Whisper

Six

The school has been closed for four days. After the fire, the school decided to shut school for a while to work on recovering the damages. Dad and Brian both went to school to volunteer. I went to volunteer at the school with dad the day after the event. I went to check if my blouse was still there. I was hoping that the blouse survived the fire but I couldn't find it anywhere.

The blouse was destroyed in the fire; the only evidence to prove that I did die that night. Now I have nothing. I don't have anything, no leads to figure out what happened that night. But at least I know that it was blood, that there is a possibility that I did die that night. How could I prove something that illogical? I cannot die and come back. I know I did but my gut feeling isn't going to prove anything. I need to find a way to determine what happened that night. I need to know the truth.

I grab my small, white laptop from my desk and begin to search any random thing I could think of. I first typed 'Coming back to life in Havenwood' and the only result I found was the Halloween festival that occurs every year. I continue search that page just in case they have any folk lore that is similar to whatever happened to me.

The description of the Havenwood festival states that the festival is the celebration of the dead coming back to life for a day. The celebration occurs at sunset, where everyone lights up a lantern and release it over the Havenwood Lake. That is to wake up the dead from their slumber into the world. The rest of the night, people go on the festival rides and go to each stall. Although I think I did come back to life, I didn't stay alive only for a day. It's been more than a week since that night. Also, I did not die on the night of Halloween.

I continue to search through the website. There is no folk lore or any stories based around the night. I leave this site and search up 'coming back to life'. But I got nothing useful, only information about zombies. I groan with annoyance. I don't know what to search, don't know what to do next. I feel lost and confused. I lay my forehead against my wall, my eyes closed tightly. There has to be something; there needs to be something that will link my death at the church to something. I need something that would trigger my memory.

Trigger my memory. How do I even trigger memory? How do I get my memory back? The solution to my problems are hidden away in my mind; in my memories but they are blank. I don't remember much ever since I got to Havenwood to the night at the church. Everything comes in bits and pieces. I only remember everything clearly after I woke up and that's it. That is probably a side effect from death but I need it to come back soon. I need it to help me remember what happened.

I hear a squawk. I jump – my heart races. I look out my window and see a black crow sitting on the tree right outside my window. I stare into the crow's white eyes and a small black dot.

There is a knock on my door. "Come in," I say. The door opens and Lily peaks her head through the gap. I look at Lily's floating head, her strawberry blonde hair hanging from the side and her bright blue eyes smiling at me.

"Hey Senera, a friend of yours from school is here to see you. Dani?" she says. Dani is here? What is Dani doing here? After the fire and Isaac reassuring me that no one was in the room, I saw Dani outside with the rest of the school. She asked me if I knew what happened but I lied and told her I don't know. I don't know why I lied, I should've told her that I was in the lab when the fire occurred. But that would mean I knew what happened; but I didn't know how to explain what happened exactly.

I thought the Bunsen burner was off but clearly it wasn't. It feels partially my fault for not checking; even though those boys shouldn't have left it on. But I was in the room and I could've done something. However, everything happened so quickly – I don't think I could've done something to prevent that from happening.