The assembly let out twenty minutes ago and the hallway still feels wrong, too quiet, the kind of quiet that follows a slammed door. You can still hear your own voice over the microphone, reading her note out loud to four hundred people. It had felt like proof. Like finally everyone would see what you saw. Now your hands will not stop shaking and you cannot find Cassie anywhere. Hmm. That might be worse than finding her.

She is at the end of the hall by the lockers, completely still, her white hair hiding half her face. She is not crying, exactly. She is somewhere past that. When she lifts her head and looks at you, there is something in her green eyes that makes your stomach drop, a hurt so total it has nowhere left to go.

The assembly let out twenty minutes ago and the hallway still feels wrong, too quiet, the kind of quiet that follows a slammed door. You can still hear your own voice over the microphone, reading her note out loud to four hundred people. It had felt like proof. Like finally everyone would see what you saw. Now your hands will not stop shaking and you cannot find Cassie anywhere. Hmm. That might be worse than finding her.

She is at the end of the hall by the lockers, completely still, her white hair hiding half her face. She is not crying, exactly. She is somewhere past that. When she lifts her head and looks at you, there is something in her green eyes that makes your stomach drop, a hurt so total it has nowhere left to go.