MAX

2

Emily leaned back against her wall, her head swimming with thoughts. Max was the only ghost that had not tried to harm her, and he was fourteen. He had told Emily that he died by a gunshot wound. Emily wanted to cry. She didn't like that she lived in the one house that happened to be home to ghosts. She didn't like that she could see them. She didn't like going to sleep every night in fear. The ghosts usually wandered around in the hallway just outside her room. Her father and siblings couldn't see them. She hated herself for that. Then Max came along, claiming he wasn't going to hurt her. She just wanted to be alone for once in her life, but she couldn't leave this boy alone out there with the rest of the ghosts. The ghosts could hurt each other. She witnessed it once before. It was not a pretty sight.

Max was now sitting on her bed, staring at the ground. He hadn't said much, and Emily didn't know how much time had gone by. All she knew was that it was still dark in her bedroom and only the lamp next to her mirror illuminated the room. Even then, the room was still dark and cold. Max didn't seem to notice. After all, he was dead. Shivers ran down Emily's spine. She had to talk to Max. He wasn't going to leave until she said something. "Max, why are you here?" She asked as politely as she could.

The boy frowned. "This is where we go when we die."

"How long have you been here?" Emily asked. It was the weekend, and more ghosts come to her house over the weekends than the week. She didn't know where the ghosts went over the week.

"Since I died." Max replied.

Emily bit her tongue. The conversation was moving at a snail's pace. "When did you die?"

Max returned his stare to the ground. "A week ago."

Emily frowned. She remembered seeing something on the news about a week ago. It was a report of a school shooting. When she was watching it she couldn't understand what type of maniac would shoot up a middle school, and the news had reported of a few deaths but she had changed the channel when they began reading names. Max was one of them. She felt sympathy for both him and his family.

"Your dad cannot see us." Max said, causing Emily to jump out of her skin. "But you can."

Emily nodded. "It's been like that since I was little."

"Have they hurt you?" Max asked.

Emily closed her eyes. She nodded slowly. She could remember when she once tried to weave her way through her own hallway, and a ghost with large nails scratched her arm. She could remember when she was not even in middle school yet, and she was walking a round the home, and her siblings would find a large scratch on her face. They thought that she must have fallen or ran into something, but Emily knew that a ghost had harmed her and she didn't even know about it. Her attention turned toward Max, who was still staring at her. He was so young. "Have they hurt you?" She asked, though she didn't want to know the answer.

Max shook his head no. "I've broken fights up before, between the ghosts."

Emily raised her eyebrows. She didn't know that the ghosts fought with each other as well.

"Are you in school?" Max asked.

Emily bit her lip. Max had died in his own school, so she figured it was sad for him to talk about it. Nevertheless, she answered. "Yes. I'm in high school- tenth grade. But people don't exactly like me very much." She mumbled.

Max cocked his head to the side. "Why?"

"Well, they think I'm weird." Emily replied. "I can see ghosts. They can't."

Max seemed to remember something, and his gaze fell. "I had a friend." He whispered. "Just one."

Emily shifted her weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably. "I'm sorry." She said, her voice low.

Max looked up at her curiously, as if he had an idea in his head. "You don't like ghosts?"

Emily felt a pang of guilt settle in her stomach. She hated ghosts. They hurt her, and they scared her. But Max wasn't one of those ghosts. "Not all of them." She said. "You're a good ghost."

"Do you want the bad ones to leave?" He asked.

Emily became confused. She had tried every way possible to make them leave, but they never did. Incense, rituals, prayer, holiness... nothing had worked. Even her siblings seemed a little freaked out by her. They of course never said that to her face, but she could tell. "Only the bad ones." Emily said carefully.

"I can help you." Max said. He stood from the bed, and Emily could see his gun wound again. "But I can't stop them from hurting you."

Another wave of goosebumps spread down the back of Emily's neck. She didn't want to get hurt again, but she needed to stop going to school with cuts on her. She needed to stop gaining stares from her classmates. She wanted and needed to talk to Max. He was the only one who didn't look at her with that same weird expression. He was dead, but he was real. "You know how to get rid of them?"

Max nodded, though he cocked his head to the side. "I've never tried it before. All the ghosts know how. No one ever wants to leave."

"I don't want to kick you out of this place if you want to stay." Emily said.

Max nodded. "I know. I won't leave. All of the other ghosts have to leave, but the one who is casting them out has a decision. I'm not going where they are."

Emily raised her eyebrows. "How do you know this?" For being dead for only a week, Max knew everything.

He shrugged. "When you die, you know everything."