“Huh? Yeah.” I nodded. I returned to my friends. When I entered the room, they were talking to Patel and the others. 

“Hey look. We solved the problem. It was the old printer turning on at 12 pm. We get to be the official club.” Nigel patted Patel on the shoulder.

“But…but you didn’t prove there was a ghost.” 

“That wasn’t the requirement.” Izzy folded her arms.

“The deal was to fix the room, not proof anything.” Penn intervened. 

“You can’t change the deal.” Suyi crossed her arms.

“You couldn’t prove your alien thing either.” Izzy stepped in. The bickering started and none of us refused to admit the fault. Amidst the fight, a cold chill went down the spine. I stopped speaking. The light was somehow gone as if we were in the school at night time. I noticed that Penn stood silent and Ethan stared at something at the entrance. There weren’t ten of us in the room. The corridor too grew dark. A shadow fell on my feet. All of us were quiet now. I craned my head slightly. A fat ghost hovered above us with a big smile on its face. 

“Ready or not I’m coming.” it spoke. Suyi let out a loud scream. We broke into a run, out into the corridor.

“Why are we running?” Izzy said in a panic.

“The ghost!” I yelled. 

“What ghost?”

“Oh my God. You’re blind.” Enzo cried.

“Great.” Nigel cursed. 

“Not even when it made itself appear?” I asked. 

“No!” I grabbed Izzy's hand and we all hid behind the stairs. 

“This can’t be happening.” Roger cried as he hugged the wall.

“That’s what we were telling you. The bad energy was right there.” Penny sneered at him.

“How could we know?” Suyi said in a panic.

“Maybe if you got the parasite out of your head.” 

“Guys, it's playing hide and seek. If we hide and the other attacks from the behind. We can get the ghost down.” Enzo whispered as he tried to regain his breath.

“I can take him down.” Ethan spoke.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He nodded after some thought. 

A swift figure went past the corner. The ghost turned towards it.

“Here I come!” The ghost laughed. It ran towards it. Another figure swished past it, lightly grazing the translucent being. The ghost turned around, confused. It followed the figure but something tripped up the window. Penny sprinted away from the disturbance.

“There you are.” The ghost let out a gleeful laugh. He chased after Penny. Penny ran with all her strength. Izzy pushed her away and ran down the corridor. The ghost stood confused. 

“Where are you going?” it ran after Izzy. Enzo stepped out from behind the corridor, catching the ghost’s attention. The ghost ran after Enzo. He tripped on the ground but Nigel intervened in his wolf form. He ran towards the left side of the corridor, distracting the ghost towards him. He ran up to the middle but then all of us were running around the corridor, running back and forth out of the darkness. The ghost kept getting distracting towards each one of us. It circled in its spot with a panicked expression on its face. 

“Where do I go? Stop it please.” The ghost cried in the middle of the corridor. We kept running back and forth like a glitch in a game. Ethan came from behind him. White smoke filled the corridor as a hissing sound emerged from the fire extinguisher.

“It hurts.” The ghost fell to the ground, grabbing his face. Slowly, the smoke dispersed.

“What do you want?” Ethan asked as he kept his distance. The ghost didn’t answer.

“You hurt me. Mom, they hurt me.” it cried, hiding his face with his palms. I couldn’t see it at the first time but as the ghost bowed its head, I noticed his head was split open. His brain, or what was left of it, was swollen and bleeding. 

“Then why were you hunting us like that, dumbo?” Nigel poked him in the face. 

“Don’t scold me. Is that how you not play hide and seek?” His voice distorted terribly. 

“What do you mean?” Ethan crouched beside it as his face softened. 

“You don’t attack in hide and seek.” He sulked.

“What is it saying?” Penn leaned in. 

“He was playing hide and seek.”

“Oh my God.” she said in shock. 

“Then why are you here?”

“I don’t know.  We were playing hide and seek. I counted to a hundred and searched for them all day. They had hidden really well.  I fell asleep and when I woke up, I was in this place. I tried to find Benson and Wolfgang but they weren’t there. They had said they would play with me but I couldn’t find them. Other kids joined in and I was so happy. People actually wanted to play with me. Jonathon was so happy but then you hurt me.” 

“I’m so sorry.” Enzo sobbed. Snot dripped from his nose as tears went down his face. He lunged at the ghost to hug him. Izzy stood teary eyed as Penn repeated the ghost’s words. My heart sank as the ghost told the story. 

“We were just scared.” I said. “We won't hurt you again.” 

“Do you know how you died?” Penn asked. He shook his head. I sucked in my tears. He was left alone. Judging by the wound, he must have fallen or worse, pushed. All this time we thought of him as evil but all he was a child trying to make friends. Stuck in the mortal world without knowing why or what had happened to him. 

“I can’t see you but we can play hide and seek if you want.” Izzy followed the direction I was looking at. She raised her hand to touch him but her hand only hovered in the air. 

“Yeah.” Nigel muttered. Red rimmed his eyes. 

“But I’m no good. I can’t find anyone.” 

“Don’t cry, Johnathon. You hid so well that even Ethan couldn’t see you.” I patted him on the shoulder. Ethan nodded at my words, moving closer to Johnathon. He smiled through his tear rimmed eyes. I took his hand but his hand went through mine. He helped himself up. 

In the school basement, we ran around in the corridors playing hide and seek. Izzy went first as the seeker. We took turns. This time we didn’t scream or run in fear, but we were happy. Johnathon was happy. Our laughs echoed in the corridor. 

Ethan’s foot tripped and stumbled onto Jonathon. He stumbled a few steps as he went through him. We all stopped, staring at Johnathon. He was confused too as he looked at his hands. Sprinkles of light rose over his body, becoming more translucent.  

“Johnathon had so much fun.” He smiled at us. 

“We did too.” Izzy and Enzo sobbed as they held each other. 

“Bye.” I sniffed.

“We’ll play again.” He was barely visible now. Slowly he faded into the air, gone from this world. His wish was fulfilled now. 

“Ok you guys have proven yourselves.” Patel fixed his glasses. He might have tried to hide his red swollen eyes and tear marks but his voice was clearly broken from all the crying. I pursed my lips. 

“It was nice doing this challenge with you.” I shook hands with him. 

“I still don’t believe you.” Penny gave a look to Suyi.

“You bet.” she gave a look back but then the two of them were smiling. 

“Our club will still continue.” The other members nodded to him.

“Finally, we are the Supernatural’s club!” Penny raised her fists.

“Yeah we are!” Nigel hooted. We added in the cheers. Ethan stood stiff and shocked from our cheering but we pulled him anyway. 

“Oh my God, I forgot about Chem!” I realised that the break had been over almost half an hour ago.