Chapter 3 - Kalen

August was never my favourite month, but I was always scared for it to end. As Summer melted into Autumn, and Autumn bled into Winter, anxiety got worse, voices inside my head grew louder and it became harder to distinguish what was real and what wasn't.

However this year there was even more to worry about. Rumours grew quickly of a new kid, someone who'd been offered a scholarship and the student body ate it up. Were they royalty from a far, exotic country? Maybe it was a child of a powerful politician or perhaps they'd hypnotised the headmaster and forced the governors to let them in. Alder's Academy was known for being elitist, harsh to outsiders and favourable to those with well known last names. The school was far out in the countryside, miles away from its own village, separated from the world by the lake and woods that stretched out for acres, so it didn't often open its doors to newcomers. Plus, nothing ever happened around here so I can't really say I blamed them.

Though school didn't start for another week, more than half the student body was already here. They'd be staying for the rest of the year so they needed time to settle in I guess. I don't think I could bear leaving this place, knowing that I'd have to come back eventually. To run out of its doors with the rest of my classmates, a driver outside and parents ecstatic to have me home, only to dread returning? Leaving just to count the days I had left and let the thoughts of anxiety fester and take over as I imagined what would be in store once the new year started? I could barely survive being away for too long, but I don't think anyone else had that problem. When it came down to it, Alder's was my home, and as much as I resented that fact I couldn't think of a single other place I could belong.

Still we had more pressing matters than my identity crisis. We all thought that it was a miracle when the ghosts started leaving. For as long as I could remember, hordes of the dead haunted Alder's Academy, flocking to the school in their hundreds. Everywhere you looked you'd see them; a faint willowy figure wistfully wandering the hallway; a whole crowd of them huddling around a deceased bird or frog; and maybe one sat in the desk in front of you, the mortal unbeknownst to the chair it shared with a spectre. They'd shimmer in and out of existence, a ghostly body disappearing then reappearing and when I was younger I'd question whether or not what I saw was real. But on the most part they were harmless. Unless you were one of the poor souls who could see them that is.

So when I'd woken one day (Wednesday, 29th of July to be exact) and the rooms were all empty and the shadows that had haunted me all my life had suddenly just disappeared, I hadn't known what to do. The others were just as shaken and the clubroom quickly became full.

"Guys I believe we have a predicament." Ty's tone was light and playful, but from the way he sprinted into the cabin and how his eyes darted about the room (looking for ghosts I guessed) I knew he was hiding how scared he was. The others held a similar countenance. Minnie and Vera were clinging to each other - which was no different than usual - but this time it wasn't just out of affection: they were afraid. Minnie's usually styled hair was messy and unkempt, falling to her waist in a tangled mess rather than in a complicated updo that she'd forced Vera to do. And Vera, well she was just Vera, but I'd known her for long enough to see that this wasn't her usual self and she clung to Minnie like she was scared to let go.

Ty kept shifting from one foot to the other, drumming his fingers on his sides and bobbing his head up and down. "You alright buddy?" Hoping he wouldn't notice my own hand shaking, I wrapped an arm round him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I'm good Kale." The little guy looked up to me and I needed to stay composed for him. For his sake and mine.

"Guys! Guys! I think I know where they went!" My sister had burst in and we all jumped in surprise.

"You what?" Confusion presented itself on all of our faces and Minnie expressed it very well. "We've all only just woken. How have you already solved this mystery?" Ally looked a little sheepish. She explained to us how she'd gotten up at 5am to go on a run (classic Ally) only to find that our reality had been turned on its head. She'd gone on her run anyway, and received a call from someone who'd graduated from Alder's who used to be in the Tennis Club who'd alerted her of the ghosts' presence in a nearby city.

"I didn't want to wake you guys up," she said abashedly.

"So what do we do then? Isn't it a good thing they're gone? It's not like we haven't been half driven mad by the things." Minnie said. Me and Ally made eye contact. Vera and Ty nodded, agreeing with her, but my sister and I were riddled with concern. Maybe all the ghosts had gone for good, but there was something that had burrowed itself into my life, entangling itself so deeply into my existence, constantly sucking the mortality out of me like some parasitic creature that would never let go. If I looked over my shoulder I would see it, if I looked in the mirror I'd see its ghastly reflection behind me. It had haunted me for so long I had accepted that our souls were intertwined. When I'd awoke and the ghosts had all gone I thought that I was free, that my soul was now my own. But my fate had remained the same.

"What? Do you guys know something?" Vera said. She was a lot more observant than the rest. She must've picked up our worries. Minnie and Ty studied our faces.

"It's just-it's just," I took a deep breath. "You know- you know how all the ghosts are gone?" They nodded. "Well, not all..." I glanced at each of them then pretended to find my shoelaces extremely interesting, waiting for them to connect the dots themselves.

Vera was the first to realise. "Oh Kalen, you don't mean?..." I nodded and their faces fell.

"I don't know why, but there is no way in hell I'm staying here and not doing anything about it."

Now it was a week till school began, and unlike every other year I couldn't wait. I would grasp at any chance I had, any inkling of information that could help me. I would cure myself of this ghost and I'd leave Alder's for good. And this girl was my antidote. She had to be.