When I was little, my sister and I had an invisible friend. His name was John. He was like the cool, older brother she and I never had, being both young girls. 

We'd say he would join us on car rides, and sit in the seat between us. When we'd reach our destination John would patiently wait in the car, I simply guessed that he wasn't fond of people. I could get that, I was a shy child. At home we'd all play pretend, and he'd protect us from the 'ghosts' in my sister's closet. At night, our invisible friend would supposedly sleep under my bed. 'His bedroom is under my bed.' I'd say. 'You get there through a secret door in my wall. Only he can open it, though." I would assure my family, my sister agreeing. Then, we'd give them our innocent young smiles and all would be fine. 

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    Then, we grew up. We outgrew our invisible friend. Moved on from as life carried forth. We forgot. By then, we were older than our invisible friend had been. We were young adults. Now, we are renovating our childhood home. With the help of our family friends. We were planning to sell it in the summertime, as our parents planned to move down south. Us kids were getting older and moving out, so they wanted to retire somewhere warm. We were working on my room. I lean against my sledgehammer a moment, wiping sweat from my face, taking a breath. But being a klutz I slipped and the head of my hammer knocked against my wall.

I panic and swear under my breath. But a draft came through the hole newly created. I peeked and looked in the hole, there was a cavernous space behind it. 

  "Hey, come and look at this!" I called. My mother, father, sister and our family friends jog over. 

 "What's up?" One asks, kneeling down to look in the hole I accidentally made. "Ha! I told you there was enough room for a room to be there!" My best friend, Ferris comments, nudging me.

    Ferris had become the fantasized older brother my sister and I had imagined. After we outgrew our invisible friend, we practically grew up with Ferris. He was helping renovate, so were his parents. 

    "That's crazy," I began, "I can't believe I haven't realized it was here all these years..." I add. 

   "Well now we do." My sister comments. 

   "Let's check it out." One of us suggests. Sometime later, we managed to break a space big enough for one of us to squeeze through. 

My sister, best friend, and I volunteered to check it out. Excited, and thirsty for mystery and adventure.

"Feels almost like we're kids again, ey Elise?" Ferris says, nudging my arm. I gave a slight chuckle. 

  "Yeah, but still, something feels creepy about this." I reply

   "I have to agree, though." My sister, Mallory adds. 

  "Well, maybe it's the fact that it's been here all this time and you never realized it, bothering you." He continues, smirking. 

    "Oh shove it, Ferris." I fired back, giving a nudge back. 

   "Now, what are we waiting for?" My sister spoke up, sassily waving her hand at our banter. I did a clawing motion at her and hissed like a cat. We'd grown up with cats so it was just fun.

   "Yes let's vamos," I announce, motioning to enter. Only the three of us were small enough to wriggle through the opening. We had put on work clothes, gloves and protective masks in case something was in the air. We were equipped with flashlights and Ferris had his tool belt. My dad moved the piece of plywood he had put in front of the hole, and then the three of us crawled in, one by one. 

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The room was dark as dusk. Cold like winter, despite it being late Spring. We moved the beams of our flashlights around the room. Assessing just how big it was. We took out a device to test the air quality of the room and see whether or not it was safe. 

 "We're good," I noted. "But we should probably keep our masks on just in case, until we can fully assess the room." I added.

 "Well, alright then." My sister replied.

 "Yes ma'am," Ferris comments, doing a two-fingered salute. I scoffed. The three of us began to walk further into the room. Shockingly, it was a decent sized room. Bigger than it seemed possible on the outside. It smelled of the must of a room gone undisturbed for many, many years. Of mildew, mold and something else I couldn't put my finger on. But as we went on , a strange heavy feeling sank in. The feeling of dread, or being watched.

   "Hey, do you guys feel that?" I spoke up, voice quiet though.

    "Somewhat.. yeah." My sister agreed in a whisper. 

  "Feel what?" Ferris began, it was obvious he felt it too, but it trailed off as if it suddenly dawned on him.

 "The overwhelming, awkward, feeling of something being wrong? Yes." He mumbles, keeping his voice quiet.

  "Yeah, exactly that." I wince, glancing around. As we went further, the feeling only grew. The temperature only dropped, and we began to see our breath through our masks in the faint glow of the flashlights. This was by the time we reached about the middle of the room, walls closing in on all sides. 

   All of the sudden, our flashlights began to flicker. 

  "Hey, what the-" Ferris mutters, hitting the side of his flashlight. 

  "That's weird..." I comment, hitting mine too. 

  "Creepy..." My sister says, shaking hers. The beams went steady. We venture a bit further, on edge. The flashlights flicker and sputter out again. "Seriously?" I grumble. 

"They were full battery last time I checked..." Ferris defends, trying to get his flashlight to work again.

    "This is ridiculous," My sister comments. I feel her going to turn and leave. I caught her arm.   

   "I think we should stick together, until we get the lights to work." I suggest. 

  "That would be the safest." Mallory surrenders.

    "Well, I guess it's better than getting separated so the spooks can get us." Ferris comments. It was slightly hard to tell whether he was teasing or serious, he had a certain talent for that I shove him then grab him. 

    "You're a pain in the ass, you know." I replied.  

   "I pride myself on tha----" Ferris trails off, we shortly realize why. 

Lights had appeared out of nowhere. Illuminating the room. We hadn't seen any lights beforehand.... They flashed in strange patterns, gathering closer towards the middle of the room. As the lights continued to flash, they seemed to form a silhouette.

   The flashing lights slowed, and formed a full apparition. Many thoughts went through my head. Including that of my invisible friend so many years ago... I was too stunned to read Mallory's and Ferris' expressions. I didn't dare take my eyes off of the apparition. It appeared to be that of a young man, maybe a teenager, younger than us by a little. He had slightly wavy hair, short and black. His eyes were distant yet held our gaze. 

   The apparition slowly held out a hand, and gave a soft smile. It was strange, but now I am more aware. Yet my sister and I didn't seem to be scared by him. As if there wasn't anything- threatening about his appearance, flickering in and out of focus, some characteristics, I couldn't make out. Ferris, however, wasn't having this, he was on edge. 

   "I knew I could sense there was something in this house after all this time- I used to just think it was paranoia---" he whispered to himself. My sister nor I paid much mind, somewhat mesmerized by the apparition.  

    Then, the apparition did a motion with his hand, seeming to want us to follow. Mallory and I went to do so. Ferris caught us both by our shoulders. 

   "Are you two crazy?" He whispers, somewhat harshly into our ears. Leaning down, because he was taller than both of us. The apparition seemed to roll his eyes, doing another motion, mouthing words he could not speak. I shook my head, 

   "We're safe, I can feel it...do you feel threatened, Ferris?" I reply, voice soft. Ferris sighed. 

    "Fine, but if we all end up rotting dead in a secret murder room, I won't be afraid to tell you I told you so." He mutters, reluctant. The apparition did an exasperated motion as if to say 'THANK you'! Before turning down some way. The three of us follow. It took me a moment for the realization to settle in that we were behind the walls of the house. It was a tight fit, we could barely fit in single file. The apparition seemed to manage to produce enough light. It was a strange experience if you ask me, following a ghost through the the walls of your childhood house.

     After a bit, we reached a sort of indent ahead. The ghost paused and pivoted to face us. Now we could see him more clearly for a moment. He looked like he'd been mercilessly beaten up. He had sadness in his eyes. His appearance flickered and formed into an orb, and began circling around the indent. 

   "I think he wants us to break it..." Mallory whispers, glancing at me. I nod and start to kick at the area. It took a few kicks but one of the old boards broke and dust bursted out, the orb moved aside and vanished. We adjusted our masks so we wouldn't break into coughing fits. 

  "Hey, there's something here..." I managed to say to Mallory and Ferris. He'd put a hand on his head, staring at the opening with a strange expression, I could see it in his eyes. 

  "What is it?" Mallory asks him.

  "There's something off about this..." Ferris whispers.

  "That's why we need to find out." I tell him softly. He nods, then Mallory and him agree to help me kick open more space. After a bit, our flashlights came back on, revealing an old, battered chest. It was rather large. It took all three of us to pull the chest out. Ferris used a screwdriver to burst the lock open. The ghost materialized behind the chest a moment, with a sad smile as we went to open it. I lift off the top and stifle a scream as I dart back in shock. Ferris looked at it, curious as to why I was so spooked. 

His face turned as pale as the ghost's. Mallory managed a glimpse and let out a slew of frightened yet colorful, string of words. Inside of the chest was the remains of what appeared to be a young adult to teenaged Male. An unsettling, twisted feeling started to settle in my stomach. I looked at Ferris, and could tell he was sensing it, getting the story. 

  "Ferris..?" I whisper. He looked over to me, hazel eyes wide. He's sensitive to that kind of stuff, it used to creep us out a little when we were kids. He'd see things we couldn't. Sometimes, those things were disturbing and vivid, he has told us in the past. Never imagined that psychic ability would come in handy. 

   "Yes...?" He asks, almost silently. Those eyes were full of knowing, of a macabre understanding. 

  "Do you have an idea of a name...?" I ask softly. Ferris slowly nodded. The ghost flickered a moment, at the shadows beyond the edge of the flashlights then reappeared. 

  "Did the name happen to be..... John...?"