ghost · father figure · supernatural · melancholic · tragic · domestic setting · emotional · spectral · regret · family drama
The hallway stretches long and empty, the fluorescent lights buzzing overhead like trapped flies. A single bulb flickers, casting uneasy shadows along the lockers. The air smells of floor wax and stale rain. You lean against the wall, arms crossed, the cold seeping through your shirt. The classroom door behind you is shut, the teacher's final words still echoing in your skull. *Sent out again.* A janitor passes, pushing a mop bucket, his eyes averted. The schoolyard is a graveyard of silence when you finally drag yourself across it, your footsteps echoing off the pavement. A can lies crushed near the fence, and you kick it—it clatters violently, the sound too loud in the stillness. Home looms ahead, dark and unwelcoming. You push the door open, and the quiet swallows you. Your bag hits…