“Holy shit,” Jaslene gasps. “Holy shit.”

Matthew laughs awkwardly. “Yeah,” he says, “That was my reaction too.”

He looks as though it was just another day, just two classmates running into each other outside of school. Except he’s knee deep in black water and still dripping blood from his slashed throat. He just smiles and ducks his head, unsure of how to go from here and it’s such a Matthew thing to do it almost hurts.

She can remember Jude and Matthew, walking hand in hand out to a small area outside the science building, laughing together, Jude looking down at Matthew with such adoration in his eyes that Matthew would duck his head and blush; it was always cute, seeing them together, but the mirror image of his actions sets something cold and heavy in Jaslene’s chest.

“So,” Matthew starts, “Not to sound rude or anything, but, uh, how can you see me? Not that I’m complaining, it’s just that a lot of people have been down here these past few weeks and none of them ever noticed me.”

Well. No better time to bond over similar experiences. Jaslene shrugs and casually says, “I died too. Like, two nights ago.”

There’s a beat of silence, the air around them still even as the water continues rippling around Matthew’s legs.

And then: “You’re  what?!”

Jaslene pulls up her shirt. Matthew gapes and stares, his eyes wide. Normally, having someone stare at her so much, especially when she’s holding up her shirt, would make her uncomfortable, but there’s a strange sense of relief in sharing her wounds, showing someone the cruel fate given to her.

The few wounds that are bandaged have small splotches of red on them where she’s beginning to bleed through. All the others are still pale and bloodless, almost like scars if it wasn’t for how her flesh almost seemed to cave in towards the deep cuts.

She’s had a few days to get used to it. Matthew hasn’t.

“Yeah,” Jaslene says to fill the silence, “Our luck is pretty bad.”

Matthew shakes his head; the deep slash on his throat gushes a little more. “I’ll say. We better at least get on a mystery show, or a ghost hunting show, or something to make up for all of this nonsense.”

“Nonsense you say,” Jaslene laughs, “You sound like a dainty Victorian lady.”

“I’m a twink, what did you expect?”

That startles a loud laugh from Jaslene. Matthew looks proud of what he said, grinning at her just as he did when he was alive.

A harsh wind whips past them suddenly, stealing away their voices and cold enough for Jaslene to feel it. The forest becomes silent around them, dark and suffocating. Matthew looks out over the lake, growing solemn.

“Can you come into the water?” he asks, making no move to go near the shore.

The black water spreads out wide and deep; already, Jaslene can see herself drowning, unable to pull herself to the surface when she doesn’t know where the surface is, fearing for her life despite already losing it. She steps back, away from the water, from Matthew, and shakes her head.

“I can’t,” she says in a trembling voice, “I’m terrified of deep water.”

“I can’t leave the lake.”

“Why?”

He shrugs, then starts to walk along the shoreline. “I think,” he says, “It might be because whoever killed me dumped my body here.”

Jaslene swears, then hurries to catch up with him, careful to stay out of the water. The stones shift under her feet, and she slips on their smooth surfaces. Her footsteps are the only thing that make any sound. Not even the water splashes as Matthew wades through it. Goosebumps spring up on her arms and Jaslene shivers.

She can’t look at him; he’s ghostly pale in the moonlight, his blood too dark in the night but still so visible against his skin, as he walks forward to where his body is hidden, almost forgotten by the rest of the world.

Part of her wants to say something, to break the tense silence that’s settled over them, to crack a joke and make him laugh. But the rest of her can’t find the words to say and she’s left choking on her thoughts before they can reach her tongue.

At least he knows where his body is, a darker part of her mind says. He’s alone, stuck in a lake unable to communicate with anyone alive, but he knows where his body is. He can rest once it’s buried. Jaslene just has vague memories and stab wounds to keep her company as she searches for her corpse; she wonders what would happen if she didn’t find it. Would she be stuck on Earth, come back from the dead like Frankenstein? Or would she die a second time and be stuck as a ghost, with no physical body and only loneliness to keep her company? Maybe she would just fade away into nothingness, and with the way things were going, that’s what Jaslene is hoping for.

Alright, she thinks to herself, pushing those thoughts away, Chill out a bit Edgelord.

They walk until the shore turns into forest, loose stones replaced with hard earth and root. They walk until dark branches cut off the moonlight and leave them drenched in shadow.

“I need you to help me,” Matthew says, breaking the silence. His voice is small, almost fearful.

“With what?”

“I don’t want to be here. As a ghost, I mean. I’m dead; I want to move on.”

Jaslene can’t meet his eyes. “I don’t know how to help. I don’t even know why I’m like this, I really doubt I can help you.”

“But you’re the only one who can. You’re the only one who can see me.”

He stops, half in shadow, half in light, and turns to her. Blood shines where the moonlight hits it, dripping slowly down his chest. His eyes are desperate, his hands just barely reaching out to her. Something in her chest aches at the sight of Matthew, so lost, and she feels blood begin to ooze from another wound.

“I don’t know,” she whispers, frozen in place. “I can try, but I can’t promise anything.”

“You can promise to try. Do that, at least, for me.”

“Okay,” Jaslene says, taking a step forward, then another and another until she can reach her hand out and link their pinkies together. “I promise.”

The side of his mouth curls upwards a bit. “Pinky promises?” he asks, the beginnings of a laugh in his voice. Jaslene feels herself relax as the tension eases.

“I have a little sister,” she explains, “I never break pinky promises.”

It’s the best she can offer; the limited time she has left on this Earth to figure out what happened to them, to lay them both to rest. Jaslene can help Matthew as she figures out how to save herself. She doubt it’ll end happily, doubts if it’ll even end at all, but she can try. It’s all she can do, now.

She pulls back. The lake ripples, reaching for her feet then receding again. A gentle wind makes its way through the forest, shaking the leaves above their head.

“I have to go,” she says, barely hearing her own voice.

Matthew smiles, and watches her go. Jaslene only looks back once, when she’s disappeared into the forest again and can’t see the lake anymore. She pressed a hand against her chest, feeling the wound on her ribs give with a wet squish, and the blood slowly rolling down her stomach catches on her shirt.

Her phone buzzes from her pocket. When she pulls it out, there are missed messages crowding for her attention on the screen. Distantly, she hears Aya and Deja calling out her name. It’s only been an hour but it feels like eternity. Her hands shake as she opens the group chat and sees the frantic messages telling her to answer them.

They care so much about her. Jaslene can’t bare the thought of letting them ever know that she’s already dead.

>i’m okay

                                                                                                                   jazzy frog, 11:43

I’m okay. I’m okay. I promise I’ll be okay.

Aya’s voice grows closer.

Behind her is Matthew, alone in cold water and stuck without a physical body. She shivers at the thought of almost becoming like him, just barely lingering in the world, enough to see others, but not enough to be seen.

No one would ever know what happened to her. Jaslene would watch her loved ones live and never be able to say goodbye. For a moment, she’s glad that she got a second chance to fix things.

Then, Jaslene steps further into the forest, follows Aya’s voice, and leaves the night behind her.