Finally!

Okay! I attempted to break some more ground on my new story idea, but it's a no-go. I'm tired of writing high school settings, but I don't have the experiene to write anything else. Ugh, frusrating. So anyway, The Great Funnel is still my favorite and I prefer to work on that at the moment. With that said, I'm sorry, but I'm going to post TGF since the new idea is crap so far. Here we go. Tell me what you think. I'm sorry it's short.

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When school let out, snow was falling through the air, obstructing my view of the world. The air was cold, but mostly dry and very still. I walked home as usual. It wasn’t that far, but it was still a good walk. But today Hannah was with me, so I wasn’t extremely bored. Not to mention, Nathan had tagged along.

“So, you wanna come over now and play Xbox? Since you missed it yesterday for whatever reason,” he said.

“I told you, there was an emergency,” I said.

“Oh, right. But there’s not one now, right? So let’s go.”

“I can’t…” my words trailed off as I heard the gunshot.

Everyone around me ducked, but I stood firm in my stance, suddenly braver than usual.

“Over there!” Hannah pointed northeast across the street.

There was a man standing over a little boy, who was crying, and a woman, who looked to be in her early twenties. The woman wasn’t moving.

“Hannah, can you do something?” I asked.

But then the man fired another shot and the boy quit crying.

“Shit!” Hannah said.

Everyone around us began to run in circles, not sure where to go. Panic rose in the street with each passing second as people identified what was happening. Once they saw the gunman standing over the two bodies, they rushed to flee the scene, even if it meant trampling little kids underfoot.

“Ah man,” I said as a bad feeling sprang up in my throat. I couldn’t shake the thought that I would see the woman and little boy later that day. I turned around to tell Nathan I had to go home, but he wasn’t there. “Where did he go?”

Hannah looked around us and then began jumping up and down to see above the crowd of running people. “There he is!” She pointed down the sidewalk to our right. “He’s running with his tail between his legs.” She laughed.

“Hannah, just because you’re dead doesn’t mean everyone else is invincible as well.” She looked at me with anger in her eyes. “I’m sorry. Let’s just go home.”

“Hold on, maybe I can make sure the cops catch the gunman.”

I heard sirens in the distance and I turned to look for the gunman, but he was gone.

“Shit!” Hannah said again. “Where did he go?”

“I don’t know, but let’s leave. I don’t want to be around when the cops show up."
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“I know that they’ll be here,” I said as I slowly opened the door to my house.

“Want me to check it out?” Hannah asked.

“We can do it together. I think they’re harmless, they just need some help.”

The door creaked as I shut it behind me, making the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. I couldn’t help but freak myself out with wild thoughts of dead people waiting for me in my room.

As Hannah and I both climbed the stairs to the second story, I heard faint sobbing coming from my room. The sobbing wasn’t sad or hysterical, but completely frightening; only something a horror movie would possess. I no longer wanted to meet the dead woman and boy.

“Hello?” I whispered almost inaudibly before I pushed my door open.

Hannah flicked on the light with such Zen that I thought she should be me and I should be her. She was definitely way more cut out for being the one dead people talked to. I couldn’t help but wince involuntarily before properly looking into my room.

“Dude, that crying is horrendous! You’re dead, okay? Deal,” Hannah huffed, clearly annoyed.

The little boy sat in the middle of my room on the floor and wailed as the woman knelt beside him and patted his back in a consoling manner. Her gaze slowly turned to meet Hannah’s as a silent scowl swept through the air.

Now I was really frightened.

Hannah scoffed at the gaze she received and crossed her arms hard in front of her, shielding herself from the dead woman’s glare.

I smiled slightly and nervously, trying to figure out the best way to ask what the hell they were doing in my room.

“Uh, so, hi, um … can I help you … or something?” I stammered.

“We might be able to help you if you get him to shut up,” Hannah said impatiently with a roll of her eyes.

“He’s frightened,” the woman said quietly while continuing to console the boy.