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It was an ordinary day at Ghost Zone High School. The school hummed with excitement, gossip, and the occasional groan about unfair teachers and too much homework. It was just after lunch, and students rushed to their next classes. One student, however, could hardly summon the energy to fly, let alone keep his eyes open.
Kai Graves barely made it to history class before the bell rang. He didn’t take his usual seat in the front. Instead, he sank into the back, as far from the teacher’s desk as possible. The exhaustion weighed on him like a physical burden. Ghosts weren’t the souls of humans who had passed on, they were a species all their own, and they could die. Kai didn’t think about that now, though. He just wanted to sleep, and Ms. Hughes’s monotonous lecture wasn’t helping.
Before the lecture had even fully started, Kai’s eyes fluttered shut, his head lolling to the side. A few of his classmates nudged him, whispering his name, but he remained oblivious, lost in a haze. Ms. Hughes, with her striking blue hair and red eyes, didn’t appreciate the interruption. Her sharp voice cut through the classroom. “MR. GRAVES!”
The force of her shout made the walls tremble, but still, Kai barely stirred. His classmates looked on in surprise, some of them wincing at how loudly she’d yelled.
Kai blinked slowly, his vision unfocused as he tried to make sense of the situation. His teacher’s furious gaze met his, and he straightened up, his words coming out groggy. “Yes, Ms. Hughes?”
“I know history can be dull, but I do not tolerate napping in my classroom! I don’t care if you couldn’t sleep last night—this is a place of learning!” she snapped, her words sharp as glass.
Kai rubbed his eyes, the exhaustion clouding his thoughts. “I’m sorry... I’ve been feeling really drained the past couple of weeks.”
Ms. Hughes narrowed her eyes. “Excuses, Mr. Graves. Pay attention, or I’ll see you after class for detention!” she barked.
The students exchanged glances. Everyone could see that something wasn’t right with Kai. His skin, usually a smooth shade of blue, had grown noticeably lighter in the past two weeks. He was too weak to even participate in gym class. They tried telling the teachers, but no one listened.
Kai’s gym teachers, Icy and Inferno, were among the few who noticed his condition. They knew something had to be done. Icy, the more perceptive of the two, helped Kai to his feet after gym class. “I’m taking you to the nurse,” she said, her tone firm but gentle.
Kai didn’t protest. He couldn’t.
In the nurse’s office, Nurse Lumina examined him with a quiet intensity. Her green skin gleamed softly in the sterile light of the room, and her silver hair shimmered as she moved. She quickly ran a thermometer through Kai’s ear, noting the unusual temperature. 94.9°F. That was too high for a ghost, who usually ran at a temperature of 91.3°F.
“He’s running a fever,” Nurse Lumina murmured to herself, her concern deepening. Her hands moved to check his energy readings, and what she sensed made her blood run cold. His core energy, the very essence that powered his ghostly body, was dangerously low.
Kai’s classmates had been right to worry. Kai was growing weaker, and no one had taken it seriously. Not until now.
Nurse Lumina called her cousin, Dr. Seraphina, at the Ghost Zone hospital. She then called Kai’s parents, Cronos and Dreama, trying to mask the anxiety in her voice as she explained the situation. She wasn’t sure if she was overreacting, but something told her this wasn’t just a simple illness. The look on Kai’s face told her it was much worse.
By the time Cronos and Dreama arrived, Lumina had already prepared for them to take Kai to the hospital. She didn’t know if he had much time left.
At the hospital, Dr. Seraphina greeted them with a grim expression. Her peacock-blue skin glinted under the fluorescent lights, and her green hair framed her face with a sharp, professional edge. "We need to act fast," she said, snapping orders to her team. "Get him into a wheelchair, take his samples, and perform the full battery of tests. We don’t have much time."
As the medical team worked, Cronos and Dreama waited, the silence between them growing heavier by the minute. It felt as though time itself had slowed.
When Dr. Seraphina finally returned, her expression was hard to read, but it wasn’t good news. “We need to talk in my office,” she said, her voice cool, though her eyes betrayed her concern.
Cronos and Dreama followed her down the hall, dreading what was to come. Once they were alone, Dr. Seraphina let out a heavy sigh. “Kai has Acute Ectoplasmic Leukemia. It’s an aggressive form of cancer, and if we don’t act quickly, we’re looking at just a few days. Maybe a week, if we’re lucky.”
Dreama’s face went white. “What do you mean, ‘cancer’?” she gasped, her voice trembling. “Our son... has cancer?”
Dr. Seraphina nodded gravely. “Yes. It’s an extremely rare and dangerous disease among our kind. We can treat it, but we need a donor. Someone has to give him some of their core energy and ectoplasm for a transplant, and we’ll need to expose him to black energy to finish eradicating the cancer.”
Cronos clenched his fists, his face darkening with rage and fear. “How long?” he demanded, voice tight.
“As long as you’re both willing to donate, we can get started immediately,” Dr. Seraphina explained. “But we need to act fast. Every hour counts.”
Cronos and Dreama had already lost so much. The thought of losing Kai, their miracle child, was unbearable.
After testing both parents, it was clear that Dreama was the perfect match. The next few days were a blur of medical procedures—energy transfers, black energy treatments, and endless tests. Time stretched on, each day feeling longer than the last.
Six months later, Dr. Seraphina delivered the news they’d been waiting for. Kai was cancer-free.
His parents embraced him tightly, relief flooding over them in waves. Kai, though exhausted, smiled faintly, grateful to be alive.
In the end, miracles did happen. Sometimes, all you needed was a little bit of hope.