!!! CW, death, pet abandonment, slightly creepy imagry, bullying, anxiety, de@th, smoking!!!

Chapter two

I see de@d people

Lee's mother was the only person who believed them when they were 6 years old. Each night they had seen an old man in their closet. He would peak out and call out to Lee in a quiet hushed voice. She stayed up late one night sharing a book with Lee under the covers when they saw the closet door creak open slowly. They hadn't noticed at first but soon there was enough space to see the sliver of an older man looking through. He stuck his face out, curling his hand on the brin of the door holding it. Lee had clung tightly to their mother. “¿Que lleva puesto el viejo?*” Mama asked Lee. She would often speak to Lee and her husband in Spanish when she didn't want others to eavesdrop. Not many people spoke it up north.

“El anciano lleva una gorra de béisbol y una camisa azul.**” Lee responded. Lee’s mother nodded and stood up from the bed. “Hello Sir,” she said in english, “ I understand you wish to speak to someone, please, talk to me. My child however is too young and does not know not to be afraid of you yet. Are you able to leave this room?” Lee had seen the man’s lips move and he disappeared, sinking back into the darkness of the closet. Mama turned back to Lee. “ It's ok," she told them, “he said he has a message for his wife, he can leave us alone once we tell her.”

Lee had been so happy that another person had seen the old man. “Mama, do they always leave?”

“If they can. But sometimes they need something very specific to leave. He needed me to tell his wife where he hid some money for her. I once met someone that just wanted to smell their favorite dinner again!” That had been a nice night, Lee’s mother told them ghost stories until they drifted off to sleep.

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Lee was used to seeing de@d people and, for the most part, they helped where they could. A few months ago Lee had taken up feeding a stray cat to help an older lady pass on who was worried the kitty would starve. Their dad had found them feeding the cat one day and brought it home. That’s how they had found Ursa who lately enjoyed spending time basking in the sunlit windows of the Antiques shop downstairs. Most ghost's needs were simple like that. Others were nearly impossible. One of those impossible ghosts was standing right next to Lee’s locker when they stepped into school. 

“Well well well, finally I thought you would never show up!” Lee tried very hard to look past him. Nick never really expected Lee to answer at school, at least not in a busy hallway. Lee opened their locker and began organizing homework folders, making sure they had all the assignments that were due. Nick poked his head through their locker door. “Is today the day you finally let me bum a cigarette?” Lee rolled their eyes. They fished their phone out of their pocket pretending to take a call. “ Hey!” they said into the ‘phone’, “I'm really not up for this today, can you call me later?” Nick huffed. 

“You can just talk to me like i'm a person you know you don't have to do it through your phone”. Lee slammed the door. “Sorry, not really an option,” Lee  deadpanned. Lee had Learned the hard way to make sure to bring as little attention to themselves as possible when talking to ghosts. “Jesus, what's up with you today?” Lee pretended to hand up the phone narrowing their eyes at Nick before turning around and walking to class, hoping Nick would just get the point. Normally Lee loved Nick’s company but today was just not the day. The hallways were buzzing like normal. Friends were talking about weekend plans and parties, others were panicking over tests they had forgotten about. It was when Lee turned into their first period hallway that they heard it start. 

“Do you remember what happened to Alice?”

Lee almost stopped right there in the middle of the hallway. the topic hopped from one group to the next. " That was like a year ago right?" "Yeah they covered it on the news this morning." "Did they ever find who-" Lee took a breath wringing their hands together and walked into the first period classroom. Lee walked the length of the classroom keeping their head down eyes focused on the puke colored tiles of the classroom floor. They sat down at heir desk and fished in their bag for their headphones. Maybe if they listened to music it would drown out the little bits of chatter. Lee heard Alice’s name a few more times before they were able to get the headphones on. They shuffled and hit play and put their head down on the cool desk and just breathed for a moment but, all too soon the headphones got ripped off their head.

Lee’s head shot up looking around frantically. To their left was a blond girl and she was holding Lee’s headphones. “ You know these aren't allowed in the classroom Witch”. It was fucking Hannah, of course it was fucking Hannah. She was one of the very few people in the school who insisted on being a walking snobby bully stereotype all the way from her blond hair to her designer winter boots. She had started calling Lee ‘Witch’ way back in middle school when Lee had confessed to Alice that they saw ghosts. Hannah had been friends with Alice, almost up to her death. When Hannah heard Lee’s secret from Alice she began calling Lee all sorts of names. Poltergeist, Witch, Freak, and De@dhead were some of her favorites. Lee grit their teeth. They held out their hand “Give them back Hannah,” they knew better than to grab for them. Last time Hannah had pulled something like this she had accused Lee of pushing her to try and get them back resulting in Lee getting a wright up and a detention hour after school.

“Lol,” yes this bitch said 'lol' irl, “ you're not getting these back like that Freak, not without answering us a question”.

Lee rolled their eyes. “ What are you a troll? Answer these riddle three and I will give the headphones to thee.”

Hannah’s face grew red. “Shut up! I'm asking you a question!”

Lee stood up and  put their hands out  comically shrugging. “You're asking me a question but want me to shut up? How am I supposed to answer?” They took a deep breath crossing their arms to hide their trembling hands. Lee did not need this right now. “You know what hannah? At this point just keep them.” Lee turned to sit at their desk.

“Did you ki11 her?”

Lee turned around slowly. “What?”

Hannah sneered, a shit eating grin on her face. "Did. You . Ki11. Her?” She emphasized every word in. “ Everyone in town knows that she was last seen at your house. You said that she ran off. But you know what I think? I think you ki11ed her.”

Lee was seeing red. Their fist shook at their side  they reared it back-“Shut the fuck up” Lee heard a low voice say next to them. Lee and Hannah both turned to look at the girl that was shifting her way down the desk aisle. She was a tall black girl with her braids twisted up at the top of her head, the pink ends poking out. She had on a black button up and black ripped jeans and a thick winter coat draped over her shoulders.  She grabbed the headphones out of Hannah's startled hands. Hannah went to reach for them back but the girl had already given them to Lee who was quickly stuffing them back into their bag. The girl stood there for a moment looking down at hannah. Eventually when she realized that the girl wasn't going to move she scoffed and wandered over to her own seat  on the other side of the room. The new girl took the desk Hannah had been hijacking. 

Lee looked at her for a moment. Lee knew they had seen the girl before but they had never really talked to any of their classmates. They were a loner even when Alice was still around to be their friend. Alice had been Lee’s only friend since Hannah’s bullying got worse freshman year. 

“Thanks for that, uhh” Lee trailed off.

“I’Ksha” the girl replied. She dug her hand into her coffin shaped bag and grabbed a black spiral. She laid them out in front of her and didnt say anything else. Ok then. Lee got out their own notebook and waited for the teacher to come in to start class.