Phrontistery Of Monster Kind - Six Feet Deep

Chapter 27

Humans have come up with different ways to tell if their place is haunted; Missing objects found in strange areas other than where they are usually kept, strange dreams you've never experienced before, accompanied with the sensation of something touching you, household pets acting strange and so on. The next question is, how do you get rid of it? What they don't realise is, you are in very much their space and not the other way.

It was their home long before you and will be long after you're passing, unless you are blessed or cursed enough to join them.

You may see something in your peripheral vision, but otherwise, you don't have to see them. You can, if you choose to, ignore them. They can't for the humans, talking loudly, moving their future, or heaven forbid selling it.

One moment you're alive and the next you are having everything material you ever own stripped from you. It would drive the sanest mad.

The children gathered in my mishmash of a classroom had the luxury to be in a place where they can learn to be more than what they once were.

I was tucked away behind a pile of work to mark, not wanting to intrude on the group more than my physical presence caused. No one seemed disturbed by me lingering, as the one who organised it, it made sense that I would be in there monitoring.

"Thanks for the snacks, Ms," one student said.

"You're welcome. Feel free to move the tables however you please. Headmaster Pneuma will be taking over this from next week. He seems to be busy trying to work out the problems with the construction."

That, among other issues. Mayor was keeping the man busy with more people-centric tasks. He had to travel to the Ridae residence to inform them what happened to their daughter, spent several days last week abroad for the twins and to ensure that despite the children's death, they will still be able to find a purpose in life until their souls move on. Then there was the problem with the construction. He had to fight both Mayor, the construction company and the School board about when the revelations will be completed. Harro gave me a sorrowful look at the rare moments I saw him out of his office.

"He did seem busy; I heard Mayor snapping at him for kicking out the construction workers mid-day." Another student said, "I've never seen him so adamant about something. He turned red."

"I only do that when I'm mad," a student said.

"You're always red."

"No, I'm orange, from the fire."

Ghosts always reflected their deaths. Smokey smell and flamelike wisps from the body of someone who burned to death. Along with a crisped exterior. The twins have the water from how they drowned, and their clothes are always wet. A few of the students, I couldn't tell how they died, as they held minimal indications.

One's skin was greyish blue, and they too suffered from Cyanosis. One looked human in every way but was frosted glass and another see-through like a window. They were all on different ends of the age spectrum. An eighteen-year-old presenting being was one of the year sevens, while the thirteen-year-old had been here for years.

"He said it would disturb the spirit of the school."

"The school has a spirit? Other than him? How have we not met them?"

"Every place has a spirit. You just have to listen hard enough." There was no school ghost that protected the school other than the headmaster and the librarian, but the idea of the building being seen as a living vessel always resonated with me and may provide comfort to the students.

My addition to the conversation sparked a fifteen-minute talk about what the school spirit would look like. The most notable one was a cheerleader, and I was quick to remind them that teen ghosts move on from the school, as they will when they graduate. This prompted one about a member of the staff having a dead sister haunting the school. I didn't know what made them assume the hypothetical spirit was female, but I let them run their imagination wild as the rest of the ghosts attending, finished shuffling in.