Being dead is weird. One moment, pain is shooting through my body, and the next, I'm floating up to heaven. I blissfully soar away from my bloodied body, down the hallway, and out the front door of Apris Academy.
Except, when I touch the front door, it feels like I am being electrocuted. Like there is a barrier of pain stretched across the door frame. I leap back in shock. I try to run through the doorway again, try to break the barrier, but it just hurts even more. I yell in agony, desperately trying to escape this cursed school.
What is going on? Why can't I leave?
I'm ready to get out of here. I'm ready to be done with this twisted thing called life, but something is stopping me. It's like I am in a cage without a key.
I float up to the windows and try to break through them, but the same barrier is there. I'm trapped in this school.
I sink to the ground in defeat, groaning.
This is torture. I should be dancing on the clouds right now, singing hymns or whatever.
"Are you okay there, Deimos?" a gruff voice asks.
I look up. An old man is floating directly above me. His skin is see-through and glowing. Part of his face looks like it has been burnt to a crisp.
"Ummm... how do you know my name?" I ask him.
"Oh, us ghosts get so bored trapped in this building. There's nothing else to do but sleep and spy on the students here," the old man says.
"Oh," I say like he's given a perfectly good explanation.
"I'm Goergoff, but you can call me George. Come on, I'll show you to the rest of the community," the old man says, and waves for me to follow him. I hover off the ground and float after him.
It kind of feels like swimming, just in the air.
I follow Georgoff down a set of stairs and into the school dungeons. I didn't even know Apris Academy had dungeons.
The halls are lit by torches, but their light is nothing compared to the hundreds of glowing bodies that populate the cells.
"Oh my gosh..." I whisper under my breath. There's a whole society down here, hidden from view.
Each cell has something different to offer. In one, there are a few ghosts that look like they're sunbathing (without the sun). In another, there's a whole group of them playing Bingo.
They look miserable.
"The sleeping rooms are over here," the old man says, leading me into another cell.
A woman who looks like she's in her twenties is standing by a mirror, putting lipstick on. She's wearing a colorful dress and her hair is long and straight and brown. She spins around, grabs her purse off of her bed, and flies towards me.
"George, who is this?" she asks.
"A new one," he says.
"Oh, joy! Finally, someone under three hundred!" the woman says, shaking my hand. "I'm Adeline."
"I'm Deimos," I say, shocked by how... alive she seems.
"Well, I'll leave y'all to it," George says, then floats away.
Adeline pulls me farther into the room. "So this is your bed. You'll be sharing this room with me, Christopher, and Sophia. Christopher's okay, but Sophia is as old as the sun is bright, so..." Christina says in a burst of words.
"Wait, I don't understand. Why can't I leave this school?" I ask her.
"Did George not tell you this? That man's memory will be the end of him. Here, you might want to sit down," Adeline says, gesturing toward my bed.
I sit down on my bed, and she plops down beside me.
"You see, this building is cursed. Anyone who dies in it can't leave. We remain here as ghosts for eternity," Adeline states simply.
"Wait, so... I can't ever leave? I can't ever... see my sister again?" I ask, my voice shaking.
"Is your sister not a student here?" Adeline asks, her eyes kind.
"My sister is dead," I say.
"Oh, sweetie," Adeline says, wrapping her arms around me in a big hug. "Do you need anything?"
"A way out of here?" I suggest.
"I'm sorry. We've tried every single door, window, and tunnel. There isn't a way out of Apris Academy after you're dead," Adeline says.
I can't help it, but my eyes start to water. We sit there on my new bed for what feels like an hour.
"Listen to me," Adeline whispers into my ear. "This place is a senior center. It's boring. But I know somewhere where it's not."
I wipe my eyes.
Adeline stands up and grabs a hairbrush from the cabinet underneath the mirror. "Here, brush your hair. You look terrible," she says.
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