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Chapter 1 - Loss

Ellie stayed rooted in front of her locker, hoping to wake up from the nightmare. Only it wasn't a nightmare, it's her reality. As real as a predicament can be for a ghost.

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Ellie could not remember how long it has been since she found out about her untimely death.

Days?

Weeks?

Months?

They all seemed like a blur to her. Wandering around the very halls who stood witnessed to her laughter as a living free spirited girl, it now stand silently as she walk aimlessly, weeping for the life she had lost.

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"I will not let death stop me."

She steeled her spine. Straightened her back. Determined to get out of the place whose walls have entrapped her soul. Whose walls plan to prison her soul forever.

"You got this."

Ellie swung her head around. Catching a glimpse of a male physique on her peripheral vision. Head bowed down, walking rigidly fast.

"Excuse me? Hello?"

She touched the stranger's shoulder. Her eyes nearly fell out of its sockets when she realized who it was. A soul taken by the fire, much like her, with burns marring his skin.

"Ellie? You shouldn't be here. I saw you. You were closest to the door. You should've gotten out. You should've survived."

You should've survived...

But she did not. Bitterly thinking about the time of her failed attempt to crawl to the door when the fire broke out, Ellie looked at the very face whom she thought was always too pretty for a male.

"I should've but I did not, Jason. I don't know why, but I didn't and I probably will never know."

Jason took Ellie by her arms dragging her to what he calls his corner where he stays rooted either standing or sitting on the floor. They sat side by side, busy with their own thoughts when Jason ask her a question.

"Have you felt it too? This certain feeling of being pulled back? I've tried several times to walk pass through the school doors. But every time I manage to pass through, a blinding light will suddenly swallow me and I will open my eyes waking at the abandoned classroom where we died."

"I don't know, Jason. I haven't tried it yet. I've been wandering these halls for what seems like forever. Does it make sense that we just found each other now when we are just in the same vicinity? The school seems giant now as compared to when we we're still alive."

The ghosts shared a hollow chuckle, thinking of ways how to get out and find something. That something wishing it could be finding peace with their deaths.

Something is pulling back. Something big is obviously happening that they can't put their fingers on.

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Ellie asked Jason if they could try to get pass through the doors of the school.

"Maybe if we do it together, it will let us out."

Desperation can be heard through her tone, while Jason is looking at her as if she have grown two heads in a span of 1 minute.

"Ellie, if it won't let one out, how much more two?"

"We'll never know if we don't try."

"You were always optimistic, Ellie."

He smiled at her as he said those words. She smiled back at Jason remembering how easy it was for her to optimistic most times.

Guess some things never change. I will always have the same attitude, dead or alive.

Ellie thought as they start heading for the school doors.

Arriving at their destination, Ellie took a hold of Jason's hands, linking hers with him trying to draw some strength from the male who's the only one he can lean on from now on.

"Ready, Optimistic Ellie?"

"Nope, Pretty Jason but let's try."

Calling each other by their monickers whom the whole school labeled them with and smiling at each other, they run heading straight for the door.

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Ellie remembered a saying about ghosts when she was still alive.

They wander these lands not because they want to. But because they have not found their purpose still. They have not completed their mission in life yet.

Could it be? Could it be that she have not found her purpose and completed her mission just yet?

They both tried several times to get pass through the door, but they failed in every try.

Looking beside her quiet companion who looks so tired and weary from all that is happening, she gave a silent thank you to whoever put them together. She's not alone anymore.

She'll find their purpose. She and Jason. They will fulfill their mission, and get out of these walls together without Jason's so called blinding light swallowing them whole to transport them back inside.