It was a weird trick of the light that his eyes did. He could see the dead. He didn’t know how and it wasn’t all the time but he could. He swore he saw the kid in his math class. The kid committed suicide about two months ago. Of course this wasn’t the first time it happened.
He was about ten years old when his grandfather died. He was standing alone as his coffin was being lowered into the ground when he heard a man walk up beside him. The man started whistling a tune that sounded so familiar and he just had to turn and look. He slowly turned his head to the man who was whistling that tune. Was it possible for a tune to sound haunting and nostalgic all at once?
Just as he had turned to look at the man, the whistling had stopped. When he finally looked up at the man, the man was already staring back at him. The man had no eyes and looked just like his grandfather. Of course his grandfather was blind but he had eyes. This man looked exactly like his grandfather but there were dark black holes where his eyes should have been. He felt a scream in his throat but it wouldn’t come out. It was a silent scream that only the dead seemed to hear. The corners of the man’s lips lifted and they kept lifting. It was past smiling and it seemed the man’s face was deforming.
The scream finally flew out his mouth as he turned and ran. He didn’t look back.
But today, as he was walking past the hallway where the second floor stairwell banister was in view from the first floor, he saw a body hanging, swinging swiftly in the nonexistent breeze. He stood staring at it a while before the body’s arms went up to its neck. The head was still hanging down, its floppy hair disrupting his view of the dead kid’s face. The hands seemed to work methodically and precisely to undo the knots on the noose.
He just watched in horror. He wanted to leave but his legs kept him there. There was no one around. He was alone with this wretched ghost and the hands were almost done freeing the neck. When the knot was done, the body fell to the ground and fell on its knees, its arms catching the ground. It slowly stood up and when it was finally standing, the dead boy began to lift up its head.
He stared in horror at the bloodless face. It took him a moment to feel his legs move again. He turned to run and all he could hear was his own footsteps pounding the floor and echoing in the halls. He knew he shouldn’t look back but he couldn’t help himself. He turned around only to the find the dead boy an inch from his own. He could barely take in a breath to scream before everything went dark.