All Chapters of How To Save A Life: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10
15 chapters
Chapter 1
   There was a boy in my room.     He sat on my cheap desk chair, leaning back as it squeaked slowly. Long legs parted and his hands in the pockets of his navy blazer. I tried not to stare for too long. Not because he wasn't nice to look at, he certainly was. With freshly faded hair at the side of his oval-shaped face and tight ringlets of lively black curls at the top, he certainly wasn't a bother.     It was hard to know whether he noticed I was even there. His long, dark lashes curled upwards and sheltered his eyes that were trained down to the floor. His eyes were oddly enchanting. So brown that they drizzled to an almost fiery red, like honey. Golden sunlight filtered through the cracks in my blinds and melted against his smooth brown skin. He was enough to leave me breathless and I was choking. &nb
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Chapter 2
   I wondered for a moment if I could have been dreaming but after glancing at my wrist to see my name written in messy cursive, I knew it wasn't true.  Every letter sat where I'd written it earlier to prove that I wasn't in a horrible dream.    I hadn't made this up, it was real.    "You found me, didn't you?" His voice came out in a faint whisper. It was as though the thought had been worming its way through his mind ever since he saw me and now it had finally slipped from his tongue.     I nodded, "yes."    "So I am...dead?"    "Yes."    "But...you're not?" 
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Chapter 3
   They sounded like ghostly robots as they spoke together. Their voices weren't loud but they echoed around my mind and distracted the sane part of myself. The wind picked up and it began to whip my hair around my face ferociously. All at once, each door of the terraced houses slammed shut in my face.      Before anything else could've taken me away from my goal, I rushed ahead to the shop. The bell above the door chimed as I stepped inside and I wasted no time in escaping to the sweet and chocolate aisle. For such a small shop, they had a lot of good stuff. Snatching the off-brand milk chocolate, I followed the white aisles as they led me to the counter. When I was younger, my dad used to allow me to get a pretty pink magazine for my birthday every year. I often wished times were simpler, that I could allow myself to get excited over the little things again. &n
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Chapter 4
   When I slipped back into my bedroom, Deshawn was sitting exactly where I'd left him, cross-legged on my bed. My eyes scanned around the room in search of anything that had moved or scratched but nothing obvious popped out at me. His eyes were trained to the window as he watched the trees outside dance in the wind.     I wondered if he was a ghost and what that felt like. I'd never had ghosts follow me before so this couldn't have been something to do with me. Death had seemed pretty angry that a spirit managed to slip from his grasp so I guessed this was a rare occurrence for him too.     I circled the boy whose chest, though dead, lifted and fell with breath. I carefully pulled my desk chair forward so that I could watch as he moved, breathed, and observed life moving outside. The life he'd no longer be part of.
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Chapter 5
   I woke up to the numbing feeling on my forehead as it spread around my body and made my muscles tingle back to life. Cool leather pushed against my body from the couch and was a cold awakening to the bare skin of my arms.     I reached my arms up and above my head, clicking them into place. Every one of my limbs ached and it felt as though I'd been sleeping for years. Fluttering my eyes open, I recognized my surroundings as the living room. I lifted my head from the leather sofa and pain pierced through my skull. With furrowed brows, I massaged my temples and breathed deeply to soothe the pain.     Just the thought of what happened earlier sent a shudder through my body. What was that? It all felt so real and scary. The blood looked real, it smelt real, it felt real. I glanced down at my wrist and saw the words 'R
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Chapter 6
   "I'm surprisingly very excited about this party. You know, considering I died at the last one, I think I'm doing alright," Deshawn explained while sitting on the bed behind me. He used his hands in big gestures while his voice rang out loudly with amusement.    "You're not funny, you know that, right?" I frowned. I was sitting in front of my full-length mirror while applying my makeup gently. I'd thrown on a simple, red, spaghetti dress and called it a day. I wasn't in the mood to go all out tonight.     I could see Deshawn watching me through the mirror as I painted my face and his eyebrows furrowed in interest to follow what I was doing.    "Why do you insist on coming with me?" I muttered while applying the mascara slowly to my frustratingly short eyelashes
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Chapter 7
   "Is this a Zobel boy party?" I asked over the music.     "Uhh, yeah," she answered absentmindedly while trying to roll up her window to stop the bitter chill of night. I figured if this was a Zobel party we'd be more likely to find a suspect worth our time.     "Why? You got your eye on one of them?" Raven teased while the wind breezed through her dark hair.     I threw her a half-smile. She knew better than anyone how I felt about relationships. I just didn't need them. I loved the thrill of a kiss but dreaded the burden of love. That's just the way it was for me.     "Well Corpus Cole from biology does weed and I'm going to join them tonight." Raven grinned.  
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Chapter 8
   I leaned against the headrest of the car and listened to the music as it vibrated from the house. Students from Zobel College house never failed to amaze me, this one was no exception. It was larger than I'd thought. It is adorned with colorful flowers hung from buckets along the front, blooming beautifully. More glass than necessary lined the walls just to give a breathtaking peak of the expensive interior. It also provided a nice view of the coastline the houses were built along.     "I don't think anyone will die in this one if that's what you're worried about," Deshawn reassured while he was in the passenger seat. It was as if he'd fizzed into place as he'd always been there.     "Unless there's a serial killer on the loose. Then, in that case, you might have an army of ghosts to help you out," he joked. 
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Chapter 9
   Though Deshawn wasn't truly there, he could touch and hold stuff from our world. Taron's weight was shared between the crazy girl and the ghost of his best friend but he had no idea. It was unsettling.     Together, the three of us walked through the front door where I was momentarily speechless at the interior. Just like every other Zobel boy house, it was large with winding staircases, expensive decorations, and designer wallpaper. The foyer alone was probably bigger than my whole house and led straight to the glass doors on the other side where more people danced in the garden. The smell of various alcoholic drinks and smoke clung to the air like a disease and groups of people came and went through.     Girls idled on the staircase, boys screamed from the pool outside and the music pierced my eardrums. Read more
Chapter 10
   "So the obvious one would be his ex-girlfriend, Amalia Hadid. They were the most toxic couple I'd ever seen. I don't think they ever said one nice thing about one another, in private or in person. She cheated on him a few months before he died and they broke up because of that. It was a messy parting and he said a lot of dumb fucking shit about her when they finished. She was pissed and almost failed her exams because of it and the last thing I heard, her dad went around to Deshawn's house and told him to pack it in. He threatened Deshawn and at the time we thought it was the funniest fucking thing but I'm not sure anymore. Anyway, that's Amalia."     Taron took his other hand and enclosed it over mine that rested on his chest. His fingers were long and bony, trapping me in place.     "Then there's Marco Arandia,
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