*** Hi guys, this here is the second part of the chapter (only just combined the two as this used to be chap. two), so if you haven't read the first I'd appreiciate it if you checked it out before reading this. Here's the link: topic47857.html By the way I changed the tense. ***
Part Two
“What’s up with you anyway?” Maya asked me suspiciously as we walked out of the classroom.
I don’t answer for a while. I was too busy fighting my way past the other students who threatened to knock me down and trample me to death. It was lunch. But there was always a mad scramble out of Mr. Shank’s door if there was lunch next or not. Everyone wanted to get out of there before he punished us for something he’d miraculously missed for the whole two hours.
Finally we were free from the swarm and were wandering down a little hall lined with dark blue lockers. Only bunches of students joined us in this little hall, gossiping amongst themselves.
“Ames-” Maya started again, exasperated.
“I’m being haunted,” I cut across her in a whisper, fearful of raising my voice in case other people heard, and also in case she heard. My eyes darted around the hallway as I spoke; making sure no one was watching and possibly lip-reading.
I heard her say: “Are you serious?”
Her tone of voice was enough to make me look at her and check out her reaction. When I did I saw she was staring at me with a confused frown, unsure if I was joking or just going mad. There was something else in her expression too: fear. I’d scared her.
I made a split decision and forced a laugh.
“Of course not!” I said, feeling like I should be shot. Maya was one of my best friends, but one thing she couldn’t handle was a secret. Especially not a secret like that. It was better for her if I acted sane and kept it to myself. Anyway, if I’d told her would the woman from my dream go after her?
She was still looking at me funny so I added: “Honestly, Maya, I’m just tired ‘cause I didn’t get much sleep last night. That’s all. And Mr. Shank picking on me for the rest of the lesson just because I fell asleep once doesn’t really put me in the best of moods either.”
She was still frowning, but at least she let it go and looked away.
I breathed a silent sigh of relief. As much as I adored her, the last thing I needed right now was her constantly demanding to know what was the matter when I didn’t even know myself. All I needed to do was change the subject and let her do all the talking while I did all the thinking.
“So how’s it coming along with you and Drake?” I asked cautiously.
Her face brightened up.
“Wonderful!” She grinned. Barely suppressing her excitement she turned to me. “He’s going to ask me out – I’m sure of it. Do you know what he said to me?” I started to shake my head in a ‘no’ but she was already steaming ahead, “He said I had the most gorgeous eyes,” I couldn’t help but look at those large green eyes when she said this, “and this morning…”
Please forgive me for channelling her out, but when Maya speaks it’s so hard not to get lost, let alone be able to keep up. It would be harsh to call her chatter pointless, but I’m afraid I can’t think of another way to describe the endless torment on my ears. No, I’m being cruel, as well as a secretive cow. Maya’s lovely. She just … doesn’t stop talking…
I nodded from time to time; acting like I was listening, but something else caught my attention. A particular sensation began to overwhelm me as we queued up in the cafeteria. It was like I was being crushed on the inside. A dull roaring filled my ears.
I was going to faint. I knew it. Damn, I didn’t know my sleep deprivation was this bad. Sure enough everything grew fuzzy, the edges slightly blurred, the darkening colours mixed with one another. It was strange and bizarre, those sudden black and red dots dancing before my eyes.
I must have made some sound, because Maya was speaking anxiously to me. I heard her panicked voice by my ear, asking me what was wrong. I felt her hands on my shoulders, steadying me. I was going to faint, I was going to faint, I was going to…
I couldn’t see her. I couldn’t see anything. I’d gone blind.
Terror crushed my chest until I was fighting for breath. Oh God, I’d gone blind. Was I having a stroke?
I glimpsed a flash of green. Like the green of sweet, rich grass. I would have given anything to be perfectly okay and see grass and other simple, beautiful sights again.
I heard a high, sweet laugh and I knew it was her.
Death was calling to me.
I heard her laugh again, charming and girlish. Peals of laughter. Once again I saw the flash of green and recognised it to actually be grass. I saw a bare foot step down on the springy softness and then the image was gone, replaced by another. A young man, a few years older than me and her, who was remarkably handsome. He opened his mouth in a huge grin and added his deeper laugh to hers. He stretched out his hand. I saw her duck away, laughing harder.
My mind whirled. She has come to me again. But she looked different. Alive. Her hair was just as golden as I predicted it to be and rolled down her back in shimmering waves. She looked so beautiful when she laughed. Even more so when she was laughing uncontrollably, like she was now.
The young man spoke; his teasing voice still contained his laughter. “Give it back!” His hand was still outstretched, but with a playful growl he threw himself at her, clutching her around her slim waist. She shrieked with laughter and held something away from him. I saw them framed against the bright blue sky, lovers lost in their happy laughter. Then they fell to the ground, shrieking happily the whole time. After a brief struggle he managed to grab the floppy, brown object from her. Like a shot he was away, laughing uncontrollably. It was only when I saw him put the object on his head that I saw it was a simple, modest brown hat. She struggled to her feet and gathered the bottom of her strange dress in her hands before she gave chase.
With a gasp I was pulled back. I opened my eyes wide to find Maya and several others staring at me, worried.
I was collapsed in a chair, although I had no memory of how I got there. I had a table all to myself – if you didn’t count the few frantic students and even fewer teachers who pelted me with questions I didn’t have answers to yet – in a corner in the cafeteria.
Faintly, I raised a hand to my forehead where it felt like I had a gorilla pounding his hairy fist against the fragile bone of my skull from the inside. “W-what happened?” I managed weakly, closing my eyes tightly before opening them again. Immediately the harsh artificial lights in the cafeteria fried my eyes. The clattering and harsh, loud voices of other people in the cafeteria assaulted my ears, worsening my headache.
“You fainted,” Maya told me in a very small voice, for once not adding another few unnecessary sentences.
Amazingly, I was surprised. I didn’t feel myself falling or anything like that. Just the dizzy feeling, the random bursts of red and black and then … nothing. Well perhaps not entirely nothing. Her laughter haunted me still; even though she was long gone it still remained a faint echo in the back of my mind. My mind was whirling with what she has revealed to me. She had shown me a fragment of her life. A memory I didn’t know what to make of, what to do with. Why had she revealed that to me? What was its importance? Did that mean she was friendly if she was showing me her life, or was she just hoping to terrify me by taunting me with these images? I didn’t know. Frustration rose in me. What did it mean?
My thoughts, chasing each other like angry dogs, were interrupted by one of the teachers.
“Amelia, dear,” Mrs. Bell started, anxious, “are you feeling better?”
“Y-yes,” I answered, pulling myself up into a proper sitting position and not an uncomfortable slouch. I made to get to my feet but immediately the room began to swirl again. I gave up on that effort.
“Perhaps you’d better go and see the nurse,” Mrs. Bell fretted, watching me too keenly.
“Uh…” I replied, thinking it over. The nurse would take one look at me and immediately phone my parents to come and pick me up, not trusting me to drive in my condition, and I would be resting at home while everyone was there, not enjoying their lessons. Another thought hit me. I would be on my own at home. Alone and vulnerable. There weren’t that many people at home. Whereas here… “I think I’ll just rest here a minute,” I told her quickly.
“Are you sure?” Her brow creased with worry.
“Yeah.” Just go, go, go.
“I think you should see the nurse,” she persisted.
I forced myself to smile brightly, acting like I was already one hundred percent better. “I’ll be fine, Mrs. Bell,” I said, sickly sweet.
“If you’re sure…”
“I’m sure.” I answered just a bit too quickly. Her eyes registered the faint spark of hurt for a second as she realised I didn’t want her faffing over me. Finally she joined the other students who were already drifting away from my table, uninterested now it looked like I won’t die. The guilt I felt over Mrs. Bell faded instantly as my gaze drifted over the windows in the opposite wall.
She was looking at me.
That same sad face from my dreams stared across the cafeteria at me. Only, she didn’t look like she was on the opposite side of the glass, she was faint, like a reflection. I was barely able to make her out at all. She was clear enough, however, for me to see the differences between her when she was alive and how she looked now. There was the obvious, which I had already explained, and then there was how bitter she looked – as if all of her young innocence had been destroyed. She also looked aged, despite how young she was. Tired, defeated, older, but I still felt the energy of her resentment as it burned inside her. She terrified me.
“You’re so pale,” Maya said, frightened. Her voice pulled me away from the reflection of the young woman. I glanced at her and then looked back at the window the woman had appeared in. She was gone. “You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
This phrase amused me. It was strangely appropriate for this situation.
You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.
Perhaps I had.
There was not that awkward sentence everyone gushed over before. It was really fantastic; you finished the other chapter beautifully and artisticly. I really like where you're going with this story.
this was great! i really like it.
