I heard someone yell my name from down the street. “Korina!” I turned to see who it was, and it was my best friend, Chloe. We had been best friends and done everything together since the school year started. I love her like a sister. “Korina, I need to talk to you. I can’t go to your house after school today.”

I replied with, “We still have all summer, so it’s okay.” She laughed nervously and agreed with me.

When we got to the school, we said our goodbyes and walked to our separate classes as we usually do. It was the last day of school, so obviously it went by faster than usual. After what felt like only a couple hours, Chloe and I were meeting up in front of the school. “I wish we had classes together. It sucks not being with my best friend throughout the whole school day,” I said. Chloe looked down at her feet and was frowning. “What’s wrong, Chloe?” She hesitated. 

“I won’t be able to come over after school,” she said softly.

“But, you already told me that this morning. We have all summer to hang out.” I looked at her with a face of confusion.

“I actually can’t hang out with you at all.” At that moment, my heart broke. We had plans to spend time together since we only see each other on the walks to and from school. Why, now, is she telling me she can’t? Chloe shed a tear- as did I- and she walked away from me. I looked down at the cement sidewalk and looked back at her. She was gone. This long road, leading to both her and my house, is empty.

It’s been a few years now. I still hang out with Chloe, just only during the school year. I know a lot more now. I know why people gave us weird looks, I know why she didn’t hang out with me that summer or any summer after that, and I know why she disappeared on that long road that day. She’s not a living person; she’s dead. She died in our school during a bombing in 1829. She’s been trapped in this school and only a little bit of the area around it for over one hundred years. Other people gave us weird looks because to them, I was talking to nobody. She didn’t hang out with me that summer because she was trapped in this invisible force-field that kept her in her cemetery, along with the others who didn’t survive.

It turns out, there’s a lot of dead people.