Lea Cartwright can see dead people. She sees them in the street, at school and even in her little brother's day care. But when one appears in her bedroom begging her to solve his murder, Lea realises that there's much more to fear in high school tha...
The last time I saw Blackheath High School, it was on fire.
Flames licked the red bricks that stood there for a hundred years and stained-glass windows exploded into crystal shards that collected by my feet. I stared up at the building, squinting against the amber light and trying to feel a connection to the rooms I'd grown up in that now blazed with heat — but all I could do was smile.
Students clustered behind me, creeping as close to the makeshift yellow police tape barrier as they were willing to get. Their whispers were an unnerving backtrack to the crackling fire and I felt their eyes piercing the back of my neck like daggers. I knew what they were saying, what words were uttered beneath their breath, but I refused to turn around and face them.
Not for as long as Neve was inside.
I watched the door – an ancient archway of old brick that once served as the main entrance when the building was a hospital – and stood on the tip of my toes, waiting for the firemen to come back out. Smoke bellowed in black puffs to the sky, and with each crash of glass my resolve loosened. I could hardly breathe; the burns on my arms were a brilliant red, blistering with peeling skin and emitting a smell of seared flesh. The pain had a strange kind of warmth that accompanied it, though, crashing over me in waves and threatening to finally take me out.
Yet there I stood, frozen.
I'd never seen a fire before. Not one like this. In a way, it was beautiful in its destruction. All we could do was stand there and watch as decades of memories were being erased, hundreds of fingerprints and initials etched in wood destroyed within minutes. A part of me felt horrified in the role I'd played. True, the building couldn't control what evil contorted in its walls, but another part of me — a bigger, darker part — wanted it to fold into the ground and never stand again.
Bricks toppled down like dominos, and I flinched as another explosion flashed with white light, here one second and gone the next, like someone had turned a switch on and off in the night. Screams shrieked from behind me and I felt my classmates moving back, but I remained still, my eyes glued on the doors. Heat pulsed towards me and blew my hair back as I waited for a glint of Neve's black hair to appear.
I tried to think back – Neve hadn't been that far behind, right? I'd heard her coughs and the click of her heels as she followed me through the dismantling grand hall, felt her fingertips reaching for my waist. The world bent around us, ball dresses tearing at our feet and ankles twisting in ways ankles shouldn't twist. We barely knew if we were going in the right direction – I just followed the light and, well, she followed me.
Gritting my teeth against the pain in my arm, I leaned over the barrier. Still no sign. How long had it been? Five, ten minutes? It felt like a lifetime.
I took a deep breath and tried to pretend every movement didn't hurt. Covering my eyes with a hand, I looked into the shadows, squinting past the orange flames and through the broken windows. But there was nothing. No movement, no sound except for the roar of the fire.
What would I do if nobody came out? My chest collapsed at the thought.
It happened before I realised. One second I was safe, standing behind the tape and surrounded by narrowed eyes, the next I was running. Towards the fire, towards Neve. My eyes stung against the quivering heat as someone shouted my name, but I moved without thought, without dictation. Glass crunched beneath my feet and another explosion shook the ground, but I ran as hard as I could. I had to get to her. I had to save her.
Neve couldn't die because of me.
Smoke hung in the air like a noose and it wasn't long before invisible hands wrapped it around my neck. I stumbled forward, arms raised as I navigated blindly. Something hard made me trip. I tried to cover my mouth with the blanket I'd been given, but tendrils of smoke reached through it and into my mouth, making the world spin and twist. Every breath I took made my throat dry up, but I was only an arm's length away before I could reach out and –
My hand was yanked back.
Cora.
Standing in front of me, pale skin smudged with dirt and sweat. Her eyes were dark, burning against the fire that blazed only steps away. She appeared speechless at first, gaze narrowed and accusing. But when her lips tightened into a long line, I knew she had plenty to say. Her mouth was about to open, ready to say all the nasty things I could see brewing in her thoughts, when her eyes widened impossibly more, darting to something over my shoulder.
'Move, now!'
The voice came from inside the fire, and something in my gut forced me to obey. I grabbed Cora's hand before she could react, her manicured nails digging into my skin as I tugged her away. My sister's palm was clammy against mine and it was the first time we'd held hands since we were kids, but we gripped onto each other as hard as we could, pulling at the other with each stumble and fall.
The change in air was startling, like I was drowning and finally found breath. One second, I was covered in nothing but ashy smoke, but the next, a cool, frigid wind played with the tips of my hair. Free. I was free.
I grit my teeth against a pain in my chest.
Blue and red lights surrounded us, swirling like a beacon against the wide-eyed faces of students standing on the field. It felt like I'd only taken five steps before the earth started shaking, a loud crash making me fall. My skin scraped the ground, elbows first, legs second. Debris tore into my skin until I felt it rip open and I winced, tumbling onto my front.
I turned just in time to watch Blackheath High crash into nothing.
Wisps of ash flew around us like snowflakes, covering my hair in a widow's shroud. With firemen carrying Neve's limp body into the flashing ambulance, I couldn't help but hold back my smile.
But Cora? She knew. My sister whipped around to face me, dark hair sticking to the sweat on her neck and face. Each word stuck into me like a knife, but I relished each one.
'What did you do?'
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