I was so startled I threw the book on the floor. The sound of it had Charlotte stirring awake.
"Have you started sneaking around?" She rubbed sleep away from her eyes. "Where did you go during lunch?"
"Charlotte…" I sniffed. "I think Mary's ghost is haunting me."
That had her bolting out of bed. She sat down on mine. "What are you talking about?"
I told her everything, starting from her first appearance at the clinic and the incident in the restroom. But I left out the part where it had disappeared the minute Ms. Duval came in.
"What the actual hell? Let me see your neck?"
She flipped on the switch and I had to shield my eyes from the sudden light.
I was grateful when she didn't ask why I was wearing an oversized shirt that was clearly not mine or where my uniform went.
With tenderness, she touched my neck. Apologizing when I hissed from the pain.
"But ghosts shouldn't be able to hurt people physically. I mean it'll scare you a bit, appearing in random places. But a ghost shouldn't be able to hurt you like this."
She touched my cheek, rubbing it softly. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let you go to the restroom all by yourself. But you don't have to worry, I'll always be with you from now onwards."
I picked up the diary from the floor. "I found this under the shoe rack in Ms. Duval's apartment. I thought it might belong to Mary, but there's only one word written in the entire book."
"Let me see."
I showed her the scribble word. Help.
The handwriting was sloppy, like it has been written in a haste.
"What do you think it means?"
Charlotte looked at me, trying to make sense of everything. "It means we need to find answers."
I shook my head. "I don't really care to know what happened with the other Mary. The most important thing right now is that I go back to my world before I become so immersed into this school that it becomes impossible to go back."
I waited for her to tell me I didn't make sense, that there couldn't be a world that existed beyond the one she knew.
Instead she said, "Is there any way I can help?"
I sighed, "I don't know."
"If we're going by your logic that you wrote this book we're in right now. Then you should know what happens right?"
I shook my head and exhaled deeply. "This is for sure the book I was writing but I have no idea what's going on right now. The timeline and events do not match."
Her brows furrowed, "What do you mean?"
"The main character is the dead Mary. The book is about her relationship with Ms. Duval, I was going to give them a happy ending. But she's dead and I'm here. I didn't write that in my book."
"Where did you stop writing in your book?"
This was the first time someone was remotely showing interest in the actual me and my book.
"So, Ms. Duval is a vampire in the book. Their relationship started as vampire and feeder. Mary was basically a donor. Then it evolved into something genuine and real. They confess to each other, end of the story."
Charlotte looked like she was trying to hold in her laughter. "Ms. Duval is a vampire?"
"Don't laugh," I mumbled. "She's supposed to be. I have no idea what's going on now. Everything happening is totally different from my book."
"We're hopeless at this point. How did you get here?"
"I don't know. I woke up in a ditch."
"Wait…that's it! We need to go there. We might find some clues to help us."
"You think so?"
"Yes. Now let's go back to sleep, we have a long day ahead."
She went back to sleep and I was left staring at the ceiling.
The bed back at home was a lot softer than this, bigger.
I wondered if they were still looking for me, then laughed at naivety. Of course no one would be looking for me.
The plan was to go back but there was nothing really waiting there for me. I didn't exist to anyone, not even to my parents. I was as good as a fly on the wall they managed to get rid of.
.
.
I went through the day with only one thought in my mind. 'I need to go back'. I sat on the edge of my seat, anxious, waiting.
What if it didn't work? What if I tried and realized I was stuck here for good? Why was I sent here? Was this the result of the many times I laid alone at night wishing I had a different life?
"Hey!" Charlotte nudged my arm. "One more class and we're done for the day. What's the plan?" she asked, with her elbows planted on my desk.
"We go back to the ditch. I'll fall back in like I did that day. That should work," I replied, nervously biting my finger nail.
"And if it doesn't?"
"Then I'll leave the school. I'll lose my mind if I keep staying here. If one more person calls me Isolde, I'll—" the rest of the words died on my tongue when Ms. Duval walked into the class.
Her eyes narrowed in on Charlotte before she called the class to order.
I watched her teach, taking her time to explain when a student asked a question. She was patient, her voice low and firm.
But whenever she turned to write on the board, all I could see was her perfect ass in the red lace. I looked away, shame making my cheeks heat up.
I was slowly turning into a pervert. I risked another look only to meet her eyes as she stared back at me. For a moment I thought she'd call me to the front of the class. But she looked away, like her fingers hadn't been in my pants the night before.
And I hated to admit but that stung.
Of course, it wasn't me she was remotely interested in. It was the girl before me, the one I shared similar features with. It was the only reason she'd even bothered to look my way in the first place.
My gaze remained trained on the book before me till class was over. Charlotte was the first to get up from her seat.
"Come on, let's go. I'm a bit curious about what's going to happen."
We hurried out of class with Charlotte leading the way. The ditch in question that I'd woken up in was at the back of the school.
There was a couple sisters doing rounds to make sure everyone was at the cafeteria for lunch. We hid in the corner until the coast was clear.
"We have roughly ten minutes," Charlotte announced, leading the way.
The backgate was locked, we climbed through a little opening the other students had made for when they wanted to sneak out.
We walked past palm trees before we found the ditch.
Charlotte looked at me with uncertainty. "This is where you woke up?" her nose twisted at the state of it.
"Unfortunately," I muttered.
The hole had water in it, low level. And it looked nasty. I wasn't looking forward to going in there.
"Do you think there's another way?" I bent down to look into the hole. "There has to be."
"According to your theory, I'm afraid not. You need to hurry, the last thing we want is someone finding us here. We could get sent to the isolation room."
"Right."
I took a deep breath before lowering myself in. I shivered when my legs entered the water. It wasn't as cold as that day, but it should work.
"Goodbye, Char. Thank you for helping me out. I'll give your story a spinoff, to show my appreciation."
She nodded. "Give me a love interest that's as hot as you."
I flashed her a smile before closing my eyes. I let the cold creep slowly into my body and imagined that I was back at home.
A tingling situation started at my feet before swallowing me whole. There goes all or nothing.