Chapter 15:
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Marcus frowned, but with a smirk.
He walked alongside Mei, hands stuffed in his hoodie pockets, side-eyeing her like he was trying to read a crossword puzzle out loud.
"So... who was that dude?" he asked.
Mei shook her head, smiling like it was nothing. She looked away, chin slightly tucked.
"Just some dumb low class," she muttered. "I think he just likes messing with girls."
Marcus stopped.
"Hey."
His voice wasn’t sharp. It was soft. Like a hand on your shoulder right before you fall.
Mei looked up.
He was watching her—serious, but kind. His eyes had that worn-out warmth, like a boy still trying to hold onto the good parts of the world.
"I forgive you, alright?" he said.
She blinked.
"I ain’t mad at you. Or nobody. I can’t really hold a problem like that."
He looked down, sighed through his teeth.
"I’m just worried about Janine—"
He paused, caught himself, shook his head.
"...Jasmine."
The nickname slipped out like a childhood memory.
He blinked hard, looked away. Rolled his eyes up. Swiped at the corner of one with the heel of his hand like it was nothing.
"I just hope she be alright."
Mei’s eyes softened.
"Hey," she said quietly. "She’s a strong girl. Since I’ve known her."
A sad smile curved her lips.
"Tsch. She’ll make it through."
Her voice dropped, trembling a little as her eyes fell to the floor.
"It was hard for me too... when it first happened. I thought I—"
She caught herself. Paused. Looked like she was drifting somewhere else.
Somewhere dark.
"...I had to go see a therapist. All the stress was... causing me to have hallucinations. Bad nightmares. I thought they were real."
She nodded to herself. Then looked up at Marcus and smiled through it. Faint. Tired.
"She’s not gone."
Her lips pressed together.
Tears were right there. She held them in, whispering:
"She’s just going through a lot of stress."
She looked down, fiddling her fingers together like she was building a sentence with pieces of herself.
"I’m not the best at... helping people through anything, but I know what helped me was..."
A breath. A nod. Still forcing that smile.
"Someone walking me through it."
Marcus stared at her.
Quiet.
There was hope in his eyes now—hope wrapped in fear, like a kid staring into a storm and waiting for a voice to tell him it’ll pass.
"I just... when I look at her, I don’t know what to say."
He shook his head.
"What do I say to her?"
Mei looked down.
Quiet.
Then she looked up at him slowly.
That unreadable smile again. The one people wear at funerals when they’re trying not to break.
Her voice cracked like a leaf in the wind.
"You need to tell her... that she’s crazy."
She bit her lip.
That shaky grin stayed fixed, but under it—grief. Like something she couldn’t pull out of her chest.
"That’s the only way she’ll get better."
Marcus just stared.
Something about her tone… her words...
It felt off.
Like the hallway got colder.
His phone rang.
BZZZT. BZZZT.
He blinked, checked the screen.
The contact said: "Baby"
He picked up fast. "Hello, baby? What’s up?"
Mei stared at him.
Still. Quiet. Watching.
Jasmine’s voice came through the speaker—urgent, panicked, breaking apart like glass in a washing machine.
"Baby, you need to get out of there."
Her breath was short. Scared.
"Someone died in there. S-something—someone is in there. You just need to get out."
Marcus froze.
"...What?"
He glanced at Mei.
She was looking around now, fidgeting. Eyes darting like she felt it too.
That creeping wrongness in the air.
Marcus turned away, walking a few steps off from her, shielding the phone with his hand.
"Wait, wait—what’s goin’ on? Where you at? Where’s Han?"
“Me and Han are—” Jasmine started, breathless, “—we’re behind the cafeteria—”
I snatched the phone from her hand so fast she jumped.
“Marcus!” I hissed. “Meet us at the Ridgemont Middle School bus, the one that dropped their choir kids off across the street. You’ll see it. My boy—we got seven minutes.”
And I hung up.
Didn’t wait for a response.
Didn’t need one.
Marcus’s face dropped like cold water hit him.
He heard police sirens. Dogs barking. Lights flickering off walls right down the hall they were headed down.
“What's going on?” Mei asked him, eyes wide, trying to keep up with his pacing.
Marcus yanked her by the arm, not rude but firm—like she was a shopping bag he couldn’t afford to drop.
“Come on.”
Her shoes scuffed the ground trying to match his steps. She looked panicked now, more confused than scared.
“Who are they talking about? What do they mean? Who—what’s in here?”
Marcus didn’t even blink. His eyes were locked ahead like a dog that saw something moving in the woods.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But one thing I know about my homeboy... is I know when he dang serious.”
He skidded to a stop, breathing hard, turned to her with that look—the kind of look you only get when your gut’s twisting from something you can’t explain.
“C’mon. Get on my back.”
She blinked, squinting like he said it in a different language. “What?”
“GET ON MA BACK!”
She jumped.
He crouched. She barely had time to think before his arms shot up, pulling her up into a clumsy piggyback. Mei wrapped her arms around his shoulders, legs bouncing against his sides as he sprinted across the school parking lot.
I saw them before they saw us. Me and Jasmine were still ducked behind those dumpsters, the cold metal pressing into my back, Jasmine practically trembling next to me.
When I saw Marcus, sweaty and panting with Mei on his back like a scene outta some ridiculous romance anime, I felt relief. But Jasmine?
She squinted.
Then scoffed.
She took one step forward. Arms crossed.
“Seriously?” she muttered. “You carrying her like she your little girl or something?”
Marcus looked up, still breathing heavy, Mei sliding off his back.
“Girl—really?” he coughed. “Now?”
Jasmine rolled her eyes but said nothing.
She was glad he was safe—anybody with eyes could see that. But that didn’t stop her from throwing daggers with every blink. Mei stood awkwardly behind Marcus, brushing her hands off and avoiding Jasmine’s glare like it was a laser grid.
Then I saw it.
The bus.
The Ridgemont Middle School logo shining in mustard yellow across the side like a golden ticket.
“Yo!” I pointed. “Come on!”
We bolted.
The driver was leaning against the side, sipping from a thermos like this was his tenth field trip this week and he was seconds away from quitting.
“Mr. Roy!” I called out.
He turned and did a double take.
His face lit up like I was somebody he actually cared about—which was wild, considering I barely knew the man outside of a few school events.
“Ji-Sung?” he blinked. “You ain’t in choir. What’re you doing here?”
“Please, Mr. Roy,” I said fast. “It’s an emergency. Can you just—can we ride back with you?”
He paused, looked at the others.
I didn’t need to say anything else.
He looked at me again... and nodded.
“Y’all sit in the back. If anyone asks, you’re choir now.”
“Thank you,” I said with a breath that came out more like a prayer.
We boarded.
The moment those bus doors hissed shut, I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.
I sat by the window.
Head pressed to the cold glass.
And I watched.
Police tape flapped in the wind like dying wings.
Officers walked in pairs.
One of the dogs barked.
And then... the stretcher came out.
Covered in white.
Long. Still. Lifeless.
Just as he was in that bathroom—gone.
Not breathing.
Gone.
My reflection stared back at me in the window, barely visible under the flashing lights.
Jasmine hadn’t stopped talking since she sat down next to me. Her hand was on my leg. I didn’t hear a word she said.
All I could hear...
Was the breaths of that thing in the bathroom with me...
The whisper.
And the way it looked at me.
Like it knew me.
Like it’d seen me before I even stepped in the stall.
I swallowed hard.
I thought of the grief on Jasmine’s face over her parents...
I thought of the liquor store and the man with that stench that followed him...
I thought of the shadow behind my eyelids that never left, even when I slept.
And I thought of my parents....
The newspaper photo.
The caption under my face.
“Local Boy Survives Tragedy.”
I survived.
But why does it feel like I’m still inside it?
Outside, someone screamed.
The bus turned left, and the scene slipped behind us like a ghost fading in the fog.
I closed my eyes.
And finally let the fear hit me.
Like a flood behind a cracked wall.
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