۫ ּ ִ ۫ ˑ ֗ 𓏲˖ 𑁍 ࣪ ִ ۫ ּ ִ ۫ ˑ ֗
࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ  ✩◿𝓓𝓣𝓐◸ 🂱 ࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT—
it's all wrong.

Sarah went to school.

She finally went to fucking school. Granted, it was after hours and no one was there, but she still went. She walked to her locker, opening it up on the right side of the hallway. It made a loud noise in the silent school as she grabbed a couple of her books. She took her work form her backpack and brought it to each of her teachers so they could have it. It wasn't perfect, she was still doing terrible, but it was better then nothing.

"Sorry." Sarah mumbled when her shoulder collided with a janitors.

"That's okay." he smiled at her, Sarah frowned her eyebrows together. "Everything okay?"

"I thought...you stopped working here last semester?" Sarah gave a questionable look as he smiled at her again with a shake of his head. "You came back?"

"Sorry, sweetie." he offered her one more smile. "I'm late for something important."

He walked down the hallway and rounded a corner at the very end. Sarah hesitated before walking down the hallway and turned the same one he did, finding it empty completely. Sarah thought hard about his face, she knew it, she knew he didn't work here anymore. So, what was he doing here?

She walked back outside. Mr.Yamada was still here, she debated going to see him. She hadn't seen him this whole time, she didn't want to. She didn't really see anyone except for Finney and sometimes Bruce when he'd leave work for her. He had a special parking spot, he paid extra for it. Yet,he wasn't parked their today. Even the green on his car wasn't the same, it was darker.

Sarah looked up at the sky as it began to rain, but the sun was shining. Not a single rain cloud in sight, nothing but sun as it rained. Then, there was a few snow flakes. Sarah gapped as she held her hand up, letting them fall into her palm. It was only October, it didn't snow until December and January. But, that's not what confused her the most, not after she held her hand out.

It was the fact that the snowflakes didn't melt in her hand. Humans were warm, snow flakes were meant to melt when they touched their hands due to the body heat.

Sarah felt sick as she froze. She looked to Mr.Yamadas car, the way it wasn't parked where it usually was and the shade was a bit off. The way it rained, shined, and snowed all at once. The fact that she went to her locker on the right side of the hallway even though it was on the left. She remembered that now because she went to school on the first day and went to the left side of the hallway, looking at Vance's untouched one of the right side. How did she forget that? How did she forget that Gwen went to school early on Monday's? How did she forget what time school released?

"No." it sunk in as Sarah stood there in the middle of the school parking lot. Panic set in immediately. "No! No!"

Finney not answering his window. Terence actually letting him go somewhere before school. The way her room was cleaned and she had new bedding despite destroying it all. She assumed it was her mother. The fact that her parents didn't get home around the time that they always did. The way Bingo didn't move one bit when something fell in her closet, the way he didn't beg for food at his feeding time. The way she woke up on the wrong side of the bed when she never did. The fact that it was cloudy in the middle of the day when she woke up yesterday but no rain ever came. The way she wasn't tired despite not sleeping.

"No, no." Sarah clutched her head and spun in a circle, looking for help.

Finney or Gwen didn't call her the past few days. One of them always called her. Bruce didn't bring her her work the last two days, even though he did every day. Her neighbors didn't check their mail the time they always did. There was barley a dent in Ella's car after Sarah wrecked it. The fact that she spoke to her father in the worst way the other night, even though she never would. The way Griffin was confused on how she didn't know what he was talking about when he said how hard it was to leave certain places.

"You figured it out then?" Billy asked, standing behind Sarah as she spun around fast. "I'm sorry, Sar. I couldn't tell you. I just couldn't."

"Billy." she gave a scared look. "Everything is wrong here! Something isn't right! Nothing is the way as it was a few days ago."

"I know." he gave her a sad nod. "That's how it is."

He handed her a newspaper. Sarah grasped it in her hand and stared down at the paper. A photo of the janitor she'd just ran into in the school was there, his death date next to it. It was the same newspaper Billy threw at her yesterday when she saw him in the middle of the completely empty street. It made sense now. "That's why he stopped working at the school. He passed away last semester because of a car wreck."

Billy nodded his head. "He crossed over today. He finally did his unfinished business."

He was late for something important is what he said.

"Oh." Sarah winced as large tears fell from her eyes. She looked down at her body, and she was covered in water head to toe. She looked like she'd been dipped under water, but she'd never noticed it until right now. How did she never notice that. Billy pulled her into a hug and put a hand on the back of her head. "Billy, what happened to me?"

"I can show you." he pulled away and took her hand. "It hasn't been long, Sarah."

"Am I dead?" she feared his answer.

"You're heart stopped five minutes ago." he said as Sarah felt like she was about to sink into the ground. "Five minutes feels like two days here."

"Where is here?" she looked around. "It's the same...but so different."

"It's the middle space." Billy sook his head a he explained. "A place people stay before they cross over. If they're not put to rest or have something to finish. They come here until they can finish it."

"But, Griffin said it's hard to get to new places. I can go anywhere I want to." she gripped onto his arms tightly. If she had a heart beat, she'd have passed out right then and there.

"Come with me." Billy took her hand as they walked down the street together. "It'll make more sense."

They walked for a few minutes until making it to the backroads. Billy lead her to muddy tire scratched in the road. He pointed to the small pond that was right on the other side of the road. Sarah saw her Moms car poking out slightly at the surface of the water, the rest was under. Her knees gave out and she sunk into the gravel. Billy went with her, crossing his legs next to her.

"After you left Grab N Go and were driving home, that car that was coming around the other way scared you so you swerved off to the side.  You didn't know the road well, so you drove right off into the pond so you wouldn't crash the car. You hit your head so hard that it knocked you out, so you couldn't get out of the car before it went under water." he explained every little detail to her. "I was able to push you out of the way that time you almost got hit by the car, but it took a lot of energy from me. I wasn't able to do it again. Griffin moved your head so it wouldn't go under water right away, to give you time to wake up from hitting you head. But, it was too late."

"Oh my god." Sarah sobbed as she stared. She was dead. This was it. She didn't swerve off into the ditch like her head convinced her she did, she went into the water and drowned. She was sinking now, sinking into the gravel more as she pushed onto her palms and cried for her own death rather then her best friends this time. It was all sinking in.

She was dead.

"I'm never gonna see Finney again." Sarah cried as she looked to Billy. "Or Gwen. Or Robin. Bruce. Mr.Yamada. My parents. Bingo! I'm not gonna be able to help Vance!"

"I'm sorry, Sarah." Billy put a hand on her face. "We wanted you to wake up so bad, but you just weren't. You were gone, and there wasn't anything we could do."

She leaned into him as she cried, the water coating her body not affecting him one bit because it didn't get onto him, just like his blood didn't get on her. Their injuries were just that, their own. No one else's, so they wouldn't be able to get onto any other ghost. "I don't wanna die, Billy."

He held her. "I'm so sorry, Sarah. We tried what we could, but we could only help you one time before all our energy was taken away. Griffin and I did it with the car and the water, there isn't anything we can do this time."

Sarah cried as she held onto him. "What if we don't cross over? Are we going to be here forever? Forget everything? What if I can't even remember you? What if I forget them?"

"You will cross over." Billy promised her with a shake of his head. "Your body will get put to rest when someone noticed the car. And i'll come join you soon, I just don't know when."

"No." Sarah sobbed, that made it so much worse. "I can't go without you!"

"You're not gonna go." a new voice rung behind them, they both froze. "You're not going anywhere. You're gonna fucking wake up, Sheeps."

Sarah snapped her head over, getting a second of a glimpse at Vance. With blood coating his body, his wounds much deeper and larger then Billys or Griffins were. She didn't get to analyze them, she didn't even get a chance to react to the fact that he was here, and that meant he was just like her and Billy. "Vance?"

Thunder struck the sky suddenly, loud and harsh.

The police were showing up after Sarah had been under water for a while, her heart stopped for ten minutes now. They could see the end of Ella's car. Jason froze. "Ella! Baby!"

He thought it was his wife, that was her car.

The officers hurried toward the scene, stopping when a lightening bolt hit the water, they couldn't touch it, they'd get electrocuted.

From inside of the car, the shock that hit the water had shocked Sarah's heart like how they would at a hospital. It shocked her heart so hard that her eyes flew open, and she breathed in water from under the pond. Sarah panicked, thrashing around as she undid her seat belt. How did she get here again? What did she do? Where was Vance and Billy? Was this still the middle? Had she already crossed over?"

Sarah kicked the window in as she swam out and to the surface, gasping for air and coughing loudly.

"Is that-" one of the officers started.

"Sarah!" Jason cried out. It wasn't his wife in the water, it was his daughter. "Oh my god. Sarah!"

Her dad. No Vance. No Billy. Sarah panicked, splashing around to try and find their faces. "Vance! Billy!"

They weren't here, because this was the real world. Her hand touched her heart, and it was beating. She was alive, Vance used the energy that Billy and Griffin didn't have to be the one to save her this time, bring her back. Sarah reached the bank of the pond as Jason ran over to help her now that she was out of the water and they weren't at risk of electrocution. "Sarah!"

"No!" she screamed so loud he feared she was hurt. "No! No!"

No one knew what she was screaming and sobbing for, they all thought it was from the accident, like she was hurt. They didn't know what she felt for the past two days that were only five. They didn't know she was so distressed because she knew now that Vance was dead, that he was killed just like Girffin and Billy. That he was with them in the middle, where she was before he used what he had to cause the lightening bolt to hit the water.

"No." Sarah cried in her Dads arms, gripping onto him so hard it genuinely hurt him.

•

kylie speaks

genuinely...did you see
it coming? did you suspect?