Michael's Ghost Girl

Survivor

When he got to school, he saw Thea sitting with his friends at their usual place at the flagpole. "Hey, you don't have your skateboard with you," Short Round was looking at him as if he had lost his mind.

"I'm skipping the skate park and going to the library. I've got tests and I'm going to hit the books." Michael only half-believed what he was saying himself, but he couldn't tell his friends that he didn't want to be around them right now. If he did, he'd have to go into the why and he didn't want to go there.

"Oooh," Short Round and Dewey said in unison waving their hands around, while Thea sat and glared at him. He didn't know if that bothered him, or if he just didn't need the heckling right now. He shook his head.

"C'mon guys, cut me some slack. I had a rough night." That was putting it mildly. He'd rescued his sister and beat up the weirdo who'd tried to grab her. Oh, and there had been the incident a week or so ago when he'd been attacked by the wind and a tree. Yeah, he had a break coming all right.

"Ah, he deserves a little time off, things were kind of hairy at Mikey's last night." Short Round immediately realized that he probably shouldn't have said that when Mike shot him a murderous look.

"Mike—what happened? You didn't say anything to me." Dewey's eyes were wide, full of surprise.

Michael flicked his eyes toward Thea. "Not now, Dew-man. Later, okay?" Dewey nodded. Thea wasn't so firmly established in their group that she knew the secrets they kept to themselves. She looked puzzled, but from the looks on their faces, she knew no further information was forthcoming. They headed into the school and to their respective classes.

Michael spent the day concentrating on what his teachers were saying, hoping that would make the memories of the night go away. Even as he took notes, wrote down information that was put on the whiteboards, the thoughts were still there, taunting him. It wasn't until P.E. that he was able to take out his aggression and he worked himself into a dripping sweat when class was done.

He took a shower, grabbed his pack, and headed to the bus. He found a spot by himself and idly watched the city pass by until the bus stopped in front of the old library with the rose window. Mariah, unseen, was waiting for him, sitting on the bottom step. He cocked his head and she got followed him to a small bench that a donor had placed beneath a giant fir tree. Michael dropped his bag and collapsed onto the bench, Mariah sat at his side, her head on his shoulder.

"Michael, I'm sorry about last night..." she started to say, but he cut her off.

"Don't apologize to me when I was acting like a total jerk. Don't do it—ever. I don't know why girls do that, but I think it's their guys' fault. I owe you an apology. I could have said a lot of things to you that meant the same thing and told you why I felt that way. I'm sorry, Mariah, I'm really sorry. It's never going to happen again. I love you."

"Michael, I love you too," she replied, then froze. "Michael, there's something that doesn't belong here," she whispered, "Let's get away from here, fast."

He didn't ask why, but picked up his pack and ran into the library. Mariah sat next to him as he tried to busy himself with studying, but he was having trouble concentrating. Instead, he watched Maria floating about the library as if looking for something. He wondered, idly, if there were any ghosts here. It was as old as the town and a lot of things could have happened.

Suddenly she was beside him. "Call someone and have them pick you up. I'll stay with you until they get here. Something is wrong, I can feel it. She kept looking nervously out the window like something dangerous was watching them, but this time Michael wasn't buying it.

"Mariah, maybe it's after you, not me. Maybe it's just there. Besides, I'm tired of running from things. I've let myself become afraid of what might be out there, whether something's there or not. I survived the attack from the tree, from the guy who kidnapped you—I even survived a concussion that the doctors told me could have killed me. From now on things change. No more fear."