Chapter Text
It was the first day of school, and Adaine Abernant was in detention.
It was her first day in her new town, and she was already in trouble. Her family had moved from Fallinel to a town called Elmville. Elmville was leagues smaller than Fallinel was. It was a secluded little town in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by thick woods that curled in on themselves ominously, branches gnarled and twisted. It felt like everyone knew everyone, and like everyone knew that she wasn’t supposed to be there. That she was new, and that she was weird. Adaine told herself it was just her anxiety playing tricks on her, but everywhere she went she felt eyes piercing the back of her head. Stares as she rounded each corner. Whispers about her. She was the new kid, after all, and they needed to see where she fit in. But Adaine wasn’t sure she fit in anywhere here.
Her family had been living there for weeks now. They’d had time to settle in the house and introduce themselves to the neighborhood. Adaine, on the other hand, had been in a psych ward all summer.
Adaine’s anxiety attacks weren't the only thing wrong in her head. She could see things. Horrifying phantoms that lurked in dark spaces around town. Spirits that cried and screamed and begged for help. Ghosts of people long gone, or maybe people who’d never existed in the first place.
Basically, she was insane. Her parents had grown tired of her drawing attention to them in their old town. Though she’d given up a long time ago on telling anyone about the things she saw, she had never been particularly good at hiding her fear. After one especially embarrassing incident, they decided it was time for a fresh start, and they packed their things and shipped Adaine away for the summer.
They’d sent her to the most prestigious psych ward in the country, where she’d been given “specific care” and “special attention,” which basically just meant she wasn’t allowed to see anyone other than the doctors. Over the ensuing months they’d tried countless tactics to get her to stop seeing these awful things, attempting in every which way to “fix” her mind. The methods were intrusive and lonely and they didn’t work, but Adaine was desperate to get out, so she learned to feign indifference. She lied and pretended she didn’t see the phantoms anymore, but in reality, she simply grew better at ignoring them. She swallowed her tongue and pocketed her fears, because nothing was scarier than staying here. Finally, she’d been released the night before her first day of school.
She took the train home by herself, and her parents acted as if she’d never left. Or maybe as if she’d never been there in the first place.
The morning before she’d left for school, her sister, Aelwyn, had stopped her outside their house.
“Welcome back, little sister. I trust your… outbursts have been eliminated?” Aelwyn smirked, as Adaine clenched her jaw and tried desperately not to punch her. She couldn’t get her parents mad at her again, not when she’d been home for such little time.
“Yes.” Adaine responded flatly, not looking at her sister.
“Wonderful. Well, seeing as this is your first day in town, you probably don’t know about the town customs, hm?” Adaine didn’t respond. After a beat, Aelwyn continued.
“As charming as ever, I see. Well, there’s this book in the restricted section in the library, and it's a town tradition that the new kid either steals the book, or gets pranked after school.” Aelwyn said casually. Adaine scoffed in response, rolling her eyes.
“Please, like I’d believe that. You’re just trying to get me in trouble on my first day back.”
“Believe what you’d like, little sister, but when your social life is over before it’s even started, don’t blame me.” Before Adaine could respond with any sort of retort, a convertible sped over to the house and screeched to a halt in front of them. Three teenagers about Aelwyns age sat in the car, laughing and chattering amongst themselves as Aelwyn joined them.
“Well, this is my ride. I’m sure you’ll find your way to school. Good luck!” And with that, Aelwyn and her friends sped off, leaving Adaine alone and coughing at the exhaust.
Adaine rolled her eyes and grabbed her bike. She hadn’t expected to be given a ride to school anyway, so she had already found a map and memorized the directions. Aelwyn’s school started nearly an hour before Adaine's, so despite the nearly twenty minute long bike ride (and an extra ten minutes or so where she got a bit turned around), she still made it to school. Exhausted, but early.
Aguefort High School was not exactly a sight to behold. It was a relatively large school, complete with a grand concrete staircase leading up to the front doors. But despite its impressive exposition, it looked to be falling apart. The brown bricks that made up the walls were crumbling and lined with various vines, and the school sign looked like it had been painted over countless times. The staircase looked as if it had been built in a specific effort to make the school look more far “magnificent” than it actually was. Unfortunately for the architect, this attempt didn’t work, as the school still looked to be falling apart.
A fight of some sort had already broken out in front of the school, but Adaine just locked up her bike and quietly walked past the conundrum. She found her locker and stored her books, then pulled out her schedule and studied it. She had already memorized her schedule, of course, but she just wanted to make sure. She absolutely could not mess up this day.
As she walked the halls, finding all of her classes before school had even started, she found herself slowing to a halt in front of the library. Some sort of feeling was building in her chest, though she couldn’t quite describe it. It wasn’t anxiety or dread, but rather… a will. Adaine felt as if she had to enter this library. Like she needed to enter this library. After a moment’s hesitation, Adaine carefully opened the door and slipped in.
The library was entirely empty. Adaine thought distantly about how odd this was, but her body was already moving towards the back of the room. Her thoughts muddied together as just one thought prevailed over the rest. One purpose.
I have to get that book.
She easily slipped into the restricted section and came across a small shelf of books considered to be prohibited. One book was sitting in the center of the desk in the small room. The book didn’t look interesting at all. The cover was worn and unlabeled, the pages yellowed and the ink faded overtime. Yet Adaine reached for the book before she could even consider any other option. With a single grab, the book was hers.
The moment the book was in her hands Adaine knew something was… wrong with it. The book seemed to tremble in her grip, and Adaine could feel her hands growing cold, small follicles of ice spreading from the book to her fingers. She pulled the book open and tried to read the pages within. The text was bold and somewhat hard to read, like she couldn’t quite focus her eyes. A deep feeling of horror and fear had shot its way into her heart the moment she’d opened the book. Adaine felt her heart racing and her body began to tremble, the fear coursing through her as the ice continued to spread on her hands.
But she couldn’t pull her gaze away. She had to read it. She HAD to read it. It didn’t matter what happened to her as long as she READ IT. She HAD to READ IT-
Before she could get past the first few words, the book was wrenched from her grasp. Immediately, the fear released its grip on her and she found herself able to breathe again. She clutched at her freezing fingers and looked in front of her to see who had taken the book. Towering over her was a tall bulky man, his name tag reading “Vice Principal Goldenhoard”.
oh, shit.
“Stealing from the restricted section of the library? On the FIRST day of school?? Before the bell has even rung?!” The man sighed and rubbed his temple, exhausted. Adaine steeled herself as quickly as possible and hid her frozen fingers behind her back.
“I’m sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.” She said, looking as calm and genuine as she could manage. After a beat, the vice principal sighed and pulled a pad out of his pocket.
“Don’t let me catch you doing something like this again. Head to Detention after class.” He handed her a small yellow slip and walked into the hallway with the book.
Adaine rushed to the nearest bathroom and locked herself into a stall, where she curled up on the toilet and cried. Her heart raced and her lungs burned, but she hardly even made an audible sniffle as the tears rolled down her cheeks. She’d learned a while ago how to panic silently. How to cry without being a disturbance. So she plugged her nose and sobbed into her hand, allowing the fear to run its course so that she could just get back to her day. So that she could just be normal.
After a few minutes, she’d finally stopped crying and just sat there numbly. She dried her eyes and wiped her face and finally exited the bathroom, just a few minutes before her first class.
The school day went by uneventfully. Adaine had always been good at slipping through the cracks, and despite the many glances and whispers, she was overall ignored. But she couldn’t avoid detention forever, and as the day went by, her anxiety slowly grew.
After the last bell rang, she shuffled over to the classroom where detention was held. Luckily for her, she was the first one there, so she didn’t have to sit down with people staring at her. She picked a seat near the middle of the classroom in an attempt to be as inconspicuous as possible. She didn’t like drawing attention to herself if it could be avoided, after all.
Not long after she sat down, another kid arrived. Glancing up from her desk, she saw a short kid with messy hair, a newsie cap, and a briefcase. He sat at a desk somewhat near the front of the classroom and looked almost as nervous as Adaine did.
One by one, more students entered the detention room. A tall lanky kid with headphones and an oversized hoodie, a ginger girl with freckles and a tie dye t-shirt, and a slender guy with silver hair and a letterman jacket.
The 5 kids sat in somewhat awkward silence until a 6th person entered the room, kicking the door open dramatically before striding over to a desk in the very back row, leaning back in her seat and kicking her feet up onto the desk in front of her. She was wearing combat boots and a leather jacket and she had too many piercings to count.
“So what’re you guys in for?” she said, casually lighting a cigarette and ignoring the horrified look on the ginger kid’s face. One by one each kid explained what had gotten them there, and gave their names.
Fabian, the silver-haired kid, punched Gorgug, the tall guy, and Gorgug punched back. Riz, the short boy, had stolen some tea from the principal. Kristen, the ginger, had “bore false witness.” Adaine shared that she had stolen a dumb book because her dumb sister told her to. Finally the girl with piercings, Fig, said the vice principal was in love with her. This earned her concerned looks from everyone in the room, to which she just shrugged and grinned, showing off sharp canines.
Before anyone could ask any further questions, a short bearded man with watery blue eyes entered the classroom, closing the door behind him. With an adult present, Adaine quickly straightened up in her seat. The old man hoisted himself up to sit on the desk in the front of the room.
“I’m Mr. Gibbons, your guidance counselor,” He said, a pleasant but overall blank look on his face. Leaning forward and folding his hands, he continued.
“Okay, so, how do we all feel about what we did?”
There was a slight silence in the room as the six kids glanced at each other awkwardly. Finally, Gorgug broke the silence, looking over to Fabian uncomfortably.
“I feel bad, I’m sorry I punched you- I just got so mad.”
“Oh I did punch you but, ugh, it wasn’t worth it. I shouldn’t be here anyway, my crime was being too good at sports.” Fabian responded, folding his arms.
“…you punched him,” Riz said flatly.
“Ok I already ADMITTED to that, you don’t need to-“ Fabian scoffed, before Fig cut him off, blowing smoke into his face as he made a disgusted expression.
Adaine listened absentmindedly as the kids’ conversation turned into a muffled chorus, all talking over one another dramatically. She stared down at her desk, picking at her hands and regretting every decision she’d made to get her here. A familiar feeling burrowed up into her chest as the guidance counselor interrupted.
“Wow, a lot of strong feelings here. How are your family lives?”
The feeling in her chest continued to grow and blossom until it was all she could focus on. At first, she assumed it to be an anxiety attack, but she quickly thought otherwise. Her heartbeat hadn’t sped up and her breathing was normal. It was more like an overbearing sense of cold dread. A chill crept down her spine and Adaine shivered.
Admittedly, Adaine knew what she was feeling, She simply didn’t want to admit it to herself. This was a bad time to have one of her creepy psychotic hallucinations. She couldn’t let this town know she was crazy. She couldn’t be as big of a disappointment here as she was in her old town. She couldn’t embarrass her family again. She could not go back to that psych ward.
Adaine calmed herself and forced a mask of casual indifference on her face, looking up at Mr. Gibbons and trying her best to tune back into the conversation.
Suddenly, the lights turned off.
The kids stirred around her, chattering incoherently about the oddity of their situation. Mr Gibbons began to stand up, mumbling something about a faulty breaker.
Adaine couldn’t hear his words over the noise echoing in her head.
Someone was breathing heavily.
Each inhale was raspy and gruff, as if the person could hardly breathe at all. Adaine glanced around her to double check, and as usual, nobody seemed to hear it. It was all in her head.
The voice reverberated through her temple and Adaine desperately tried to maintain her facade of indifference as the voice grew steadily louder.
Before Mr Gibbons could approach the light switch, a dull blue light appeared to seep through the wall behind him.
A slight hush grew in the classroom.
The breathing echoed louder in Adaine’s head.
The glowing stain continued to increase and grow until it was through the wall and into the room with them.
The wispy shape of an old woman floated in the air at the front of the classroom, just behind Gibbons. She was glowing dimly in the class, her body the only source of light in the room.
She stared blankly at the ground, body limp and sagging in the air.
As usual, Adaine couldn’t quite see the phantom’s face, her figure blurred around the edges and it almost hurt to try to focus on it for too long.
Adaine was trying to focus on anything else, in fact.
Calm down. It isn’t real. No one else can see it. You’re just crazy. You can't get sent back-
Her thoughts were cut off by a deafening scream from Kristen. Jarred from her mental panic, Adaine darted her glance over to the other kids.
All five kids were looking at the ghost, horrified.
They were looking at the ghost.
They were looking. at. the ghost.
They could see it, too.
Before Adaine could really deal with her worldview crumbling, the teens began to speak, stumbling over each other in panicked voices.
“what the FUCK is that?!” Fig cried
“It looks like lunch lady doreen!” Kristen hissed, voice trembling
“HOW are you seeing that?! It’s a creepy blue blob!-“ someone joined
“It looks JUST LIKE HER-“
“Dude it’s like blurry how can you-“
“you’re seeing a figure?!? it's just a light of some sort-“
“OH MY GOD I KNEW GHOSTS WERE REAL!!-“
“A lot of strong feelings in here,”
The voices jumbled together in Adaine’s head as one voice pierced through it all.
“the staff…”
Adaine recognized it as Lunch Lady Doreen’s voice, and paled.
“don’t trust the staff…”
The spirit began giggling manically and clutching at its head.
The five kids had stood up and were trying to say something to Mr Gibbons, but Adaine was still frozen at her desk.
They could see it, too.
Before any further plans could be made, the phantom suddenly lunged towards Mr Gibbons, screeching an ear-piercing scream.
Mr Gibbons’ scream melded in with the yells of the surrounding kids and the screeches of the phantom, and Adaine clutched her hands over her ears, trying desperately not to cry at the horribly violent chorus.
Mr Gibbons’ body began to coat in frost, his skin turning blue, then purple, then black, until his frozen charred body crumbled to the ground, his screams dying out along with the phantom’s.
For a moment, the room was silent.
The ghost began to quietly laugh once again as the teens stood in terrified silence, huddling together in the center of the room, hoping against hope that the ghost would be satisfied and leave.
Adaine could hear Kristen mumbling a terrified prayer. But Adaine felt that no God could save them now.
“What’s it doing?!” Whispered Riz in a low voice
“How would we know?!? It just KILLED Gibbons!!“ Fabian hissed back.
The kids once again broke off into overlapping whispers, arguing about what was going on and what they had to do. The ghost’s laugh grew louder in Adaine’s head.
Adaine took a deep breath, and quietly spoke.
“She’s… laughing.”
For the first time, the kids directed their attention over to her. Adaine peeled her eyes from the ghost and looked back over at the kids, trying to keep her own voice quiet and steady as she spoke.
“She.. She said not to trust the staff…”
“…When did she tell you this…?” Riz asked, seemingly more confused than untrusting.
Before Adaine could respond, the laughing cut off abruptly and Adaine turned her head back to the ghost, the other kids following her gaze.
A few silent seconds passed.
The ghost’s head snapped over.
It was looking right at them.
Before anyone could react, it began to rush towards them, the same way it had rushed at Gibbons. Adaine watched, eyes open wide and limbs frozen in terror and confusion.
She’d seen plenty of horrifying hallucinations before, but they’d never done anything more than stand around making unsettling noises. They’d never been able to speak coherant words before, and they had certainly never killed someone before.
But there Mr Gibbons was. Dead on the ground. Hardly even a pile of bones.
She wasn’t sure how to deal with all of these new developments in her psyche. Then again, a deadly ghost was rushing at her, so she probably wouldn’t survive long enough to contemplate any of this anyway.
Suddenly, as if by impulse, Fabian reached to his side and clutched a silver rapier, yanking it out of his sword holster and swinging it aggressively at the ghost.
As the sword made contact the ghost screeched violently and drew back, its form more wispy than before as it clutched itself in pain.
“RUN!” Fig screamed, the one simple word cutting through their fear as all 6 kids booked it into the hallway.
They followed Fig as she ran around corner after corner, until they finally ducked into the teacher’s lounge to rest. The feeling of dread in Adaine’s chest had dissipated as they ran further, but it never fully faded. The kids huddled together, all huffing in various degrees of exhaustion.
“Okay. Let’s get this straight. Ghosts are real. Our lunch lady is one of them. Kristen can see ghosts very clearly. Adaine can hear them. The ghost just killed Mr Gibbons. Anything else?” Riz hissed in a low, anxious voice.
“…The rapier seemed to hurt the ghost somehow..” Gorgug mumbled uncertainty. The kids nodded in agreement as Riz jotted all this down into a tiny notebook from his briefcase.
“We got away from it, but it’s still here. And I… I think it’s looking for us.” Adaine whispered, her voice trembling more than she had hoped it would.
“How do you know?” Fabian questioned her, raising an eyebrow in a skeptic tone that Adaine recognized well. She hunched further in on herself and fidgeted with her hands, eyes darting around the room.
“Just… just a feeling… i guess…” she said lamely, voice smaller than before. Riz nodded and scribbled into his notebook again. Seemingly snapping out of whatever shock she was in, Fig tuned into the conversation.
“Okay. Ghosts are real. HA! Ghosts are real!!!” She said, doing an excited little fist pump while everyone stared blankly at her. She cleared her throat and moved on.
“Alright, well lucky for you guys, I’m a ghost expert.” She pointed dramatically over at Fabian, “The ghost reacted to your fencing blade because ghosts are weak to silver and iron. They’re also weak to lavender but I doubt any of us have lavender so that’s unimportant right now. Anyway. The way to get rid of a ghost is by finding and destroying their source.”
Noticing the confused looks, she sighed and continued on. “A source is a physical object of a ghost that was very important to them while they were alive, or was an important role in their death. Sometimes it’s their bones or clothes or objects or whatever. Just something important enough to tie them to this reality.”
“So we find her source..” Riz continued, uncertainly
“SMASH it to PIECES…” Fabian joined, smile growing as his hands tightened around the holt of his sword.
“And get the hell out of here.” Fig finished, grinning sharply at the little group.
As the group mumbled vague plans, Adaine took the time to actually look at the kids sitting around her.
Fig seemed perfectly unphased by this incident, if anything maybe even a little excited. It was off putting, but useful for sure.
Riz had a relatively stoic demeanor. The situation didn’t seem to be affecting him too strongly, though his mind might have just been too focused on making a plan to get out of this alive. He didn’t have the time to panic. He had to strategize. Adaine greatly respected that.
Gorgug looked pretty shaken up by the whole ordeal, but he was still standing strong, his hands clenched into fists as he listened intently to the plan.
Fabian was excitedly listening to the plan, seemingly shaking off the fear from their previous encounter. With an idea of what they were facing, Fabian seemed confident he could do anything.
Finally, Kristen looked almost as freaked out as Adaine. She stood less proud than she had before, uncertainty creeping into every action she took. But despite everything, she held her head high and kept going, hanging on every word Fig said.
Overall, it was a pretty good group. The ideal group to be hunted by a ghost.
Adaine was snapped out of her thoughts when Fig addressed everyone and spoke with more authority than before.
“Alright, everyone. If you have any weapons or tools or anything of use that could be silver or iron, pop them in a pile right here.” With that, Fig pulled off a few chunky chain necklaces and tossed them into the center of their pile, pulling her bass out of its case and placing it on the ground as well.
Gorgug pulled a small toolkit out of his bag and produced a few iron hammers and screwdrivers.
Fabian just gestured to his rapier and did not set it into the middle.
Adaine stood there and fidgeted, knowing she had nothing of use.
Kristen scrounged through her pockets and tossed an iron straw into the pile. All the kids looked at her blankly.
“…What? I care about the environment.” Kristen huffed.
Finally everyone looked over at Riz expectantly. Riz shifted uncomfortably in his spot.
“I uh… I don’t have anything…” Riz muttered, hands in his pockets awkwardly.
Most of the kids settled at that answer and prepared to move on, but Fig’s gaze remained on Riz, raising one eyebrow in an untrusting glare.
“I know a lot about hiding things, and you sir, are certainly… uh… doing that.” Fig said. After an awkward beat she cleared her throat and quickly continued, “You’re hiding something, give it.”
Fig extended her hand towards Riz and stared him in the eyes, practically daring him to refuse. After a moment, Riz sighed deeply.
“Okay, okay, FINE. But you guys can’t tell anyone about this, okay? I didn’t even mean to bring it today— and I would get into SO MUCH trouble if my mom found out… Just like, don’t freak out…”
With that, Riz pulled a gun out of his bag.
All kids made various hushed noises of shock or amusement. Adaine had never seen a gun in person before, and Kristen looked more scared of the gun than she’d looked of the ghost. Fig nearly burst out laughing, and Fabian looked vaguely impressed. Gorgug didn’t react much at all, he simply tilted his head to the side, interested.
Finally, Fig spoke up, still laughing to herself.
“Well, that was unexpected. It’s always the quiet kids, huh?”
“Oh, cram it. It’s my mom’s, she taught me how to use it for self defense, and I must have accidentally packed it somehow.” Riz huffed in response.
“HOW do you ACCIDENTALLY pack a GUN?” Fabian said in astonishment, almost laughing himself.
“Oh please, you’re one to talk! Why are you carrying a rapier through the halls!?”
“In case I come upon trouble and need to fight my way through it! Clearly I had the right idea, seeing as I’ve saved all of our lives! Can I hear a ‘thank you, Fabian’?”
“Thank you, Fabia-“ Gorgug began, before getting cut off by someone.
Adaine wasn’t fully listening anymore. The feeling in her chest was very slowly increasing. She couldn’t hear any breathing or yelling yet, but knew the phantom was getting closer.
They couldn’t keep wasting time. Not if they wanted to survive this.
“Guys,” Adaine hissed in a low whisper, her voice sounding more forceful than she thought it could, “It’s getting closer. Do we have a plan or not?”
After a slight pause, Fig grinned a toothy grin and grabbed a notebook from Riz.
“Ok. Here’s how it’s gonna go-“
————————————-
After a few minutes, a plan was put together, and the 6 kids headed out.
Fig kept her chains and bass, Fabian kept his sword, Kristen kept her… straw, Riz kept his gun, and tools were handed out to Kristen, Riz, Adaine, and Gorgug.
The group crept slowly through the halls, even Gorgug hardly making a sound as they stumbled through the hallways.
Adaine had memorized the layout of this building (It was a small school, after all), and she led the pack.
They slipped through the halls, Adaine leading them to the lunchroom, where they assumed this had all originated.
As they walked, Adaine held up fingers to silently show the team how close they were to the phantom. A one or two meant she hardly felt it at all. A nine or ten meant they’d better get their weapons ready.
The group stalked through the hall for what felt like hours. The feeling grew wearily in Adaine’s chest.
One.
Gorgug stumbled as he walked and the group caught him as best they could. They continued forward.
Two.
Kristen was mumbling to herself again. Possibly a prayer. Possibly a speech. Everyone’s nerves were too high to really tell. They continued forward.
Three.
A lightswitch flickered in the hallway, causing Adaine to jump. Her face flushed at the embarrassment of letting herself be frightened by something so silly, but Gorgug gave her an encouraging smile. After a moment, she hesitantly returned it. They continued forward.
Four.
Adaine had never really been a part of any sort of team. Maybe it would have felt nice, if she had feared less for her life. She tentatively led them around a corner. They continued forward.
Five.
Kristen nearly tripped over her own feet, but Gorgug managed to catch her before her fall could make a sound. He held onto her shoulder to steady her. They continued forward.
Six.
The feeling of dread rose deep within Adaine’s chest. She could hear the wheezing, pained breaths of the ghost somewhere in the distance. But they had a plan. They could do this. With a deep breath, they continued forward.
Seven.
Adaine had never tried to seek out this feeling before. She had never followed her gut impulse. She would usually run from it until her feet were bloody with the pain of escape. Until her head was heavy with the agony of knowing that this was her life, knowing she’d never get to stop running. But here she was, flipping off her family and facing her fears head on. Even if just for a single day, she’d finally stopped running.
And damn, it felt good.
They continued forward.
Eight.
The terror clutched at her heart and threatened to strangle her, but Adaine clutched just as hard and kept walking. She’d do this, or die trying. The ghost’s breathing echoed through her head, gaining volume with each step. They continued forward.
Nine.
They were right next to the door to the lunchroom now. Fig looked at Adaine and gestured towards the door, an expression on her face that read
“Is the ghost in here?”
Adaine closed her eyes and focused on the feeling in her gut. Wordlessly, Adaine pointed forward and to the left, down the hall from where they now stood. Fig smiled and nodded, pulling the chains off of herself and fashioning them into a line across the hallway, hopefully causing a bit of a wall between their group and the ghost nearby.
Kristen, Gorgug, Riz, and Fabian formed a line behind the chains on the ground, the four of them reading their weapons and looking to Fig.
Fig stood somewhat ahead of the group, though still behind the chain. She had her bass out, its volume cranked as high as it could go.
Adaine stood by the door to the cafeteria, hands already resting on the push handle, waiting.
The teens exchanged anxious looks with one another, before all turning to look at Fig. Fig smiled her classic toothy grin, and nodded back at them.
Ten.
With a swift move of her arm, Fig played a deafeningly loud chord on her bass.
At the exact same time, Adaine slipped into the cafeteria, the sound of the door entirely drowned out by the sound of Fig’s shredding.
The shrill shriek of the phantom quickly rang through her ears as it lunged at the group, but Adaine didn’t have the time to worry about them or regret the plan. She had to find the source.
Blind leaps of faith had never been Adaine’s strong suit. How could she trust a simple feeling to be correct? How could anyone trust feelings to be correct? And yet, despite all odds, here she was. Blindly trusting in her own ability to find some haunted object that a random punk girl told her would kill a ghost. Gods, maybe she was crazy.
No time to dwell on that now. She had to focus. She had to keep going. Real or not, this was the closest she’d been to making friends in… well… ever. And them dying by ghosts within the first hour of her meeting them would not be ideal.
With a deep, shaky breath, Adaine closed her eyes and opened herself to the feeling in her chest.
One strand of cold terror connected her to the ghost in the hall. The strand yanked and pulled violently, screaming at her to chase it like a cat with yarn. But Adaine ignored it and pushed deeper. The sounds of the hallway didn’t exist anymore, nor did the sounds of the phantom screeching.
All she could hear was her heartbeat. Steady and slow.
Searching deep within herself, she found a small thread, tugging her forward. This thread seemed less… angry. The string of the ghost was violent and enraged and wanted to hurt, but the thread filled her with a simple feeling of fear. A small voice. A tiny, sad soul who didn’t want to die. But it was too late for her. And Adaine could still save her friends.
Following the path of the thread, Adaine eventually got behind the desk where food was served, and into the kitchen.
Adaine continued walking towards this feeling, her eyes closed, following her intuition above all else.
Suddenly, Adaine bumped into something.
Jarred, Adaine stumbled back and opened her eyes, the object she’d run into swung lightly from the collison.
Staring forward, Adaine’s heart dropped into her chest. Her breathing hitched and the calm of the plan quickly faded to nothing but terror.
In the center of the kitchen hung Lunch Lady Doreen, a noose around her neck. Her body swayed slightly in the air.
fuck. fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Adaine clutched her hand over her mouth, trembling. The panic nearly overtook her, but she held herself together by her bare teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, forcing herself to look for the thread.
Distantly, she could feel the string getting stronger, the phantom nearing her as well, but she didn’t have time to worry about that. She focused all her energy on detecting where the source was.
Finally, she opened her eyes and saw it. A metal ladle sitting on the ground, as if she had just dropped it. She grabbed the ladle and—
Cold mornings. Obnoxious children. Leaves fall faster than they can grow back. Coffee in the morning. Tea after lunch. Children always love a surprise.
Panic. Apprehension. This can’t be right. You know these people. You work with them. They can’t really be monsters. Right? They come closer. You need to tell someone, anyone. This is wrong. This is WRONG. You try to scream but hands close around your throat. Your eyes squeeze shut.
You can’t breathe. You can’t breathe.
You claw desperately at their hands, trying to get oxygen, but they’re stronger than you. Your vision fades as tears stream down your cheeks. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. You couldn’t save anyone.
You’re dying for nothing.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid…
Adaine’s eyes shot open, tears streaming down her cheeks as she desprately inhaled oxygen, her hands clutching at her throat. After a few greedy breaths, Adaine stumbled to her feet and looked down at the ladle in her hand. It was this moment that she saw a fatal flaw in their plan.
The ladle was metal.
Adaine couldn’t break metal.
She staggered out of the kitchen, looking for something she could break the ladle with.
Before she could even process what was happening, a barbaric screech rang through her temple, so loudly that Adaine cried out in pain and clutched her hands over her ears, crumpling to the ground.
Through the blur of her tears, she could see the ghost of Doreen towering above her. Faintly, she could hear the yells of her friends in the distance. Or maybe they were right in front of her. Adaine didn’t really know.
Doreen slowly lowered herself in front of Adaine, until they were face-to-face.
Doreen’s eyes were cold and dead, an abyss of inky blackness, surrounded by the blurry facial features of the body in the kitchen.
Her wispy blue hand hovered at the side of Adaine’s face, cupping her head in an almost gentle manner, even as Adaine felt her face grow cold and slowly cover in frost.
Doreen moved her head to the side of Adaine’s, whispering into her ear. A chill ran through her entire body, as the ghost’s cold breath seeped from her dead mouth.
“Finish what I started. Don’t trust the faculty…”
Adaine’s breath seemed to halt in her lungs, her tears freezing in her eyes. Through the sound of her own heartbeat, past the noise of the phantom, Adaine managed to hear the one sound she was hoping for.
From somewhere in the room, she could hear one of her friends yelling.
“ADAINE! THE SOURCE! THROW THE SOURCE!”
In her haze, she couldn’t quite recognize who had yelled to her, but it was enough to snap her back to reality.
She jerked her arm back, ladle in hand, and chucked it through the air.
A deafening BANG filled the room, and the ghost immediately disappeared into nothingness, leaving just a chill in the air.
The ladle clattered to the ground, a bullet hole through its center.
A few tense, silent moments passed as the kids contemplated what the hell had just happened.
The silence was broken by a snort. Everyone looked over at Fig, as she broke out into a mad laugh. She might have been laughing from shock, or disbelief, or maybe this group was just more unhinged than Adaine initially thought. No matter the reason, the tension dissipated as one by one, the kids all joined in, cackling madly at the absurdity of it all.
They all gathered around one of the tables in the lunchroom.
All six kids were coated in frost, shivering. Gorgug had icicles growing from his nose and most of the kids were covered in small cuts and bruises. But despite the minor frostbite, everyone seemed to be doing okay.
Kristen proved herself to be a decent medic, and checked through everyone’s injuries. A few of them, including Adaine (on her ear), had some first-degree frostbite. Kristen told them all to stay in a warm environment and that it should heal up perfectly fine in a couple of days.
After Kristen had finished looking after everyone, the table dissolved into chaos again. Stories overlapped with each other as all the kids began to tell their own account.
“That was INSANE!! I CANNOT believe we survived that!!” Fig started, grinning widely.
“Please, that was child’s play, one old lady can’t take down FABIAN SEACASTER, SON OF BILL SEA-“
“Cram it, Fabian. But hey, good moves out there.”
The teens began to chat about the apparently intense fight that they’d gone through while Adaine had searched for the source.
Adaine wanted to join in, to listen to their funny stories, to laugh and enjoy this time with her newfound friends, but she couldn’t find it in herself to focus.
Her face and hands ached, her head felt heavy and her temple throbbed. She just couldn’t stop picturing Doreen hanging lifelessly in the air. She couldn’t stop feeling the hands around her neck, memories of a life gone by.
“Hey, Adaine? What exactly did you see back there?” Riz cut through Adaine’s thoughts, looking over at her curiously. The other kids followed his gaze as well, until they were all looking at Adaine, waiting for her answer.
With a deep breath, Adaine explained everything she witnessed.
The threads from a life no longer living. The body of a woman hanging in the air. The steel ladle she didn’t know how to break. The vision of an existence that wasn’t her own. The order that the ghost gave her before the end.
When she was done explaining, the kids stared at her in a dead silence.
“…Her…. Her body is in there?” Kristen said, gesturing to the kitchen nearby. Adaine simply nodded.
“Wait, so she hung herself, but you had a vision of someone being strangled when you touched the ladle?” Fig asked, to which Adaine slowly nodded again. Riz piped in, notebook in hand, seemingly connecting the dots in his head.
“Okay. So something is going on within the staff here, and whatever it is, Doreen must have found out about it. The faculty members strangled her to keep her quiet, and then placed her body in a noose to make it look like she strangled herself.”
“Didn’t count on us having a psychic, ‘ey Adaine?” Fig winked, Adaine’s face growing red in response.
“Did you recognize any of the teachers?” Riz asked, looking to Adaine once more.
“..No, no I don’t think so. It was less like a full visual thing and more like…. like a jumble of thoughts and feelings. Like a bunch of memories and some dialogue and stuff. I don’t know. It- it’s hard to explain.” She responded, picking at her hands again. Riz nodded casually and scribbled more down into his notebook.
“Okay, I’m sorry to interrupt the little nerd fest over here, but what the FUCK are we going to do about the TWO DEAD BODIES IN THIS SCHOOL?” Fabian exclaimed, looking around the table in exasperation.
“Ohhh yeah I forgot about that part” Fig piped in, awkwardly. Riz looked up from his notebook and continued.
“Well, Doreen’s body has already been set up to look like a suicide, so I don’t think we need to worry about that. We’ll have to bury the ladle somewhere to hide the bullet hole. As for Mr. Gibbons, he’s just a pile of ashes anyway, I’m sure someone will clean him up and not think anything of it.”
The kids glanced around the table uncomfortably. It felt weird to just leave as if nothing had happened, but clearly it was the best option.
A few minutes of somewhat awkward conversation passed as the group packed up their things and walked out to the front of the building. It was dark out now, and merely street lights illuminated their path.
In various spots in the woods, wisps of spirits muddled about aimlessly.
Adaine was used to spirits like this, ones that primarily only showed up at nighttime, and simply wandered without purpose.
Next to her, Adaine noticed the other kids tense and quickly drew back into the building. Fabian drew his sword and Gorgug fumbled for his tools.
“Oh my God, WHY are there SO MANY?!?” Fabian hissed, Rapier extended in front of him.
“We could hardly beat ONE, how are we going to make it home?!” Kristen joined, brandishing her iron straw.
“Adaine, get inside.” Gorgug whispered anxiously.
Adaine stood there, a little bit dazed. Her brain felt foggy after such a long day, and she looked around herself, confused.
“Why are you guys scared of those spirits? They’re there pretty much all the time. They just, like, wander aimlessly.” Adaine said simply, looking at them with a befuddled expression.
The five other kids returned her look, even more confused than she was. After a moment’s hesitation, something seemed to click in Riz’s mind, and he looked to Adaine.
“Adaine, have you always been able to see ghosts? And they’ve just always been… around?” He asked, notebook already out. Adaine’s eyebrows knit together as she responded.
“…Yeah? You guys couldn’t?”
“No!” Fabian cried, as if this was common knowledge.
“…Not until today, apparently.” Gorgug chimed in. After a confused pause, Adaine sighed and began again.
“Oookay. Well. These… uh… spirits, or whatever, are pretty much everywhere all the time. Wandering through halls, across streets, around forests, pretty much anywhere you can go, they can be. They rarely show up during the day, usually they come out in late afternoons and are gone the next morning. They never do much of anything and they don’t hurt to touch or walk through. So basically they just wander around and do nothing. I’d never- until today- I’d never come across any ghost that could ever actually, like, do anything.” Adaine said, faltering under the bewildered expressions of the other kids.
She had finally found people like her, and yet she was still the weirdo of the group.
At least they weren’t looking at her like she was insane. And she wasn’t insane. Her family had been wrong. There were people- right here- right in front of her- who could see the spirits, too.
She wasn’t crazy.
Unless… unless she was hallucinating them, too.
Unless her brain had made all of this up for her.
An elaborate lie told by herself, to herself.
Suddenly doubting her head once again, she looked back over to the group she’d met that day. They had tentatively joined her outside. They were saying something, to her or to each other or to no one, Adaine didn’t really know. She couldn’t quite focus on the words. It all made sense to her now.
You’re even crazier than you used to be. You’re imagining people. You’re imagining horrifying murderous creatures. This is all in your head, and you’re going to wake up and be right back at the psych ward again. Right back where you started. You’re insane-
She was jarred back to herself as she felt someone shaking her shoulders. Refocusing her eyes, she looked up to see Fig, holding Adaine’s shoulders and looking at her, concerned.
“Woah, hey! Thought we lost you for a minute there. You good?” Fig said kindly.
Fig’s breath smelled vaguely of cigarettes. The night air blew a cool breeze over Adaine’s still-stinging face. She could hear the breathing of not only herself, but the breathing of all her friends, too.
Tentatively, Adaine reached up a hand and touched Fig’s hand on her shoulder. Cringing at herself, Adaine immediately pulled her hand back.
“…you’re real…” she mumbled quietly, looking Fig in the eyes for the first time.
“…We’re real.” Fig whispered, smiling warmly.
Adaine blinked back tears as Fig suddenly pulled her into a warm embrace. After a moment, Gorgug joined as well, followed by Kristen, and finally Riz, who had to drag Fabian into the hug.
For a moment, Adaine allowed herself to be comforted by her friends’ presences. She had never felt so safe. So warm. But soon the hug had to come to an end, and the kids disbanded, grabbing their respective rides home.
Today Adaine had gotten detention, watched her teacher die, found a dead body, and was nearly murdered by a ghost.
And yet, somehow, this had still been the best day of her life.
She rode her bike swiftly through the dark streets on the long stretch home, flying by wispy ghosts that dimly lit the night sky. For the first time in her life, Adaine looked forward to tomorrow.