A high school senior, who goes by the name Amelia Hartman, realizes that she will never be the same again. She was a normal girl, who enjoyed the company of her two friends, Alayne and Tom. Even though she's not wanting to make anymore friends, the...
THE BOY Alex. He's standing a few feet from me, watching. He looks the same from when I first saw him. The same clothes and the same eyes. As I start to walk towards him, Alex turned around and strode away around the corner of the hall. Shuffling my short legs as fast as they would go, I turned the corner in time to catch him turning into the gym room. Good choice. Since the athletes usually stick to the fields and locker rooms, the coast was clear for a while.
He still looks so sad.
He was sitting on the bleachers with his elbows sat on his knees, and his chin in his hands. In the distance, outside the walls of the gym, I can hear the coach blowing his whistle. Alex was still looking at me, waiting for me to say something. He seems like he doesn't know what to think either. Realizing that he could probably hear my thoughts like he did the first time I met him, I felt my face turn scarlet.
"Do you know why I can see you?" I ask. Part of me wants an answer, and another part doesn't want one at all. Maybe it's just a phase, and it'll go away, a tiny part of me whispered. You still see him today though.
"No, I don't know why. I remember reading about people who could see spirits when I was alive. They called them necromancers. I can't exactly flip through pages anymore without using the remaining energy that I have," Alex said. He lifted his hand up and tapped on the plastic of the seats.
"Necromancer? I didn't know there were such things. I thought that was a myth," I said. You're talking to a ghost right now. Doesn't exactly seem like a myth anymore, does it?
Alex laughed and patted the seat next to him.
"You are talking to a spirit and trust me; it's a new concept for me too," he says. He waits for me to sit next to him before adding, "you need to look it up, and find out more about your ancestors."
"This is weird. Anybody can walk in and see me talking to myself," I say as I glance towards the double doors that are propped open. I haven't heard any students since I've entered the room. This place really is deserted in the morning.
"Maybe you can tell them you're talking to your dead friend. They'd love that." His lips quirked up on one side of his face. He's trying to be funny. I'm talking to a ghost boy, who probably once made everyone around him laugh. His parents, his brother... friends.
"Do you remember how you died?" I ask, thinking about the article I found this morning.
His face turns serious as he says, "I remember running to my class, and then two people were standing over me." He doesn't remember that he broke his neck, I thought to myself.
"You broke your neck falling down the stairs. Two of your classmates found you at the bottom of the steps," I answered.
"I never saw my body. You would think that when we die, we'd be able to see the state that we ended up in," He replied. His body was tense, and you could see tears starting to pool in his eyes. Those beautiful eyes.
"I found the article this morning. When I got home, I was too shocked to even think about looking for information. Part of me wanted to leave the whole situation alone, but after seeing how upset you were, I couldn't stop thinking about it," I say. My fingers interlocked with each other. I want to reach out and comfort him. I wish I knew what to do for you.
Alex looked at me and shrugged his shoulders.
"I never got to say goodbye to my brother or my parents. I had a girlfriend at the time, but after, I watched her find somebody else. There's no point in crying over it anymore. Why should I, when there's nothing I can do?"
"What were your parent's names again? Maybe I could find them and pretend to be an old friend. I could tell them how much you loved them and that you're watching over them," I say. They couldn't have moved on completely. He was their son.
"That's the thing; I can't really remember names. Everything has kind of faded from memory. I remember their faces. I remember everything leading up to my accident, but I can't remember names. The only name I can remember is yours. Amelia," he says. He folded his hands over each other in his lap and looked off towards the mural on the gym wall.
Just then, the bell signaling time for me to get to class goes off. When he jumps in his seat, I can feel the bleachers shake. Why can I see him? Better yet, why can I feel him? His movements? The students in the hall sounded closer as they made their way to class. When I looked at him, his head was turned towards the direction of the door. He waved one hand in that direction, signaling that I should go before I'm caught sitting here and miss class. I got up to grab my bag that I threw near the foot of the bleachers. Only, when I bent down to grab the strap, I tripped. I would have fallen the last three steps if I didn't have an arm pulling me upright. Jerking backward, I looked up at Alex. His arm was still around my waist and where it was touching was cold.
"How can you do this but not flip the pages of a book?" I breathed out in question.
He looked confused as he untangled his arm from around me. "I'm not sure. I think it might have something to do with the fact that you're connected firmly to the spiritual world. I've never met a living human that I could touch," he says, reaching his hand out to touch my face.
"I should get going. Can we meet in the big room later? Or here in the gym tomorrow morning? After that, it's the weekend, and it'll be a while before I can see you again," I say, stepping down the last three steps carefully, leaving his touch.
"Same time tomorrow, here in the gym. I've always liked this place," Alex says, walking towards the locker room hallway.
"I'll be here," I say, walking the opposite direction and seeking the double doors. Alex smiled and waved, disappearing behind the hall.
I watched the spot of where he was at for a few seconds before continuing on my way to class. The bell signaling that the passing period was over had just rung the second I stepped a foot into the classroom. Alayne was sitting in her usual spot at the back of the class, with the empty desk beside her. She gives me a severe look as I sit down in the hard wooden chair. Acting oblivious, I ignore the stare and pull out a notebook instead. Tom, who is sitting in front of us, turns around to look at me with the same look Alayne is giving me. I nod towards the board, telling him that the questions are up there, and not on my face. When he turns back around in his seat and Alayne is no longer glaring at me, I finally relax.
I've got to find his family. His parents are my best bet. They couldn't have gone far in five years, I thought to myself. When I get home, I need to look more into where they could be and find information on how this whole necromancy thing works. It's real and not a myth.
I reached up and touched the spot where his cold palm had rested on my cheek.
It's real.
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Amelia and Alex finally have a conversation! Fun fact: I've been wanting to write this story since I was a young girl. Pretty much since junior high. Now that I'm in college and taking writing classes, I'm finally trying to make my notes into words in the story! If you want, vote and leave me feedback. :)
