

I blinked my eyes open slowly.

“Wake up little girl,” a woman’s voice sang out.

“No mom, let me sleep a little more it’s only--” I paused. My mom’s voice wasn’t as sickly sweet as that.

“Haha I’m not your mom, but I’ll definitely be taking care of you now,” the woman chuckled. Her laugh, although not as eery as the ghost I had met before, had an evil, powerful undertone that made me feel as if I should just play dead and hope she’d stop talking to me.

I opened my eyes completely. I looked around, but no one was there. In fact, I was merely in an empty throne room with rows of marble statues. Each had a mask similar to the ghost I had seen before, all plastered with a sad expression on their face. Oddly enough, all of them were facing me.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“My, my. You sure have trouble remembering names don’t you. First you forget my servant’s name, and now you forget me?”
A dark flame suddenly engulfed a statue, melting it slowly. I gasped.

“I am the all powerful Queen of the lost souls and the Giver,” the Queen’s voice boomed from all around the room, “of punishments.”

I gulped. I’m sorry God for whatever I have done. I didn’t mean to steal Lora’s My Little Pony in preschool. I only cheated on that one Chinese test because the teacher was grading me unfairly. Please forgive my sins. I closed my eyes, hoping that my confessions would be good enough to bring me back home to my warm, safe bed.

“Nice try little girl, but your deed was far worse than all those.”
The ghost from before suddenly appeared in front of me. He brought his hand out and covered my face.

I saw a little girl. She was playing Webkinz on the computer. An elderly man walks into her room and tries to get her to come downstairs to eat dinner. She yells and screams at him, then shoves him outside her room and locks the door. I looked closer at the little girl…was she me? If so, then the man was…

I’m taken to another scene. The same girl is in her room, but she’s a lot older. She has a different style now: a little rebellious and edgy. This time the man is older and walks with a slightly limp in his right leg. He brings her plate of cut apples, and the girl ignores him as she surfs the internet.

I’m brought back to the throne room.

“Do you see what you’ve done now? You harmed this man’s soul, and drove him to me, where he traded it to teach you a lesson,” the Queen spoke. “This is why you deserve a punishment.”

The ghost’s eyes seemed to sadden a little bit. Slowly, he began to reach for his mask. But without him taking it off, I knew who it was.

“I’m sorry Grandpa…”

But a sorry is never enough.