The Ghost Inside (part 9)

I couldn’t see anything, it was so bright.

Are those clouds? Is that the sky?

And I hear the sound of water.

And I can hear birds?

I turned my head and discovered I was on my back. I was staring at the inside of a small tiny wooden boat. I tried to sit up slightly and then that’s when I saw a cloaked figure was rowing a boat.

“Hey…” I started to try to sit up more.

“Hey! Where am I?”

The cloaked figure had its back to me, it stopped rowing.

“We are almost there…” he responded.

“But where is where?”

“Paradise…”

He started to row again.

Fuck, am I dead?!

“I can’t be dead! I.. I am too young!” I patted myself down as if I was looking for a pen in a pocket.

“Oh yes, you are quite dead. Your heart ceased to function normally. Just moments before your passing, they began their life saving measures.”

I began to speak and he cut me off, “all of your questions will be answered. Do not fret.”

We reached a beachhead, surrounded by tall trees and high grass, beyond it was a beautiful castle made of light grey stone. The most beautiful architectural design I’ve ever seen.

The cloaked figure got off the boat, as did I, as I dunked myself into the water with my bare feet. I was wearing the same cloak he was.

His face was a shadow as he looked at me with his blank face. He pointed through the trees revealing a path.

“Go, my child. You are wanted.”

I started to walk down the path, as I turned to look behind me, the cloaked figure with the face of a shadow got back on the boat, to row back where we came.

I. Hauled. Ass. With tears in my eyes. I wasn’t ready to fucking call it quits yet.

Wiping my tears to clear my obscured vision, I ran and ran. Coming up to a curved stoned bridge over a giant clear blue river, I went faster as my bare feet barely touched the ground.

Closing the distance to the castle, stood two heavily armored guards in shiny silver armor from head to toe. Both armed with a steel great sword, the blades tip resting into the ground.

I slowed down to a speed walk.

“Welcome to Paradise, young warrior.” One of the guards spoke through his full face shield helmet.

“You are entering the Halls. Go straight to the Magistrate.” The other guard said, as I looked at both of them, as they looked at me.

“Am I really dead?” I huffed from catching my breath.

“Ask the Magistrate.”

This is fucking absolutely insane.

The giant metal gate opened, and I entered the castle. Surrounded by others walking around, eating and drinking. Everyone was wearing the same tunic, but I saw no faces.

“Where is the Magistrate?”

They all stopped to look at me, as a small child dressed in the same attire peeked out from under the legs of the assumed adult near him.

“Keep going…” the cloaked child spoke. As other faceless children came out of no where and tagged the child in a game. The child took off yelling “no fair!” as he chased them.

I pushed past the crowds of the faceless, and entered another set of massive wooden doors.

There he was, sitting on a giant crimson throne. The only face I could see. He carried a scepter with a purple orb the size of a baseball at the top.

His shoulder length hair shimmered in white, beard was braided once on each side, leaving the center bushy. His eyes a crystal blue.

“Hello Joseph Turner.” He spoke deeply.

I stopped walking and stared at him.

“I am the one you seek.”

“Where the hell am I?”

He smiled and raised his left hand that wasn’t holding the scepter, “Why, my warrior child. You are in Paradise.”

“I can’t be dead yet.” I yelled.

“Oh, you very much are. I’m afraid.”

“I don’t believe it. None of it. I must have hit my head pretty hard.”

“Your heart slowly stopped beating, until it ceased as you were writhing on the floor. As we speak, they are doing everything they can to bring you back to the world in which you came.”

I swallowed hard.

“I have much to do.” I said.

“What? Continue to serve your prison sentence?”

I shrugged.

“I don’t belong here.” I replied back to the Magistrate.

“You do. And you will. Eventually. I will give you a parting gift before I return you back.”

He rose from his throne and walked closer to me.

“You may have killed people, Joseph, but there was a reason why. Their souls are forever to be tormented for their horrible crimes. You? You are deemed a warrior in these Halls. There will always be dark ones who serve a greater purpose. Fight fire with fire, as they say.” He placed his left hand on my right shoulder.

“You will have your freedom, soon. And you will return to my Halls again. Now is not the right time.”

* * *

Charge to 200.

Clear!

We have normal sinus rhythm again! V-Fib clear on ECG.

Joseph, can you hear me?

Applying pain stimuli.

Joseph, are you there?

Come on Joseph.

* * *

I open my eyes.

I can hear the medical equipment surrounding me, the horrendous annoying beeping echoing in my aching head. My chest was hurting all over, breathing was causing sharp pains. I tried to move. I think my ribs are fucking broken.

The fuck is in my mouth?

I reached up and felt the breathing tube and the connections to the top forcing my lungs to fill with air.

Grasping it with whatever strength I had in my arms and hands, I yanked it out fast, coughing forcefully after it left my insides, rattling my broken ribs.

Reaching down to my left arm, I removed the IV catheter and pulled off the wires attached to my broken chest.

My arm was bleeding where the IV was, so I applied direct pressure to slow the bleed with the gown I was dressed in. The physical exertion caused more pain in my ribs.

I got to my feet, which was a bad idea. My knees felt weak, and they buckled enough to cause an imbalance. I grasped the railing on the bed, and then the medical equipment began to scream at high volumes.

“F-fuck.” I grunted as the sounds pierced my already aching head, knowing I just alerted everyone within the general radius of my location.

A nurse burst into the room, took a moment to look at me struggling, and then yelled out the door “Get the doctor! He’s awake!”

“Hang on Joey…” as she held me to keep me from falling.

* * *

You know what pisses me off the most about school?

Fucking everything. The people. The teachers. The homework. The class work. The people. Lunch time. The Pep Rallies. The people. Did I forget to mention the people?

And now, it’s Prom. Another ridiculous social gathering. So everyone is asking around, who is taking who, which popular girl or guy is going, what theme is Brickwell High hosting, the location.. blah blah blah.

I was tuning out my English teacher as it was nearing the end of the period, and she was going on how her high school crush asked her to prom and all this other gross nonsense.

The digital bell rang, and all the students got up from their chairs as I walked to the front desk where my teacher was. I dropped off my late assignments, as well as current and future assignments.

“Are you going to Prom, Joey?” My teacher asked.

I shook my head. “No ma’am. No one wants to be seen with me.”

“That’s not true, now is it?”

“Ma’am, ever since my incident with the football kid, no one interacts with me. I’m fine.” I started to walk out of the classroom, closing the door behind me.

I headed down the busy hallway full of students and teachers monitoring the halls, going straight to my locker to put away my books that I didn’t need.

“What the Fuck is this?” I looked at my locker.

It was a sticky note with the initials, “G.K.Y.”

I pulled out my phone and Googled what that meant. It pulled up dozens of entries back and I pulled up the first one from Urban Dictionary.

“Go Kill Yourself. How nice.” I pushed it past me, as I unlocked my locker. And my locker was full of little notes as they spilled out onto the floor.

Freak.

Loser.

Asshole.

GKY.

Just Leave.

All over the inside of my fucking locker. Paper notes. Sticky notes. Permanent marker.

Now, I was pissed more than ever.

“Who did this to my locker???” I yelled.

Some of the students quieted down and looked at me and the floor.

“Who did this??” I yelled even louder. I felt the burning rage inside of me building.

A teacher walked over, and gasped. She motioned her colleagues that were close by and they took in what they saw.

“This is absolutely horrible.” As they picked up some of the notes to read them.

I slammed the locker door and I punched with my right fist straight into it, denting the shit out of the door.

Pushing past everyone, with fire in my eyes, I shoved my way through the gawking crowds and made my way to the main office front desk to see Principal Brickwell, aka Fuckface.

I walked past the front desk as the front receptionist saw me, “You can’t go in there Joey, hold on.”

“The Fuck I am.”

I barged right in as Principal Brickwell was sitting at his desk, writing on some paperwork.

He looked up at me, “Don’t you know how to knock, Mr. Turner?”

I slammed down a few sticky notes on his desk.

“These were in my locker sir. I want to know who did this to me.”

He was slightly shocked as he reviewed some of the notes. He lowered his glasses on his nose to see up close.

“Not gonna lie Mr. Turner, this is pretty terrible.”

“No shit, I wanna know who did this to me.”

He was examining the notes like a detective.

“Mr. Turner, I understand you are very upset. I will investigate this further. Just return to your classes, I’ll…. Have to issue you a new locker.”

“I hate it here. I’m leaving this dump.”

I turned on my heels, “Mr. Turner! You will return to your classes, I will handle this. Comply or face another suspension.”

Slamming his door on the way out, I pushed my way through the exits of the front office and bolted out the front door of the school.

“What happened?” The lady at the receptionist desk asked Mr. Brickwell as he opened the door.

He showed her the notes, and she gasped covering her open mouth.

“He brought this on himself.” He said to her.

* * *

I started walking home, turning down one of the side roads. I grasped the post of a stop sign with both of my hands, and my chest began to heave. I cried my eyes out, my teeth were clenched terribly tight. The fury that was deep inside of me was just burning red hot, and at the same time, my feelings were completely destroyed.

How the fuck am I supposed to keep dealing with this nonsense? How far am I going to be pushed until I break?

I let go of the stop sign post, and kept walking to get closer to home. I figured I was suspended for not complying with Fuckface’s directive, so why the hell not.

My phone vibrated along with a jingle. It was my Dad.

“Principal Brickwell just called. You left school. Why?”

I told him what happened while I tried my hardest to not sob and sound like a blubbering idiot.

“Hang on. I’m 30 minutes out. Just wait.” He hung up.

Deciding not to wait, I kept walking towards home.

Now the pain in my hand began to show itself, it ached – and also started to swell as I examined my hand.

“Fucking wonderful.”

A police cruiser pulled up, and it was the campus police officer we have on duty – one of three.

He lowered the passenger window as he looked at me.

“Joey. Get in. I’ll take you back to school so you can wait for your pops to show up.”

“I’m good. Thanks anyway sir.”

“Nah, it’s gonna rain Joey. Come on. By the time you get half way home, you’re gonna be soaked to shit man.” He said as he crept up while I walked.

“I’ll be fine. I don’t need anyone to help me.”

“Just get in.”

I stopped walking and he applied the brakes with a tiny squeal coming from the brake system gripping the calipers.

I got in the passenger front seat as he rolled up the windows with the automatic button he pressed on his side.

Turning off his radio, he did a u-turn and turned towards the school.

“Fuck it, I have a better idea.” He said as we drove past the school.

We pull into a parking lot at a local breakfast place.

“You hungry? I am. I skipped breakfast.” He asked me.

I shrugged.

He grabbed his cell phone and called someone.

“Hey, I got Joey. I’m down the road at our breakfast spot. Gonna sit with him until his dad shows. Just tell him to go down past the school when he shows up. Uh huh. Nah. He’s fine. Yeah. His hand is a bit swollen. Yeah. I’ll ask these guys for ice when we sit down. Yep.” He hung up.

I got out of the cruiser and so did he.

He was a tall young man, black, hair was in a high and tight, freshly shaven. Uniform was well fitted over his body, showing he was definitely incredibly strong. He clicked his radio back on to hear the police radio traffic.

He opened the door for me.

We sat down at a booth, and the workers recognized him right away. The server came over and offered us coffee.

“Can we get a bag of ice ma’am? He hurt his hand pretty good.” He spoke over to the lady over at the counter. She nodded, shuffled some ice near the soda machine and stuffed it in a zip lock bag.

“Let me know if you need more.”

He pulled out a notepad and a fancy black ink pen.

“I know you know who I am, but to make this official, I’m Officer Shay. I want to start my own investigation as to who did this. Have any idea who could have left those kind of notes?” He asked me.

I shrugged. “No one likes me at the school sir. Ever since…”

“Yeah you knocked the hell out of that boy.”

“Some of his friends on the football team tried to jump me in the hallway.”

He wrote down football friends.

“When?”

“After I returned from my suspension. First day back.”

He wrote down day of return from suspension.

“Did they say why?” He asked me.

“It was because I didn’t apologize to him after I walked past him and his friends.”

“The kid you assaulted?”

I nodded.

He wrote something else down.

“Can you think of anyone else?”

I shook my head.

The coffee felt good as I sipped it.

“Like I said, no one likes me there since. So it really honestly could be anyone.”

“I have access to the cameras in the hallways, so does Principal Brickwell.” He said as I sighed.

“That guy doesn’t give two shits.”

“Hey.”

“I’m just being brutally honest. He doesn’t give two shits. Especially me..”

He wrote down Principal Brickwell with a question mark at the end.

“Knowing him, he probably already deleted the footage.”

He picked up his cell phone again and called, “Hey man. Check the hallway footage, time it back two and a half during last period. Near English Hall.”

He waited as he sipped the coffee from his ceramic mug.

“Yeah I’m here.” he said.

He started drawing on his notepad, waiting for a response.

“See anything yet? Well damn man, just scroll through it. Fast forward.”

He looked at me, “He’s looking at the videos that were uploaded man, we’re gonna… what?” He looked down.

“It’s blank?”

I shrugged. “I knew it.” I said.

“Check it again. Write down the time stamp before it goes blank. And then write down when it reappears.”

He put the phone down and put it on speakerphone.

“Nothing here between a seven minute and 27 second interval Sergeant.”

“Any other cameras off during that time?” Officer Shay said to the phone.

A few clicks of a mouse and keyboard were heard.

“Yeah. Fucking all of them. I’ll have to see if the time stamp matches on all of them.”

“Call me back when you confirm.” He hung up.

“The only ones that have access to these cameras is us, and Principal Brickwell. Your locker this morning when you showed up before first period, anything out of the ordinary?” He asked me.

I shook my head. “It was perfectly fine when I got to class.”

He wrote down first period, missing footage.

“Was anyone from the football team watching you? Or anyone else that may have been watching you? Someone you don’t normally see?”

I shook my head again as I shifted the ice bag around my hand at a better spot.

“I’m gonna have to do an anonymous tip line, see if maybe someone saw and doesn’t want to speak up. We could try that.” He wrote down open the tip line back up for 72 hours.

“Someone saw something… maybe they are afraid to turn them in.”

“I don’t plan on going back to school anyway, I’ll just do the online university or whatever it’s called. I’m done showing up to school in person.” I moved the ice bag off my hand because the ache intensified greatly.

“That’s not a solution man.” Officer Shay said as a plate of food arrived for himself and me. He orders the same food apparently, and they made two. Sunny side up eggs, three strips of bacon, hash browns, and three sausage links.

I had to admit, I was hungry. My dominant hand is the one that’s most likely fucking broken, so I began to eat with my left hand as I grasped the fork.

“It’s okay Joey. We’re gonna figure this out, and if I find out that Principal Brickwell deleted the footage, I’m going to accuse him of instigating this and bring him up to the Board of Education. They’ll fire him, and trust me, they are looking for an excuse to ditch him.”

Not if I get a hold of his ass first, I thought.

I just need the right time, and the right place.

The more I thought about removing his existence, along with his siblings, the better it sounded. Morals were moving out on an eviction notice, and Murder was moving in.

I don’t think I’ll be using my bow, that will implicate my brother into this mess. It’ll involve more parties than I’m willing to sacrifice.

I’m thinking much more personal – and something very sharp.

A very sharp blade, easy to carry and conceal, and it never needs to be reloaded.