Dulce Lacrimae

Nadia and Aniela walked through the small town laughing and talking together. "I'm glad your dad doesn't mind us hanging out like this." Nadia smiled."He doesn't care what I do. And it's not that far of a walk from my own town.""Oh, where do you live?""Glenfallen.""Never heard of it.""Probably because nothing happens there." Aniela sulked."Connacht is basically a shithole, nothing happens here. Even the Brits didn't want it."The girls laughed and sat down at the local cemetery. But on the inside, Aniela knew her mother loved Glenfallen. She loved the flooding river and pastel houses. She loved the calmness.They sat at a bench in the back corner, behind a big tree."You haven't called me yet." "Sorry, my phone is still broken but l'll soon get a new one."Aniela grinned to herself. Her plan was fruitful. She nearly had €50, and now she could buy a cheap Nokia phone from Tesco from a bigger town. Though she'll have to find a way to get there."You've been saying that for a year now, girl we are in Second year now.""I know. But we didn't get a chance to buy one.""Fine. But once you get it, call me immediately. Or text me, whatever." Silence. Nadia looked up to at the cloudy sky, while Aniela clumsily spilt coke over her brown cardigan.

"Aniela." Nadia looked at her. "Do you believe in ghosts?"Aniela looked across the graveyard."No.""No? Why not.""Because when people die, their souls go to some other place, don't they?" "Don't you think a soul can get trapped on earth? Like in the Limerick castle, the ghosts there are stuck because of the river.""So you believe in ghosts.""Hell yeah I do! I have this one friend; his name is John Sheridan. We've known each other since Primary and live at the same estate. We've found many ghosts together! We need to take you some time. Actually, let's go now!""Oh, I'm not sure about that." Aniela rubbed her arms."Trust me, you'll love him. He can get angry easily, but he is super nice otherwise. Though he was a lot more friendly years ago.... But I think ye would get along well." And so, Nadia grabbed Aniela's and dragged her out of the cemetery and up the hill.

Aniela observed the mint green house in front of her. It was at the end of a row of three house joined together.The other ones were yellow and looked ugly compared to Nadia's friend's house. She could smell the turf getting burned, and the dark grey smoke coming out of their chimney acted almost like a beacon. Her mother didn't like burning turf. She said it's bad for the environment for first digging up an animal's habitat and later burning it creating a nasty smog. Nadia banged on the black door, and Aniela stood a good bit away from her."Come closer, they don't bite.""They?"The door opens."Hello Nadia! Sweetie, come in! John is upstairs. John! John your friends are here!" Aniela couldn't believe that a small old lady that stood before her could even yell as well as a black metal vocalist. The lady turned to her, while cradling a child in her hands and another tugging at ger apron calling “Mom” over and over again."Oh! I don't think we have ever met! I'm John's mother. Don't be shy, come right in. What's your name sweetie?" "Aniela." Muttered the brown-haired girl while she was dragged by Nadia inside. "Aniela! Why that name is gorgeous." The lady smiled. "You can just call me Patty. John! John for God's sake how long does it take to go down those damn stairs? They won't be here all day!" A dirty blond-haired guy stomped down the stairs. He glared at the two girls. "What you want Nadia?" Patty rolled her eyes and walked to what Aniela guessed to be the kitchen while the toddler ran after her. "This is Aniela! My new friend. You know how I moved to the school here right? Yeah well, I met her there. She is such a good drawer and knows a lot about bones and stuff. Aniela say something.""Hi..""She doesn't believe in ghosts though, and there's an old, ruined shack down the road unexplored." Nadia looked smugly at John. He just grunted."Fine. But you are not getting the motion sensor again, not after last time.""Oh, come on, it was an accident." The blonde just grunted and stomped back up the stairs. Nadia turned to Aniela excitedly."He has weird little machines to do ghost hunting. A makeshift motion sensor, and also some yoke that hears things. You see, he's a nerd. He'll tell ya all about it."Aniela nodded. She looked up the stairs, and excitement slowly took over the nervousness. She watched the annoyed John walk down the stairs with a bag on his back."I'm going out with my friends!" He yelled to his mom."Don't come back late!"Aniela walked with the duo, listening into their conversation but not commenting anything. John didn't seem too eager to make conversation with her, but then again, he didn't seem eager to make conversation with anyone."Remember when we thought there was a ghost in the field behind the river? It came out we probably shouldn't use motion sensors when there's a hurricane." Nadia on the other hand loved yapping. Aniela didn't mind because she liked listening, but John didn't look too particularly delighted about listening either."Yeah, I know I was there.""Jeez, but Aniela wasn't."The lad grunts. They stop at a ruined shack in a field, beside a field of cows."I'm not going in there." John grumbled. "Why not? The cows are in a different field. Don't be so stiff. Aniela will go, won't you?" Nadia turned to the brown-haired girl."Sure. I go into fields a lot."Nadia grinned at John. "Two against one! We are going in!"Nadia walked up to the gate and swiftly climbed over. Aniela followed and climbed over a bit sloppier and John just huffed and followed, jumping over the gate. They walked up to the shack. It's not like a normal stone Irish ruin. It was a modern one.The walls were made out of sheath metal. The outside was coloured green and red. The shack was probably abandoned after the owner realised that it would keep falling over after even a small gust of wind. Aniela could smell the old toxic paint, while the sound of mooing decorated the scene, and John stood in the middle of it."You think there would be ghost here? The place is new, not enough time for people to die and get trapped here." Nadia glared at him. "I'm know that I'm not stupid. But the last few years I saw drug deals happen here.""And why did you wait to say something now?""Cause a couple years ago, I found blood on the grass beside it." John's expression momentarily softened, but it went back to his usual scowl. "What makes you think it was blood.""Cause it smelt like blood.""How on earth do you know that?" Aniela started walking around the shack."But still, it took you a while to say anything about. Did you tell the gardai?""Look I was ten! The gardai wouldn't believe shit I had to say. And I started doubting myself as well."Aniela saw something shiny on the ground and crouched to look at it closer."What makes you so sure now?" John asked irritated."Because a week ago, I cut myself by accident. Blood accidentally poured all over the floor. And next week it got dried up, and it smelt exactly the same.""Jesus, are you ok?""I’m fine, why?"Aniela picked up the shiny item. It was a rusted ring, with a diamond on it. It looked quite familiar. She put it in her pocket and went over to them."Why did it take you so long to clean it?"Aniela asked, and John nodded."Yeah, why did it?""Cause I wasn't bothered. Anyway, so are we going to do this or not?" John looked at Nadia and then Aniela."Might as well get over it.""Aniela?" Nadia turned to her with pleading eyes."Sure."

As one of the walls was missing, finding a door didn't matter. John put an old looking radio with colourful wires coming out of it in the middle of the shack. "No one move. I'll first calibrate it so it would get used to the current area. Then I'll set it so it will look it for unusual motion. And you." John glared at Nadia. "And mainly Nadia could be the unusual motion. So, stop moving.""I'm sorry! I can't help it.""Then try."John put the gadget down to the ground. He pressed a button and for a second the world went still. Then he backed up and sat down."Now I'll turn it on. Get comfortable so you wont accidentally move." Aniela sat down at the entrance and Nadia sat beside her excitedly. John pressed the button, and they all waited. One minute passed and John became less focused and more annoyed while time passed. Aniela also started believing that nothing will happen but suddenly there was a spike sound. Everyone looked over to the radio. You'd expect the radio to give off sound, but when Aniela looked closer, she saw a tiny screen attached that was coloured momentarily orange. But it stopped."What was that?" She asked."That means it picked up something." John answered"Why does it have a screen.""For exactly that reason.""What's the point of using the radio then?""Because the antennas are good at picking such things up, and also I found it in the attic.""Guys shut up." Nadia squeaked."Look."They all looked at the tiny screen.There, the colours flashed from red to yellow to orange to black and back to orange."What does that mean?" Aniela quizzed."That it's unstable.” John answered."Like a soul.""Ooh. Take out the sound yoke!" John did exactly that. He took out a single walkie-talkie, that also had colourful wires splaying out of it. He pressed a button, and they all held their breaths. Though the sounds were very quiet and static."Is there anyone here with us?" John asked. Static. "Anyone?"Suddenly a series of long and short static sounds played. And after a minute they stopped completely. The walkie-talkie went silent."What was that?" Nadia asked."It sounded like Morse code." Aniela muttered."Do you know Morse code?" They turned to her."No."

"Damn it's a shame that the ghost decided Morse code is the best way to communicate." Nadia grumbled while they walked back to their estate."Yeah, shame. Anyway, I have shit to do in a couple minutes so l'll just gonna leave ye." John sped up but Nadia sped up with him."What will you be doing.""None of your business.""Tell me.""No.""Tell me.""No.""Tell me!"Aniela just watched them from behind."Fine! Jesus. I'm going to play a game with my friends.""But you are hanging out with us.""Nadia. We've been over this. We are not friends.""You called me a friend when we were leaving."The lad rolled his eyes."Fine. But these are my better friends, ok? And you got your friend. Leave me alone.""But we used to be such good friends!" The lad just grunted and walked off in a different, leaving Nadia standing and scowling at him. Aniela walked up to her."Are you ok?""Yeah, I'm fine. Perhaps he is just going through a phase. Right? Right." The black-haired girl stared at the ground. She turned to Aniela.“You had a friend that didn’t speak for a while but came back, right?” Nadia said hopefully.“You are my only friend I ever had.” Nadia scowled but just looked down at the tarmac. They resumed walking towards her estate. A few minutes passed in silence."Nadia.""Hm?""I found something at the shack.""Oh? Show me."Aniela showed her the ring."Oh, cool.""Well not really.""Why not?""Because it looks exactly like my mother's engagement ring."