Jamie Campbell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.
To the playground we will go
To laugh until the sun is low
We don’t know who is there
But the ghosts, they do stare.
Chapter One
One Day after the Event
The street was too quiet.
Where was the traffic? The buzz of pedestrians as they listened to music filtering through their headphones? The beep beep of annoyed contractors as they tried to get through peak hour madness?
Way too quiet.
I stepped out of my apartment building, wishing and hoping and praying that the night before was just a bad dream. I wasn’t brave enough to return to our kitchen to check on my parents. I had left them there late last night.
After they died.
“I’m hungry, Evie,” Faith whined at my side. She tugged on my arm, just to make sure I couldn’t ignore her pleas any longer. “I want to go back inside.”
“We’ll get some food in a minute,” I hissed back.
In a minute.
When I awoke from this nightmare.
I looked left and then right. Other kids were walking the streets like zombies, confusion and grief covering their faces like veils. I knew how they felt but I didn’t have that luxury. I had Faith and I had to be strong for her, at least.
There, at the end of the street, an adult. I hadn’t seen one of those since my parents died in the kitchen. Relief flushed through me as I hurried toward them. I didn’t recognize them but it didn’t matter, they could help. They were adults and we desperately needed adults right now.
“Where are we going?” Faith continued in her whiny voice. I pointed but she shook her head, not understanding. It didn’t matter, she would see soon enough.
Help was on its way.
Four adults were all huddled together, their expressions of pain all the same. Perhaps they were trying to work out what happened last night at eight o’clock. Answers were more than welcome to all the questions I had.
“Excuse me, I need—” My voice faltered as I reached for the elbow of the closest woman to get her attention.
My hand went straight through her arm.
I looked at her again, this time really looking at her. She was surrounded in the tiniest hint of yellow light.
She was dead.
They all were.
I took a step back, almost falling over Faith in the process. All four of the adults turned to me, firing a million questions in my direction.
“What happened?”
“Why can’t anyone else see us?”
“I need help for my children, they’re alone. Please, help.”
“I feel pain. Why do I feel so much pain?”
They crowded around me like vultures, making all the air in my lungs disappear. I needed to get away from them, they couldn’t help me. None of them would know what we were supposed to do now, not when they had so many questions themselves.
“Faith, hurry up,” I urged, tugging on my little sister’s hand so she would keep up. My home didn’t seem so bad now, even with the dead bodies in it.
I ducked into the apartment building just as more adults found me. They all crowded around, walking straight through the door I slammed in their faces.
The steps were taken two at a time in my vain attempt to get away from them. But it was impossible, they floated while my legs cramped from the physical exertion.
“I don’t want to go home anymore,” Faith pleaded. “Please, Evie, I don’t want to see them again. I’m scared.”
“We won’t go in the kitchen,” I promised. Surely I would wake up from the nightmare soon, even though it felt so real. Adults didn’t just become spirits overnight, it wasn’t something that actually happened.
Maybe I was going crazy?
That would sure explain a lot.
We reached the door to our apartment and I shouldered in. The ghosts followed me, their voices all joining together to become one loud din. I couldn’t think straight when they were continually talking to me.