The story of a voicless ghost

"ODEEETTE! WAKE UP FOR CHRIST SAKE!" I finally wake up, startled. I didn't remember what was going on until I saw through the car window the woods I had known for too long. I was in my friend Sack's car, he had volunteered taking me here because I finally had an assignment that I looked forward doing. I was in my first year of college and chose to study photography since I was good at it and I liked it, the assignment was about showing the things that we are passionate about which in my case is exploring the woods. "I'm up, are we there yet?" "Yep, about twenty minutes ago" "Right, sorry about that" "Should I pick you up in this same spot?" "If you can, I'll call you" "Be careful, I'm not in the mood of carrying a corpse" "If you find it" I say as I approach the woods "God your weird" I continue walking until I hear nothing but some birds and only see trees. Since I was little I asked my grandmother to take me to the woods and tell me a ghost story, when she finished I always asked if those stories where real and she would always respond the same thing, "It is up to you and you only to believe if they were true". For the rest of the day I would spend playing around the woods hoping that a story like those happened to me. I remember I even played pretend and said I had a ghost friend names James, I'm still very fond of him, even if I'm not sure that he's real.  My mother would get really angry at my grandmother when she found out about the stories she'd been telling me, she said I would go crazy. But as I grew up I started realizing that maybe ghosts were nothing but another fairytale, after that I stopped talking and playing with James and started to focus more on school but I never did had the courage to tell my grandmother I had stopped believing in ghosts. I guess deep down I knew I wouldn't actually ever stop believing in them. It had rained for a while, I could feel it. The ground was wet, the air smelled like soil and a drop constantly wet my face. I loved every single part of that moment. A bit of sun peeked through the branches and made everything even better. This is what I was passionate about, exploring. Most people say that there is nothing left to explore, that everything has already been discovered. Well I strongly disagree, maybe we've already discovered all the countries and cities there is to know but there are places hidden in plain sight. Abandoned houses that keep secrets we might never fully understand, objects that might've belonged to someone that has a story. All that wonder and history is what calls me to walk through this woods.  I sat for a moment in a near rock I had found, I always believed that the woods was always looking at me, that it was alive, I had faith that I would find something extraordinary deep in its body, I just needed a bit of help finding it. "Surprise me" I said out loud closing my eyes, trusting my other senses to perceive the wood's answer. I waited for a while but heard nothing, I decided to open my eyes and to my surprise something was staring back at me. I had a white rabbit in-front of me, I thought that was quite ironic but I liked the idea that I'm somehow Alice in my own world and that I would find something else than just a rabbit hole. I stood up and the rabbit started running somewhere but stopped and looked back, like if he wanted to be followed. I smiled at myself, the adventure was about to begin. I started chasing it for a while and found myself in a part of the woods I had never seen before which was weird and great at the same time.  After a while I found something incredible, by a lake there was this really old and beautiful bridge, the railings where beautifully wrapped by plants, it looked just like a fairytale. At the end of the bridge was the rabbit waiting patiently, the show wasn't over, there was a small road that lead to somewhere and I needed to find out. I walked for five minutes on the road with the rabbit following me but keeping his distance, all of this was so bizarre I was actually wondering if I wasn't still in Sack's car but then all those thoughts were forgotten and I came to a stop, the bridge was a cool discovery but what I had in front of me was much more that just a discovery. An abandoned mansion was facing me, welcoming me to come in and find out all its secrets.  It was beautiful, it looked like a Victorian mansion, I wasn't sure yet but I knew that this place was once very elegant. It looked surprisingly well preserved to be abandoned, the walls weren't falling to pieces and the windows weren't broken at all, this was going to be fun. I decided to head straight towards the main entrance, the doors had flower carvings all around them, they were open. As I entered I became speechless, the walls were all covered with plants but in a very peaceful way, very neat. The floors where maid of white marble. The main room was huge, it had four columns in each side and the roof had beautiful paintings. In each side of the room were stairs and at the far end where a pair of doors of glass, I suppose this was the reception room. I walked towards the glass doors and found a huge hallway full of windows and furniture, I decided to go back and up the stairs, as I had assumed there was also a hallway with windows but this one had doors, I supposed those were the bedrooms.  I chose the second one on my left and went in, it was fascinating, like if someone still lived there. There was no dust anywhere, no webs, nothing but plants. I headed towards the dresser that had a broken mirror, in it there was a small metal box shaped like a flower, I opened it and discovered it had been someone's music box. I wondered what was the story of this place, why was it abandoned but not completely?  I decided to go to the right of the hallway and enter the last door, I had found a library. It had a curled ladder that gave you access to the second floor, the place was incredible, it was huge, full of books, maps and sculptures. The plants around the walls just made it look more mysterious, there was even a piano near one of the windows where the sun gave even more light to the place.  Then all of the sudden a few books dropped in front of me, as I picked them up and positioned them back to their place they fell again, something was provoking it. I decided to look through the shelves but there was nothing there, I tried to place them again and the same thing happened but this time another book fell open, as I reached to pick it up I read something:   "Would you play the piano with me?" I looked through the other pages hoping it was just a coincidence but all the pages where blank except that one. My brain started working as fast as it could looking for an answer to what just happened but came up with one possible conclusion, it was a ghost. I laughed nervously as I thought of this but it was the only thing that made sense, I was the only person in this place. I made up my mind and approached the piano, I was sure that nothing was going to follow me and play the piano with me. I opened the piano and sat in the bench, my hands starting to sweat, I took a deep breath and started playing. The first few seconds I played by myself and started calming down but as I had played for thirty seconds I felt something softly move my hand away from the keys and place it on my lap and what happened next amazed me in every possible way. Something or someone that I couldn't see was playing the piano with me, it knew every musical note that came and didn't make a single mistake. At first I got really scared but then I remembered that dream I had when I was a little girl of actually being in the presence of a ghost, when I remembered this I wasn't afraid any more, instead I just smiled and closed my eyes until the song was over. I wanted to know the identity of the one that played the piano with me, I couldn't afford to live with the doubt but I didn't want to startle it. My grandmother always told me that ghosts get easily scared and you have to let them know you mean no harm. But how could I make it know I had come in peace? I decided to use what I knew and placed both my hands in the piano again. I played by myself for a while then moved my hand to let it know it could play with me. We spent most of the song playing, I looked by my side and saw that the part of the bench I wasn't using was sunk, it was sitting beside me, it had gotten the message . I decided to ask its name but I heard no answer, instead I felt it grab my hand and with what I supposed was his finger he started tracing letters,  A-b-e-l. "So your a boy?" Y-e-s "How old are you?" 2-0 "Nice to meet you Abel, my name is Odette and I'm 19" H-i He seemed friendly, but something was off. My grandmother told me in her stories that the ghosts could talk, maybe he was just shy, don't know but I had enough of exploring for the day. When the song was over I got up and said: "Well Abel, I've got to go but I had a great time" But before I could reach the door another book fell open, this one said: "Please come back tomorrow Odette" "Don't worry, I'll come. I've got plenty to explore in this place" I said as I picked the book and placed it back to its place. But another book fell: "Can I accompany you when you leave? I'm quite bored" I laugh, "Sure" I said "Just make sure you don't get lost" As I leave the library I can't help but smile, this is so surreal. I just found an abandoned mansion in which a ghost named Abel asked me to play the piano with him. When I reach the front door I feel his hand holding mine, in my other hand he traces "M-a-y-I-?". I let him and feel his invisible hand grab mine, it feels weird at first but I got used to it. We crossed the bridge and headed towards where Sack is waiting for me, I stop a bit further and tell him: "Well, this is my stop Abel, are you sure you know the way back?" Y-e-s "Great, well I'll see you tomorrow" G-o-o-d-b-y-e-O-d-e-t-t-e "Goodbye Abel" I say as I let go of his hand, we stay for a while looking at each other I think.  Then we each go to our paths. I hear his steps fade away. I get out of the woods and see Sack waiting for me: "You okay? You look like you've seen a ghost...but a friendly one?" I just laugh, if he only knew that he was right.