Authors Note: This is a short story I wrote about a youth football player who sees a tragic, ghostly, figure that he knew at one point.
It was a cold and foggy night when Derek Crawford was in the huddle for his rivalry football game against the Rock City Jets. As he looked into the forest beyond the scoreboard he saw a quick, blurry, figure. It wasn’t just any figure though; it was a black, misty, human figure. He broke the huddle and got in his stance as a fullback, directly behind the quarterback. Just as the quarterback started calling the cadence, Derek felt a quick chill down his back and spreading through his whole body. The ball was snapped and Derek rushed to get the ball and dive into the end zone for the touchdown. Just as he was about to get through the line, a humungous lineman jumped on him. All he remembers is feeling a sharp pain shoot down his leg from his thigh through his toes, before everything going black.
He then awoke in a hospital bed an hour later with a broken thigh bone and pulled hamstring. His quarterback, Henry, was sitting on a bench next to his bed. Also in the window was that figure that froze him during the game. Although Derek was dazed, he was sure that it was there…Just floating and watching. When he asked his teammate if he saw the ghost in the window, he said nothing. When he looked back at Derek, his face was pale, and like a mouse, he said yes. Then they started coming up with ideas on what it could be. They thought it might be a reflection or a smoke cloud from outside, but when they checked, it was neither. As they were staring at it, they made out the misty human shape. At the same time they realized it could be a human figure, it silently and swiftly left them stunned.
That morning, the doctor and Derek’s parents signed release papers to let him leave the hospital, but only in crutches. From then on, the ghost stopped following him during the day and started coming around him only at night when he was alone in his room. No one but Derek and Henry knew about the ghost. One night Derek was in his room doing his homework with the window open. When his parents called him down for dinner he forgot to close the window. It was at dusk so the figure was out and swooped through the open window and into the upstairs bathroom by Derek’s room. After dinner when he went to brush his teeth, the figure was standing, facing the back wall, and not moving. Derek saw the figure and was frozen by the sight yet again. Then slowly the ghost turned around and Derek saw that it was his real father but in a ghostly form. As a kid Derek was abused a few times and once in public when his dad was arrested. His dad was so bent out of shape when he was released, that he committed suicide. Nowadays, even the thought of his dad brought back bad memories. Derek was on crutches so he couldn’t run or stand very straight. He was trapped, but when his father had been staring at him for a while, the ghostly figure started towards him and he fell and hit the back of his head on the granite counter top.
When he awoke again, his mom and step-dad were looking over him. They asked what was wrong and he said he forgot completely. Since his new dad was a doctor, he did a concussion test on Derek. It turns out; he had suffered a major concussion and had his brain swelling. He also realized that it was a little harder to think and breathe. They loaded him the car and took him to the hospital yet again but this time it was too late. His brain swelled up enough that it cut off the oxygen to his brain. This caused him to stop thinking and forget how to breathe. By the time they got to the hospital, CPR didn’t work and neither did the heart shock. His mother was devastated that he only child had passed away because of reasons that were unknown to her.
Up to this day, the answer is still unclear and remains a mystery to everyone. Most people don’t believe this story because they believe that ghosts are sci-fi like aliens. This was all Derek could have said in the car before his end.
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