She was alone in the room and had been so ever since the recently unburied body of a middle-aged man, now a zombie, had wandered off after finishing a portion of scrambled pig’s brain. If she had been more awake, she would have gone to look for someone to find out whether her room was indeed ready, or if the deputy had forgotten about his promise. But she was not more awake, so she just rested her head on the hard surface of the cheap, institutional table before her, listened to the gentle buzzing of one of the room’s faulty fluorescent lights and waited for sleep to come.
As she was wavering between a state of semi-alert drowsiness and true sleep, the sound of a woman’s voice beside her slowly brought Amanda back to the waking world.
“Miss Blake?” came the voice. “It is Miss Blake, is it not?”
With great effort, Amanda raised herself back into a sitting position in her chair to find a female ghost in a wide brimmed hat, purple skirt and white shirt standing directly opposite her.
“So sorry to disturb you, but you are Ms Blake, aren’t you?”
“Amanda,” she mumbled, drowsily, before attempting to straighten herself up. “Please, call me Amanda.”
“Amanda, so nice to meet you. I’m Ms Halford. I know you attended the school, but I’m not sure if we have ever crossed paths before.”
“I’m sorry, what’s going on?” replied Amanda, who was finally get a grasp of the world around her. “Are you here to take me to my room?”
“Your room? No, dear, unfortunately, I’m not sure if I can help you there. It was just… I heard that you found him. You found the boy.”
“What, Brenden?”
“News spreads quickly enough around the school. I don’t want to intrude, but how is he?”
“He’s mostly fine, I guess. Well, when last I saw him anyway. He went back to his room.”
Though it was difficult to tell due to the light shining through the teacher, Amanda thought that an expression of relief passed over the ghost’s face. Even if it was only reasonable to expect those who cared for the students of the school to be glad about the safe return of Brenden, Amanda’s experience with the deputy ensured that she did not take such a thing for granted. Consequently, she was more than pleased to see the reaction of Ms Halford as it suggested that there were some in the ageing building around her who were still concerned about more than just the physical location of the students.
“Where did he go?” asked Ms Halford. “Did he say anything about why he decided to leave?”
“He had only made it to Caldborough, though his intention was to go back home. He had no money, poor kid, and I’m not sure his heart was really set on carrying out his plan by the time I found him.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, when I caught up with him, his only question was whether he was in trouble here at the school for running away. I think this was the main thing that prevented him from coming straight back: poor guy was worried about being punished. He also made no effort to avoid me or anyone else who may have been looking for him.”
“But, what about why he left?”
“He didn’t really say anything.”
Once again, Ms Halford seemed to become suffused with relief. This time, however, it was clear to Amanda that it was not just concern about the boy that was causing the ghost to react in this way. Indeed, it was obvious that Ms Halford was somehow involved with Brenden’s running away. Amanda did not press the woman, though, to tell her how. This was not just because the ghost would probably just disappear as soon as it became apparent that Amanda was trying to determine if she, or someone close to her, was somehow culpable for the boy’s departure, it was also because she did not really want to know if Ms Halford was somehow involved: she just did not want the responsibility of such knowledge. Furthermore, Amanda was aware from her time at the school that the walls had ears, usually those of the ghosts working for the deputy.
The consequence of this line of reasoning for Amanda was for her to have nothing more to say to the teacher. Ms Halford, meanwhile, found she had no further questions and the two fell into silence. The teacher maintained a slightly hard smile and waited calmly for the situation to change, while Amanda, who was starting once again to feel the weight of her tiredness, found the tension created by the end of the conversion to be more of a strain. Amanda was, therefore, glad when Ms Halford looked over her shoulder to greet someone entering the room.
“Adam,” said the ghost. “I’ve just heard that Brenden is fine and well.”
“That’s good to hear,” came the slightly frosty response from behind Amanda. “Who do we have here?”
“This is Miss Blake, the former student who managed to track down our missing boy.”
“Really,” continued Adam in a cool voice, before coming a little closer. He stopped just behind the back of Amanda, who up until that point had consciously not turned around to greet the teacher for fear of having to deal with the terrible visage that she remembered from her time at the school.
“So, where did you find him?” asked Adam.
Amanda decided that she could no longer refrain from facing the man, but determined not to let Adam know her thoughts, she turned and started to speak at the same time, hoping that by concentrating on her words, she would not flinch. However, when she finally came to rest her eyes on Adam, she was
