LIVING       DEAD       GIRL

♯ ❝ THERE WAS SOMEONE.❞
PROLOGUE ✧･ﾟ: * 👻🔦

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      BRYCE HAD ALWAYS BEEN A GOOD STUDENT. It was never a question-never something she had to try and prove. Top grades, perfect attendance, never a whisper of trouble to her name.

      She listened in class, took neat, color-coded notes, and turned in assignments before deadlines. Teachers adored her, classmates gravitated toward her, and everyone knew Bryce Walker as the sweetheart of Split River High.

     But none of it was because of her.

       It was her last name.

      Walker. A name that carried history, expectation, and the lingering ghost of a legacy she never asked for. Bryce's mother had been the star student of her time, the kind of person whose name was etched into the very fabric of the school.

      And no matter what Bryce did, no matter how hard she worked, she would always be her mother's daughter first. Never just Bryce.

       She loved and hated it in equal measure.

       At home, it was worse.

      Her father, Archie, meant well—she knew that. But something in him had changed, broken into pieces she couldn't fit back together.

      Ever since Rebecca Hale came into the picture, someone who she didn't like at all nor never wanted to be around. It was like the father she once knew had faded, leaving behind a man who barely looked at her the same way all because of something that happened that he wouldn't say.

      He was sharper now, words edged with something bitter, something tired. And when he did speak to her, it was always the same.

       "Your mother never failed like this."
       "Your mother knew how to balance everything."
       "Why can't you just be more like her?"

       Bryce never had an answer. Because no matter how much she tried, she would never be her mother.

      Thomas was the only one who understood. Her brother saw things for what they were, the way their father had slipped away, the way Rebecca's presence had only made it worse. And though Bryce never spoke about how much it bothered her, Thomas knew. He always knew.

       But there was Lucy.

      Her best friend, the one person she thought she could trust. She was nothing like her mother, though. Lucy was kind, sweet, and for the longest time, Bryce believed they were inseparable.

      She had fought for Lucy—literally. Bryce had dragged the four bullies that tormented her out onto the oval by their hair, fists flying, knuckles bruising. It was one against four, but she came out on top.

      She had been suspended for it, walked home with aching ribs and a bloodied lip, but she never once regretted it. Because Lucy was worth it.

      Or at least, Bryce thought she was.

      She had pushed Maddie, someone who was basically family to her and Simon away for Lucy, blinded by the idea of their friendship. It wasn't until later that she saw the truth-saw how Lucy's kindness was selective, how it twisted in ways Bryce never noticed before.

      And by the time she realized it, she had already lost the friends who actually cared. But yet, that didn't stop her other two friends trying to reach out to her, and neither did they ever stop caring about her.

      The only place she felt safe was with her grandmother.

      Lin had always been different from the rest of the family, warm and unwavering in a way that Bryce clung to like a lifeline.

     It was her grandmother who had given her the necklace—a gold chain with a single letter W hanging from it. The first time Bryce touched it, something shifted. A pull, like an invisible thread wrapping around her heart.

       That was when Lin told her the truth.

     Their family carried a legacy far older than her mother's reputation at Split River. They came from a long line of witches, and only a rare few were blessed with the gift.

     Bryce had inherited it from her mother, but she felt nothing. No spark, no connection. Just an empty weight pressing against her ribs.

      If she had magic, it was faint-barely there, a flame waiting to burn brighter. The only time she felt anything was when she held the necklace. She had asked Lin why, but her grandmother only smiled, a knowing glint in her eyes.

     "There was someone once," She said softly, warm eyes bright from the candles around them, "someone important to your mother when she was your age."

      But Lin never told her who.

      And then, the feeling started.

     It began as an unease, a sense that something unseen was always watching. Bryce never spoke about it, but she felt it—the weight of unseen eyes lingering in the hallways of Split River High. There was something about the school, something she wasn't supposed to know or understand. Something was stopping her.

       She got too close one day.

       She didn't mean to overhear.

      Didn't mean to find the wrong thing at the wrong time.

     But before she could process what she had learned, before she could even react—

      The world went dark.

      Like a switch being flipped, the lights inside her mind vanished, and she was falling, slipping into an abyss that swallowed her whole.

     The first thing she felt was warmth. Nothing but warmth.

      It wrapped around her like a blanket, cradling her in something safe, something solid. Then came the scent-masculine, faintly familiar, a whisper of cologne that seeped into her senses.

      And then, she saw.

      Her eyelids fluttered open, vision hazy, unfocused. But there, staring down at her with wide, worried brown doe eyes, was someone she didn't expect.

       A handsome boy.

      He was holding her. Tightly, protectively, like she was the most important thing in the world to him.

     And though she didn't know what it meant then, she would soon learn that this moment—this single point in time—was only the beginning.

     Because months later, when Maddie joined her in the inbetween and they reunited, Bryce soon realised something.

      Not everything is what it seems.

      And whatever secrets lay within the halls of Split River High...

      Were finally about to be solved.

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❪ ✏️ ❫ 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳𝚂 : 1031
─►☆ AUTHOR'S NOTE :
HELLOOO prologue is done and the fun begins now 😋 i'm so excited to write bryce and wally's bond. her story is so interesting and
lore packed guys i cannot wait ugh (she's so preachers daughter album coded)

anywaysss you all know the drill, vote,
comment, ect (if you want) mwah <33

─ ཐི ⋅ ♰ ⋅ ཋྀ ─