“Sonia, I really don’t think this is a good idea,” I warned, stepping away from the bathroom.
“You’ll be fine, Jasmine.” Sonia waved me off. “It’s not like she’s going to attack us.”
“Was that supposed to help?” Aveline gripped my arm tighter. “Because it isn’t.”
“You guys are such scaredy-cats,” Shira rolled her eyes.
“Aren’t we supposed to be in class?” Anya eyed the door. “I don’t really like doing this.”
“Forget that, we’ll get to see ghosts!” Sonia smiled. “Much more exciting than doing quadratic equations.”
We were supposed to be retrieving folders for our math teacher, Mr. Lowell, but Sonia and Shira, the two rebels of our friend group, somehow managed to convince us to go to the downstairs girls’ restroom. They had apparently seen a ghost a few days ago, and they wanted us to see her as well. I didn’t believe it. Anya didn’t care, and Aveline just wanted to prove she wasn’t scared—so I got dragged along.
Sonia pushed open the door with a sly smirk on her face. We hurried in after her, carefully stepping across the tile floor. The room felt heavy, as if it knew our secret mission. Lights flickered overhead, taunting our every movement. The thick, suffocating silence pressed in all around us.
“Ta-da,” Shira turned to me, expecting a reaction.
“What?” I asked, looking around the empty room. “If you’re going to prank us, at least do-” I was cut off by all the stall doors being flung open. Aveline screamed as a vaguely human figure started forming before our eyes. She was about my height, with long dark hair cascading down her back. As she became clearer, I noticed she was dressed in a navy blue shirt tucked into a plaid skirt—our school uniform. Anya gasped.
“You’re a…” she trailed off, and the girl laughed.
“Ghost? Yeah, I am,” the girl smiled. “I’m Keira. I used to go to this school, as you can tell.” She gestured at her clothes.
“We saw her when we came downstairs for PE a few days ago,” Sonia explained, her eyes shining. “She promised to share a secret that even the school doesn’t know if we brought more people."
“So, we’re technically bait?” I crossed my arms.
“Forget that, what’s the secret?” Aveline stepped forward, her earlier fear replaced with excitement. “Some underground tunnel? Demons disguised as teachers? Rats? Wait, everyone knows about the last one.”
Keira giggled. “Ok, if I tell you this, you have to promise me one thing. You will keep their memory alive.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sonia demanded.
Keira held up her hands in surrender. “Let me explain,” she started. “You guys know about the battle of San Jacinto, right?” My friends turned to me, the history enthusiast. I nodded.
“Yeah, it was the last battle of the Texas Revolution,” I recalled. “It happened on April 21, 1836, and was led by General San Houston. The battle, which was 18 minutes long, resulted in a Texas win and the capture of Mexican general Santa Anna a day later.”
“Nerd,” Shira muttered. Anya shook her head, a small grin plastered on her face. Keira looked impressed.
“Ok, I’m not really good with building suspense, so I’ll just tell you straight up,” her expression hardened. “This school was built on top of the San Jacinto battleground.” We all froze.
“Wait, what?” Aveline gaped.
“No, that can’t be true,” Sonia sounded uncertain.
“Wait, wouldn’t the battleground be more, oh, I don’t know, in San Jacinto?” Anya asked. Keira gave her a sad smile.
“Historians couldn’t figure out where the actual battle happened, so they picked a spot that seemed the most reasonable,” she sighed. “The actual location was lost in time, never to be uncovered.”
“Then how do you know?” I asked.
“That, Jasmine, is something that stays classified.” Keira winked, and a chill went up my spine as I realized that I never told her my name. “Now, how many people died in that battle?” she stared expectantly at me.
Great, I thought. Now a ghost is talking to me like I’m a walking search engine. Just a normal Tuesday.
“Nine Texans died, and over 600 Mexican soldiers were killed,” I replied, frowning.
“Good, and most of them were buried right there, on the battleground,” Keira began to fade. “Now, remember what I said about the memories. No one but you five know about this. Pass this information on when you think the time is right. Stay safe.” With that, Keira disappeared, leaving no trace that she ever existed.
“Well, that was…” Shira stared at the spot where the ghost once stood.
“Unnecessary?” Anya huffed.
“Concerning?” Aveline offered.
“Anticlimactic?” Everyone stared at me. “What?”
“I was going to say ‘interesting’, but those work too,” Shira made her way to the door. “Hey, what’s the time?” I glanced at my watch, looked up, then looked at my watch again.
“What is it?” Sonia leaned over to look, and her face paled. “Why has it only been two minutes?”
“Looks like our ghost friend can stop time as well as keep secrets,” Anya joked. “Now, hurry up, or those two minutes will turn into two hours.” They pushed open the door and walked out, but I lagged behind, turning to the spot where Keira last stood.
Why us? I thought. We were just kids. What could we do with a secret like that?
But the thought of those soldiers—forgotten beneath our feet—gnawed at me. If no one remembers the dead, do they ever truly rest?
I started to leave, but froze at the mirror.
Staring back was a pale, ghostly version of me—eyes hollow, lips moving without sound.
I screamed.
end