Luna's Ghost

15

For the rest of the week, Jackson and Madison didn't show up for school. I had no idea what was going on with Madison, and I didn't have her phone number to text and ask her if everything was okay, and I wondered if Will had done something to Jackson.

Despite how rude Jackson had been to me after I visited the church, I still felt a knot of worry form in my stomach as I contemplated that Will could have done something to hurt Jackson. Spirits could be extremely dangerous and it was obvious Will was. I hoped and prayed he hadn't done anything to Jackson.

I tried to distract myself from worrying too much by having Johnny and Helen tell me about their lives, all the antics they did, spending time with Mom and Grandma Maria, reaching out to Dad, Shaun, and Dylan. While doing all those things did help, I still thought about Jackson in the back of my mind.

Monday morning came. I walked in through the front doors as the first bell rang and was walking towards my first period when I noticed Jackson facing off with another guy, who was an inch taller than Jackson, and had dark skin and short dreadlocks, his hands curled into fists. A crowd had formed around them and I could tell from the heavy tension in the air that a fight was about to happen.

The crowd was blocking the hallway so I moved as far away from the scene as I could, standing beside the lockers, watching the whole thing intently.

I saw that Will was whispering something in Jackson's ear. Whatever he was saying, it caused Jackson's face to flood with anger, his face darkening. The hard planes on his face made him look much older than seventeen and I tensed. Will was having a strong effect on Jackson. His eyes were now a much darker blue. It looked like Will had an even more stronger hold on his nephew now.

"Oh man," Johnny said as he, Helen and I watched the scene in front of us go down. "It looks like some serious shit is about to happen. Just stay as far as you can from it."

I nodded, my eyes trained on what was going on.

The crowd was yelling so I couldn't hear what was being exchanged between Jackson and the other guy, but whatever the other guy caused Jackson's face to darken even more and in a blink of an eye, Jackson swung his fist and slammed it against the other guy's face, causing him to reel backwards before swinging back and it was complete chaos right then and there.

The crowd formed even tighter around the two guys, making it hard to see, but I heard the unmistakable sounds of flesh hitting flesh and the sound of a body being slammed to the ground.

My heart started racing faster from adrenaline as I watched the scene unfold in front of me. From what I could make out through gaps in the crowd, it was a pretty nasty fight taking place, and it looked like Jackson was getting the better of it. He was on top of the other guy, slamming his fist into the other guy's face over and over repeatedly. He was a man possessed--literally. He was moving like a machine that never stopped. It was like he was unfolding all of his rage onto this other guy.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, teachers flew out of their classrooms and security guards and other staff workers ran towards the commotion. They pushed the crowd to the side and reached down towards the two fighters, attempting to pull them apart.

One of the security guards grabbed Jackson by his arms, pulling them back and wrenching him off of the other guy. Jackson struggled in the man's grip, trying to lunge back to continue fighting, but a teacher reached out and pushed him back.

Meanwhile, the other guy was struggling to get up, blood smeared all over his face, his upper lip split, one of his eyes almost swelling up.