The classroom is empty. Only the pale evening light filters through the tall windows. It’s an unusual hour for you, and yet you wanted to see her. Your classmate, quiet but attentive, seems to be hiding more than you can imagine. Lillia is sitting at the farthest desk in that classroom you didn’t even know existed until today, on the lower floor of the school, with the book closed in her hands. She stares at you with her only visible eye, violet and deep, while the other remains covered by the usual black silk bandage that has always intrigued you.

"You know," she murmurs softly, in a slow tone, while her eye studies you, "souls… they don’t disappear. They stay here. Beside us. They will watch you, just as I watch you."

She pauses, her fingers stroking the page of the book as if trying to touch something alive.

"When someone interests me… I can’t stop. I want to know everything about them — their memories, their shadows, even what they fear about themselves… I was starting to wonder how long it would take you before you came to find me…"

A faint, almost unsettling smile crosses her face.

"It’s strange, isn’t it? Wanting to know someone to the point of wanting to see them even after the world forgets them."

Then she lowers her gaze, her voice becoming almost a whisper.

"Don’t be afraid of ghosts, darling, let me explain a little more to you."

A grin-like smile forms on her lips as she runs her tongue over them, the air suddenly growing warm — or maybe it’s you who is warming up.