Everyone has heard of The Scarlet Specter. It had been a legend for almost twenty years, whispered about in hallways and told at parties to spook the freshmen. The former principal, Mr. Kingsley's vengeful spirit, came back from the dead to get revenge on the students who killed it. Of course, Mr. Kingsley isn't dead; he just retired in a town over. But that doesn't make the disappearances stop. That doesn't bring back the lost students. It doesn't stop the school's pain. Ellie Davis was the first person I knew to have seen it. I had heard of the Specter before. My brother had gone to high school a few years before me. I was lucky to have him, and I was able to stay safe. Unfortunately, Ellie did not. She changed that day, and there was nothing I could do; I tried to help her, but all my attempts were met with an expressionless gaze. I will never forget how Ellie looked at me that day, so defeated, like a broken toy. That day, I realized that there was nothing I could do to save her. I continued with my life, and as the year progressed, Ellie got better, but she was never the same again. There were other strange occurrences after Ellie like there had been before. Days disappeared to the wheel of time as the school continued in willing ignorance of the peculiar events.

It was another sleepless night on the Thursday before Halloween; The haunting words of the principal swirled in my head as I remembered the previous day. The Specter had claimed another victim. Everything had been changing so fast, and I missed them, every one of them. Peter Thompson, the football player from math class who was nothing but kind to me. Liam Berkin, my partner for model UN and the smartest person I have ever met. Emma Kerry, a childhood friend who helped me build stick forts in my backyard and whose house I basically lived in during the summer of third grade. These thoughts swirled through my head as I trudged through leaves, taking comfort in the cool fall air that brushed my face.

A light drizzle dripped out of the sky, falling onto my hoodie only to be ignored like long-forgotten whispers. This fall had been a dark one, a second winter following right after the summer ended. The stars shone a desperate light illuminating the sharp shadows of ghosts and ghouls, all sorts of monsters that a younger me would have been terrified of, but I was not that child. I hadn't been that child for a long time, not since the Specter became more than just a fairy tale when it became a cold reality. I shivered as I thought of those days. My brother had a sense of dread when he came home from school; that my parents had while waiting for him to get off the bus every day. The memories rushed back as I approached the looming building that was Northride high. I jerked the cold metal handle of the school, waiting before a dying light flicked deep within the stomach of the school, and a tired-looking night guardsman with pale brown hair and dead eyes opened the door and silently beckoned me inside with a crook of his finger. Like a moth to a flame, I entered, looking around the abandoned building as the black hole of a school consumed me like so many others. I walked past empty classrooms and through abandoned hallways, dread filling my chest as the shadows began to come alive, dancing around just like they did when I was a child. I just needed to find it, to see what happened, why she left. I needed her. I needed her so much. She was my everything, and now she's gone. I need to get her back. There has to be a way. Desperate thoughts raced through my head, clouding my mind into an eternal storm destroying all in its path as hot tears streamed down my face clouding my vision. I raced against the pounding in my chest, heading straight to where she was taken, straight to Kingsley Hall, straight to the Specter. I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to see how it ended.

I stopped as I turned from the east wing to Kingsly Hall. The Specter stood in all its hideous majesty, looking into me. Until that moment, I don't think I had ever felt true despair. A crippling sensation flooded my chest, and I fell to the ground as my knees gave way. The memories of all that had been rushed into my head as the glow of the Specter approached. Hearts spilled out of my mouth as I felt the pain of the world; everyone who had hurt, who had lost, who had been left, I felt it all. The Specter slowly moved towards me, I knew this was the end, but I didn't care; I wanted the suffering to be over. I felt a strong pair of hands grip my shoulders from behind me as I was dragged away from the light. Dragged to safety. I couldn't do anything. I lay there sobbing as the hands fell down next to me and joined in my cries of sorrow. They split through the night like a Banshee engulfing all, leaving only a mess of rubble and destruction in its wake.

Marcus Thompson was the one who saved me that night; his brother had been a victim of the Specter. I don't know why he was there that fateful morning, but I think he was there for the same reason I was. I think he wanted to see the Specter. After I got out of high school, I went to New York. I got into a nice college and have a lovely apartment. I can't get it out of my head, what I saw. Black clouds cover up my mind. I dream of it almost every night. The horrible light. I'm going back to Northride one last time. I just need it all to stop.