The Mystery of The New York Ghost

The Reveal

"Meet behind the high school after the students get out and I'll talk to you about it..." I hear Socrates mumbles. I nod and felt a cold chill run through my spine. I look at Mouse
"Are you ok?" they ask
"Yeah, I'm ok," I nod
"Let's just get to class, I'm sure you're just dying to get to class," Mouse swoons
"Lemme guess, so you can attract boys?" I ask
"Boys, girls, and nonbinary folks," Mouse swoons again
"They do seem cute... the boys... and such..." I sigh
"Questioning?" Mouse asks
"Yeah... I just... I'm saying I'm bisexual... I'm just not a hundred percent sure..." I mumble, fiddling with my fingers
"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough..." Mouse nods.

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I snuck behind the school, in search of the ghost I heard
"Hello? Socrates?" I yell out
"Yo," a guy greets, leaning against the brick wall surrounding the school
"Socrates? You look alive to me," I say
"I may look alive but I'm fucking dead, long been since '22," he scoffs, gesturing to himself
"1922?" I ask
"I'm not that old, I mean 2022," Socrates scoffs again
"I was born in 2022," I mumble
"So, Mills, right?" Socrates asks
"No, Malikai," I correct
"Good, you're not too stupid," Socrates starts walking toward the abandoned village. It was burned down ever since the heatwave but it couldn't have been someone who was cooking at the time of the heatwave. It started in one house, one that was behind the house Socrates was standing in front of. The house behind the one Socrates was in front of had more ash, a faint burnt flesh smell, something as if it were a murder
"So... how did you die?" I ask, looking at Socrates
"Me? Oh, I thought it was obvious..." Socrates answers with surprise
"Fire?" I ask, looking back at the burned houses
"Fire? Huh, I never thought of that... I always thought it was the heatwave of 2022..." Socrates states, now looking at the houses
"It looks like a fire... in such a cold place... How did it happen?" I ask, looking around the houses
"That's a great question for such a stupid person..." Socrates mumbles as he phases through the wall of one of the houses
"Hey!!" I exclaim, pushing the crumbling door down to enter
"I'm not sure how it happened or if the heatwave did it... it could be an oven or a stove left on... something..." Socrates trails off, looking around the house that was covered in ash. He headed towards a skeleton that was wearing a replica of his outfit but it was more burned and covered in ash
It looks like it was intentional... a murder more like..." I say, looking around the house. I spotted a white book, untouched by the fire and ash
"Since when did you become smart, Cali girl?" Socrates asks, examining the skeleton
"Since today, ghost man," I state
"We can check around my old home for clues..." Socrates offers
"Whose book is this?" I ask, picking up the white book. Storyteller... seems familiar... Where have I seen this before?
"I don't know... I've never seen it before..." Socrates mumbles, suddenly next to me. I flipped through it. It had notes written in red along the sides where there wasn't any text. At the back had my stepfather's name written in big letters, Samuel Michaelis...
"I have...my stepdad owned something like this... he always carried it everywhere... he always called me his little Micha..." I mumble. Socrates looked at the book
"Storyteller?" he asks
"It was his favorite book before mom died... he always read it to us..." I felt tears forming at the corners of my eyes as the memories flooded back. Every night of him reading one chapter to us as we grew up together. I always loved hearing his voice. Mom snuggling with me. I had a cup of hot cocoa. Every night... We used to read this so many times... We used to bond... but ever since mom died and stepdad moved us to New York... he hasn't read it at all... he always said he lost it... he always said he can't read anything else otherwise it wouldn't be the same... he always said that I can take care of myself and I didn't need reading every night anymore... I don't know why he became so cold suddenly... it was like his heart became as cold as New York ever since we came here
"It's... interesting... can I see?" Socrates asks, holding his hand out and snapping me out of my memory palace.
"You're dead, you can't touch anything in the living world," I scoff
"I can if it's dead, look," he scoffs, putting his hand on the book
"Oh..."
"Yeah, a dead tree is pretty much touchable," he rolls his eyes
"What are you going to do with it?" I ask, looking at him
"Read it and find out why this was left behind, untouched by the fire..." Socrates mumbles, taking the book away from me. The book phased through his hand as I heard snow crunching
"Hello? Malikai? Are you in here?" I hear Mouse asking from the entrance
"Go, I'll be waiting by the school tomorrow with what I found," Socrates whispers to me. I turn around and see Mouse looking around
"Hey, what are you doing here?" I ask them
"What are you doing here?!" Mouse echos, looking at me
"This place is falling apart!!" Mouse yells, grabbing my arm
"This is practically the safest place in the universe ever since 2022..." Socrates mumbles to himself
"I was just curious what was here..." I lie
"This house specifically?" Mouse asks
"The house behind it was the source of the fire, the flames spread from there so I thought I could search this one to see if there was something left behind..." I answer
"Don't come back here... it's dangerous..." Mouse hushes
"I won't," I nod. Mouse drags me to a cafe near the high school
"I heard this place used to be owned by a university before they lost it to the city in 2022!!" Mouse exclaims
"There seems to be a lot of things involving 2022..." I mumble, looking around
"Yeah, that was also the third year of Covid, the year Technoblade and the Queen of England died, and so many other things!! Thank goodness the virus slowed down and gave up after so long!!" Mouse skips to the end of the line
"The heatwave, the war between Ukraine and Russia, the inflation, the Greater Depression, the homeless population increase..." Mouse lists off. I stopped listening after a while since I got bored. Mouse seems like a history nerd... they must love it. I watched them talking as we got dinner at the cafe. They didn't stop talking until we left. Then we said our goodbyes and went home. I wondered about Socrates the entire time, focused on solving his death... I didn't want to leave him to solve it himself... I did look into journalism back in California... maybe I can become a detective and help him solve his case...