Ghost- Catherine Gaines

He didn't mean to kill her. 

It had been 12 1/2 hours since he'd last seen Amanda and he KNEW  that he shouldn't have tried to leave her at the party, but she promised she'd be fine, she always was. 

His mom had called, asking him to come home, and with Amanda's reassurances, he left...with reluctance. 

Thinking back on it, he knew it was the wrong decision. 

At least, that's what he told the police when they knocked on his front door at half-past two. 

Amanda's mom had reported her missing at 8 that morning, after receiving a call from the school questioning her daughter's absence. That had been only 6 hours since he'd last seen her. 

Now twelve hours since the incident. The only thing that he gave the police to really look over was the guest list.

He and Amanda had been best friends since kindergarten, inseparable since they began sharing play-doh during recess. 

Why should the police have any reason to suspect him? Her mom trusted him with the keys to their house. If that wasn't trust, he didn't know what was. 

But all of that was about to come crumbling down around him if the truth came out. He hadn't meant to do it, but it was too late for that now. Revealing such information would cause the situation to look premeditated, homicide, so late in the game. 

The search parties were already underway. Volunteers from the local high school, and nearby towns, already sweeping the usual areas. 

But that's okay they wouldn't find the body, because it had been stashed...

Luke turned the flashlight off. He hadn't meant to scare anyone, but the looks of horror that the 4th graders surrounding him gave him, made him realize otherwise. 

"GROSS"

"LUKE!!!"

"Did she really die?" 

He sighed, being a counselor at a sleepover summer camp really wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. At least he hadn't told them where the supposed, "body" was stashed. He'd end up staying up half the night, wrangling a mixture of scared children and runaway adventurers back into their respective beds. 

"I think that's enough for tonight guys," he said.

The variety of looks he was given slowly diminished as one by one they went off to get ready for bed. Until at last the area around the campfire was empty except for him. Him and the ghost of Amanda.