THE GHOSTWATCHER

A Story by The Lost Ghost

Sam is a young high school kid that uses carved figures containing the spirits of his people to fight off other evil spirits. With a bag full of tricks and enchanted weapons, he is The Ghostwatcher.

“Don’t touch that!” yelled Sam, exasperated. I quickly pulled away from the little carved wooden figure on the desk. “What is it, a new collectible?” I ask. “Well, Ed, it’s kind of a long story.” Sam replied. “They are my kachinas. They traditionally represent the gods of my people and are used to teach the kids all about them. But these particular figures are…special. Now that I’m the Ghostwatcher, these kachinas have a very different purpose.” “Ghostwatcher? What’s that?” I asked, puzzled. He sat his game controller down at that point. “That’s a longer story!”

When Sam turned 15, he became the new Ghostwatcher, the shaman of his people. He inherited the responsibility when his dad disappeared. As the Ghostwatcher, he is the go between for his tribe and the spirit realm and was trained by his elders to use magic spells and enchanted objects to protect the town. It was mostly a ceremonial title. But things seem to have changed. Unexplained fires, bad storms, and reports of unusual events, seemingly supernatural in origin, have increased. The elders believe that its Sam’s time to put his training to use, but he just wants to play video games. Starting high school this year will be a big challenge, but being the Ghostwatcher will be the biggest challenge of all.

“So are we still going to the anime film fest at the old theater?” I asked. “Yeah, but we have to stop and get Cleo. She’d kill us if we went without her!” Sam answered. “She’s probably at home, doing math problems for fun!” he mused. When we got there, we were surprised at what we found. She was at her desk, on her laptop with the Weather Channel on and newspapers everywhere. “Wow. I’ve never seen you with such a big mess!” Sam exclaimed. “I know,” Cleo began. “This unorganization is killing me! But I’m researching and haven’t had the time to clean up.” “What’re you looking up?” I asked. “I know we live in the Southwest and it’s normally warm in the summer, but for some reason, it’s unseasonably hot.” she explained. “Maybe it’s El Nino.” I offered. “No, it’s something else.” She continued. “The weather had been consistent for weeks, but suddenly everything spiked. The meteorologists can’t explain it. I’ve been able to narrow it down and it seems like it only started recently.” “You know what else has started recently? The anime fest and if we don’t get moving, we’ll miss it!” shouted Sam. “Okay, okay! But something is going on and I’m going to find out!” Cleo exclaimed.

The theater was only a few blocks away from Cleo’s apartment so we walked. One of the things about living in a small town is that everything is walking distance. Our high school is around the corner, the reservation that Sam’s people use to live on is at the edge of town, and a used book store that we hang out at is down the street. There’s not much that goes on here. As we neared the theater, the sky suddenly got dark. “Cleo, did they say it was going to rain today?” I asked. “No. It’s supposed to be clear and sunny. This is what I’m talking about. It’s not adding up.” She replied. Sam got a look on his face as if he saw a ghost. “What is it, Sam?” “I dunno,” he started. “Something’s not right.” “Do you guys smell that?” Cleo asked. “Smells like fire.” “It’s coming from behind the theater!” Sam yelled. We ran as quickly as we could, but we weren’t prepared for what we saw. A man in a mask was standing there, wearing all black and a gray trench coat. His back was too us, but we clearly didn’t see a fire. “Hey!” shouted Sam. The figure turned and looked at us. “Who is that?” asked Cleo. “You won’t believe it. I barely do. But that’s the Skeleton Man, Keeper of Fire. “Suddenly, the masked man’s hands turned to flame, and he threw the fire at us. “Watch out!” Sam hollered. We dodged that initial ball of fire, but just as we started getting up, the figure was preparing for another attack. Without hesitation, Sam reached into his bag and pulled out one of those figures he had on his shelf, a kachina decorated with water symbols. He threw the kachinas at the guy and as it traveled through the air, a giant spirit emerged from the figure. “What is that?!” I questioned Sam. “Those special kachinas I told you about? They are enchanted. I can use them to summon the spirit of the god they represent. You’re looking at the water god, and he’s about to attack!” "Oh, cool. Kinda like Pokemon!" I respond. "Something like that, yeah..." Sam says sarcastically.

The water god raised his arms and a flush of water, like a firefighter’s hose, rushed at the mask man. The masked man jumped and dodged, and as he rolled out of the way, he lobbed another fireball, hitting the water god square in the chest. It created a hole with a bunch of steam coming out of it, but it was quickly repaired. The water god fired a volley of blasts but the figure escaped being hit. The masked figure picked up a few rocks, charged them with heat, and tossed them at us, using them like grenades. One exploded near us, and if not for Sam’s quick thinking, we would have been hit by the others. He grabbed a stick from his bag and knocked the rocks back at the masked man, which distracted him long enough to allow the water god to launch his big attack, a giant sword made of water. The water god struck the masked man, knocking off his mask. “That’s not the Skeleton Man!” yelled Sam. And just as the water god was about to deliver the final blow, the now unmasked man disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The water god returned back into the kachina and Sam picked it up and put it back into his pack. “Let’s get out of here before the cops come.” he said. We didn’t hesitate.

“So, what’s going on, Sam? What was that back there?” Cleo asked. “I’ve been trained to fight evil spirits. I was given enchanted objects to do so. I’ve had a feeling something bad was coming, but I wasn’t expecting this.” “And the masked man?” I ask? “The Skeleton Man is the God of Death. He’s not normally a bad guy. If someone is going around pretending to be him, I have to find out who and why. And if it really is the Skeleton Man, he’s going to be tough to beat. Plus, he may know what happened to my dad. I have to find out!” “Then we’ll help you. I want to change the world, make it a better place. Until I can run for public office, saving the world from evil spirits is the next best thing!” explains Cleo. “I’ve got nothing else to do. Sounds fun! ”I add. “This town is about to get a lot more interesting…!”