I slumped and died.
You had a blast.
Each of you,
With a piece of me.

"Adelaide?"

I don't know when the words left my mouth but they came out barely as a whisper.

"What–"

"The fuck!"

×=×

"Adelaide!" Our teacher, Mr Henderson, slammed his fist on the desk as he confronted her. "Is this some kind of sick joke?!"

"Joke? I just came late to school by accident. My alarm didn't go off even though I set three!"

"This has nothing to do with your tardiness. Don't you– haven't you seen the news? It– wasn't it you?!" He sounded out of breath. He was beside himself with confusion and frustration.

"Wasn't what me? Mr Henderson, are you okay?"

"You are dead, Adelaide! What's the meaning of this?"

"Dead?" She repeated before she started to giggle and then laugh maniacally.

"What are you laughing about? Where the hell have you been for the past two months?!"

"The past two– didn't you know? My grandparents said they informed the school. I– wait, you thought I was dead because I didn't come to school for two months? That's a bit excessive don't you think?"

"Not just me, Adelaide, the entire town. Haven't you seen the news? You're supposed to be dead– er I mean."

"Supposed to be dead?" A great and heavy silence fell upon the two as Adelaide rose up to her feet. Her hair covering her face as she ducked her head and turned around to leave.

"That's not what I meant. I'm sorry. It's just the stress and tension of it all. I mean, we're holding a memorial for you in the gymnasium and her you are. Alive and in the–"

She hovered by the door before locking it. This shut Mr Henderson up and erupted goosebumps on his skin.

"I know, sir." She said without facing him.

"You.. know what?"

"I know everything. It hurt you know." She was staring at him now. Her eyes were void and blank. Her brown eyes suddenly looking black and bottomless.

"What hurt? Look Adelaide, I don't have time for mind games–"

"You know too. You were there. You helped them. How could you? It hurt so much." Her voice was robotic. She walked slowly towards him, undoing the buttons of her shirt as she did.

"W– what do you think you're doing?" He had been a teacher for seven years. He had no interest in young girls, or boys. He had no interest in people at all. So what was she trying to do? Why was a dead girl trying to seduce him?

"Mr Henderson it hurt so much." Now tears were streaming down her face. Her nose began to bleed and so did his.

He touched his nose and felt the thick ooze stream from it. He felt a discomfort in his throat before she spat a huge clump of red and black blood.

"A– Adel–"

"Look." She whispered as she finally took her shirt off. He didn't look. He turned away and covered his mouth. He was coughing uncontrollably and his nose just kept bleeding. He was feeling dizzy at this point.

"Look." She said a bit louder and firmer this time, still crying. He dropped to the ground, shaking. He looked at his hands and how they were vibrating. How they were in so many positions at once, how his desk and his intestines were doing loops.

He was spiralling into vertigo brought about solely by fear putting every drug to shame.

His face became wet with sweat, his eyes dripped with blood. Black spots filled his vision but for some reason when he looked at Adelaide he saw her in high definition.

"Look at me Mr Henderson!" She yelled and he did.

Her top half was completely uncovered. Cuts and bruises decorated her body. They grew like roots up to her neck. Her left breast had a large gash that made him actually throw up. She was bleeding profusely, even more than him but she stood there gallantly like being ripped to literal shreds was no big deal.

He, on the other hand, was battling with death and he had already lost before the fight begun. He felt life, life in its entirety, leave him.

"Look at what they did! Look at what you did!" It didn't sound like the voice of a seventeen year old girl. It was the voice of Satan, a very angry Satan. "Look me in the eyes Henderson. Look. At. Me."

He looked.

He saw.

He died.

×=×

"What the fuck? What the fuck? What. The. Fuck!" A guy yelled repeatedly.

The whole class was in a simultaneous state of confusion and frenzy but most importantly fear. Mr Henderson had asked Adelaide to follow him to the staff room and urged, more of ordered, us to calm down. He said he would be back shortly before mandating Ian with the task of keeping us in check.

Like the confused could keep the insane in check.

Mr Henderson had said he would be back in five minutes but for the entirety of the period neither he nor Adelaide would return.

"Where are they?" Someone asked.

"They probably took the matter up to the Principal. Hell, they should take it up with the police and a pastor." Another responded.

"She's been dead for two months! I– come on is nobody freaked out?!" It was a shame I really didn't know most of my classmates names, they were quite the characters.

"Freaking out won't do us any good." Ian adjusted his glasses as he spoke. "That severed head could have belonged to anyone. Just because she was missing and then they coincidentally found a mutilated head doesn't really confirm or validate anything."

"She's dead, Ian." Levi said plainly. Not in a way that sounded like he was trying to convince anyone but in a way that just reminded you of an undeniable truth. Like stating the sky was blue. It was blue. It is blue. And will always be blue.

"We. Don't. Know that." He countered with the same low tune. Not aggressively, not assertively just plain. That was what sent shivers down my spine.

"That girl has a lot of explaining to do. If people thought I was dead, sure it'd be funny at first to see people's reaction and shit, but I'd clear the air with a tweet or something. Not drag it out for two whole fucking months." A girl whose name I think was Candace spoke up.

Their conversations began to blend into one orchestra of noise in my head as nausea began to take over.

I don't know what was more impossible, Adelaide coming to school on some random Tuesday or believing Adelaide came to school on some random Tuesday.

Before it even registered in my brain, I shot up and ran out the door. My short hair sticking to my face from the cold sweat that broke out on my skin. I ran, no, stumbled to the toilet like a drunk and splashed cold water on my face.

I stared at my reflection and studied my boring features. Ironically, the more I stared at myself the more I saw Adelaide and saw the gut wrenching contrast between us.

Her caramel skin with my pale self. Her long brown hair with my shoulder length nearly white hair. Her full lips with my cupid's bow that was perpetually in a slight frown. Her bright face that radiated light. My dull face that radiated death itself.

Maybe it was because I was thinking about her. Maybe it was because I couldn't shake this lingering feeling that was creeping up from my bowels to my lungs. Maybe it was because I was a monster destined for a fate worse than hell but when I splashed my face with water again I saw her.

She wasn't standing menacingly beside me, no. I saw Adelaide standing right beside me. Shoulders touching, looking at ourselves in the mirror.

For a brief second, I felt no fear.

I felt nothing at all.

Too nauseous to move. Too nauseous to stay still touching what was supposed to be in a grave.

I threw up almost immediately before I screeched and ran. She didn't follow me but her eyes did. All she did was stare as me through the open door I was too frightened to close as I dashed down the hallway.

I made a sharp turn before I ran into someone.

"What the hell?! Maeve!" Mai yelled angrily and I was happy. I'd rather deal an infuriated human being than a calm demon. Ribbons, papers, scissors and other arts and crafts materials lay on the floor. She must have come from the supplies room. She clutched her bleeding forearm.

"A– Adelaide. She was in the bath– she's in school." I thought I would be yelling but my voice was low as if this was a piece of gossip I shouldn't be telling anyone.

Mai's expression changed to what I can only describe as ghastly. The same reaction the rest of our classmates had.

"Maeve." She started but I knew what was coming and I hoped and prayed that I was wrong.

"Adelaide never came to school."