Psychic chapter four

Blood painted the grass red. I stood there, numb, as people ran to the little girl who had fallen. "STELLA!" Cried the girl's mom. That was when I snapped out of it. I grabbed my phone and dieled 911. 

"Hello?" I asked hesitantly. Quick as a flash, panic attacked me again.

"Yes?" Said the operator. "What's your emergency?"

"A little girl on the playground hurt her head!" I told her.

"Okay dear, try and stay calm. Where are you?" She asked me.

I told her.

"Alright." The operater told me. "We're sending someone now." 

I hung up then, and ran to the scene. By now, a crowd had gathered. Stella's mother was crying, and so were most of the kids. I didn't blame them at all. I'd seen the ghosts of dead people before, but now it seemed I was actually witnessing a death.

The ambulance arrived soon, which I was glad of. By then Stella was barely clinging to life. Police were taping off the area and making people leave. I picked hip Lucinda and went home as fast as I could.

When I got there, I told my mother what had happened. She made me hot chocolate and asked if I wanted to talk about it. She didn't seem surprised when I said no. We hadn't had any deep conversations for a long, long time. I went upstairs to my room and blessed myself with holy water. I didn't want any angry spirits coming after me. 

After everything that had happened, I just wanted to sleep. 

But sleep wouldn't come. 

Painful memories did.

When I was little, I talked about ghosts so often that my mother had me tested for mental diease. Twice. Of course, there was nothing wrong with my head. So, my psychiatrist came to a different conclusion. I was lieing. They decided that some of the ghosts I saw at night could be nightmares, but the rest of the time I was lieing.

 I just let them believe. 

I wondered if there was a God. Obviously, religious objects protected me, but what if there was another reason for that? And what kind of a God would lay this curse on me? Maybe there was a God, but for some reason, he just hated me.

Not that I would blame him for that. Everybody hates me.

I let myself cry then. Cry, and cry, and cry. I cried myself to sleep that night.

When I woke up, I saw Stella. She was dead. I knew that for sure now.

Stella had wildly curly red-orange hair. Now, blood was mixed with it. She was wearing a jeans and a pink tee-shirt. That had blood on it, too. There was even a little blood on her shoes.

"Please help me." She whispered.

I did what I usually did. I pretended not to see her. I took deep breaths. "Breath, Charlotte, breath." I told myself. I got up and dressed and went downstairs. 

Stella disappeared by the time I finished my pancakes. I was immensely grateful for that. 

My mom noticed I was pale. "Do you wanna stay home today, sweetie?" She asked me. "No." I replied, shaking my head. I really just needed to see my friends. They always made me feel better.

On my way to school, I stopped at a newspaper stand. It was just as I suspected. The news was all over the story.

GIRL CRACKS SKULL ON PLAYGROUND!

Stella Brent was playing in the park when a tragic accident occurred. Resources say she attempted to jump off the swings set and hit her head on a raised metal platform. 

I stopped reading then. I didn't want or need to know the details of Stella's death. 

It was then that I noticed she was there again. I got back on my bicycle as if I hadn't seen her and went to school.

Cassie and John were back in class. David was also there. I was so happy to see all of their faces again. 

Daniel Evans was there, too.

When he saw us all sitting together, he said: "Hey, look. The new kid's sitting with the weirdos!" 

I thought David would be upset, bout he appeared unfazed. "We embrace our weird sides!" He declared.

Daniel looked enraged that anybody would dare stand up to him like that. Then, a kid began to laugh. I recognized him. Noah. The kid who wrote an essay about pugerillas. He was laughing so hard he was crying. "You should have seen your face!" He choked out. And I guess laughter is contagious, because soon the whole class was laughing.

It looked like the day was off to a good start, after all.