I looked at him startled.
"What do you mean Sebastian ? Ghost doesn't exist !" I chuckled nervously even if I knew he wasn't lying about his true nature.
"Ethan, I died on April 4th, on the flowers blooming with the new season." He said, lowering his head and his hair covering his eyes.
I just didn't know what to do. Obviously I trusted him and everything made sense now but I didn't know what to tell him. What could I say to somebody who was... dead. Yes, Sebastien was dead and I couldn't deny it, even if it hard to accept it.
"But listen ! I'm gonna hold my promise and never leave you, even if I'm a ghost !" He said hastily, taking my hands in his own.
I smiled faintly and whispered : " How are you dead Sebastian ?"
He looked at me, blinked a few times before answering slowly, as if he was scared of his own answered : " I don't remember..."
I smiled, before taking him in my arms, trying to stop his tears from flooding. Sebastian was the best definition of a friend and I saw it as a duty to make him feel good. Even if he was dead, ghost deserved to feel the life running in there body the time there were on earth, they deserved it because they already gave so much in their lifetime.
"Shh." I whispered in his ears, stroking his back as he sobs on my chest. " Shh, we will find the truth, Sebastien... I promise." And I hold him ever tighter, making him cry ever harder.
"Ethan..." He whispered but his words died in his throat.
I was so concern of stopping his tears that I didn't realise that if anyone went out in the garden, they would see me cuddling... the air. Because after all, ghosts were invisible except for my weird eyes.
I didn't thought about and just thought about Sebastien and how he died. He was so nice, so caring, that I wondered why anyone would want his death... His died, loved, just like Amanda ... Two people who cared about anyone and still died for unknown reasons.
"Ethan... I can't breath." Sebastien choked and I loosen my grip around his shoulder, making him cough as he was taking back his breath.
" Sebastian, it's my turn to promise you something." I told him and cupped his face with my hands.
"Ethan..."
"I promise I will find out what happened to you and Amanda Starks and Archie Devenson." I said, my voice so determined and confident that I wondered for a brief second if it was my own. After all, a few minutes ago, I was deep in my depressing thoughts and now...
"Ethan..." He repeated before taking my hands off his cheeks and squeezed them so tightly I almost yelp from surprise. " I promise I will never leave you."
I smirk and I understood that something even stronger than every friendship bond us, something beyond the human capacity to understand. Something so strong that no one could see it with bare eyes.
We weren't only friends, best friends or brothers but something else.
"Follow me Ethan, I will show you the old building and this time, no prefects will take you away." He said with a smile, his eyes still wet from his cries.
We walked for a long time through the forest, the branches cracking under our footsteps and leaves crisping as we walked silently. And after maybe ten minutes of quiet walk where we were going even further into the forest, the school tours only visible when we would turn our head, we arrived, or at least, we stopped.
"This is it." Sebastien said softly as I just stared dumbfounded at the sight in front of us.
It wasn't crisp like if it was burned by a fire but we could see how nature took back control of his territory by growing plants on the walls and all around.
If Sebastian didn't told me about the rumours, I would have never guessed why there were a main building. The old one seemed perfectly safe, even if the windows were shattered with time and the basketball ring had fallen on the floor because of the lack of care. But without all this, everything seemed clear.
I opened the door with a creak and cough when dust entered my nose. Inside was dark, even with the sunlight who managed to illuminate it, it wasn't enough.
And as I walked slowly, as if not to disturb the silence of this place, a cracking sound was heard under my foot. I stepped back and saw on the floor an old photo inside a broken frame. Everyone on it was wearing an older version of today's uniform and the students all had a smile plastered on their face.
And then, I saw her. Amanda Starks it was written on her shirt. The girl who died by 'slipping' of the roof.
She wasn't beautiful like Sebastien described it to me, no, she was a real goddess. Her silky blonde hair falling with elegance on her shoulders, her dusky skin with no imperfections, her round golden glasses who fitted so well on her thin nose. And her smile who was so bright and white it almost made me blink. The perfect prefect a school would ever wish for. And what I liked the most about her was how well she had put her traditional grey dress over a shirt with a collar. Everything about her screamed neat and clean and I wondered silently why she died. Why she wasn't there now.
And next to her, three other prefects which much lesser style than her.
I suddenly realised that Amanda was a girl. That she normally wasn't allowed to study in Southern college. But then, how did she manage to be a prefect ? Or even a student ?
I rushed out of the building, and found Sebastien waiting for me next of an ancient tree. And with how the sunlight was on him, I saw why he was a ghost. His skin was so translucent, his clothes were almost colourless...
"Are you gonna stare any longer ?" He asked rudely with a smirk on his face.
I was taken by surprise at what he said. The first words we exchanged... yesterday actually. The first time we talked to each other... And it was only yesterday....
" Sebastien, how come Amanda Starks was in this school ?" I asked hastily.
He smiled and closed his eyes before answering my question : " Maybe because she was the daughter of the old principal..."
And then, he looked at me in the eyes, making me shiver from the way he stared before asking my final question : "What happened to him ?"
And his answer was the most dreadful thing I ever heard of my life : "He slipped off the roof, just like us."