The “regulars” walk past me, faster than I could pace past my classes until the final bell.
First, my name is Jake. I’m very pale with black and pink highlighted hair. My best friend, secret crush and the weirdest girl I knew. But she was pretty amazing if I may say. Since first grade we were together forever, totally inseparable and lovin’ ever minute of our lives. Emily slept over one last time before school started what a drag summers over and I still never asked her out.


The bell blared in my dream. More regulars, putting poor Jocelyn down. The regulars : a group of children that are still… well alive. While myself including a very limited group of the silenced children were zombies. No we didn’t eat brains, guts, OR flesh. We aren’t much like the stereotypical zombies you see in the movies.

“Move dead kid!” the girliest girl in the whole academy told me when I sat in her favorite seat. Jayme. She came to the ZA hoping the “other” kids would leave. WE created the school and if she hates us so much why not leave? I looked at her. She stared, scoffed, and walked away. Her straightened strawberry blonde hair, bouncing with each step she took. That high pitched chirp of the school bell went off. The final bell AT LAST!
I drudged there, the walkway to my locker and Alexx stood there, put something in my locker, and ran off. She doesn’t know I’m dead, and I had no intentions of telling her. The bright, baby blue envelope was tinted with a silver shimmer paper. I opened it and too my horror, she knew. As in big bright red letters it read: I KNOW YOUR SECRET. Oh no how did she find out?
School buses show up to pick up those kids whose parents didn’t have the time to pick them up. My bus halted in its usual place dead center. I climbed to the back to sit with my “friend” Ricky. Alexx spotted us quickly and staggered onto the bus.
“Hey. What’s up?” she was clearly talking to Ricky. He shrugged.
“Hi Emily.” I said. She mumbled as an annoyed reply. The bus made its usual rounds then we went where we were needed.
The bus puffed it thick, black smoke and let me off in front of my house. I told the bus driver my daily thank you and hopped off. I smiled and waved to my friends who were too busy laughing and having a good time.
My cell phone sat silently in my pocket as I sat in the totally blacked out room with few neon colors for the handprints I designed my walls with. I was about to fall asleep when rescue me played. I knew what that meant. Emily.
“Hello?” I said. I whispered I’m sorry to my phone.
“Good afternoon this is Emily’s mother.” She said her voice shrill and lightly speaking.
“How can I help you Mrs. Madison?” I asked in my flat I don’t care you aren’t my mom voice.
“The bus Emily was on disappeared and they recovered it at the scene of a crash,” her voice cracked. “It spun off the road into a semi- truck.” She was crying now. And so was I. Reality had slapped my face. A big red mark, my tears had stained my pale face. I threw my phone to a wall and it closed. I went out back to the shed. Where my father kept his emergency gun.
I cocked the gun, held it into my mouth and pulled it out. I was too scared to pull the trigger. But about 30 seconds after I put the gun away, my phone played its text tone. “Don’t trust me” by 3OH!3 played and I opened my phone. **Private number** the screen read. Curiously, I pushed the small center button, and it was there in black and white.
Time received: 4:27 p.m. Message: Jake, its Emily. I know you love me. I love you too. I was injured severely in our spin off, but I’m still alive. Just to tell you. I cannot disclose my location, but I’m safe. Maybe one day we can see each other again.
I smiled, went inside, lay on my bed with my phone and note she’d written me and fell asleep. Deep sleep I fell into. I know I cannot feel the pain her mother went through. Losing her child to her cruel fate of taking a wrong turn at the wrong time. But I still think that one night while I sleep, I will see her again one day.