Page 22 of Espíritu

Julian pushed through the bathroom door, only to be greeted by muffled sounds of someone booty beatboxing. With a suppressed snort, he turned right back around, deciding he’d rather go to a different bathroom than share this one with whatever was going on in stall number three.

As he walked, Julian rubbed absently at the scar on his chest. A strange sensation prickled under his skin. The kind that made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. The icy coldness was back, seeping through his bones.

For a moment, the beige walls of the school seemed to dissolve, melting into swirling shadows—a vision stretched out before Julian, dark and endless.

Jagged stalactites formed from the shadows overhead as a cavern grew from the darkness. The sharp smell of damp earth hit Julian’s nose. The echo of water droplets plinked into a pool that spread below. The rippling water glowed with venom green and sickly blue light, casting everything in a ghostly shimmer.

Then—movement.

A shadow broke away from the far wall, unfurling like smoke made solid. A tall, hunched figure stood just across the rippling water, its outline flickering like bad static. The shadows twisted, and for a split second, Julian could’ve sworn someone was watching him, their eyes glowing like dying embers.

Julian stumbled backward with a choked gasp, shoulder slamming into the lockers. The impact snapped him out of it.

He blinked hard. Was he seeing things?

Then, just like that, the vision shattered—beige walls, buzzing lights, the lingering scent of floor cleaner. But Julian was still gasping, chest heaving as though he’d sprinted a mile.

“What the fuck?” he whispered into the silence, searching for any signs of the cave, but there was only the beige hallway and tiled floor before him.

Julian’s legs trembled under him. His pulse thundered in his ears. Whatever that had been—a vision, a memory, a warning—it had felt too real to be a hallucination. But what else could it be?

“Focus, Jules,” he muttered to himself, still shaky as he leaned against the cool metal of a locker.

He fumbled for his phone, desperate for normalcy, for TikToks, for anything to distract him from the image burned into his brain. Gradually, his heartbeat started to slow. He was mid-laugh at a video of a cat talking in its sleep when his phone buzzed with a message from Yadriel.

You aren’t in class, are you?

A grin tugged at Julian’s lips as he quickly replied.

how did you know?

The notification for the TikTok you just sent me.

Yadriel had him there.

bathroom break

His shorthand for I needed to escape before I lost my mind.

How long’s your bathroom break been?

Julian glanced at the time, shrugging off the question.

time is a social construct, babe, he typed, but before he could hit Send, that prickling sensation returned. His scar throbbed dully but was no longer cold. Julian looked around, half expecting to see something lurking just out of sight, but there was only the hum of fluorescent lights.

“Chill, Jules,” he muttered, pocketing his phone, and tried to tell himself it would be okay.

When Julian finally got back into class, he was just ten minutes late past Mrs. Garza’s bathroom deadline. Five minutes later, the bell rang, signaling freedom. Julian merged into the sea of students spilling into the hallway, eager to leave the suffocating classroom behind. Outside, the sun cast a warm glow across the windshields of cars as he caught up with his friends.

Julian, Omar, Rocky, and Luca joined Yadriel and Maritza on the walk home. Rocky’s and Luca’s skateboards clacked down the sidewalk while Omar rode his lowrider bicycle lazily in the gutter. Julian held his board so he could walk with Yadriel and Maritza.

“We’re peeling off here,” Yadriel declared at the rusted gates of the cemetery.

“I’m gonna go with them,” Julian said. He hadn’t been able to talk to Yadriel and Maritza about the mark on his chest during lunch. And now he needed to tell them about the weird cave he’d seen, too, and he couldn’t do that in front of his friends. “I’ll meet you guys at the apartment!”

Rocky hopped off her board, eyes gleaming. “Can we check it out?”

Julian wished he could include them, but the iron gate of El Jardín Eterno loomed like it was waiting for him to screw up. He opened his mouth, ready to shut her down—