Cyril regained consciousness slowly. His eyes blinked away the blurriness brought on by the sunlight streaming into his room through the window. Wait. Cyril sat up in his bed and looked around.
He was in his room. Lying down on his bed. His backpack hung on the bedpost. Cyril began to question the events he so clearly remembered. The only evidence of what happened was the bandage that was still wrapped around his hand, not even his clothes had a speck of mud on them.
Had he just dreamed the entire thing? Then why couldn't he recall how he had gotten home? And he'd never had such a vivid dream before. Could it have been a lucid dream then?
A soft breeze hit his face and he noticed the window was open and the curtains fluttered gently. The soft rays of early morning shone in and Cyril could hear the peaceful chirping of some birds in the distance.
Cyril swung his legs over the side of the bed, walking over to the window. He cautiously stuck his head out and surveyed the yard. Nothing seemed remiss. The ground had some puddles left over from the storm last night, but besides that everything looked like it normally did. Cyril even spotted his mother's car in the driveway.
Cyril breathed a sigh of relief. Everything seemed normal and his mother had made it home. Cyril ducked back inside, mind made up to go and find his mother. It would be reassuring to see her after such a nightmare.
As soon as Cyril shut his window, a boy popped his head through and shouted, "BOO!"
Cyril screamed and stumbled away from the widow, tripping over his feat and hitting the ground with a hard thud. The boy sticking his head through the closed window, began laughing his head off as if this was the funniest thing he had ever seen. Literally. His head detached and started to float away before the rest of his body came through the window and grabbed it.
"Whoops," The boy said while shoving his head back on his body. "There I go losing my head again. Haha!"
Now fully through the window, the boy floated in front of a startled Cyril, who was still on the ground. The boy had sandy shoulder-length hair that fell in messy waves, making him look like he had perpetual bedhead. He was dressed in a loose, plain white tunic with a brown belt tied around his waist, from which a small satchel hung. He wore brown trousers that seemed too small for him, as the frayed ends of the pants only reached just below the boy's knees. He wore no shoes, but he probably didn't need them anyway, seeing as he could float.
"Hi there! The name's Bonbon, but you can call me Bonny. It's nice to meet you." Bonny held out his hand towards Cyril.
After an awkward moment of both of them just staring at each other, Bonny seemed to grow impatient. He retracted his hand and crossed his arms in a pout. "What's this? Is this how children are raised nowadays? Back in my day, parents taught their kids manners. Like how it's rude to leave people hanging!"
Cyril looked Bonny up and down. He didn't look to be much older than Cyril himself. In fact, if it wasn't for Bonny's floating, Cyril thought the boy would probably be a couple of inches shorter than him.
"Um… Sorry. You just startled me." Cyril finally managed to get out, figuring it wouldn't be a good idea to piss off the ghost, or whatever Bonny was, before figuring out what the hell was going on.
"Oh, ahaha, did I really scare you that bad? I'm sorry." Bonny rubbed the back of his head and at least had the decency to look a little sheepish. "Mostly I just get laughed at and told I'm not very scary. Is this like your first time seeing a ghost or something?"
So I was right. He is a ghost! I'm talking to a ghost right now!
Inside, Cyril was freaking out, but he resolved to remain calm. He stood up and dusted himself off before offering his hand out. "Yeah, it is. I'm Cyril. It's nice to meet you."
A shocked look came over Bonny's face, then he smiled and shook Cyril's hand enthusiastically. "Wow! I'm the first ghost you've met?! It's an honor."
Cyril was surprised at how solid Bonny's hand felt, a bit surprised that he hadn't just phased right through it like he had with the window.
"So, um, what exactly are you doing here?" Cyril had to ask, because why was a random ghost just speaking to him out of the blue?
"Oh, right!" Bonny stopped shaking Cyril's hand and his expression got more serious. "I almost forgot."
Bonny floated back and cleared his throat. "Uhhuhum, I've been sent by my master to collect you for your initiation and training period. Now, I can't really stay in the human realm that long, so please be quick and pack your things so we can get going."
Cyril got a bad feeling when Bonny mentioned a master.
"Your master?"
Bonny beamed. "Not just my master. Yours now too! I can't tell you how excited I am to be getting a roomie! It's so boring there by myself since Master is so serious all the dang time."
"What the heck are you talking about? I don't have a master and I'm sure as hell not going anywhere."
Bonny tilted his head. "Sure you do, silly. You went inside the apothecary and took something without asking, right?"
"That's not– I wasn't trying to steal anything!" Cyril protested.
Bonny shrugged. "Beings like Master don't really care all that much about semantics. The point is that it looked like that, didn't it?"
Cyril nodded reluctantly, "I guess so."
Bonny continued, "And you drank and ate the things he offered you?"
Cyril nodded.
"And then you told him your name when he asked, right?"
Cyril nodded again.
"Well, there you go. He owns your name now. Which is basically the same as owning your soul and now you have to do what he says. And he says that you'll work at the apothecary, so you'll work at the apothecary."
Cyril shook his head emphatically. "No! No way, I'm not going back there!"
Bonny gave him a pitying look, "Sorry, but you don't really have a choice. In fact, Master's already being super nice just letting you come back here for your stuff and to say goodbye to your mother."
"But—" Cyril protested again. "I can't just leave! My mom would notice. She'd call the police and then a whole bunch of people would be looking for me."
"No." Bonny shook his head. "You don't have to worry about that. Master has already put a mesmer over her. She thinks you'll be going to a summer camp in the area and that you've been asking to go since you found out it existed a week ago. She seemed really happy too. She thinks it's the perfect opportunity for you to make some friends. And, really, I couldn't agree more, I think we'll become the best of friends."
Mesmer? His mom had been hypnotized or something? Cyril felt a bit nauseous, just what kind of monster had he gotten tangled up in? "And- and what if I refuse to go?"