Page 55 of For Your Own Good

By then, Courtney was gone.

He knew it wasn’t real, that she wasn’t in his house and never had been, but he still couldn’t get back to sleep. For the rest of the night, he wondered if it was possible she was haunting him. While he had never heard of a living person haunting someone, he started to think it was possible.

The person who should be haunting him is Ingrid, but he hasn’t seen her yet.

A week ago, he didn’t believe in ghosts at all. Or hauntings.

Now, he might.

He avoids the Porter Room and the lounge, staying in his classroom even during the breaks. Sleep still doesn’t come, not even when he puts his feet up on the desk. Out of the corner of his eye, Courtney is there. Watching him. Waiting to take notes.

With no other option, he starts googling “haunted by living person.” All that does is give him a bunch of sites about stalking.

If only it were that easy.

During his last class, he tells the students to work on the problem on the board, then he leaves the room. In theory, to use the restroom. In reality, to escape Courtney. Some of his other students are starting to look like her.

Sleep. He really needs sleep.

He strolls down the empty hallway. Paces up and down it, actually. Thinks about going to the police.

That fantasy is interrupted by Sonia.

She’s at the end of the hallway, standing still, not moving. He waves and walks toward her.

She doesn’t wave back.

As Frank gets closer, he sees how pale she looks. Sonia places her hand on the wall as if to steady herself.

“Hey,” he says, walking a little faster. “Are you okay?”

Sonia looks up at him, her eyes glassy, and she shakes her head no.

Now, he can see the sweat on her face and her neck. As he reaches out to her, because she looks like she’s about to faint, her whole body starts jerking around—arms, torso, head. Almost like she’s doing a strange sort of dance.

He’s trying to grab her arm when her body jerks again and she falls to the floor.

A seizure. She’s having some sort of seizure. Her body continues to convulse, and Frank puts his hand under her head to stop her from banging it against the floor.

His first thought:She’s possessed.

Especially when her eyes roll back into her head.

But then she stops breathing.

36

AS FAR ASTeddy is concerned, there are two types of people in the world. The first are those who say “Think of the children.” They say it loud, they say it often, and they post it all over social media.

The second are those whoactuallythink of the children and thendosomething to help them. Not many go the extra mile to make sure kids are protected.

He does.

And given that he’s sitting in a room filled with people who educate children, it’s disappointing so few are like him.

It’s late in the evening, well after dark, and the headmaster has called an emergency meeting at the school about Sonia Benjamin.

The late Sonia Benjamin.