If I had been on time, maybe I could have stopped this. If she hadn’t been alone, they might not have even tried to take her. 

“I need to get out of here,” she mumbles between sobs and shivers. I watch her curled up on a cold metal bed, wanting desperately to wrap my arms around her and keep her warm. I know my touch will only make her colder. That’s one of the problems with being dead. 

“I need a way out,” she pleads to the air. I don’t have any delusions she knows I’m here. Mostly because I’m not really even sure she knows I’m dead. It happened after they took her. I watched the men throw her into a van, and I ran after them. Two grabbed me and I desperately fought them. Then another shot me in the chest. They might have taken me with them, but a man out running caught the end of this and screamed he was calling the cops. They sped off in their van. The runner stayed with me, and the police and EMTs tried to help me. I didn’t make it. As soon as my soul left my body, I searched everywhere for her. My memory of the van helped. I saw it parked outside this sketchy looking industrial building. 

“I’m going to find you a way out, Marla. I promise,” I whisper even though I know she can’t hear me. 

I walk through the locked door that keeps her trapped, and down a long hallway lined with rooms similar to hers. Other people are sobbing and pleading with whoever they believe is listening. At the end of the hallway, I find a closet. Inside the closet, I find blankets. Luckily, I can lift objects. Movies were never clear on that. Probably because no one knows an actual ghost. I throw the blanket over my head to look like a sheet ghost as I head back towards her room. Why not? Then I plan to walk through the door, but I can’t get the blanket to pass through. While I’m a simple spirit that doesn’t adhere to the laws of the material world, the blanket is not. 

There’s a small slot in her door for orderlies, or whatever you call them, to slide her food. I cram the blanket through that, then pass through the door and collect it on the other side. I wrap it around her. In her fitful sleep, she doesn’t notice.   

Watching her sleep, I regret so many things that will now forever remain unsaid. Seeing her this way, in this place hurts, so I imagine us in a different time. In my memory, she is riding her pale blue bike with the basket in the front. Her head is tilted back, her eyes closed, basking in the warmth of the spring sun. She’s wearing a purple sundress. She always wears dresses since she thinks pants are uncomfortable. The effortless speed of her pedaling is hard to keep up with, and I’m too distracted by her beauty to see the obstacle up ahead. At the last second, her eyes open, her mouth widens in horror, and she swerves to avoid crashing into the dead body of a deer. Losing control, she tumbles off the bike and into a ditch. Why is this the memory that comes to mind? More proof that I never can and never have saved her. 

Restlessness overtakes my legs and I wander into a staff lunch room where two people in white lab coats are eating. One is a man with thick eyeglasses and short blonde curls. He eats his tuna fish sandwich with a bit of a snarl like a wild animal tearing apart flesh. The other is a petite woman with the straightest posture I’ve ever seen. She picks at a bologna sandwich that is oozing mustard and pickles out the sides, and it seems strange that someone like her would be so sloppy. 

“Dr. Stein won’t be happy with the blood results,” the woman says. 

“We’ve got plenty of people now. Take her out to the pit.” 

“Don’t you think the pit is a little grotesque?” 

“Since when did you develop a conscience?” 

“I worry if we get too greedy, they’ll find us.” 

“I doubt it.” The man crams the last bit of sandwich into his mouth and swallows a large gulp of cream soda. “It’s funny. I heard someone the other day saying they couldn’t understand how anyone goes missing with technology. They really don’t appreciate how little people pay attention to each other. These people are sometimes gone months before someone questions it. Usually their employers notice first.” 

The woman shrugs. “To be fair, we do select people without roommates or partners. They’d notice.” 

“Eh, that’s romantic of you. Most days I think if I disappeared my wife probably wouldn’t notice. Until the bills came back unpaid anyway.” 

“Well, we do work long hours.” The woman picks up a mustard covered pickle that had fallen onto her aluminum wrapping and plops it in her mouth with a smile. “And I’m glad we do. More time with my wife would kill me.” 

The man laughs and nods in agreement. Their conversation is interrupted when the door swings open and another woman enters. 

“Did any of you give number 5467 a blanket?” 

“No,” they both say in unison.

The new woman shivers. “On the video monitor we saw a blanket floating down the hall. Like…like one of those cheap halloween ghost costumes. I…I know it sounds crazy. I think we have a ghost.” 

The man laughs. “All the lives lost here, we’re bound to have one or two.”  

The woman with the bologna sandwich sneers, “C’mon Stacy. We work with literal monsters and you’re scared of a ghost.” 

Stacy huffs and slams the door behind her. The two remaining laugh. I follow Stacy, curious and a bit nervous about what she’ll do. She searches for a man I presume is the manager, when she finds him, she throws off her coat, and says, “I quit! I’m not messing with ghosts. My mom always warned me against that.” 

She storms out of the building, and I’m left wondering what did they mean by monsters? I decide to figure out what they mean by the pit first, and search the outside of the building. In doing so, I come across what must be it. A man in a white lab coat stands with a girl who looks terrified. In front of them is a large hole. The hole is larger than the building, and as deep as it is tall. The bottom of the hole is lined with bodies in various states of decay. Some are practically skeletons, and others I could almost mistake for still living. I fly over the hole getting a good look. Luckily, being dead keeps me from vomiting. The man in the lab coat shoves the girl over the ledge. 

Someone I didn’t notice standing in the doorway says, “I thought we had to shoot them first.” 

The man replies with, “yeah, so they say, but do you really think she’s getting out of there?” 

They both walk inside the building. She is alive. I can save her. In my whole life, I can’t think of a single time I played hero, but better late than never, I guess. I look around the building. On the other side, I find a large, thick hose that looks like a fireman’s. I don’t even want to know what they do with this. I drag it over, and luckily it is long enough. I’m not sure I’ll have the strength, but it’s worth trying. I tie one end around a sturdy building column. Then I fling it down. The girl sees it and cautiously approaches. Though she seems hesitant and scared, she tries to climb it. I pull up from the top to help. We both slip a few times, but finally she climbs out. She looks around and I know she is confused about not seeing anyone. It doesn’t stop her for long. She takes off through the woods at full speed. I hope she will go to the police and get help for everyone else in here. I untie the hose and bring it back to where it was, so that they won’t catch on to her. 

Then I look for the monsters. It might not be the most important thing, but I want to understand this peculiar place. I wander down hallways, lost in the maze that is this building. 

I see a room with two large creatures. They are taller than humans, their flesh is bumpy and reminds me of a toad’s skin. Their skin is mostly brown and they don’t have any hair. They have hunched backs and dangling skin beneath their chins. One of them holds vials of glowing blue liquids. The other looks through a microscope. They talk to each other, but in a gurgling language I can’t understand. In another room, I see more creatures. These ones are injecting some sort of chemical into a person on a medical table. The person’s body convulses and then she sits straight up. Her eyes open and they glow blue. 

I need to get Marla out of here. Whatever these things are doing, I can’t let them do it to her. I head back to her room. A guard is walking down the hallway. I walk into her room and realize there is another metal table. I push the table over making a loud clanking noise. Then I wait for the guard to enter. Once he does, I’m ready. I grab a flashlight out of his utility belt and hit him over the back of the head. He falls over and whacks his head on the edge of Marla’s bed. I grab his keys. Marla is awake, her face twists in confusion and shock. I hand her the keys and she screams as they float towards her. 

“Marla, I know you can’t hear me, but I need you to take these keys and run.” 

“Stuart?” she mumbles. 

“Can you hear me?” 

She grabs the keys and runs out the door. She races down the hallway. She unlocks the exit door. As she runs into the woods, sirens blare. Someone must have seen her on the camera monitor. I’ll do my best to slow them down. I take a pile of blankets from the closet. As guards run towards the woods, I fling blankets over their faces. Their arms flail, fighting out from underneath. They spin around looking where these blankets came from and when they can’t see anyone, they look freaked out. 

“Who is there? Who did that?” They spin around wildly. I search for the next thing to use. I see some chairs surrounding outdoor tables. I grab the chairs and throw them through the air. The guards glance at each other with panicked, confused looks. I hope Marla has made some distance. I’m not sure how much of a head start I can give her. One of the guards runs towards the woods with a determination to fulfill his duties, and I knock him down with a chair to the chest. The other guards stand around unsure what to do. Someone is yelling from the loud speakers for them to get moving. The guards look too scared. They’ll need to be fast to catch her now and I notice they have ATVs and trucks. I hurry around popping tires, ripping out wires, and doing everything I can to keep every vehicle on the property from being drivable. My doing this takes away from preventing the guards from entering the woods, but I have to believe I’ve given her enough of a chance. There’s also that other girl I freed. Maybe she’ll get help before they drag Marla back. 

I notice a fuse box, and decide to kill the power. I want to keep these monsters from doing anymore damage. Sirens continue wailing, people are screaming, and guards are frantically trying to get their trucks going. The place has erupted into pure chaos, and I smile watching it unfold. 

Then the flashing blue and red lights strobe, and new sirens add to the noise. Did the girl get help? Police surround the building. I fly off to find Marla. I find her by a river, drinking handfuls of water. Her bare feet are cut up and bleeding. The medical gown they put her in is torn and she is shivering. She doesn’t know the way to safety, but I do. 

“I’ll get you out of here,” I say once more. She doesn’t hear me. I need a way to communicate. I pluck a branch of red berries off a shrub. Her eyes follow the floating branch. I wave it encouraging her to follow. 

“Stuart?” She asks. 

“Yes, it’s me.” I’m not sure how she knows. 

Slowly she stands and follows the branch of berries. Her eyes dart in all directions, and I can tell she is worried. I guide her out of the woods and to the closest public building I can find. It happens to be a nursing home. One of the nurses is outside smoking when Marla emerges from the woods. 

“Oh my god! Darling, are you okay? What happened to you?” The woman runs over and whisks Marla into the building. The nurses cover her in blankets, get her a warm cup of tea, and call the police. 

I’ve heard it said that ghosts stick around if they have unfinished business. Maybe that’s true. Once I know Marla is safe, I feel different. Ready for the next step. I take her face in my hands even though it makes her shiver. “I love you, Marla.” 

It’s something I never got to say while I was alive, but better late than never.