An ominous boom startled me out of my abysmal nightmare. 

My cheeks were wet and my body was bathed in a cold sweat. I felt disgusting. The sheets were twisted around my limbs, probably because I was thrashing in my sleep. No doubt from trying to escape.

My heart pounded against my chest. I felt my body tremble. My normally bright and welcoming room was instead entirely dark. No light anywhere. The remnants of my nightmare still clung to my mind, haunting me. The constant flashes wouldn't stop flaring in my vision, making me squint from its harshness.

Car head lights blinded me and the feeling of spinning made me feel sick.

Even my breaths trembled. I swallowed and once again saw the endless darkness of my room. I couldn't see anything but the painful images that I coulnd't make sense of. Jumbled and messy images slamming themselves infront of me, making my eyes whip from one side to another. A car, a road, trees, blurriness. The feeling of dread and panic overwhelmed me. I gripped my stomach and placed my other hand over my mouth. Either I was trying to stop my shaky breaths, trying to stop the sickness from rising, or trying to hid my sobs, or maybe all of them. I didn't really know what I was doing. It was too hard to concentrate.

I tried to close my eyes, but the images got brighter. 

I started crying from the pain, my head hurt, my eyes hurt and I couldn't make sense of anything. I painfully closed my eyes unil darkness finally took over and I could fall back to bliss sleep.

My mum had woken me up. My hair was plastered to my forehead from sweat and my sheets were still a mess from the nightmare. But how can I call it a nightmare, if it didn't leave my presence when I woke up? The images were still there, just not as prominent. Thank God.

Mum ushered me to get ready and to put on something nice. I did as she said thinking this was another one of her many strange ideas. If had known she was throwing me a surprise welcome home party, I would have stayed in bed. Rumpled sheets included.

Sure enough, aunts, uncles and cousins were scattered around my house as I came downstairs. These people I hadn't seen in years and who never seemed to be bothered about us.

"Nice dress." Casper says from behind me, inspecting my blue vintage dress. He had followed me downstairs.

"Thank you." I turn my head and smile at him. 

I glanced down at my appearance I studied it. The dress I had chosen was pretty yet simple, it flowed loosely down my body, but also made my curves stand out. I had white ballet pumps on my feet with my hair tied up in a high ponytail. If I didn't look so pale against the blue, I might have been pleased with how I looked.

Everyone had already shouted surprise when I had come down, so no one took notice of me still stood on the stairs. These people hadn't cared about me in years. God knows how my mother got them all here.

"Why don't you look happy?" He asks, walking in front of me.

I quickly took a step back, his closeness felt like a spark had hit me. A good spark. But that didn't give him the right to invade my personal bubble thank you very much.

Hi gives me a questioning squint, "why did you do that?"

"You move too quick," I say as an excuse. I tried not to glance at Casper now that he was in front of me. Instead I studied the room and used a hushed voice so I at least wouldn't look like I was talking to myself.

"What?" He laughs. "So I scared you?"

"No, I hardly know you and you were too close." I notice my grandparents in the corner of the room, drinking tea and eating biscuits. So food was my mum's choice of bribery. The table of food did look extremely appetising.

Before he could reply, my mum walked over.

"Leah dear, who are you talking to?" My mum asks peering around me. How unaware she was that Casper was stood inches away from her.

I ushered him away with my eyes.

He rolled his in return but vanished on the spot, I gaped at where he had just been stood. I don't think I'll ever get used to him doing that.

"What are you gaping at? Honestly Leah, I invite all these people and the first thing you do is gawk at them all. I didn't raise you to be rude."

"Sorry," I muffle, my attention now on my feet.

"You really need to work on your manners if you're going to get anywhere in life," My mum lectures. "I want to see you mingling with people, go talk to your grandparents. I know how much they've missed you."

I laugh. "Doubtful, after dad left, they left with him, never giving us another glance." I say in a harsh voice, immediately regretting it as I detect the sting in my mother's eyes, she physically flinched when I mentioned dad.

From the corner of my eye, I see Casper walk through the kitchen door.

I cough awkwardly. "I'm just going to get a drink of water," I say to her.

She gives a slight nod, not looking me in the eye, so I brush past her and begin walking to the kitchen.

As I enter, I see Casper staring through the other open door to the kitchen. "What are you doing?" I whisper. He spins around, jumping from my sudden entrance.

So of course I start laughing. "Did I scare you?" I ask through the wheezing.

"No," he says defensively, which only makes me laugh more. I quickly shut the kitchen door leading to the living room.

"Aren't you the ghost? You know, the one who's meant to do the scaring?" I wipe a tear from my eye while turning around to face him again. No one noticed where I had gone, or noticed me closing the door. I guess they just don't notice me full stop.

"Shut up," he grumbles.

I hold my hands up in surrender and walk towards him to see what he was staring at. I feel a strange pang in my stomach, he was looking at my seventeen-year-old cousin from Ireland. She was in the dining room talking to her parents. She had auburn hair, pale skin, which unlike mine actually looked good on her, and a tight fitting green dress. She was stunning.

"Oh," I say dully before quickly changing my beat. "She's hot, and she's paler than you!" I proclaim. "A perfect match." But the enthusiasm seemed to fall from my sentence.

He eyes me suspiciously, or maybe he was staring at me like I was crazy. I wasn't sure, probably both.

"Nah," he replies, that stupid smirk playing at his lips while inspecting me up and down. "She's not my type." I sense myself blushing.

"You're tall." A tender young voice chimes.

I freeze and turn to see that one of my little cousins looking straight up at Casper.

Casper had the same expression on his face as my own, we both stand there, frozen and staring at each other, willing the other one to do something.

Thankfully, Casper makes the first move.

"Hi there," he says crouching down and beaming at the little girl. He suddenly looked so happy. It even made me smile a little.

"Hello," she says cutely, scrunching her white cotton dress in her hands and rocking back and forth on her heels.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Talking to a ghost yourself was one thing, but having a three-year-old start a conversation with that same ghost only you could see? That made my head hurt.

"And what's your name?" Casper asks still glowing. No, really, I could see that he was actually glowing. A strange dullness of light was coming from him, hardly noticeable against the white kitchen. But I found myself noticing more and more little things about Casper, little things I shouldn't take note of.

"Lily," she giggles.

"Well Lily," Casper says, "it's very nice to meet you, I'm-" he pauses giving me a glance. "Casper." He sighs a little, but his smile never falters.

This makes me smile even more. Even though the name was just a way to wind him up after calling me a bitch, it suited him now.

Lily giggled again before spinning around and racing off through the open kitchen door to her calling mother, who luckily never came in to see who her daughter was talking to. Casper straightened up, watching Lily run into her mother's arms. He came to stand next to me as we follow Lily's beam up to her mother. No doubt telling her all about her new friend.

Her mother glances to where Lily was pointing, but all she saw was me. I give a little wave which is only returned by Lily, I catch Casper waving too.

"Well that was new," I say.

"It was," he replies.

"Does this mean kids can see you too?" I ask now curious.

"I don't think so, I walked past a load of kids before I came in here and they never noticed me."

"Maybe that's because you look normal to them, so why would they?"

"Good point," he says, that bright smile back on his face. He suddenly races off towards the group or playing children.

I laugh and follow him, just not as fast. God knows what people would assume if I suddenly burst out the kitchen towards a group of small kids, just to then stop and stare into an empty space.

When I reach Casper, his smile is gone and there's sadness in his eyes. I feel my heart squeeze as his usual happy self vanishes before my eyes.

"Just Lily then," he says, trying to put humor in his voice but failing miserably.

I open my mouth to say something until I realise the parents all looking at me. I quickly shut my mouth.

I need to comfort him, my mind was screaming at me to console him, but the best I managed was an 'I'm so sorry' look.

But he had already vanished.

I said my hellos to everyone at the party, explained over and over again that yes, I can't remember anything about the accident, and yes I'm perfectly fine. I imagine I must have sounded robotic by the end.

I found myself distracted all the time, glimpsing in every corner, snapping my head to any movement caught in the corner of my eye. It was never him.

But my dismal mood was soon replaced as June, my best friend and only friend, finally came over.

Excusing myself from one of my aunts, I raced over to her.

We both squealed and hugged each other.

"Damn girl, you are looking fine," she says, dragging out the fine.

"You don't look so bad yourself." And I meant it, Jade was always, in my opinion, the prettiest friend. With jet black hair, olive skin and blue eyes that would be able to cut you, she always stood out from a crowd. It didn't help she had the longest legs I'd ever seen, my mum always said she'd be a model one day. I agreed.

"Come on," June says pulling me upstairs to my room. My heart pounds as she races to my door and swings it open. My eyes dart to the chair. But he's not there. My pounding heart seems to freeze.

"Girl, why you looking so sad?" June says plopping herself down on my bed. "Don't tell me you actually wanted to stay down there with those losers? God, they all were so fake. I'm so sorry I couldn't have come to save you sooner, but you know what A levels are like."

I give a short laugh.

"So come on, give me the scoop, what have I missed?"

"Nothing really," I say.

"Lies!" She argues. Her arms shoot into the air and she dramatically falls backwards on the bed. Oh did I mention; June is a drama student.

She quickly adjusts herself so she's laying on her side, elbow propping her head up. "Tell me," she sings.

I roll my eyes but move to sit crossed legged next to her on the bed.

"Well there's this one thing that recently happened." I say, wondering if I should actually tell her. But I've known June since I moved here and started school, five years of friendship had to count for something, right?

"Oh give me the details my little one." She taps her fingers together, trying to look menacing.

"Stop doing that!" I laugh, pushing her shoulder so she falls slightly. She sticks out her tongue but rearranges herself back to being on her side.

She looks at me expectantly. "Okay, you're probably going to think I'm crazy and won't want to be friends with me anymore because I will sound so insane. But." I pause for dramatic effect; June's dramatic personality always rubs off on me. "I see dead people". I state, stealing the line from 'The Sixth Sense'.

"Shut up and actually tell me," June complains.

"I'm being serious!" I laugh. "After the accident, I came home and saw this dude in my room, right? After freaking out and screaming at him, he literally walked straight through me." I explain, smiling at the memory of my first meeting with Casper.

"Right." June says. She then holds up her hand and puts it on my forehead. "Are you feeling okay little one?" She laughs. I push her hand away playfully.

"June, I'm not even kidding. He's dead, but he doesn't remember how he died or who he is, it's so funny. He won't leave me alone, he's like stuck here or something. He's always here." She looks at me like I've lost it. "I know I sound crazy, but I pinky swear I'm not winding you up." I held up my pinky. We took pinky swears very serious in our friendship.

June still had that look on her face, but she slowly brought her pinky up to meet mine. I grinned at her as we squeezed them.

"You told her about me?" I jump, ripping my pinky from June's. Casper had materialised in the middle of my room, looking as angry as ever.

"Whoa, what the hell Leah?" June exclaims, snapping her head from me towards the empty space I was staring at.

I ignored her. "Of course I told her! She's my best friend."

"Leah? Very funny, you see dead people. Ha. Ha." I didn't bother to explain to June that the ghost dude was in my room with us. I'd never seen Casper so angry.

"What the fuck Leah!" He shouts making me jump again.

"Why are you so mad?" I yelp back. I suddenly felt a wave of emotion wash over me. I didn't like Casper shouting at me, it made me sense he didn't actually like me, just tolerated me because we were stuck together.

"Because that bitch over there doesn't deserve to know!"

Hold up, what the- "Hey! That's my best friend you're talking about, dickhead."

I could feel Leah edging away from me on the bed, but I didn't take much discern.

"Best friend, huh? We'll see about that. I can sense people Leah, don't ask me how, I just do. And that girl over there is as rotten as they come. God you're so stupid Leah, do you ever think?" His once warm eyes were now ice cold, they felt like they were cutting through every part of me. I felt an emptiness swallow me up as he stared at me, he stared at me like I was nothing. Like I was just a stupid little girl.

"Stop," I whisper.

"Stop what? Being here? I'm so sorry I'm such a burden, obviously it's so funny that I'm stuck here." He imitates my voice earlier, "But I don't know if you noticed, I'm fucking dead, Leah." I flinch as he says my name. "So no, I can't move on, and I'm fucking stuck with you too, you of all people. This isn't some god damn romance film, you can't go giggling to your friends about a ghost who can't move on because he can't remember anything. God, I told you those things because-" he took a deep breath. "You shouldn't have told her private things about me. I may be dead, Leah, but it still hurts when someone you trusted goes and tells other people about you." 

I couldn't reply. I was actually numb.

"Leah?" June's wavering voice cut through the silence.

I turned to her, my face probably red.

"Leah, are you alright? If this is meant to be is joke, it's not funny. Did the doctors do a check up on you? Cause I think you need to go back to them, just in case."

"I'm fine, I don't need a doctor." I say in a small voice. I don't know why but I felt like I was about to cry. I looked down and bit my tongue, trying to hold the tears that threatened to leave my eyes.

"Okay," she says, still on edge. "I think I'm going to go, leave you to get some rest, yeah?" She had already risen off the bed.

I nod, still not looking up. I saw from the edges of my eye that June was edging around the wall of my room, eyes trained on the spot I had been arguing with.

I heard her feet slam on the wooden stairs as she flew down them.

Casper was still stood in the middle of the room, breathing hard. If ghosts could even breathe.

"Can you go please?" My voice came out weak. He didn't attempt to move. "Go." I say sharply. I tried to make my eyes as cold as his had been, but I know I wasn't even close.

I thought I saw him flinch, but my eyes were too clouded from the salty tears building up in my eyes. Through them he really did look like a ghost, until he slowly faded away.

I tried to clasp onto something for support, anything, my bedside table or the headrest of my bed until I slowly lowered myself down onto my mattress, my whole body shook. The sobs were stifled at first as I attempted to hide my grief. But I was overcome by a wave of my emotions. I broke down entirely, all my defences washed away in those stupid salty tears.

I brought my hands to cover my face. 

The sobs shook me so hard I thought I was going to be sick.

_________

Important little reminder about Leah :) 

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I feel like Leah is always crying lmao, but tbf, she does have PTSD which causes hyper-vigilance which basically makes her really emotional. She also has anxiety, fear, anger, irritability and sleeping problems. Poor girl...

Just adding this in to clear up her strange or over-the-top reactions/emotions.

Thank you for reading the third chapter! Sorry it was so bloody long Lol!

I'm hoping this book will be good and I will stay motivated enough to keep putting in as much effort as I do now.

Don't forget to comment or vote if you feel like being a cool human today :) (even though you're probably already pretty cool)