Ghost Writer ➳ Ashton Irwin

Prologue

|| Prologue ||

Ashton sat down in his regular seat in his favorite class, history. Ashton wasn’t sure why he liked history so much; he was just really intrigued by how society was different and all. His teacher, Ms. Bonnet, was writing the assignment on one side of the chalkboard, leaving the other side completely blank.

Ms. Bonnet never used the other side of the chalkboard; so it was always extremely clean. She finished writing the assignment for the class to work on and sat down at her desk. “Now, if you say a word, you’ll be sent down to Vice Principal Kenneth’s office,” she warned the class.

The room erupted with sighs and groans, but Ashton just opened up his textbook calmly. As he looked up to see which page he was supposed to turn to again, he saw words being written down on the chalkboard, the empty clean side of it.

He shook his head and rubbed his eyes furiously, trying to get the hallucination out of his mind.

“You’re hallucinating, Ash,” he mutters to himself. “This isn’t real.”

He looks up to the board again, and it was written down in orange chalk, which Ms. Bonnet didn’t own:

hello, ashton. how was your day so far? why don’t you ever reply to me? all you have to do is say something aloud, so i can hear you. i really like you ashton. stop ignoring me.

–alex

“Ashton,” his friend, Michael calls out for him. “You alright there? Is Alex talking to you again?”

“Yeah,” he muttered under his breath, not wanting to face Vice Principal Kenneth at the moment. “She’s talking to me again.”

“She’s not real, you’re hallucinating all of this, Ash. You know that, right?”

“I keep telling myself that, Michael, but the notes keep coming back. You don’t see the one on the board right now?”

“The only thing I see is the assignment, Ash,” he groans. “You should see a doctor or something about this.”

“What, so you think I’m insane now?” Ashton speaks a little louder than a whisper.

“I’m not saying that, I—“

“You’re implying it, Michael. Don’t even deny it.”

When Michael stays silent, Ashton scoffs.

“Whatever,” he gets out of his seat and grabs his stuff. He walks over to the door, shouting behind him, “I’m not insane!”

Lilly has a free period right now, he thinks to himself. She’ll be in the library by now.

Ashton walked halfway around campus and makes it to the library. He immediately finds Lilly sitting at a table, reading one of her favorites, Looking for Alaska by John Green.

“Lilly,” he calls before a librarian shushes him. “Sorry,” he replies.

“He thinks I’m insane,” he mutters to Lilly after sitting by her.

“Who? Why?”

“Michael. Because of the note from Alex again.”

She sighs before starting, “Ash—“

“You think I’m insane too?”

“I don’t think you’re insane, Ashton, I just think this is a little weird and crazy and… not true,” she trails off, not looking her boyfriend in the eyes.

“So, you think I’m lying?”

“Ashton, don’t make this—“

“No, Lilly, you probably shouldn’t be with liars anyway, right?”

“Are you trying to break up with me?”

“I’m just saying I’d rather be with someone who believes me,” Ashton gets up from the small table and walks out the building’s back door. He walks a couple blocks before he finally runs into a red light. He slides down a pole, and sits down with his knees in level with his chest.

“No one believes me,” he sighed. “They all think I’m crazy.”

He looks up into the sky after sighing once again and sees a letter in cloud writing. He gets up, trying to get a better angle at what’s written in the sky. He walks to his right a little, before he can see the whole thing;

i don’t think you’re insane, ashton.

--alex

And that’s when something came into contact with his body and he lost all his senses as he fell into a dark sleep.

                               ☠☠☠

“It’s gotten too severe,” the doctor says.

“I hate to have to agree with you, doctor,” Ashton’s father sighs. “So, what do I do with him?”

“Rehab clinic,” the doctor answered. “It’ll get him better, I guarantee it. There’s one not too far up north, and they help amazingly,” he scribbled down things on a paper. “Here’s the address, you won’t regret taking Ashton there.”