The Tears I Can't Cry

Chapter One

First day back to school after a long summer vacation. I sighed and pulled my hood further on my head, I didn’t want to be here. Not after the summer I had, After that day when I saw my mother’s ghost sitting in my room with a noose around her neck, the undead seemed to flock towards me. It ticked me off because they always came at the wrong time, Like this past summer. I was with my brothers and my father at the beach and we were all having fun. That’s when I saw her, the women in white, standing next to my brother pointing toward the caves that weren’t very far away. Something told me to go and check it out but another part of me whispered to stay by my fathers side and not leave, Don’t ask me why but I listened to the voice in my head and came up with the excuse that I wanted to walk down the beach by myself and followed the woman in the white dress. I felt like I was being followed, so with each step I was more and more paranoid, I kept turning around but no one was there. Why are you doing this Elle? I asked myself. You are out of your god for loving mind, following a ghost! My brain was screaming at me to turn around and go back but I was already this far so… I kept going. I must be crazy because the cave that the woman was pointing to was above some very sharp and very scary looking rocks. “In there,” I heard her whisper to me, I looked around, but she wasn’t anywhere near me, I gulped and forced the vomit that was raising in my throat back down. I took those last few steps forward, pressing my back against the side of the rocks, even though there was enough room between me and the edge where I wouldn’t fall over I didn’t trust it. I patted for the cave entrance, keeping my eyes on the way I had come, just to make sure that I wasn’t being followed. When my hand didn’t touch rock anymore is when I looked and trust me when I say this I didn’t have to look in very far to see her. She laid there, her white dress stained with the crimson color of blood, her hair was a dark brown or at least I thought it was, from where I was standing at the mouth of the cave. I wanted to get closer, but my feet had decided to listen to my head and not move any further. Come on, I urged myself. I finally took a breath that I didn’t know I was holding and moved forward, as I got closer I could tell, how she died. There was a gapping hole in her chest, right was her heart was supposed to be. “Help me,” came a faint whisper. I turned to see her ghost standing behind me, “Help me, please” she said again. Help her? How in the name of Charles angels was I supposed to help her? “How?” I asked, “How am I supposed to help you?” She didn’t say anything, see just starred at me. That’s when I got the feeling that someone else was starring at me too, this time when I looked around, there was a shadowy figure standing in the far corner of the cave, It didn’t move, it didn’t say anything, all it did was stare and that made me very scared. Well I should’ve been very scared from the start but just because I go to the most prestigious private school in all of America, doesn’t mean that I am that smart. What do I do? I asked myself, RUN! Is what came to mind, I turned and ran from the cave. I didn’t stop running till I got back to my father and brothers, they looked at me and when I made eye contact with my dad is when I allowed myself to cry and feel the full effect of my sacredness. He ran to me and held me. “Elle, sweetie what is it?” he asked my brothers surrounded us. “What happened, sis?” Ethan, eldest brother asked. I pointed to the cave and told them what I had found, but of course I left out the part where a ghost had led me to her body and the shadow figure. They told the lifeguard, who then called the police. It turns out that she was a missing person, Emma Wright, 23 years of age, missing for five weeks. Why, oh, why was I the one who found her? Because you could see her. My head answered. That’s right, my name is Elle Rose Greyson, and I can see, hear and talk to ghost. I sighed, letting the memory fade and focusing on not running into people in the already crowded hallway. Why in the hell was there so many people here and it was only seven in the morning.

I successfully made it to the library without bumping into anyone and without running into my least favorite people. I leaned my back against the door and locked it behind me, first and second period for me wasn’t like other students, I was a library tech student who earned credits while helping during those two periods. I sighed and sat down behind the desk to start looking through teacher request for the day, nothing too big. Mostly books off the school reading list. The bell rang, signal the start of the school day and that meant my peace and quiet was about to become a concert, printing out the list of books I had to gather, I got up from my seat and started. I was in the non-fiction section, when out of the corner of my eye a shadow moved quickly from one stack to another. I spun to look where I had seen the shadow figure or blur or whatever you wanted to call it. “Is anyone there?” I called out, but no one answered, I put the book that I was holding down and walked in the general direction, I was back in the main part of the library and there were only a few students in her plus a few teachers who didn’t have first period classes to teacher. Hm. Maybe I was still seeing things from the beach. I went back to looking for the books on my list when I saw it again. This time it was headed toward the study room, I immediately followed. The shadow disappeared into the far room and I followed, when I entered the room it was completely dark, Why aren’t any of the computers on? Each study room had two computers, a study table and a projector in them, they were always kept on until the morning person came in a turned the systems on. I walked a little further into the room, the further I walked in the colder the room got. I looked around, the light switch was over by the projector, as I went to turn it on a hand shot out from the darkness and grabbed my arm, I screamed. Next thing I knew the light in the room came on and three teachers were standing by the door. There in the corner of the room with his hand out, holding my arm was Johnny Thomson, the school prankster. He was grinning from ear to ear and holding back laughter. “Mr. Thomson let her go.” One of the teachers said, stepping into the room. Immediately, he let me go and put his hands in the air. “I swear it was only a joke.” He said laughing. I frowned and turned walking past the teachers and back into the stacks. I sighed. I was holding back tears, that kid was a jerk. He always seemed to leave the worst of his pranks for me, Why does he always pick on me? I asked myself, but I didn’t know the answer. “Want to kick his ass for you?” I heard from behind me, I didn’t have to turn around to know who it was.

Eric Anderson, Basketball star, Third hottest guy in school, a complete sweetheart, and completely out of my league.

I shook my head, knowing that if he got into a fight he would get benched and that wouldn’t be good. Especially at the beginning of the school year. “It’s okay,” I said, turning back around, to hide my growing red face. “Hi, Ella.” He said, I smiled, the way he said my name always gave me butterflies in my stomach. “Hey, Eric.” This was a daily routine between us. Ever since we meet in the elementary school, “How are this morning?” he asked coming next to me and leaning against my cart, I shrugged. Knowing that if I told him, I would be halfway threw my story and his friends and girlfriend would come out of nowhere, I could tell that he was looking at me because my heart wouldn’t go back into my chest, it stayed in my throat. “Is all I get a shrug?” he asked, leaning in closer to me. I swallowed, turning to look at him. God, the closer he got the more I heard my own heart. He smelled like sugar cookies and cinnamon apples, god why did he do this to me. It turned away, I can’t he has a girlfriend and she was the definition of b***h. Raven Adams was the head cheerleader and she was an all-around mean girl, no one was safe from her and I meant no one. I sighed and went back to grabbing books off the shelf, when I heard someone call his name. I turned to look at him and he smiled at me lightly, “I’ll see you later Elle,” he said. I watched him walk away, then and only then did I let out the breath that I was holding in. This is going to be one hell of a day.