All Saints School for Girls
Part Two: Visiting with Ghosts
To read part one of this story, click here.
Isobel tried to forget about the whole incident — Maura, the ghost — but as the clouds grew darker and the snow began to fall, she found herself glancing up the winding stone staircase to the bell tower as she walked into the office each morning. The staircase was wide at the bottom, narrowing as it got higher, like a piece of candy pulled into a thread. There was no reason why a ghost in the tower should bother her so much; Isobel hadn’t known a suicide.
It was an icebox-cold morning when she saw Adora through the window, hurrying down the icy path to the main entrance in a pair of heels. Adora wore a silky mink coat over her dress, thick and brown with a narrow collar.
“Miss Stevens?” the secretary asked.
Isobel looked down, startled. The secretary slid her reading glasses down her nose and held out her hand. “Your time-card?”
Isobel glanced down and noticed she hadn’t stamped in. She felt the blood rush to her frozen cheeks and hoped the secretary didn’t notice. As she slid the card into the dull metal box on the wall, it stamped the time with a gunshot.
Adora threw open the doors and strode into the office, picked up her card, stamped it, and, in one motion, handed…
