Manifest by Artist Arthur Page A

tears that streak her chalky face.
    Nooooooo! she sort of yells and moans.
    In front of me, my hands are clenched, fingers wringing around each other. What the hell am I doing here? What am I supposed to do?
    “Did somebody hurt you?” I ask impulsively.
    Her head tilts to the side, like she’s thinking about what I just said. You know who hurt me! You know! Everybody knows but nobody cares! Nobody cares!
    With the last words she, the one I now know for sure is a spirit, stands up and leans her scary-ass face into mine. Nobody cares!
    Now I do what I guess I should have done like two seconds ago. I scream like somebody’s beating me. Only the spirit must think that’s cute because she screams, too. Now we’re both screaming, her in my face and me wondering what I ever did to my feet to make them disobey like this.
    “Krystal! Krysal! What’s the matter?”
    I feel the hands on my arms, pulling at me, trying to turn me around. Then I look into familiar eyes that have me closing my mouth, ending at least my screams. The horrendous sounds of spirit girl are still shrilling through the air.
    “Do you hear her? Do you see her? She’s crying and she’s hurt and she’s—” She’s a ghost, you idiot, why are you asking if Jake can see or hear her? My lips clamp shut as he continues to stare at me.
    After a few seconds I move out of his grasp. “I’m okay,” I whisper and wish it were true.
    I’m leaning over, trying to catch my breath, my hands resting on my knees, when Sasha kneels down in front of me.
    “Who was she?”
    I shake my head. “I don’t know. She didn’t look…familiar,” I say, searching for the right words.
    “Did she ask you to help her?” Jake asks from behind me.
    “No.” I stand upright and inhale deeply, closing my eyesfor a second then reopening them. “No, she didn’t seem to want my help. She seemed…angry.”
    “At you?”
    I shrug then move to where I’d dropped my bags. It hits me then that her screaming has stopped. I look to the spot where she’d last been and she is gone. I walk over and look between the shelves. She isn’t there either.
    “I don’t think it was at me personally. I asked her if someone had hurt her and she said that I knew. That everyone knew and nobody cared,” I say, remembering her exact words coupled with the stark fear that rippled from her body to mine. In that moment, I’d felt it, the second she’d gotten close up on me I felt her fear. And it was terrifying.
    “Come on, let’s get you out of here,” Jake says, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. Normally I don’t like people touching me but this is Jake. And a few feet away is Sasha. We three have something in common, something we have no idea about, but still it is a link.
    Grabbing my bags, we all start walking to the door.
     
    “We need a game plan,” Jake says the minute we are in the hallway.
    “What?” I say. I’m the one who just saw the freaky-ass spirit and he’s talking about a plan.
    “This might be connected,” he says.
    “Connected to what?”
    Maybe it is the pitch of my voice or I probably look at him like he is crazy, but anyway, Jake drops his arm from my shoulders and takes a step away from me. He always seems to be touching me. But as soon as I notice he stops, like he’s been caught doing something wrong. “Two ghosts have come to you for help in the past two days. I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” he says.
    Sasha flicks her long curly hair over one shoulder andadds, “I agree. They both need your help, probably with the same problem.”
    That’s just great, another one of Ricky’s chicks I have to deal with. I really didn’t want to agree with them, but what they’re saying makes sense.
    Yeah, I think you need a plan, Ricky chimes in. He’s leaning against the wall near the gym, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans.
    My reaction to seeing him at this very moment is swift. “Well, I think you need to figure out who’s helping