School Spirits | I Don't Do Friends

34- A Vision

Caroline was playing some random clicker game in the computer lab, with a mixtape blasting throughout the room. It was Friday and school let out for the week, she was thinking about messing with the settings on all the computers when Maddie barged in.

"I'm not dead!"

"Sure and I'm on a cruise in the Caribbean." Caroline spun the chair to face her.

"They never found my body! So obviously I have to be out there somewhere right?" She paced.

Maddie seemed to hold off on telling anyone else about her anomalies. Which made Caroline the only person she could go to to talk about it.

"Or whoever killed you hid it really well."

It was completely natural to make up excuse after excuse. Caroline would brush it off like nothing, but with all the other messed up things going on... well best to rule it out before making assumptions.

"Work with me here." Maddie said exasperated.

"Okay so you think you're not dead and your body is just alive out there somewhere? And you're here?" Caroline stood. If she was working with her she'd work. Full guy with a board meme or whatever.

"Yes because I can speak with Simon-"

"Weird guy with a bad haircut?"

"Yes you sent a crow after him." She reminded.

"Right. Sorry. Continue."

Maddie had a point. She did have a weird connection to the living world. Then again so did Caroline.

"And this makes you think you're alive because...?" Caroline didn't see the line of thinking.

"I don't know I just have a feeling." Maddie said after hesitating. Because it sounded like nothing but it couldn't just be nothing.

A feeling. Caroline knew those quite well. Even if it wasn't logical she'd gotten this far trusting her gut. Maddie had to be coming from somewhere.

"Okay well. That just means we should investigate." She said hands on hips.

"How? They cleaned the basement weeks ago."

"Follow the feeling." Caroline shrugged going for the door.

Aparently the feeling did lead them to the basement. It has always been strange down here. Caroline avoided it when she could.

"I remember something." Maddie said standing where she woke up that day. "My mom was here."

Oh. Oh no.
She couldn't jump to conclusions.

"Do you remember anything else?"

"We were arguing..."
This sounds bad.

"About what?"

Maddie thought for a moment. "College."

Maddie mentioned not having a good relationship with her mother. But she wouldn't...

"Do you think she killed me?" Maddie asked with glossy eyes.

"It's best not to think anything before you remember what really happened. You only have a piece of the story."

Emotionally. Caroline thought "of course she did. Mothers are awful and it makes the most sense." But she couldn't let her own issues get in the way of the truth.

"When will I get the rest?"

Caroline didn't have an answer. Maddie left. Probably to process what the hell she just remembered. When she told Maddie to "follow the feeling" she didn't expect to lead the poor girl to a vision.

She was on the roof. Taking in the orange Indiana leaves. Scratching random words into the bricks. The door creaked open, Wally stepped through.

What she hated about being dead was that everyone always looks the same. No matter how much time passes. Looking at him just brought back every other time she's ever looked at him. She stared back at the trees.

"Hey." She greeted. It sounded like he paced for a moment before sitting down arms reach away with her on the ledge. He stood up again.

"Can I sit?"

What was his deal? It's like he was glitching. Now that she got a closer look he was shaking. So she wouldn't give him a hard time.

"What? Seen a ghost or something?"
Okay maybe she'll make his time a little hard. He laughed, though. He sat again.

"Have you spoken to Maddie? She seemed off when I ran into her." He asked. But it wasn't what he really came here for, she could tell.

She also knew Maddie wanted to keep her strangeness a secret for now. Also she didn't want Wally to blame her for traumatizing the new kid.

"Yeah. About death and stuff. I think she's just having a hard day." It was the perfect, nonchalant response. She hid her shaking hands in her pockets. Fog blew from her lips. The afternoon was rather cold for fall.

Wally nodded. Clasping his hands together.

"Did you come up here to talk about your girlfriend or is there something else?" Ouch. That sounded too harsh. She meant it to be more lighthearted than that. Is seems like her time away has ruined all social skills. Not like she had much to start with.

"No it's just- I'm sorry."

"I was joking, I didn't mean-"

"No about what I said. About smothering you before. I shouldn't have pressured you into telling me about your mom it was stupid and selfish." His hands squeezed each other, white knuckled, death grip as he looked over.

She's never seen him look that guilty before. Maybe so much time passed he just blew it up in his head. Made himself the villain when that was never the case.

"You were trying to look out for me. I shouldn't have pushed you away." She admits. She feels like she's been here before. A few times at least. They're both sorry but it can never be the same again. "My mom made me absolutely crazy. It was complicated."

"I don't want to be complicated with you. We're friends remember?"

Of course she does. It was the only prayer that she ever had answered. It's been 40 years now. She supposed in the grand scheme of things they've been friends for most of that. Who's to say they can't be again?

"Yeah. Yeah. I'm stuck with you, whatever, blah blah blah." She droned.

"Yeah it's like you kind of willed it or something."

"I 'willed' it?" It's pretty obvious she has basically no control over anything.

"I don't know." He scoffed at himself. Cause it did sound pretty stupid. "You've just been a total force of nature since I've known you."

She gets what he's saying. She's earned the loyalty of an entire bloodline of crows, does a bunch of stuff no one can explain, then she uses it for mischief. Like some morally questionable god she's read about in mythology books.

"Well I guess you should be glad I'm on your team then?"