Who Killed Sarah Foster?

7. I am Going To Host Her

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It had been a week.

It had been a week and there was no news of Sarah Foster.

Leah wondered why it was taking them so long.

But the cops were involved now and the whole school was alerted. Her friends were questioned and they were searching for her but no one found her. No one had any idea where she had disappeared to.

Her mom had seen her last before she left for work in the morning of that Wednesday morning Sarah had insisting on not going to school and no one had seen or heard from her afterwards.

Paul searched everywhere but he didn't find the body of the girl anywhere in the school compound. And her ghost was still unapproachable but oddly she hadn't done anything at all. She just appeared and disappeared out of the blue and she overwhelmed the both of the ghost and his vessel best friend to a great degree and as she passed by, even the oblivious normal humans could feel the shift in the energy, the room became colder and they suddenly felt sadness. But other than that, nothing - not even an attempt at communicating with others or acknowledging their existence. It was like she wasn't aware of even her own existence.

"I think that's how a ghost is until their body is found and buried or something." Paul said as he watched her from the window one lunch break. She was swooping around the quad, moving in and out of unsuspecting high schoolers but never possessing them.

"Look at her, she can't even possess them. She is like smoke now. I think ghosts aren't completely formed until their funeral take place or something. I mean, all I can remember of my twenty-three years of ghostliness, starts from watching my own funeral. I don't remember anything from when I was formed. In fact, I thought I was formed at my funeral or something but you told me that's not how it was. The ghost formed as the person died but I remember suddenly looking down at myself, not knowing who I am and where I am and then see my body being taken away from the gym where my funeral service was held."

Leah nodded as she sipped on her packaged juice, her other hand aimlessly doodling on the back of her History notebook.

Her brother, Michael, had also been like that when he died. But his funeral was held the next day and then he was a ghost who understood his surroundings and could take in information; he just didn't know who he was. He was just a smoke that overwhelmed her the day he died and the next day, when she came back after his funeral service, there he was, sitting on the stairs lost and confused.

"So, if our theory is correct, she is not going to get a proper ghostly form until her funeral." Leah sighed, while Paul turned around and nodded, feeling sorry for the ghost. He knew how hard it was for him the past twenty-one years not remembering anything about himself until Leah came along. The only thing he did know was that his name was Paul Jackson – he found that out from the posters on the school bulletin.

"Hello Mr. Foster."

Leah and Paul's ears perked up when they heard Stella Marshall, the librarian's voice.

"Hello Ms. Marshall. I'll be here for a while." The boy sounded awfully low and distressed.

"Sure." Her voice was heard. And then footsteps were heard on the stairs leading to their usual spot.

Paul whined. Of course, he would come here. This was the best and most secluded spot in the library.

"Oh hey, didn't know you would be here!" Calum put on a fake smile and waved.

Paul waved back, though he knew the poor boy couldn't see him. "Yeah now shoo, there's a meeting going here. One that involves your dead sister."

"That's fine. I will leave." Leah got up from her seat, gathering her belongings while giving her best friend a cryptic glare for being so damn insensitive to the poor boy. Paul just didn't like Calum, the golden boy.

"Oh no, that's okay. You were here first." Calum said, surprising her. What was he being so nice for? The Calum she knew was a jerk who bullied her with the rest of his friends. What changed suddenly?

She paused for a brief moment and Calum's eyes fell on her notebook and his face hardened.

"What the f**k is that?" He gritted out, staring at her doodles.

Paul and Leah looked down.

Sarah Foster died a week ago. Body still not found.

Leah shut her eyes and bit her lip, swearing under her breath, while Paul clutched his hair with both his hands and gave her a "Are you serious?" look. Leah had this habit of speaking out as she typed and writing down as she thought. But usually, it didn't pose a problem because no one was around to read it, and even if they were, it was pretty hard to read her stupid handwriting.

But for a change, her handwriting was pretty legible today. Today, of all days, and Calum of all people!

"I am sorry-"

"Look here you little freak!" Calum was beyond furious. "I don't know what your problem is but don't you dare go around thinking or speaking bullshit like this!"

Leah just looked down, deciding to not speak because as right as she was, he didn't know it and she shouldn't have done it though it happened subconsciously while she was thinking about it.

"Now don't give me that scaredy cat act, because I know that's all a pretense!" He exclaimed. "That's what all this is about, isn't it?"

Leah looked up. What was he talking about?

"You are pretending to be this little freak who doesn't speak to anyone and live in her own world like you are freaking possessed to get attention, right?"

"Whoa whoa whoa dude, you are going too far!" Paul was annoyed. He understood the boy was angry but that gave him no right to hurl whatever he wanted at his best friend, who herself suffered a lot due to her f****d up abilities.

"Because you know no one will know of your existence if you didn't pull such a stupid stunt!"

"Yeah, because being a freak and being bullied for it is every high schooler's dream, right?" Leah finally looked up, fed up of all the bullshit herself.

She agreed that it must have hurt him but he couldn't just talk to her like that. He could get angry at her; he had that much right but bringing up her behavior and "Freak" tag was not cool. Even though he didn't know it, she was just writing down facts and she decided then and there and she was going to find Sarah Foster's body.

"Meet me at the parking lot in the evening and I will tell you where to find Sarah." She grabbed her stuff and walked away before Calum could even react.

"How are you going to find her?" Paul quickly followed her, forgetting to walk and just swoop by as he tailed his best friend.

"I am going to host her."

"What?" Stella looked up, thinking she was talking to her. She saw Leah pass by without even giving her a glance or wave. She thought maybe she was going to the restroom or something and she didn't hear her right and resumed her work. It was not like she ever understood the seventeen-year-old. She held full blown conversation with thin air but rarely opened her mouth in front of others. She was always in her own world but whenever she spoke, Stella enjoyed those conversations. Leah was a fun girl when she wanted to be but she just kept to herself, she guessed.

She looked towards the stairs to see Calum watching the girl leave with a hard expression on his face.

She sighed. She had asked him to be nice to her the last time they talked.

She had heard him call her a freak after class that day when she dropped her home. When the jock had visited her the next day, asking how Leah was, Stella realized that maybe he wasn't that bad after all so she had asked him to not be mean to her just because she was a bit different. And it seemed like he understood what she was trying to say. But guess he did not because he was back to bullying her.

Stella wondered if he was simply stressed about his sister going missing. It could be that.

But that did not give him the right to be mean to someone, now did it?

Then again, she admitted that she couldn't possibly understand what he was going through. As long as Leah was not very affected by his displacement of anger, she shouldn't step in.

Little did she know that the situation was completely different.

And that it was going to get much more difficult after that day.

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