Chapter 18: You Should Never Trust a Ghost

Before Freddy could get hold of Sandra's attention in the bathroom mirror, he screamed again and disappeared! The reflection returned to normal as Sandra desperately opened her cabinet bathroom mirror door. And gasped in shock to discover her shelves of bathroom necessities were all empty! She stared into a black empty space in the open bathroom mi"Sandra? That's not normal!" Mr. Starbright said.

 Sandra quickly closed the bathroom cabinet mirror and screamed when he saw Freddy staring back at him again! He was shouting her name and calling for help. And then he disappeared again.

Sandra started crying for her friend. She didn't want to let anything happen to him. Because she cared so much for him. It would be such a loss if Sandra didn't fight to save her friend from something they have never dealt with.

Her mother looked like she was embarrassed to be her daughter. She didn't know what to do or think. When Mrs. Starbright gets nervous or anxious, she starts biting her fingernails. She turned and pointed to look at the bathroom mirror, again! They all turned to look.

In the bathroom mirror, there was a shadowy, ghostlike image of what used to be the young boy, Freddie. In the mirror, there was another ghostly creature floating above Freddie in the mirror. There were chains cuffed around his long, gnarly hands. It was howling and making Freddie float in the mirror in front of the haunted ghoul before him. 

"Freddy? Don't go! What's wrong?" Sandra asked, impatiently. While the two sister witches were playing with the Ouija game board, they couldn't keep up with the pointer. It was moving all over the game board, very fast.

They were struggling to keep up with the game board. Finally, Gene and Cookie let go of the pointer. And watched it circle around the game board, frantically. Then, it zoomed over the letters of the alphabet on the game board, slowly. 

It started to spell something or somebody's name: LET THE GHOST HOWLER OUT! That's when the mirror glowed and returned to normal. The bathroom lights flashed back on. Not understanding what was happening, they all turned to the sound of the closed shower curtain ruffling. 

They looked at the shadow behind the bathroom shower curtain. The person suddenly fumbled and fell through the shower curtain, fell through it and toppled over the two sister witches. Sandra quickly moved the Ouija game board out of the way.

Landing on top of the witches, Freddy squirmed and struggled to get himself up! Sandra sat the Ouija game board aside. "Freddy! I can't believe you're okay!" Sandra said. Mr. and Mrs. Starbright were so confused seeing this mysterious young boy appear out of nowhere, without them knowing much about him.

"Sandra? Who is this little boy you've never mentioned to us about?" Mrs. Starbright asked curiously. "Are you sure he's somebody you can trust?" he asked. Sandra wasn't paying attention to what his mother was saying to her. She was hugging this boy who was meant to keep her protected from the evil forces of ghosts who are not meant to be bothered.

 "What happened to you, Freddy? I was so worried about you," Sandra said. She kept hugging him and then sniffled her nose and looked into his tired, blue eyes back at him. "I thought I would never see you again," she said, hopelessly.

Smiling, Freddy gave her a look of appreciation and acceptance, everything would be okay. "You should know about the ghosts wanting to control everybody in Supernaturalville," Freddy was explaining. "I can't believe I made it through the other side, without anything going wrong," Freddy said.

Mr. and Mrs. Starbright gathered around Sandra and Freddy, who didn't stop looking at each other with affection. "Now, Sandra," Mr. Starbright began. "I know you are happy to see your best friend from the other side of wherever he came from. But you don't know if he can be trusted, dear. How long have you been seeing this boy?" Mr. Starbright asked.

Freddy suddenly turned to look at the bathroom mirror and everybody ducked! Something flew through the ghost mirror and smacked Gene the witch in the head with a thwack! "Oh, no! Poor, dear!" Mrs. Starbright cried. 

Mr. Starbright grabbed a rock with a handwritten note over it in black marker, attached to a rubber band around it. Turning the rock around, Mr. Starbright he read the message on he the hard, solid rock outloud: "'Hand over the boy, and nobody gets hurt!'" Mr. Starbright read.

"I don't understand," Mrs. Starbright said, confused. "Who wants to keep this young boy against his will?" she asked, worriedly. Turning to look away from the bathroom mirror, Mrs. Starbright shook her fists furiously at the shadowy man in Sandra's haunted bathroom mirror.

Suddenly, dark storm clouds lightning and thundered in the mirror above Ghost Howler's black rimmed hat. He was growing impatient and didn't want to be kept waiting any longer. "I have things to do with this young man," the angry Ghost Howler snapped at everybody. "He is the answer to open the ghost portal to let out the immortal, undead ghosts to walk among the living throughout Supernaturalville. To keep the ghosts from getting any rest or even be at peace with themselves," the Ghost Howler said.

Turning to the bathroom mirror, Mr. Starbright quickly turned out the bathroom light. But that didn't stop the image of the Ghost Howler from appearing the dark shadowy glow of the bathroom mirror from being exposed to darkness around him.

"You're not going to stop me from getting what I want out of this boy," Ghost Howler said. "I need him to get the ghosts out of the haunted portal. Where the Better Place is getting restless after a long cursed slumber," he said.

The storm clouds around the Ghost Hower's head flashed with lightning and poured rain over him in the image of the bathroom mirror. The mirror was getting foggy. And the image of the horrible Ghost Howler vanished, returning the mirror to normal reflection in the dark bathroom.

"Oh, this can't be good, everybody," Mr. Starbright said. "We have a haunted bathroom mirror in our house," he continued, studying the mirror in the dark. Mrs. Starbright turned the bathroom light back on. 

Seeing the mirror was normal, nobody would think it would be any different. "Sandra, what's going on here?" Mrs. Starbright asked. Sandra ignored her mother and continued hugging Freddy with all her attention and care. "Explain to us, what is so important with the boy and your bathroom mirror having a connection with the spirits of the underworld?" she asked.

Sandra finally broke her concentration by comforting her friend to turn her attention to her parents. "It doesn't matter. I can't explain it. But I don't want this boy, he's just a special friend of mine. And I won't let him get trapped back inside my bathroom mirror again! Without saying good-bye," Sandra said.

Freddy pounded his fists angrily beside the glass mirror in frustration. "I won't take orders from a no-good deed ghost haunter! Who wants just to use me and get away with making ghosts upset. They don't belong where they are supposed to rest in the afterlife at the Better Place!" Freddy said.

"What do we do?" Sandra asked her parents, worriedly. She didn't want Freddy to leave the real world. Where he promised to keep Sandra safe from the ghosts running wild on the loose on the other side of her bathroom mirror.

"You don't have to do anything," Mr. Starbright said, promisingly. He walked over to the bathroom mirror. Then, Mr. Starbright grabbed some silver duct tape and started sealing up the mirror, covering it from top to bottom in silver duct tape.

Sandra didn't think the duct tape would stay on the mirror for long. "I wouldn't do that, sir," said Gene, earnestly. Put extra layer of thick silver duct tape across the bathroom mirror, Mr. Starbright stopped. Something moved through the bathroom mirror! 

A strong, shadowy, ghost hand wearing a black glove broke through the bathroom mirror. Shattering the glass. Mr. Starbright fell backward into the shower curtain. And fell into the bathtub. 

The black leather gloved hand reached out of the bathroom mirror. Before Sandra could let the shadowy Ghost Howler grab hold of Freddy, Sandra quickly jumped in front of him. To defend her best friend.

When unexpectedly, the black leather gloved hand grabbed hold of Sandra by her shirt collar. And pulled Sandra through the bathroom mirror, taking Freddy's place instead. Freddy screamed. "No! Not right!" Freddy opened the bathroom mirror cabinet. But there was nothing there. Sandra's parents were shocked to have discovered something happened without any explanation. It hasn't been made since. How could they have let this happen?

Both sister witches are excited! They danced around each other, excitedly.

But it was far much too late! Sandra had met her fate!