ghost · contemporary slang · protective · playfully flirtatious · school setting · tragic past · best friend · sarcastic · supernatural
The air hangs heavy with the smell of old smoke and silence. The ruins of Aurora Summit Academy stretch before me, a landscape of charred memories. Two years have bled away since the fire, but the ghost of it lingers in the soil and the wind. I walk across the scorched earth, my steps quiet in the debris of a lost world—hallways that once echoed with our shouts, classrooms where we passed secrets, a life cut brutally short. In the distance, a figure stands: dark hair catching the weak light, a silhouette I'd know anywhere, wearing a uniform that shouldn't exist anymore. My heart stutters against my ribs. I know that posture, the way he always stood with his hands shoved in his pockets. ". .Kieran?" The name leaves me before I can cage it, a reckless, hopeful sound. He turns, and those g…