My ghost boyfriend

Tragedy is my thing!

That’s not Tim.. not anymore.

He’s laying on the ground, eyes wide open but no life in them, maybe he fell from the balcony, but even if he did, that doesn’t explain his face. Honestly I don’t quiet know how to describe it but I guess his dark skin has been pulled back from his face, leaving one hell of a bloody mess. Flesh and bone.

I can feel my stomach churn in disgust, I feel physically sick.

“J” josh starts, I can hear his feet shuffling. “What is it?” He finally manages to ask.

But the room goes cold, I turn looking at my friends and I know they feel it too, that’s when the house shakes again, I run back over to join the others.

“Let’s get out of here..” Kylie starts but stops immediately when a dark figure rushes by us, like a shadow.

Ryan turns to me, “Jj what is it over there?”

I breath out “Tim” trying to calm all the thoughts in my head as everyone stares at me even Lacey, I carry on. “Tim he’s dead, he’s laying on the ground.”

“We need to go to him.” Ryan so noble, but he doesn’t know what he’s going to walk in on. Everyone starts heading for the door, to go find Tim. I’m not sure they believe me, then again it would be Tim to play this kind of trick on someone.

“Guys” I say trying to stop them before they see what I just did. “Ryan”

“He’s not dead” Ryan shouts. “How would he be dead there’s just us here, Lacey didn’t push him of the balcony.”

We are not the only ones here though, that man, but he couldn’t have done it, he was with us when this happened, right?

My brain hurts from thinking, from being scared, I can’t think straight. But Tim is dead and something killed him and they don’t even believe it yet.

We make our way down the stairs, outside and along what used to be a wall, I can’t do this, I can’t see him again.

“Stop!” I say and everyone turns to look at me, Kylie and Josh looking scared and concerned, Lacey looking devastated and Ryan like he hates me, but only because he does already believe me.

“You don’t want to see, let’s just call someone.” I say gently.

Ryan shakes his head, clearly angry. “No he’s not dead he’s probably just unconscious.”

I go to speak but am stopped when Lacey finally starts talking. “She’s right, he’s dead.” Crying she continues. “Som..something came in the room.. it.. it pushed Tim, and his face oh my god his face.”

I walk over to her, she may not like me but right now she’s in pain, something I know a little bit about. I put my arms around her and she breaks, sobbing uncontrollably but that’s ok, some people can cry on others.

“I need to see.” I hear Ryan before he starts walking. Kylie and josh seem a little unsure of what they should do but they decide to stay put, I follow Ryan leaving Lacey with them.

“Ryan please” I say rushing to him and pulling his arm. I don’t think he though about his next more before he did it, but he pushes me and I fall. I haven’t hurt myself I’m ok but wtf.

“Jj” he breathed, and I know, I know he has to see for sure, see for himself.

I stand, “ok but be prepared” I don’t even look at Ryan knowing what he’s about to walk in on.

He takes my hand and I let him, he may have been a d**k but he doesn’t need me being angry in this particular moment.

We walk round the corner and Tim comes into sight, we carry on walking anyway, until we are standing over him.

Ryan hasn’t looked yet his eyes are closed, i however am hit with the horrific sight once again. I look at Ryan and see his eyes opening, oh god, poor Ryan, Tim has been his best friend for years.

“Oh my..” Ryan walks away gagging. “Call someone!” He states not even looking at me or Tim.

We make the call to the police, it shouldn’t take long for them to get here, we start walking back over to Kylie and Josh and Lacey, Ryan still won’t look at me.

I’m scared too and it’s not my fault, I’m just the one that told him he was dead. I’m about to say something, what exactly I don’t know. But i had to say something, however I was stopped by another scream, this one I knew.

“It’s kylie.” I say already taking off not checking to see us Ryan is following.

“Jj” I hear him him only a few paces away.

We arrive back at the front of the house, Lacey and Josh are standing looking down at Kylie on the ground. She’s curled into a ball, rocking back and forth, I look at josh and he looks just as confused and worried as I do.

Bending down I put my arms around my best friend. “What is it k?” I ask softly.

Shaking she lifts her head so I can see her face, she’s a mess! “I saw it.” She whispers.

But she doesn’t stop.

“I saw.. I.. I.. I saw it.. I saw it.. I saw it.” Again and again.

Josh gets down and whispers in her ear “don’t worry babe, it’s ok.” After almost 5 minutes of this, finally the police with an ambulance turns up and Kylie just stops talking and starts crying.

***

The next few hours were worse, we called the police and as expected they had a lots of questions, what were we doing there? what happened?

Lacey spent most of the time crying, Ryan looked broken, Josh was still freaked over Kylie getting all weird and I was just trying to think about the situation at hand.

The last time I was in a police station was when my mother left me, I was 10 and the social workers told me they would find me a good family to live with, unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.

After speaking with the cops, we are aloud to go home, everyone gets in their parents cars and go, except me, I get in my care workers car, Janet. She’s ok, she’s nice, I’ve had worse people taking care of me, not that I really need taking care of anymore, I turn 18 very soon.

When we get back to the care home Janet makes tea and asks me to sit, hesitantly I pull out a chair and sit at the old table. I think it’s been here as long as I have, it’s all chipped and drawn on, which I did a lot of, it’s the first place i sat when I came here.

“Jj are you listening?” Janet asks bobbing her head about trying to get my full attention.

I obviously was not listening, “oh sorry, start again?” I smile.

Janet gives me a weird look but continues anyway. “I get teenagers need to have fun but you can’t go braking in to..” before she finishes I start.

“We didn’t break in, it was open and other than that what have I done wrong?”

“Jj what happened to that young man?”

I sign, I don’t know what happened but I do know saying ‘I don’t know’ is not going to be a good enough answer for Janet, she may be nice but she will get her answers.

“I don’t know, I was with Ryan, K and Josh were together in another room and Lacey and Tim. We suddenly heard a scream and ran in that direction, Lacey couldn’t even talk and Tim was laying on the ground.” I may have missed a few things out, like the shadowy figure we all refused to talk about, or the stranger me and Ryan spoke too or how I almost lost my virginity on a dead persons bed.

“The police said his face was torn up?” She asks even though it’s not technically a question.

“Yeah” I say remembering, “I don’t know what happened but if someone does it would be Lacey, she was in the room when Tim..”

I am cut of by Michael one of the boys my age who lives in the care home. “Yo yo yo, J’s back late tonight. I hope she gets privileges taken away, I came in at 10:03 only 3 minutes late and I lost tv for a week..”

“Not now Michael.” Janet says, looking in his direction. Micheal finally looks over at me, and I don’t know I haven’t looked in the mirror for a few hours but my face must have said something because for a second he looked sympathetic.

“You ok Jj?” He asks, wow I must look awful because I don’t think in the 3 years he’s been here, he has even once asked how I am, he’s usually a d**k.

I nod my head a little shocked, one emotion I didn’t think I would still have after seeing Tim, Michel seems to take the hint, he fills his water bottle and leaves.

God leaving sounds so good right now, my bed, my pillow, a bath. Honestly anything to get me out of talking more.

“I’m tired and filthy, I need to go shower before I can even go to bed and I have school in the morning.” I say standing.

“Jj you don’t have to go to school tomorrow.”

“Oh yes I do.” I say and not just because I don’t want Janet watching me all day just because i can’t risk missing anything else, I’ve skipped a few times and now I’m behind in 2 classes. “I have a study group tomorrow I can’t let everyone down.” Not exactly a lie and it seems to satisfy her, she nods her head and I take the chance to leave, going up my room.

I don’t take a minute I just go straight to the shower, I scrub myself clean, feeling dirt all over me, I itch, but there’s nothing there. No matter what I do I can’t clean my mind of the image of Tim, what could have done that to his face, no person not in that short of a time. It couldn’t have been an animal or his eyes wouldn’t have still been perfectly open and beautiful and untouched.

And something did move across the room, even if it wasn’t said, we all saw it, we all felt it, and then Kylie freaking out? The man in the bedroom? I can’t stop thinking but the thoughts are not making sense.

I finally get out of the shower, all the rooms have en suits, so I don’t bother getting dressed, I just wrap myself in a towel and sit on my bed. I thought it would be hard to sleep but I must have drifted of just sitting there, I wake up still in my towel, all dazed I look up and see him, the man from the house.

His blonde hair still covered in ash and dirt, he is standing by my bed just looking at me.

I just up and run for the door when I hear him, “please stay!”

I look back at him for a second but there’s no one there.

What the hell?