thank yall sm for 40k ❤️
if yall have seen school spirits, this is kind of like that in the way that the dead see the alive.
honorable mention of leah in the first 10 seconds of reading 🫶🏻
if you do not do good with death,, this may not be the chapter for you.
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"leah!" you scream. "leah, look at me!"
you punch her arm. she can't feel you. you punch her again. she feels nothing. you turn around in a panic and run up to somebody else.
"hello?!" you yell in their face. "look at me!! please!!"
you feel tears start to rush into your eyes. why is this happening?
"they can't see you, y'know." a voice says. "you're dead."
you freeze. you let the idea of being dead sink in. you turn around to face whoever said that.
"i'm not dead." you say, almost questioningly. the boy smiled and held his hand out. you watched as people bumped into it and kept walking without even noticing.
"okay, maybe they're like- ignoring you too. why would they ignore us?" you try to make an excuse to make yourself feel better.
"because we're dead." he sighed, laying a hand on your shoulder. you could feel it. you reach up and touch his arm. he could feel it.
"i'm walker." he smiled. "it's gonna be okay here, you just have to get over the first hurdle." he walked you to an empty classroom. he shut the door behind him and sat in the teacher's desk.
"how long have you been here?" you ask. he leaned back in the seat and kicked his feet up on the desk.
"i've been here almost three years." he said confidently. how could one be so confident about death? he sounded so okay with it.
"i knew leah too-" he cut off your thoughts. leah had never mentioned him before. you've never seen or heard of walker before.
"we were in a show together. i know she's talked about it before. we were really close, but lived so far away. i came down here to visit her. i was gonna surprise her as she was leaving school. i was standing in the parking lot, then-" he made a motion where he punched his other hand. you gasped.
"you got ran over?!" you asked. he nodded happily.
"it's funny thinking about it now. it sucked my first year. then i finally accepted it, and i've been here ever since."
you stared at him. is he mental?
"leah's never talked about me?" he asked. you shook your head and he frowned.
"i walk her to class every day. i didn't today— because i found you."
"does that mean you've seen me before? like, alive me?" he nodded. you leaned back in your seat and crossed your legs.
"how did you die?" he asked. you felt the words stop in your throat. they wouldn't come out. you shook your head and looked down. he gave you a soft smile.
"you don't have to talk about it if you're not ready."
you tried to get comfortable in your seat. you were gonna be here for a while.
**
it's been a year since you died. you've officially spent 365 days circling this school with walker. you've met a lot of other dead people. they've welcomed you with open arms.
"ready?" he asked, holding his hand out. you looked up at the clock, waiting for it to hit 12:14. you held onto walker's hand and leaned into his side. you watched as the second hand hit the 12.
"happy one year of being dead, y/n." walker said. you felt a tear fall down your face as you stared up at the clock. you wiped your cheek and let go of his hand. you took a breath before you walked
out of the room.
"wait- y/n!" walker called after you. you were too far gone to hear. you heard the bell ring, though, so you decided to walk leah to class. you stared at her the whole way. you stopped at her class so she could walk in, but she didn't. she kept going. you cautiously followed her to the gymnasium. you entered the crowded gym full of sad people. you stared up at the large picture of you displayed on the projector.
oh.
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725 words.
