Chapter 1

School.

Now there was a thing that Lisa would give anything to be over with. She craved to graduate and get out of the town. It wasn't any different after the accident. She just wanted to leave.

She turned down the offer to take a week off from school. Peggy skipped the first day but came back on the second because she said it was boring without Lisa anyway. There were whispers about it of course, people who couldn't keep their noses out of other people's affairs. The techies blogged about it, the zennies hypothesized about it and the poppies joked about it.

All on the down low of course.  No one wanted to get dragged into the counseling sessions with Mr. Sawada.

Lisa didn't mind Mr. Sawada. He was an alright fellow who usually just let the students be and he knew when to let things slide so he was the only staff member in the school who had yet to be pranked.

But that didn't mean that Lisa liked sitting there in his office in the too soft chair and forced to talk about what happened. Mr. Sawada had probably never seen a person die in his arms so how could he possibly relate?

"How do you feel now." Mr. Sawada asked.

"I'm fine"
"Mfinetoo"

Lisa blinked and focused on the teens playing basketball outside.

"Do you still think about it?" He asked gently, leaning forward with his pen in hand.

Lisa blinked and looked at him. His pen was dripping ink.

"Always." She muttered. "Isn't something you just forget, Mr. Sawada." She added, slouching in the chair. The ink had puddled on the table. Lisa frowned. The puddle had spread over to Mr. Sawada's files and papers. She got up and grabbed a tissue from the box.

"Got a little ink here." She said and swiped at the ink before it could get on the papers.

Mr. Sawada stared at her.

"Lisa are you alright?" He asked.

She looked up at him.

"Yeah why wouldn't I be?" She asked.

Mr. Sawada gestured at her hand.

The tissue was white.

"There is no ink, Lisa." Mr. Sawada said very quietly. Noinkdear. Lisa stared at the tissue. She looked at the table. It was clean. Had it been a shadow? She shook her head. Shadows didn't drip and they didn't spread.

"I must have been dreaming." Lisa dropped the tissue on the desk.

"Haven't been sleeping cause of the dreams." She admitted reluctantly. "One of those daytime microsleep things that happen."

Mr. Sawada nodded. He put down his pen on the desk. The sunlight glinted off it. He leaned forward again, saying something that Lisa didn't hear. A finger poked the pen. It happened so fast that Lisa jerked in surprise. The pen rolled off the table immediately. A shadow flickered across the table and disappeared.

Lisa was on her feet.

"I'm going to go. I've to pick my brother up from middle school. I'll see you tomorrow Mr. Sawada!" Lisa stammered as she grabbed her bag and straightened her clothes.

She was out the door before Mr. Sawada could say anything.

Was she imagining things? Her phone was out of her pocket and her fingers were dialing Peggy's number even as she headed for the door. The dial tone beeped twice.

Come on, pick up! Lisa swore in her mind.

Du duuu. Du duuu. Blip.

"Peggy!" Lisa exclaimed.

"don'tworryM'here- Lisa! You done with Mr. S? -whyareyousoscared- I'm waiting at the car -yourguardiannow- your bro's been calling me, he got out early today."

Lisa had to fight not to cry.

"Kay, I'm coming over now." She whispered and hung up immediately.

She was hearing things. She was hearing voices. No, just one voice. The voice was talking to her. Why was a voice talking to her?! Was hearing voices part of that PSTD thing that Mr. Sawada mentioned?!

"couldyoucalmdownplease"

"How the fuck do you want me to calm down?!" Lisa hissed at the empty air as she strode towards the main doors.

"Look I don't know why the fuck I can hear you but this isn't funny." She snarled, almost in tears.

"ididn'tmeanitsorrytoupsetyou"

"Well then shut up!"

That earned her a lot of weird looks from a lot of people in the parking lot.

"onlyyoucanhear me Lisa"

Lisa turned around. The voice was behind her but there was no one there. She ran for her car. Peggy waved at her gaily, looking none the worse for the wear.

"Only you can hear me, Lisa." The voice repeated and faded away. Lisa slammed the heel of her palms on the steering wheel.

"Are you alright?" Peggy asked in concern. Lisa rubbed at her face.

"M'fine. Just had a long day." She said quietly and started the engine.