Chapter 4: Ghosts and Graves

Jason’s voice made me pause. Right. He was dead. Ten years ago, the day after the SATs. Car accident. I went to his funeral.

It was one of those gray Ohio afternoons where the rain soaks straight through your coat and into your bones. Everyone in black, the air thick with that strange, sticky sorrow you only feel at the end of something you didn’t want to end.

In ten years, everything about him had been burned away. No one around me ever mentioned his name again.

Actually, my mind was a mess just now. So messy that even if I forced myself to calm down, I still couldn’t tell dream from reality. So messy that I didn’t even know what my actions meant.

But at this moment, I suddenly became clear-headed. Looking at the empty living room, I lowered my head and glanced at my rain-soaked dress again. My throat tightened a little.

I remembered the first time Michael disappeared for hours, the way I’d told myself not to ask questions. I’d ignored every warning sign, choosing not to see what was right in front of me.

"I got caught in the rain. If I don’t shower and take some medicine, I’ll probably get sick and die tomorrow."

Everything was quiet. So quiet that it felt like seeing Jason was just my imagination. But just as I held my breath and was about to open the office door to check—

His muffled voice came through. "Shut up. Don’t say the word ‘die’..."

His tone, even from behind a closed door, still managed to sound just like the old Jason—half annoyed, half worried, all real.