I didn’t have any college lessons that morning, so I got to avoid the initial discussions of Tessa’s death. Given my dislike for her, it was probably a good thing. Most people would’ve probably been crying and talking about how sad it was. While I wouldn’t wish anyone dead, I didn’t have the energy to pretend I’d miss her. She’d been horrible to me for no reason. Would I miss that? No, no I wouldn’t.
I really, really wanted a lie-in, but my brain wouldn’t let me have one. It was too busy thinking about Tessa. Or, more specifically, her death.
So I spent the morning reading anything I could and what had (maybe) happened to her. The circumstances around her death were so unusual, it’d made the national news, but they still hadn’t revealed her cause of death. All we knew was that she’d been found in a local park. Nothing mentioned her suffering from any sort of chronic illness, or hinted towards her having mental health issues. The police may not have announced an official cause of death, but the subtext was clear: she was murdered.
Every street I walked down, it seemed like someone was talking about Tessa’s death. People huddled on front porches, keeping away from the draughts; they stood outside coffee shops, smoking a cigarette and talking loudly about how sad it was someone so young was possibly murdered; they walked down the street with dogs in tow, saying how pretty she was and how it was such a shame.
Several of the people I walked past mentioned the M word. I really hoped they were wrong. And I was reading the police subtext wrong. Murder meant unfinished business, and the only way to solve that unfinished business meant becoming a ghost. Frazzle.
When I reached the brick steps of college at lunchtime, a gaggle of press had gathered outside and were trying to interview students. As I walked past with my head down, they were interviewing someone from Josh’s art class.
Away from the cameras, some people were sombre and barely speaking, dabbing at their eyes with mascara-stained tissues or scrunching up their faces to hide tears. Everyone else was gossiping.
The fact that the police still hadn’t released Tessa’s cause of death just fuelled the rumour mill more. Almost everyone was adamant she was murdered by a disgruntled ex or a jealous classmate. One person I walked past even suggested Josh. I curled my hand into a fist, resisting the urge say something. He’d never do that! Even after being tortured by a demon. He was too broken after being tortured; he’d never physically hurt another person after that.
I walked through the front doors, avoiding eye contact so that nobody would talk to me. Not that they ever really did anyway.
Given everything Tessa had done to me, from damaging my coccyx to stealing my boyfriend, it was safe to say we’d had a complicated relationship. Even though Mr Hazelock, the head of college, knew what she’d done, she’d got away with it. Just like any other child of rich parents got away with just about anything. It infuriated me, but there wasn’t much I could do, and I’d had bigger problems to deal with. After facing a demon, saving Josh and Maggie from a curse, and taking down Dominic, Tessa and her attitude had seemed way less important.
And, thankfully, Tessa and I had seen each other less since the countdown to exams had started and the pressure had begun to mount. It felt like college wanted us to revise, do coursework, do mock exams, and start planning for our future, all at the same time. As if being a teenager wasn’t stressful enough already.
What was the point in me planning to go to university like everyone else seemed to be? Did they teach courses in necromancy? The kinds of lessons I needed no traditional university could teach me. While I adjusted to my powers and the right ways to use them, it made more sense to stay at home and use my pre-existing support network who already knew about what I could do, even if their powers weren’t the same.
I hadn’t told Mum about my decision yet because I knew how she’d react. She hated the idea of me putting my ghost hunting or necromancy above a ‘normal’ life, but if Dominic had taught me anything, it was that my life would never be normal.
‘Hey,’ said Melanie, falling into step with me as I walked through the front doors. Up until recently, she’d been one of Tessa’s best friends. We’d developed a mutual understanding after my mum, Josh, and I had exorcised a ghost from her. Tessa seemed to forget about her soon after, when she’d started going out with Josh. Things had been complicated between Josh and me ever since.
Dominic tricking me into using my powers to drain Josh’s life essence and heal himself had made things even more complicated. Josh didn’t know what I’d done, and it wasn’t like I could easily hold a conversation with him yet. Me telling him would’ve just made him hate me even more.
I still felt guilty, though. I wasn’t sure how much long-term damage I’d done to Josh, if any. So I mostly avoided him. He didn’t seem to mind. It probably made it easier for him to avoid me.
‘Hey,’ I said to Melanie.
The beige corridors were relatively empty because everyone else had gone out for lunch. A couple of groups stood in corridors or sat in classrooms, eating sandwiches or drinking bottles of pop.
‘It’s weird, isn’t it?’ said Melanie, shaking her head. Her long, dark brown hair tickled her shoulders. ‘Usually by now you’d hear her cackling.’
‘Yeah.’
Tessa’s laugh had always carried through the corridor. She was one of those people whose voice, and laugh, travelled. Whether you liked her or not, you couldn’t avoid her presence.
‘How are you?’ I asked.
She sighed. ‘Like…I don’t even know. Tessa and I have been friends since we were five. And I know she ditched me for Josh, and she could be a total bitch, but it still hurts that she’s gone, you know?’
‘Yeah.’ Sort of, anyway. I wanted to be as supportive as possible, but it was hard for me to imagine being friends with someone as petty and conniving as Tessa.
We didn’t have a guidance counsellor or anything like that to help us with what was going on. The closest we had was Mr Hazelock, the head of the college, and he wasn’t exactly approachable. He usually lurked outside the front doors, watching. Silently.
He wasn’t there now. Was he in some sort of emergency meeting? Did the press want to talk to him? They always interviewed people who’d known the person who’d died, and they always talked about how lovely and kind and intelligent the person was, even if that person was actually horrible. Because the public would feel more sympathy and be more inclined to help if a nice person had died so young.
What would people say about Tessa?
She was selfish? Manipulative? A bully?
Please. They never said anything like that on TV.
We walked past Mr Hazelock’s office. Voices echoed from inside it, but I was too short to see through the window in the door to find out whose they were.
I didn’t need to, though. As we walked past, the door opened. Curiosity getting the better of me, I turned around.
Tessa’s parents walked out, followed by Josh. Then Tessa.
Wait? Tessa? Tessa was dead. It couldn’t be…
My back stiffened. There was definitely someone else with Tessa’s parents and Josh. Her parents had shifted, though, so I couldn’t see if my instinct had been right. They were blocking the other person’s view, which was not a good sign. Either her parents really hated that person, or they didn’t know said person was there…
‘You all right?’ said Melanie, watching me with narrowed eyes.
I grabbed her arm and pulled her into an empty classroom. ‘I think…no. It can’t be.’ I shook my head, as if that would make it all go away. Nope nope nope. This was not happening.
Melanie wrinkled her brow. Of course she was confused. I was acting like a weirdo. ‘What?’
‘I think I just saw Tessa.’
‘Her ghost?’
‘Shh!’ I said, flapping my arms like an idiot.
Just because we were in an empty classroom, that didn’t mean someone couldn’t hear us in the corridor.
‘Sorry!’ She covered her mouth with her hand. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Fairly. But I don’t want to go out there and check.’
Melanie lowered her hand. ‘If I could check for you I would.’
‘Thanks.’
It was a sweet offer, but we both knew there wasn’t much Melanie could do. She couldn’t see ghosts, she just knew about them and wasn’t totally freaked out by them. At least I had someone at college I could talk to about it, I supposed.
Taking a deep breath, I peered into the corridor, trying to act normal. Josh and Tessa’s parents were still outside Mr Hazelock’s office, talking to him. Tessa hovered around them, shouting and waving to get their attention. It didn’t make a difference. If it wasn’t for how much of a bitch she’d been, I’d have felt sorry for her. Well, a part of me did. She looked so helpless. I still hated her.
Melanie joined me by the door, peering over my shoulder at the group. ‘Is it her?’
‘Unfortunately,’ I said through gritted teeth.
We stepped out of the classroom and stood in the corridor, me with my back to the wall so that I had something to prop myself up with, and Melanie facing me. And Tessa just to my right.
‘Well damn. Now what?’
‘I give her and her parents a wide berth. Then I don’t have to see her. Problem solved.’ I put my foot up against the wall, trying to look casual while I talked to Melanie.
Every so often, I glanced over my shoulder at Tessa’s parents. Everyone else was watching them, too, so at least that made me look less conspicuous. If people hadn’t known what her parents looked like before, they sure did now. Their faces had been all over the news since the story had broken last night.
Her mum was smartly dressed in a black pinstriped skirt suit, with oily, dirty blonde hair. If her slightly dishevelled appearance was anything to go by, the trauma of her daughter’s death had caused her to forget basic self-care. Understandable, really.
Her dad wore a black suit with no tie. The first couple of buttons were undone, and he kept tugging at his collar as if it was strangling him.
They looked like a poster couple. Looking like that was definitely not an indication of a healthy relationship, of course.
Her parents and Josh shook Mr Hazelock’s hand, then her parents headed for the exit, while Josh walked down the corridor to class. Tessa followed him.
No. No no no no no.
There was absolutely no way Tessa was haunting Josh. I refused to let that be a thing. That was unacceptable.
Except, when she followed him into his next class, instead of leaving the building with her parents, it seemed a hell of a lot like she was.
*
‘Muuuuuuum! Mum mum mum mum mum!’ I shouted as I burst through the door.
Avoiding eye contact with Tessa all day had proven more challenging than I’d thought, especially during English, which I shared with Josh. She’d hovered around, looking over people’s shoulders and reading their work. She’d shouted out, even making snide comments when I answered questions. How I’d bitten my tongue so that she didn’t notice I could see her, I’d never know. I deserved an Oscar for that performance.
Mum came in from the garden, taking her gloves off and holding them as she narrowed her eyes at me. ‘Edie? What’s wrong?’
Tilly followed her in, her bum wiggling as she saw me. There was no sign of Spectre. He was probably spying on the neighbours through Mum’s bedroom window. Tilly ran over and jumped up at me. I picked her up and hugged her to me. It was comforting after such an awful afternoon. ‘Tessa’s haunting Josh.’
Mum’s jaw dropped. ‘Are you sure?’
‘I’m sure. I’ve spent all day avoiding eye contact with her.’
She sank on to the sofa. ‘Oh my god. What does this mean? What could it mean?’
Tilly and I sat beside her. I stroked Tilly’s fluffy white fur, hoping it would distract me, at least for a few minutes. ‘Does it mean we have to help her?’ I dreaded the thought.
Mum patted my leg. ‘We don’t have to help every ghost. We have a choice. So do they. They don’t have to accept our help, even if we offer it.’
‘It’s not like we have the resources to solve a murder anyway,’ I said. ‘Assuming it is murder. The police still haven’t confirmed it.’
‘Exactly,’ said Mum. ‘Leave it up to the police. Give Josh and Tessa as much space as you can. I’m sure the police will figure out what happened to her and she’ll be gone in no time.’