• Chapter 1: A love that went up in flames
    Ring...Ring...Ring...
    *Click*
    "Hi."
    "Oh, hey Anthony." I sighed, blinking rapidly, and smiling to myself.
    "We still on for tomorrow?" He asked, and I glanced at the purple number that Hayley had picked out for her sweet sixteen, that I was invited to. Of, course, Hayley Masen was Anthony's older sister, and Anthony, was my current boyfriend, or as she called us 'Star Crossed Lovers' as his mother didn't approve.
    "Yeah. Why?" I asked, and laughed.
    "...Just Wondering." He mumbled. "Will you come to my lacrosse game on Sunday, too?" He asked, sheepishly.
    "Sure, why not?" I glanced at my callandar, and scratched off a reminder that said 'Sunday Morning: Cleaning out the basement.'and added Anth's game to the list.
    "Whacha' doin?" He asked, and I heard the crinkle of a bag in the background, and his mother yelling at Hayley downstairs.
    "Looking at my dress." I informed him and smiled.
    "You'll look beautiful in it, Mad." He insisted, and then I heard a choked off cough, and Anth drop the phone. I heard another thud, and then a mumbled sentence, before the phone was disconected.
    "Anth? Anth???" I called frantically, and wondered if maybe he was grounded, and his mom had caught him on the phone. I shrugged it off.
    "Madi!" I heard my mom call, and I went downstairs.

    Sirens woke me.
    I glanced at my alarm clock, and saw it was only a hour later.
    The sirens were loud, and close. I took my small telescope and glanced out my window looking for the source. I couldn't see anything over the thick covering of fog.
    Then I gasped and droped the 'scope.
    The Masen's house.
    I pulled on my robe, and shoes, and ran past my startled parents.
    "IT'S THE MASEN'S!" I shouted, and pulled my bike out from its hiding place. I peddled quickly, ignoring my parents calls.
    I reached the large house in three minutes, instead of the usual ten.
    It was all up in flames. The west side was completely lit, and it burned to look at it. I glanced around for Anthony, but didn't find him.
    "HAYLEY?" I shouted, and was picked up by sobbing person is expensive robes.
    Hayley.
    "What happened?" I asked when she put me down and she sank to the ground. I went with her, and held her hands.
    "I don't know!" I felt the heat as I was going to the bathroom, and I screamed fire. I heard mom say she would try to get Anthony, but I haven't seen him. What if he's inside?" She cried, and I held to her. "And my party's ruined! Cassidy, and Mariah will drop me, and nobody will talk to me, because of this!" She was shaking with cold, and I motioned to a fireman to bring her a blanket in the chilly night.
    "Me and Anth will still be here. And Their's Delaya." Delaya was Hayley's step-sister, and lived with their dad outside of town.
    "Sure, Mad." She laughed, and attempted to smile.
    Two hours went bye.
    The fire was finally put out. Me, Hayley, and their dog, Snookie, were sitting inside of the ambulance, in the heater.
    Ms. Harlow, their mom, came to find us.
    "You can come inside." she whispered, and we followed her.
    "Mom? Where's Anth?" Hayley asked, and we arrived into the old untouched Parlor.
    "Ms. Harlow?" I asked, feeling hope parish.
    "Anth... Was in his room, during the fire. He... The gas was too much, and... H-h-he... passed out... Th-th-then... He--was stuck and.... He..."
    Anthony.
    Anthony Masen
    Anthony Masen. The boy I loved. More than anything.
    Was pronounced dead.

    Chapter 2: Months Go Bye
    Three days later, they laid Anthony to rest.
    I looked at his slightly burned face, and flushed cheeks, and felt broken inside.
    Hayley, his Lacrosse coach, and I all said something about Anthony.
    "I didn't know Anthony for all that . But, he was my best-friend, and I loved him. He didn't deserve to die. He had... He had a future. He'd told me of his secret dreams, and hopes. His talents, his feelings. He loved life, and I would have switched places with him, to give him more time here. He's in a better place though, and we did the best we could for him." My voice cracked, and I had to stop.
    I stood alone, across from the Masen's, and Mrs. Harlow, who were holding back tears. My black skirt fluttered in the wind, and I thought of how Anthony used to tell me that people who were morning used to remind him of a black window spider; ready to spit venom at anyone who crosses into their tangled web of 'life'. That was sort of the truth. I looked at the weeping willows, and then stepped forward to say goodbye to Anth, forever. I silently moved to his side.
    "I love you. I will miss you. This is all my fault." I whispered, and bent forward so my hair caressed his face.
    I pressed a last kiss to his burned to cheek.
    I walked back to my spot, and as the rain started to pour, Hayley said goodbye to Anth, and then they closed the coffin. As they lowered him into the ground I could hear his mother crying for her baby, and I was startled.
    I was shocked by how alone I felt.
    I was single, and lost. I was cold, and tired. I was heartless, as it was being buried with him.
    And I had just remembered what he had told me the night he died.
    "I love you, Madison." Was the mumbled sentence he said before the phone was disconnected.
    ~~~3 Months Later~~~
    Three months has passed since Anthony's death.
    The only colors I would wear were black and red. Red was his favorite color, and Black was for our mourning.
    Yes, our mourning. I was dead inside.
    Anthony and I had dated for only about two months. And he had just moved here.
    But, we had sparks. Our first kiss was both of ours. It was only his 12th day here, and my 7th as his girlfriend. And it was special.
    It was exactly a month before what would have been his fourteenth birthday when I got the phone call.
    "Hello?" I asked, turning off my radio, and I heard her shaky sigh.
    "Hi."
    "Who is this?" I asked, knowing, but still hurting.
    When Anthony died, and after the funeral, I couldn't look. I would glance toward the tree, and see his slim figure step out from it, his hair wet in the rain, him wearing black as if he was praying for his own soul to be released. He was looking at me, and the panic was naked in my eyes. I looked at Hayley, and could still see his figure out of the corner of my eye. Then, Ms. Harlow broke down.
    "IT'S YOU!!! YOU KILLED MY SON! YOU DID THIS!" She shouted, and started towards me. Her ex-husband, Jack Masen held her back, until she settled down, and then he approached me.
    "She is just angry, and upset." He told me, when he saw the guilty look on my face. "You didn't do anything." He continued.
    "That's the problem. Maybe I could have helped save him." I whispered, and the wind brushed my face.
    "No. And you know that. Helen's gonna need some time to come around. You should leave Hayley alone for ahile." He told me, and then left, escorting his family home.
    I didn't talk to the Masen's.
    ...
    "It's Hayley." She sighed, and brought me back from the past.
    "Hello." I repeated.
    "Do you think you can meet me at the McDonald's?" She asked and I glanced at the clock.
    "Sure. When?"
    "Ten minutes okay?" She asked and I agreed.
    I let my hair down, and got dressed. It was a rainy day. I put on black skinny jeans, and a red wool V-neck sweater, before grabbing my bike, which hadn't been used since the day... And headed for the McDonald's.
    Hayley was sitting at the table at used to be ours after Anth's lacross games.
    "Hi." I said quietly and slid into the seat across from her.
    She'd gotten older. She had circles under her eyes, and her dark blue dress was elderly.
    "Hey." She whispered, and pulled out a large stack of papers.
    "My brother loved you. He'd want you to know what happened to him." She started, handing me a paper, that had a picture of their house after the damage. I winced, as the next one she handed me was a picture of her brothers room with his body laying sprawled on the floor. "I have reason to believe that how Anth died was no accident." She stated, and saw my curious glance. "My mother said, if you recall, that the gas was too much for Anth. But, what if he was dead before then? How would we know?" She asked and I thought about it. I was always good at things like this. and if Anthony was dead before the fire hit him, he had died after we were on the phone. The fire started. How?
    "How did the fire start?" I asked, and she shrugged.
    "They never found out. I think I should have Anthony's remains looked at. What do you think?" She asked.
    "If it will help... I'm all for it. IF I can help with the investigation." I added quickly, and she sighed.
    "Yes. Just don't get in the way of things." She added as I got up, and headed for the door.
    "You've changed Madison." Hayley called, and I stiffened.
    "Yes. I have. You're brother's death was the death of me. And I left my heart with his soul. I was in love with you're brother, and I can't stop loving him." I called back. "You've changed too, you know? You look like you're turning into your mom." I said before I left.

    Chapter 3: The haunting
    School ended.
    I remember they had a remembrance for Anth. A full ten minutes of silence for him. The teacher's knew that me and him were together even now. I went into the hallway, and cried. One of the teachers came out to check on me, but didn't say anything. When she left. I cried harder, until a figure in black crossed my attention. It ran into the eight grade section. I walked forward, and then it flickered past my left eye.
    "What do you want?"I called, breaking the silence. It walked behind me, and stopped right behind me. I felt it brush my hair, and I whirled around to find nothing.
    Later, that day, I was cleaning out my locker, alone, and I found a picture of Anthony and me, holding his Lacrosse Fall Championships 2nd Place trophy. I found another, of him and me kissing after I won third at the county track meet. A tear gently slipped bye, and I heard a locker about 4 down close. I glanced down, and saw a locker jiggle slightly. I moved towards it, and recognized it to be his locker. I saw the combination gently scrawled in his handwriting on the wall next to it, and I punched it in.
    It was a mess, and looked like he'd been there since yesterday. He had a picture of me that I had Hayley take at one of his games, and a buch of sticky notes on the door. One caught my eye.
    Give Madison the necklace on bottom right shelf.
    Huh?
    I glanced around before picking up his old copy of 2 thousand leagues under the sea, and I held it to me, before picking up the dusty old box at the bottom of it. I blew off the dust and opened it, before gasping.
    It was a silver chain. It had a ring on it. I picked up the ring, to examine it closer, and I saw then engraving on the back of it. To Mrs. Masen
    Hayley had said that one night she recalled her mother throwing out her old wedding band, with 5 diamonds in it, and saw Anth pick it up. She wondered what it was for, though. Now I knew.
    My throat was heavy as I imagined him coming up from behind me, kissing me, and then putting it on me. I would have smiled, and told him I loved him, and he would have blushed. He always did.
    I told myself to hold it together, and the tears started to burn hard again. I looked at his locker, and realized that the teachers would get rid of his things. I gathered them into a cardboard box, and took them home with me.

    The end of the year dance was just as bad.
    I went with a group of friends. They wanted me to get out and have fun.
    I put on a black dress, and went, but when guys asked me to dance, I would refuse. I knew that Tori, and Izzy wanted me to have fun, so for one dance I participated with a guy. Who was a seventh grader, and about five inches shorter than me. When Izzy rescued me, and dragged me to the punch table.
    "Are you okay?" She asked me, and I leaned against her.
    "I'm just tired. And I wish he could be here." I told her quietly, and she rubbed my shoulder.
    "Honey, he's not coming back. You need to understand that. I love you, but watching his death tear you apart tears ME apart." She sighed, and left me alone, as she and her date, Ryan, came to grab her for a fast-paced dance. She was right. It was unhealthy. But his death was my fault. I stared blankly out at the dark night scene, and see a figure dressed in black standing in the back corner, watching me, and from what I can see from the reflection in the window, nobody else saw him.
    Why did I keep seeing this figure?

    Two weeks after school ended, I met with Hayley again, but at her house. It was the first time I'd been inside the house since the fire. It had been completely redone, looking as if nothing had ever happened. Hayley took me up into her room, before telling me the news.
    "I asked my mother for permission to look at Anth's body." She began, closing the door after her.
    "What did she say?" I asked taking a seat on her once was all pink bed. It was now a adult color, a pale yellow, and her room was boring.
    "My mother said she never had a son. She didn't know what I was talking about. When I said his name she told me to shut up. That I was lying. She thinks Anthony's life was a waste. So, I decided to do it myself." She stated joining me, and pulling out a paper.
    "The scientists said that his elecro-waves, which people have, are always about 3. Anthony's were 9. It was high, and after examining his head, they determined that his brain cells were fried, and he didn't have a chance. He was electrified. Shocked to death. It, we determined was either a suicide, or a murder. And suicide is way out of Anth's league. Anthony was murdered."
    I gasped.
    Murdered?
    "I want to find out how." I stated quietly, and she nodded.
    "So do I. But, you can be the first to examine his room, where he died. You can do everything first, and gather as much info as you can before I bring in professionals. Okay?" Hayley offered, holding out her hand, and I took it, shaking it.
    "I will find out what happened to your brother. His death will be solved." I promised before leaving.

    That night...
    I saw it.
    The figure.
    It was around 2 in the morning.
    I had woken up in a cold sweat. I dreamt of how Anthony could possibly have died, and it was painful.
    A dark figure was leaning against my door, watching me, it's arms loosely crossed, one leg bent against the door. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, and then blinked. I turned on my light, and gasped.
    "Anthony?" I whispered, and the figure moved, so that it was suddenly right next to me. I felt it's hand caressing my neck, and hair. I slowly turned toward it, and repeated it's name.
    I reached out.
    And touched his burned face.
    "You can see me?" Asked his distant voice, and even though his form had moved to the other side of the room, I could see the surprised, and shocked look on his face.
    "Is it really you?" I whispered, and got up, moving to his side. He was cold, when I picked up his hand, and I held it to my heart, hoping to feel it had stopped beating and that I was dead.
    "How can you see me?" He whispered, and suddenly, he disappeared. I felt the chill in the air lift, but crawled back under my thick blanket.
    "I'm back." He called softly in my ear, and I looked up startled.
    "How is this possible?" I whispered, telling myself to wake up.
    "I am Anthony. Don't get that mixed up." He said, his cold hand brushing the hair away from my face, and I blinked. "I did die. That night, make no mistake. I went to heaven, too. But, I heard you pin the blame on yourself.