Beetle

Chapter 15

The sound of my screaming fulls my ears and everyone in my classes ears. The noise replays like a broken record.

Everyone- people I've gone to school with since kindergarten, my teacher and the dead ghost hanging just stare at me. The only difference is the dead ghost smiles directly at me with her neck bent at an impossible angle. Her smile which is really more of an insane grin grows when she pulls her head loose from the noose. I watch as she does a flip through it. "Impossible!" I shout, the noose was too tight to have her slip out from under neath it!

"Red?" Kaylee asks me as principal Brown tries to grab my arm. Speaking of, I didn't even notice him come in. I don't really let him grab my arm but that doesn't stop me from getting up and out of my seat.

"Her eyes! What the hell is wrong with her eyes!" A guy from the varsity lacrosse team shouts. "Holy shit", mumbles Steven the stoner. I don't know what the problem is because as far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with the women's eyes! It's her neck that is- was the problem!

I sprint to the nearest washroom because I'm more than modified. The tears come and come and I'm left thinking, "what the hell just happened?"

My brain is so loud and on overdrive that I can't help but fidget, tapping my fingernails against the bathroom sink. At first I miss it but than it's all I hear. I stop my fingers from moving and quiet, my breathing. I look up and staring back at me is the women who had just hanged herself. Except she looks fine; no- she looks good, her face has colour to it and her eyes are vibrating with life.

I stare at her through the bathroom mirror, unable to speak, all I can do is watch. She's pretty, and as soon as I snap out of it and consider asking her questions she jumps out of the bathroom mirror. She passes right through me and I'm left cold and feeling a sense of icy fear.

I lay down crying in the dirty floor of the bathroom for god knows how long. Shaking and alone until an EMT comes to my rescue. Technically, that's not true because I kind of remember a couple people coming into the bathroom and than leaving as soon as they saw me.

The EMT asks me all these kind of questions and I want to answer them, I really do but I'm unable. I'm unable because the first thing he asks is, "what happened?" I say nothing but he is patience and I can't live like this so I tell him.
"Ghosts, I see ghosts." The relief I feel from telling someone is overwhelming. He doesn't reach and it takes me a moment to figure out why; he doesn't believe me.

In this moment some would feel the need to be believed but I don't feel that way. I just want to feel less shitty and less cold. "Can I have a blanket?" The man looks at me and smiles a smile that says he's trying to calm down, "of course. As soon as we get you in the ambulance." I'm shaking my head, "I don't need to go to the hospital." Not to mention how embarrassing that would be, seeing my boss and having her know I'm losing my mind.

Since the ghost I saw has made herself disappear it's time to forget about what just happened. The only problem is I've majorly fucked up and had a panic attack or some shit in the bathroom and as if that wasn't bad enough I told someone in a moment of weakness that I can see ghosts. Thank god, this guy doesn't believe me but what will the student body say?

"Where is she?" I inwardly cringe as I see my mom in her work clothes run into my hospital room. I'm fine but since I'm still seventeen I'm stuck here for observation until someone can sign me out; "just to be safe."

"I heard you blacked out", my mom rushes out in a panic. "I-um", did I black out? "I wasn't feeling good after cheer practice", little does she know I skipped cheer today because I'm pissed at Kaylee. Than again does it really matter? I don't know what happened but whatever it was- it was a fluke and definitely won't happen again. "You have to be careful!" My mom tries to scold me but she fails because the concern in her voice bleeds into her words.