I am NOT ready for this!

"Are you guys ready?"

"Y-Yeah... W-What about y-you?"

"Are you kidding..."

"Of course I am!"

Fragments from last night flashed in my head as I began to lose consciousness. Words from that night echoed through every corner of my mind. My head grew heavy, and the vision of my ceiling crept upward as I fell back, arching my back. My eyes rolled as I fell into darkness.

More memories appeared as I fell for what seemed like hours, reliving what happened that night. But something felt off. These memories were different from what I remember.

Why am I looking at my friends from a distance?

"Let's begin!" Leon said confidently as he rummaged through his stack of papers, flipping through the pages. His voice sounded distant, like echoes...

We were trying to talk to a ghost that night. We went to an abandoned mansion that had been there for decades. Dust floated through the air, the wood was rotting away, glass was shattered everywhere, and strange portraits hung crooked on the walls. We thought for sure there would be a ghost here. I didn’t believe it one bit though.

After all, ghosts aren’t real, right?

But this memory, this vision... I don’t remember seeing it from a distance. I can see Leon and Anne... and me? Why am I looking at myself from behind? I start to walk closer.

We were all wearing oversized black hoodies that barely fit us. We couldn’t find anything that resembled ritual outfits, so we made do with what we had. We also didn’t have money for anything else, so we looked like complete amateurs.

We sat cross-legged in the shape of a triangle. Inside our triangle was a summoning circle, a sharp-pointed pentagram surrounded by red candles where the ghost was supposedly going to appear. The wax melted slowly as we continued. I sat at the top of the triangle while Leon and Anne sat on the other corners.

Leon claimed he used pig blood for the pentagram, but I think it was just red paint. I know Leon. He doesn’t have the heart to hurt an animal, even as a joke.

Leon had been my partner in crime since childhood. Cunning and calm, though sometimes a total dork and a nerd. I met him during PE class when a bully was kicking him for lunch money. I stepped in and hit the bully hard enough to get myself suspended for a month. I didn’t care though. I made a good friend that day.

Leon feels like a mirror version of me, even if he gets scared sometimes. We laugh at the same jokes, like the same anime, and even the same cars. We’re a perfect fit. Even if our shenanigans end badly, Leon trusts me completely. He tries so hard not to be afraid and to look at death the way I do. I find it flattering.

I start to walk closer to myself now. My head turns toward Leon, then shifts to Anne sitting at the other corner of the triangle.

Oh, Anne... A really shy and dangerously nervous girl we recently befriended. Anne was a quiet girl in our school, always minding her own business and refusing to talk to anyone. She had no friends. She spoke softly and monotone, which I think is kind of cute. Her nervousness was, how do I put it, extreme? No, that sounds too mean... but it could get bad enough that she would faint from how anxious she was. I remember her passing out once because she didn’t know the first question on an exam.

She wanted to be friends with us after she heard we were the idiots who climbed up the school building. Our baseball was stuck on the roof, so why not try to get it back? She was embarrassed at first when she wanted to join us. Her skin turned white while her face turned bright red. Anne wanted to be more confident and less afraid. She thought our fearless attitude was something she needed in her life. She wanted to know what made us tick like it was some kind of secret. We don’t tease her though, well... not too much anyway.

I think she’s doing better now. She doesn’t freak out when she forgets her favorite pen at school, so that’s a win for me.

"Okay guys, close your eyes and chant, um..." Leon’s voice echoed through the abandoned mansion, bouncing off the cracked walls as he read the pages.

Leon found those pages on some ghost forum online where people claimed it worked, which I highly doubt.

We wanted to see if I would finally get spooked trying to bring back the dead. Everyone knows I’m not afraid. I wanted to see how much Leon could handle before he chickened out. He was doing pretty well so far, even though he kept swallowing nervously. Anne wanted to participate too, thinking if she could handle seeing a ghost, she could handle anything. Which, honestly, didn’t make much sense.

"Repeat after me! Al-za! Mon-za! Ho-lum! Tenta-losum!" Leon exclaimed as the ritual began.

"And, erm... hold hands! Yes!"

We extended our arms as we chanted. It didn’t sound quite like I expected. We grabbed each other’s hands. I looked down at myself as I sat cross-legged. I noticed I was holding hands with Anne and Leon. Then I looked further down. My view was upside down, like I was hanging from above. My eyes were closed. The chanting stopped. The sound faded.

Time itself felt frozen.

The sight of me, completely still, made my stomach twist.

What is this?

This point of view, this vision, this memory... I don’t even know what this is. Why am I in third person? Why am I staring at myself like this? This isn’t me at all. This feels like someone else’s memory.

What is go—

"~You’re not afraid... are you?"

...

Was that a girl’s voice? What the hell? Is she... talking to me?

"~Y-Yeah?"

What... the... hell...