Helen is Here by Grace Paul

It was family night, like every Tuesday night, and my dad had begun to deal out the cards for the game Apples to Apples. Like every game night my 9 year old step-sister would plead to do something else while my brother would get annoyed with my step-mother for not following all the rules correctly. My dad was the first person to start with the green card, like always, and made his usual round of “jokes” that weren’t even funny, but everyone laughed just to make him happy. Just as he laid the card “Awesome” down, my step-mom screamed, “I got the perfect two cards, let me just lay the both down for the fun of it!” Like always, my 11 year old brother’s opinion came straight out and yelled at my step-mom that in this game we only put down one card. As she sighed in frustration she picked one and put it face down.
“Let’s see what we got here!” my dad screamed in excitement, like he always did when playing games on family night. “Okay! I know which one is the best!” Like always, he would read the cards out loud and when ever my step-sister would laugh that’s exactly what he would do, and he would tell how great the card was because he knew it was hers. He always gave all his attention to her. Anyways, as he read out the cards slowly, ‘the rain’, ‘sleeping in’(which was mine), ‘crayons’ (obviously my step-sister Emily’s because she started laughing and my dad started his routine again), and lastly ‘new houses’.
“The winner has to be… new houses!” my dad screamed, like always.
“Well actually there is something your dad and I have to tell you. We have bought a new house!” My step-mom said with pleasure.
“Are you serious! I love this house and why would we ever move! My friends are all here, my life is here! You are just evil!” The words came like siren in my ears when my brother stomped away.
“Oh honey, we just found a great house out in the country. We thought of you…” The words slowly came from my step-mom’s mouth.
“Come back here! Look you made your mother cry, we are moving there one way or another and you better enjoy  it!”
“She isn’t my mother and she never will be!” The words swept into my step-mother’s eyes as my brother walked away without any more comments.
That week everyone gathered their things into boxes, ignored my brother, and most of all said their good-byes.
***
In two weeks we were all packed up and ready to go. We put our things into the truck and were on our way. In like a million years we finally got there. This house was a disaster! The house was all made out of wood and looked like an unfinished child’s art piece. The walls were creaky, the paint was peeled, and most of all there was a graveyard nearby. I hated graveyards.
“Come on Lilly, I will unpack all your stuff into the house just go take your step-sister on a walk around so you know what it looks like. Just please do not let her out of your sight, it is a big space and she could get lost.”
“Okay dad!” I groaned because I knew where she wanted to go, the graveyard.
“Be safe”
As we were walking down through the grass and dirt, of course, my shoe fell in a hole. A muddy sticky hole.
“Come on, Lilly let’s go to the graveyard, that will be fun!” She eagerly shrieked.
“No let’s go somewhere else, maybe the pond over there?”
“You are such a chicken, come on nothing is going to get you! Are you afraid? I am going to tell dad otherwise if you don’t come! Come on, scaredy cat!”
I knew she had the power to tell dad but my heart was pounding, I hated ghosts! So with that I went and there I was standing in my most fearful enclosure. The trees around me felt like they were moving around me, trapping me in this place once and for all. My only excuse was to help dad unload so that was just what I said to her and she was okay with that answer only if I took her tomorrow to here. Perfect!
On our way home we had lost our way a bit but I had found where the little pond nearby was so I took us home safe and sound. Once we were home my dad asked about our journey, and of course my step-sister had to tell about the journey, I couldn’t. After she finished telling where we went she pleaded I take her again and so that’s what my dad decided I must do.
Later that night after dinner she had somehow convinced my step-mom to make me take her on a walk. So there I was standing in the middle of the graveyard at night! In the dark! While we were there she found an old fallen apart gravestone and said that the ghost was her best friend now. All night she talked to the stone about who knows what!
Surprisingly the rest of the week I had to go to the graveyard with her and she finally said to me, “Lilly I need to tell you something. Helen is here, she wants to get you now! I know you think I am faking it but you need to know I told her all of the terrible things you have done to me, she knows. Helen is here. Just wait, Helen will come for you!”
That night I felt something I am not positive what it was, but I felt something! I fell asleep and when I woke, sure enough, Helen was there.