Chapter 1
She sat in the office of school wrenching her fingers to sooth her nerves. She was now a woman in her late fifties and running out of time to make any kind of retirement for her looming old age. She was a teenager in the 80's and now found herself hoping for a low entry level job as a cleaner at her old high school.
In reality she dreaded going back to her old school. She was not a popular student and her crush died on the football field. Of course, he never knew she even existed. He was the popular football player heading for scholarship and she was weirdo who would talk to herself.
In truth she never talked to herself. She was simply cursed from a young age with an ability to speak to spirits. The curse came in the form of her inability to tell the difference between the living and the dead. They all looked alive to her. As real as you and me.
Wearing blue jeans and a red flannel shirt over a white t shirt with sneakers she waited for her job interview with the principle. She knew Principle Hartman from when she attended the school and she hoped he would give her the job as she was now deduced to living in her car.
As she sat she noted a group class photos lining the walls. She stood up and walked over to the year of her graduation. Her brown eyes scanned the photo for familiar faces. She lacked any makeup and her hair graying hair was now cut short with a pixy style on top. Her lip curled as she scanned the young faces. She found herself in the photo. She noticed how youthful she looked as her hair was a shade of deep brown and a bit longer. She kept scanning. She spied the principle and then her old crush, Wally. She gave a sigh as he died far too young and as they were about to graduate.
She left the school after Wally died as her family moved. She attempted college and failed. She did make a career driving ambulance for a while until she could not longer mentally take the stress of the job. Then she floated from one low paying job to another. Working as cashiers and kitchen help. Now, she back at her old school and the one place she really didn't want to work for she knew of the dead haunting the halls.
The principle emerged from his office. "Terry Bauer?" he called.
She turned around. "Alex." she recognized him.
"You are that Terry." he gave a small smile. "Come on in." he requested.
She walked into his office and took a seat across from his desk. She noticed how much he aged. His strawberry blond hair was thinning and he sported a mustache and a much fuller face.
He confessed. "I was actually pretty glad to see your application."
She asked, "You were?"
"I remember that thing you could do." he confessed keeping his voice low. "This school has lot of weird things happening and well, compared to other districts, a much higher rate of deaths." He leaned closer, "Can you still do that thing?"
She nodded unenthused. "Unfortunately."
"Can you still…" he reached for the words, "see things?"
She sighed. "Unfortunately."
"Can you help us out?" he pushed. "We have a missing student, other students are very stressed and just a lot of weird stuff. Lights flicker on and off. Objects get moved or disappear."
"I know." she nodded not enthused.
"I can hire you as a custodian." he offered.
She admitted. "I do need the job."
He eagerly stated. "You are hired."
"Thank you." she sighed relieved the have a job and an income.
"Can you start today?" he asked.
She nodded. "I can."
"Great. There is a student here. His name is Simon Elroy. He seems to be talking to himself a lot. I kind of wonder if he's seeing one of them." he told her.
"I can find out." she agreed. "Am I a ghost hunter or just a janitor?" she wanted to know.
He gave a smirk. "You are my ghost hunter."
"You know I cannot charge for that service." she reminded him. "There are rules to this."
"You are a janitor too." he countered. "I will even start you above starting pay."
"I could use the money." she agreed. "Can I stay on grounds? I don't have a place to live yet. All I got is my car."
He eagerly agreed. "Wherever the ghost will let you sleep is fine with me."
She winced. "Great."
Short Time Later
Terry the new janitor started work that very day. She walked the halls to clean the school. She found the ghost marching band was still marching in circles on the yard. She gave a sigh and continued to work. She came to the gym to empty an trash cans and found a circle of chairs set up in the far corner. She gave another sigh and tried to ignore it.
Mr. Martin walked into the gym with Wally in tow. He mentioned. "Hopefully, Maddie will join us for group talk today." He then noticed the new cleaning lady. He paused for a moment for he knew she could see him.
Wally noticed. "They hired a new janitor."
"She's not new." he grumbled.
Terry made her way over. "Mr. Martian. Hi Wally." she greeted. "Do you remember me? I was in your class."
"Um…" he squinted in thought. "Not really."
"Figures." she rolled her eyes. "How's Janet? I haven't seen her yet?" She asked Mr. Martian.
"Janet moved on." he lied.
She cocked her head. "You sure?"
"Positive." he then requested. "We can stick to the same agreement. You do your job and I do mine."
"You mean your self given job as a counselor to the dead?" she chuckled.
He insisted. "You stay in your lane."
"Why?" she wondered.
"Because you caused me enough trouble when you were a student here, Terry." he replied rather frank.
"Ah," she agreed. "I suppose I did. See you around, Mr. Martin." She then went back to work.
Wally asked. "She can see us?"
He sighed. "She's a medium. They are rare but once a while a human can see a spirit. She could see me when she was a student here. She became friends with Janet. Just stay away from her, Wally. Mediums are nothing but trouble."
"She said she was in my class." he rebutted.
"She was." he confirmed.
"Why don't I remember her?" he asked.
"I don't know." he shrugged. "Let's get this set up." he motioned towards the chairs.
Meanwhile
Terry finished the job in the gym and then went to the library to clean next. Upon entering she found a few familiar faces still haunting the building. She found Rhonda sitting in the window looking outside at the madness of the marching band. A new face of a man was standing beside her.
"Are you coming to group?" Charley asked.
She rolled her eyes. "Why bother?"
"It's to help us." he insisted.
Terry approached and begane the clean the window. "Hi Rhonda." she stated,
She gasped wide-eyed. "Terry! You're back?"
"I got job cleaning." she kept her voice low since she knew Rhonda was a spirit.
"Um?" Charley seemed a bit baffled.
"This is Terry Bauer. She was a student her when Wally was a student. She was friends with me and Janet." she asked. "You can still see me?"
"I'm a medium." she reminded her. "Of course I can." She looked quick at the new face. "You must be new here."
"I've been here since the nineties." he told her.
"I left in the 80's." she told him. "I was in Wally's class." She asked as she cleaned the windows. "You know anything about a missing girl, Rhonda?"
"She's here. Her name is Maddie." she told her. "She doesn't remember getting killed."
"She doesn't?" she asked.
"Not at all." she told her. "You see Mr. Martin yet?" she grinned amused. "He never did like you."
"I just saw him." she nodded. "We have an agreement." she reminded her. "I leave him alone and he leave me alone." She finished cleaning the window. "I'll be here nights. We can catch up later." she told Rhonda.
"Sure thing, cherry pop." she grinned.
She reminded her. "I don't like cherry. I like grape."
Rhonda teased. "Grape pop doesn't have the same ring to it."
She rolled her eyes and continued to clean. "See you back here after work." Terry then went on to finish her job.
Charley looked at Rhonda most confused and surprised. "Medium?"
She nodded. "Our only link to the outside world." She grinned. "Maddie thinks she's so special with Simon. We got a real medium now."
Charley detected a bit of jealousy in her tone and he didn't like it one bit.
Evening
Terry returned to the library after her job was done and the school was closed. She had made herself dinner upon gathering some food from the school cafeteria. She figured she could settle in for relaxing night in the library. She found Maddie in the library with Rhonda, Wally and Charlie.
Terry greeted. "Hey everyone."
Maddie turned around and asked. "You can see me?"
She nodded. "As plain as day." She sat down to eat her sandwich and soup. "I'll be sleeping here tonight so keep the noise down."
"Wait a minute." Maddie huffed. "You can see me? Like Simon can see me?"
"I saw you speaking to a dark haired boy in the cafeteria earlier. Is that Simon?" she asked.
"He is." Maddie replied. "So, can you help me or what?"
"I will do what I can." she told her. "I cannot interfere with free will." she warned.
"Free will! What is this? Some kind of joke?" she spouted. "I don't what happened to me. I don't know where my body is. I can't leave the school grounds. What free will?"
Terry stated. "I imagine that can be pretty frustrating."
"Ya think?" she asked sarcastically.
Rhonda interrupted. "Don't talk to her that way, Maddie. She's my friend and she can see all of us…unlike Simon."
Terry sighed. "Luck me."
Maggie caught the remark. "Excuse me?"
"I can see all spirits. Human and nonhuman. Things is, I can't tell the difference." she explained. "I know you are the spirit of the missing girl, Maddie. But you look like you are alive to me." She then reached over and gently touched her arm. "I can feel you, I can touch you, you seem solid to me. I can pick up any object you have on you. I cannot tell the living from the dead and the living cannot see what I see. So, everyone thinks I'm crazy. I have been placed against my will into mental hospitals and medicated. Which nearly killed me." She reached to explain. "I exist on a threshold. Like walking a line between the physical world of the living and the metaphysical world of the dead."
Maddie stated. "So, you can see us in every room of the school?"
She nodded. "Everywhere."
"How come I can not leave?" she cried.
"You are anchored here for some reason." she told her. "Not all spirits are anchored. Usually, it's because the spirit has issues they cannot let go of. Work not being done. Trapped reliving the day they died. Some are not even aware they died." She then paused and seemed to stare off into space. "I don't think you are dead though."
"I'm not? What am I? Laying on a coma somewhere?" she huffed.
She shrugged, "That has happened." She went onto explained. "For the last ten years I traveled from job to job with a little boy named Charlie. I thought he died in a car accident and he was lost. He could not cross but he was alone and scared so he stayed with me. Then, one day he saw his dad at the store I worked at. I tried to give him a message from Charlie. I was hoping for closure so he could cross. He told me his son was not dead. Charlie was in a coma for ten years. There was no guarantee he would wake up after he returned. He was a brave little boy and he took that chance. Now he's in high school and back with his dad. And I'm now here. I needed a job. This is the last place I wanted to work. It's my old school. I know it's haunted. It was haunted when I went here. I need the job. I have no place to live. You know how hard it is to keep a job where everyone laughs at you and thinks your nuts for talking to invisible people all day long?"
Maddie had to admit. "I never thought of that. I told Simon to act like he's talking on his phone. He started getting weird looks."
"Tell me about Simon and what are his limits." she requested.
"He can only see me in areas where someone had died. Like a sacred area. He can only see and hear me." she explained.
"Could he see and hear ghost before?" she wondered.
She shook her head. "No! He didn't even see me at first. Then, while I was standing next to him watching over my vigil, he started crying pouring out his heart to me and suddenly we like…connected."
"Stress induced." she concluded.
"He's willing to throw away his chance at college to help me." she added. "We seem to have this bond."
Terry theorized. "You likely do have a deep spiritual bond. Probably have known one another through a number of lives."
"What?" Maddie asked. "Number of lives?"
"Reincarnation is real." Terry told her. "You have lived at least three lives that I can tell. You see, the reason for crossing over is not to go onto paradise. You cannot grow as a spirit in an easy life. You need to come back and live another life time."
Maddie challenged. "And Rhonda, Charley and Wally are still here why? Some kind of anchor?"
She nodded. "This school is located on strong lay lines. There is a energy component to it as well. Freeing the spirits haunting the school will take some time."
Wally asked. "Lay lines?"
"Magnetic lines in the planet." she nodded. "There is some science to it all."
He pondered. "Then wouldn't Mr. Martian know about these lay lines?"
She nodded. "He does."
Rhonda asked. "Is that why we are stuck here?"
She shrugged. "I'm not a scientist. I was an EMT and drove a rig."
Wally wondered. "You were an ambulance driver?"
She nodded. "I couldn't do college. Kept getting distracted by all the ghost."
Charley suggested. "Just charge money as a medium."
She shook her head. "That's not how this works. Charging money will lead to accusations of fraud and open you up to demons and stuff like that."
Charley insisted. "Demons are not real."
"You are food, Charley." she told him. "If the lay line cracks open, it can unleash demonic creatures from another dimension that will hunt you and consume you. They feed on souls. Mr. Martian is aware of that. He has to be."
Wally suggested concerned. "Maybe we need to ask him about the lay lines and demons."