The Beheaded Ghost had gone.
No one knew when it had left.
People only realized after class that both its body and head had lost their vitality.
It might have been seven minutes after the game had started, since it had stopped screaming by then. It might also have been just that it was tired and wanted to rest.
Some students speculated that it had taken its own life, unable to endure the humiliation, while others guessed that it had been kicked to death—after all, two-thirds of these students were Ghost Creatures, and kicking a head seemed to be a form of attack.
Whatever the case, the Beheaded Ghost had left us forever.
Its body was sitting on the edge of the open space, and its head lay in front of the goal drawn on the ground, eyes wide open, dead but unblinking, and no one bothered to ask.
In front of the Long House door, students crowded together, entering one by one.
