Prologue

Ms. Blades died of an unknown cause. Not so unknown because I know. She died of depression, a suicide, an attempt to end her miserable life. She overdosed, in her classroom, and died at her desk, after school hours. She was found by students the next morning, her homeroom students, measly little seventh graders. They saw their language arts teacher lying in her swivel chair, unmoving, dead.

The school went on lockdown, the earliest it ever had. She was brought to the hospital. They tried to save her, they couldn't, she was a lost cause.

Students mourned her, especially at her assembly. Her favorite students were bawling, struggling to compose themselves as the principal spoke. It was a quiet yet not forgotten day, a vivid childhood memory that stays with you forever, maybe longer.

She was buried on school grounds, right outside her classroom. Rumor has it that she haunts the school and her classroom, but that's simply not true.

Because she doesn't.

I know she doesn't

Because I am Ms. Blades.