Silence took over the air between the two of you as no words were spoken. You could tell that it was fear that you felt, but you didn't know why. It couldn't get to you, and it couldn't harm you, but you still felt a tinge of fear.

"I remember you."

With little cars currently passing by, you didn't really have all the much trouble hearing its voice clearly. It had almost no emotion in it, though it sounded almost normal, as you wouldn't think the person was dead. It didn't say anything after, seemingly waiting for you to reply.

"I remember you too." You reply with a voice crack, in which you started coughing to get your vocals straight.

"You can....see me?" You couldn't tell if that was confusion or a bit of desperation in how that was said, but you nodded back silently.

Seeing your confirmation, the ghost started to drag it's body with its arms, slowly to where you were. Seeing the task made you feel pity for the poor thing with how much trouble it seemed to have had.

It took about half a minute for it to finally reach its barrier, which seemed to be the sidewalk that was next to the road. This led the spirit to be a few feet away from you, in which you could now clearly see it's entirety. It was a girl, or so you thought. Besides the missing hair and bulging right eye, the right side of her cheek was torn off exposing dark golden teeth that were blackened by plaque or insects, while her nose was also crooked the right side.

As hideous as it all was, you couldn't help to not look away. The fact that you couldn't stress you out a bit.

"How long have you been here?" This was the first question that came to your mind, and it was the first one blurted out of your mouth without thinking.

"I think...It'll be six or seven months soon..." You could hear the immense sadness and emptiness that came with those words and pauses. The whole situation was already making you feel extremely uncomfortable, but you couldn't really walk away from this now, or at least it wouldn't be right.

You didn't really know what else to say though, questions started swarming into your mind, but which ones to ask and how to ask them made you freeze before anything could leave your mouth.

"Are you leaving soon…?" She asked you before you could come up with anything.

"Ah...yeah, I have s-school so…" The words stuttered out of your mouth as you didn't want to say it impolitely, but then again you felt horrible as her face reacted to these words. She looked at the sky for a bit before half smiling at you.

"Thanks for talking to me, you can go now so you won't be late."

Even though she gave you the permission, your legs were moving. There had to be more you could do to help this poor soul. What really worried you thought was how calm she was, she didn't scream like the other ones, but she seemed just as broken nevertheless, maybe even more so.

You leave

Something was off to you, you regretted this contact with this spirit completely. Not because of fear or annoyance, but with a feeling of shame that stuck onto you like a foul stench.

Slowly but surely without a word, you lifted your dead legs as you made your way back onto your commute on the sidewalk towards your school. You didn't want to look back, and you didn't.

This was the encounter that you had regretted the most out of every single one of them from before. What irritated you was how tame it was, but it was for that reason that made you feel even the more terrible. You were expecting a horrible spirit all along, and your assumptions of what was to come through you off so bad in which now you didn't expect it at all.

As you continue to walk, you leave the spirit behind in the distance from what you can tell.

You don't plan on interacting with anymore any time soon.

Weeks pass

A week after the encounter with the girl on the road, and your health started to deteriorate rapidly.

It started when you vomited in class, causing you to be sent home from the day. You missed the first few days out of shame and embarrassment for the unexpected bile, but as more passed you couldn't go to school even if you wanted too.

It takes a large amount of energy to do even the simplest of things such as walking around or going downstairs to eat dinner. Your mom who was extremely worried about your worsening condition, made an appointment to get you checked out by a doctor as soon as she could have it done. Though you honestly wished your mom had just taken you straight to the emergency room, as you weren't exaggerating when you said that you wouldn't last until the doctor's appointment.

As it would have it, it seemed like that would be the case. During one of your usual days of resting in bed while your mom was at work, your eyes got heavy and you slowly shut them while thinking you would take a pretty quick nap before your mom was to get home.

You never woke up.