It had been a cold, frosty day of September in the town of Bristol, Rhode Island, New England. To any passer-by, it would have seemed like any old Friday, but only the townsfolk knew the true circumstances of the day. The hidden reality of the most renowned high school for the next hundred miles. The death of Julie McCalister and Asher Williams.
As the story goes, back in 2019, a 14 year old girl named Julie, of grade ninth, had commited suicide on the 13th of September. She was a short girl with brown, curly hair, lovely dark brown eyes and a freckled nose. She wore glasses of dusty rose pink that complemented her eyes. She had a best friend named Asher. He was a tall and lanky boy of 15, who also had freckled skin, but additionally had light gray eyes and jet black hair. As to the sad reality for Julie, she was bullied and made fun of, for as long as she could remember, all because people, being inconsiderate, didn’t exactly appreciate who she was or the way she looked. Her classmates had been the worst peer group a person could have. They teased her by calling her things such as ‘spotty’ , ‘having hair like a bird’s nest’, ‘bird brain’ and other nasty things. They did occasionally bully Asher, but that wasn’t so very often. Julie felt tormented throughout her childhood. She kept suppressing her anger and sorrow over the years, and eventually went into depression due to repeated self-doubt, when she was only 13. The only person who had stayed by her side through all of the trauma that she had gone through, was Asher. They had first met four years ago at a book fair and had become fast friends.
After having gone into depression since so long and still being constantly bullied, she had decided that enough was enough. She was done with her sorrowful and pitiful life. It was quite unfortunate that she didn’t take this thought from a positive perspective. She resolved to take her life as the weekend before her 15th birthday approached. Asher did everything he could to talk her out of it. But once she had made her mind, there was no stopping her. Asher’s constant efforts were not fruitful. On the day of her planned suicide, he was trying to block her off from the balcony. But in her agony and dismay, Julie accidentally pushed him off the railing along with her. There was nothing that could be done. Two innocent lives were sacrificed that day at the hands of peer pressure and bullying.
Now, two years later, people of the school still mourn their deaths, well at least most of them do. But despite this, none of them ever realized that their words affected someone so much that the person took the decision of ending their life. Little do they know, Julie and Asher came back as ghosts since the very day they died. They have been haunting the school ever since and have been planning their revenge on all those who bullied them. Asher (as a ghost) had said, “Julie, now that we aren’t alive, those terrible people, they can’t affect us, but we can affect them. I promise that I will help you take your revenge.” Julie had realized that even though she shouldn’t have done what she did, she should make the best out of her situation. “Our plan has to be simple, but effective. As spirits, we cannot do much, but we can move physical objects if we concentrate hard. We should use that to our strengths.” Julie had said while pondering upon the best plan. In due course of time, they made a scheme to expose the secrets of the biggest bullies of their class.
Over the months, they collected evidence of the shocking realities of these ‘popular people’ (who also happened to be the main bullies). Photographs, letters, diaries and all sorts of personal documents were recorded by the two. Many of these things were embarrassing, some were undeniable proof of unforgivable acts while others were long-kept secrets that could make one’s blood boil upon hearing them. Asher and Julie’s ‘brilliant’ idea was to exploit them to make others infamous and ruin those people’s lives. Slowly, but surely, they had collected enough evidence for so many kids, that nearly all the targeted people could have been suspended or even expelled, had these reports directly reached the principal.
So, from then on, every week, the two started pasting hundreds of photocopies of the documents one by one all around the school. This ensured that people were slowly being exposed and that a new bombshell of horrifying information was dropped on the students steadily. People started hating each other, and most of all, the bullies. These students started realizing the error of their ways, but due to all the hate that they started receiving, many went into depression and eventually, one of them even dropped out of school.
When this happened, the weight of their actions as a result of their revengeful methods, seeped into them. They realized that this was not the correct way to deal with bullies, or in fact, anyone. They understood that they were also, actually, bullying. Bullying others as a pay back for bullying them. This is not what Julie had wanted. “I don’t like doing this anymore. What we are doing is wrong. This needs to stop.” cried Julie as she fathomed this reality. Asher agreed with a sad frown. Now, they leave encouraging messages to the victims of bullying, to help them grow strong and learn to stand up for themselves. They helped them believe that they were good enough and did not need anyone else to define their value in life. Their presence had an excellent impact on the schoolchildren and even though they did not know who was helping them out, they thanked the two in their hearts. These grateful messages were showered on the friends and they lived out their ghostly days helping others, finally happy!
