Medium High

CHAPTER 1: The Strange Reading

It wasn’t the first time Fay Williams had been late for an appointment at The Psychology Clinic for Distresses Teens. In fact, she was always late to them and the pile of excuses she kept on coming up with was building up to the roof. “Sorry, I missed the bus” or “My teacher kept me in” were some of her regulars. Sometimes Fay would get in trouble at school on purpose so she wouldn’t have to go to the appointments. Another good reason for being late is the trains that go into Adelaide (where the place was) because they were either slow or late. However, today there was absolutely no reason as to why she should be late; Fay’s grandmother had made sure of that.

So here Fay was now, standing outside the psychiatrists office playing with her roughly cut black hair – courtesy of her grandmother – two minutes late.

‘Just go in,’ Jenova whispered in her ear. ‘Get it over and done with.’

Jenova, Fay’s best friend, usually disappeared from her during weekdays, but every Tuesday he stayed with her and kept her sane during the session. The grey door opened and a woman in her late thirties appeared with a frustrated look on her face. Mrs Kay waved her hand and Fay trudged into the room, eventually taking a seat at the end of the long green chair that stood in the corner of the neat, organised room. Mrs Kay sat in the adjacent chair. Her usually ashen face was a ruby red and her hair was a crow’s nest.

Fay couldn’t help but giggle at her; Mrs Kay looked like a scarecrow.

‘How are you, Fay?’ she asked, putting on a huge fake smile and staring at Fay through piercing bottle-green eyes.

Fay laughed and Mrs Kay looked at her, puzzled. She clasped her hands over her mouth to stop herself from laughing.

‘What are you laughing at?’ Mrs Kay asked as a disapproving scowl spread across her face like jam, spreading across toast.

Fay knew not to tell her the truth, because, all that would achieve was more appointments and possibly a day in a straight-jacket. Jenova wasn’t making it easy for Fay to keep her laughter contained; he was making hilarious expressions behind Mrs Kay and blowing raspberries right into her ear. Of course, the psychiatrist could neither hear nor see him doing this. No one could see Jenova, except Fay.

‘Let’s start again, shall we,’ Mrs Kay questioned, clutching her white clipboard.

Fay nodded, and Mrs Kay continued.

‘Have you seen or heard of Jenova?’ she probed.

Yes, Fay thought.

‘No,’ she lied out loud.

‘Good, that’s very good,’ Mrs Kay said, making a note on the clipboard.

Fay giggled again, causing more frown lines to wrinkle Mrs Kay’s face as she stared disapprovingly at Fay.

But Fay couldn’t help it; a few pigeons had landed on the window ledge outside of Mrs Kay’s office, and Jenova was pulling faces at them.

Fay burst into full blown fits of laughter when Jenova dropped his pants and started to moon them.

‘Fay,’ Mrs Kay snapped. ‘Stop laughing immediately.’

‘Fay, stop laughing immediately,’ Jenova mocked in a high pitched girl voice, which only made Fay laugh harder.

‘Fay Annabel-May Williams, if you don’t cease laughing in the next two seconds, I’m calling your grandmother.’

Fay sobered straight away then winced. She hated that Mrs Kay knew where to strike. Bringing her grandmother into the session last time had ended with a lot of shouting and Fay being dragged out the door by the ear.

‘Now that you’ve controlled yourself, let’s continue,’ Mrs Kay said briskly.

Jenova shot Mrs Kay a look of immense rage; he hated it when the shrink threatened Fay, and Fay knew his anger could get the better of him sometimes. This was one of those times.

‘What are you doing, Fay?’ Jenova hissed in her ear. Fay winced at his harsh tone, and he immediately looked contrite. ‘You don’t need to be afraid of your grandmother,’ he said in softer tones.

Fay wished she could respond to him, but if she showed any sign of being able to see Jenova, all the progress she’d made convincing Mrs Kay that she couldn’t see him would fly right out the window.

‘How’s school been?’ Mrs Kay continued.

Great, a horrible topic to begin the session with.

Fay swallowed the lump in her throat and smiled weakly. ‘Good,’ she answered.

‘Really? Well, I have your report card here and you failed everything except for maths,’ Mrs Kay scolded.

Jenova made a move to slap Mrs Kay in the face, but his fingers passed right through her. Mrs Kay, of course, felt nothing.

Jenova was proud of Fay’s grades – at least she wasn’t failing everything.

Fay’s grandmother didn’t see it that way, though. When she had received Fay’s report card, Fay had gotten the worst beating of her life.

Jenova had been there to comfort her, which was rare for him – Jenova wasn’t the condoling type and had seemed uncomfortable when he held her as she cried.

Suddenly, Jenova disappeared from the room, leaving Fay to face the shrink alone.

‘My grades aren’t your concern. You’re my shrink, not my mother,’ Fay said defiantly.

‘You’re mother’s dead, isn’t she? How do you feel about that? Do you think that is the reason why you thought up Jenova?’

I didn’t think him up! Fay resisted the urge to shout. He’s real!

‘No,’ she said calmly aloud. She would not crack. ‘That’s not the reason.’

Mrs Kay wrote another note on the clipboard and looked up at Fay with an awful fake smile.

Fay couldn’t stand looking at that smile, so she scanned the room.

The desk was behind the door, and behind the desk were a few certificates and degrees. Fay turned her attention to the other side of the room where the bookshelf stood. It held Mrs Kay’s family photos, which Fay had already seen during her previous sessions. She was about to turn away and stare at something else when a new picture on the middle shelf caught her eye. The picture was one of Mrs Kay. She had her arm around a blonde woman who appeared to be in her late thirties, but the knowledge her eyes held gave Fay the impression she was much older than that. To a normal person, it might look like she was smiling, but Fay saw the slight curve to her lips that turned the smile into a sneer.

Fay started to shake all over, but Mrs Kay was oblivious, droning on about her grades.

Fay’s thoughts were pleas for Jenova to return. She needed him. Then her vision went blurry.

What’s happening to me? She cried mentally.

Her vision faded to black as she slipped helplessly into nothingness.

I was screaming. Fire was everywhere and all the available exits were blocked by rubble. The smoke in the room was sucking out all the oxygen, like an infant draining the milk from his bottle. I ran to the nearest window with my shirt covering my nose and mouth, but that didn’t stop me from choking on the smoke. It took me precious seconds to realise that the window was locked. Another second was all it took for the fire to engulf me.

I screamed in agony as the flames licked at my skin, then darkness enveloped me.

Blissful darkness.

Fay woke with a shallow gasp; that had been a frightening experience. But, perhaps what was more frightening was the scarecrow hovering over her who was gripping Fay’s shoulders and shaking them so hard Fay thought her head would fall off.

‘Fay. Fay!’ screamed the scarecrow.

Fay grabbed hold of her shrink’s hands and pushed her away with so much force Mrs Kay nearly fell back into her chair. Her face got redder and redder as she became angrier and angrier.

‘This session is over,’ Mrs Kay choked out, quivering with anger.

Fay got up and practically ran from the room, stopping only to glance back at Mrs Kay who was speaking rapidly to someone on the phone.

Fay’s heart sank as she realised Mrs Kay was most likely talking to her grandma.

Fay walked home, thoughts of what had just happened running through her head.

‘What on earth had happened in Mrs Kay’s office?’ she wondered aloud.

The vision, or whatever it was, had been so surreal, and unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.

Fay knew that seeing a ghost was weird. In fact, talking to one was even weirder. But what happened in the office was the most abnormal, most terrifying thing she’d ever experienced.

Fay turned onto her street and stopped to look at the street sign. She’d do anything to delay the inevitable meeting with her grandmother. The sign was a rusty, rectangular silver plate. The words “Whites Road” were written upon it in blue. After a few minutes of staring at it, she continued on her way home.

She stopped outside her house, hand resting on an old wire gate that screeched with the slightest breeze. Fay didn’t know why her grandmother had bought this old, decaying house. It was so ugly and old; it was on the brink of collapsing. It was a wonder the council didn’t have it condemned. Fay thought the paint used to be white, now it was the colour of stale urine, a yellowish colour that made it look uglier. The purple roof had several patches, which Fay had fixed herself and the front garden was full of different kinds of weeds.

‘Hey,’ Jenova whispered in Fay’s ear.

She jumped nearly a foot in the air, startled. ‘I need to talk to you,’ she said when she recovered from the mini heart attack he had given her.

Jenova nodded his head once, immediately understanding, and said ‘I’ll meet you inside the bathroom.’ Then he disappeared again, fading into nothingness.

Fay opened the wire gate and walked up the cracked foot path through the weed garden to the front door, which had termite damage from a couple of years ago. She unlocked it with her brass key and gently pushed it open. She didn’t want to push it too hard for fear of it falling off its hinges. As soon as she stepped inside, her grandmother’s sinister black tabby pounced and dug its’ claws into the skin on her left thigh.

‘Get off, you mangy thing,’ Fay said as she shook her leg, trying to pry the cat off. It eventually released its death grip and ran into another room. Fay dumped her bag in her room and continued on to the bathroom. She opened the door to the filthy bathroom that had dirt on the mirror and windows, and the strong odour of sewerage. Fay tried to do what she could to clean the house, but it wasn’t easy when her grandmother deliberately kept it disgustingly dirty.

‘Hey, I’m in here,’ Jenova yelled, pretending to pull up his fly.

‘Stop doing that,’ Fay protested. He did it every time Fay went into the bathroom. Any normal person would have gotten bored with it by now, but Jenova was a ghost and normal rules didn’t apply to him. Of course, Fay wouldn’t know, since Jenova was the only ghost she’d ever encountered.

Jenova grinned at her, seeming happier than he had before. Fay walked over to use the toilet, and then remembered Jenova was still with her.

‘Can you leave, please?’ she asked him nicely.

He closed his eyes and turned around. ‘I’m not looking.’

Fay shook her head and muttered ‘You’re one annoying ghost.’

She did her business, and then washed her hands with the horrible purple soap that smelled like musty old mould her grandmother insisted on buying.

‘Where did you go before?’ she asked Jenova as she dried her hands.

‘I was hanging out with Eleanor. You know, she looks really hot naked – ’

‘Something happened,’ Fay said, cutting him off before he got too immersed in his usual conversation about Eleanor, a girl who went to Fay’s school.

He stopped talking to look at her, a frown wrinkling his brow. ‘What?’

‘Something happened to me after you left,’ Fay managed to choke out. The very thought of what had occurred with Mrs Kay scared the bodily secretions out of her. And yes, instead of using profanity, she used scientific terminology.

Jenova walked towards her and held his arms above her shoulders, like he wanted to give her a hug. A comforting but useless gesture, considering the only times he could actually move or touch solid things was when he was really emotional.

‘Don’t worry about your grandmother,’ he said, letting his arms fall back to his sides. ‘If she dares touch you – ’

‘No, it’s not that,’ Fay interrupted with a whisper.

‘What, then?’ Jenova asked, puzzled.

Relaying her vision to Jenova was like reliving it. Jenova didn’t seem surprised about it all, and in fact, pressed her for every tiny detail. Once she had gotten through everything, Jenova was looking at her thoughtfully, and Fay wanted to know why he was taking it so well. But before she could ask, the alarm clock in her bedroom went off, alerting her that she needed to go to work.

‘Go get ready,’ Jenova insisted.

Fay knew that even if she were to question him, she wouldn’t get any answers. It was like quizzing a brick wall, sometimes. Jenova always kept secrets. When Fay had first asked him why she could see ghosts, he’d told her she couldn’t…yet. It made no sense to her, back then and now.

Pushing the vision and Jenova’s evasiveness to the back of her mind, she went through her small wardrobe to look for some decent clothes. Meanwhile, Jenova was staring at the ceiling, looking deep in thought.

Fay finally decided on a black ruffled skirt that went down to her ankles, a violet top with spaghetti straps, and a pair of black flats. It most likely the only decent outfit she owned. Fay tugged them on and examined herself in the clean mirror in her bedroom. Expecting to see only herself, she jumped when her grandmother appeared in the doorway. Her spectacles slid down her crooked nose as she stormed into the room towards Fay. Her tanned, leathery face was creased with wrinkles of anger and old age.

Fay’s heart pounded against her chest; she knew what was coming.

‘I heard about the appointment,’ her grandmother said, her voice trembling with restrained anger.

Fay was about to answer when a deafening crash came from down stairs. They both jumped out of their skins at the unexpected sound. Regaining her composure first, Fay’s grandmother leaned down and whispered in Fay’s ear, sour vodka smelling breath fanning her skin, ‘You are grounded for a month, which means no television, no dessert and no going out for leisure time,’ she hissed.

Fay watched the reflection of her grandmother amble out of the room as tears began to emerge.

‘Come on, let’s go to work,’ Jenova whispered in her other ear, completely ignoring her grandmother’s last request.

‘Will Tommy Henderson ask me out?’ the blonde girl named Sarah asked.

Fay felt like groaning in annoyance at the question nearly all the teenagers asked. Not about Tommy Henderson, per se, but about a particular boy or girl they fancied. It was really starting to get annoying.

‘Tell her that if she dyes her hair blue, he will surely notice her and ask her out,’ Jenova suggested.

Fay bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing out loud. She was already feeling better after her encounter with her grandmother and she’d only been out for an hour.

She repeated what Jenova had said and Sarah nodded eagerly.

They always did this, with customers like that. Told them something outrageous and after it didn’t work, Fay would tell them that the prediction had changed and the guy or girl had lost interest in them. It was mean, she knew, but it was what she’d been hired to do. Rumours of the crazy chick that saw dead people who lived on Whites Road had reached a man named Julian. Needing to fill the spot of a psychic in the psychic shop he owned, Julian had sought Fay out and hired her.

She wasn’t really psychic. She saw one dead person, so what? She couldn’t read peoples’ minds or see the future.

But anyway, all Julian had needed was someone who could spew bull poo and make it believable. Fay was good at what she did, but she hated having to lie. She also hated how everyone thought she was a crazy chick when she wasn’t.

Fay had tried to get noticed and make friends, but the only friend she’d made was Molly, who seemed to get all the attention. Molly was always getting noticed, and everyone wanted to be her friend and not Fay’s. Students at their school who Fay thought were her friends would always run up and give Molly hugs. They treated Fay like an invisible person and it wasn’t until she spoke that they realised she was even there.

‘Thank you,’ Sarah said excitedly, handed over the twenty dollars she owed for the reading and rushed out of the shop.

Jenova let out a silent laugh. ‘I’ll bet she’s gone to buy the dye right now,’ he snickered.

Since she was alone, Fay allowed herself to laugh at Jenova, but was quickly cut off by a strange feeling. Static filled the air, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. The jingle of bells welcomed the arrival of a new customer.

The man who entered the small shop was unlike any man Fay had ever seen before. He was tall, with a receding hairline and bald patches on his head. As he approached Fay’s circle table on the far wall, she noticed he had an old scar that ran from his forehead to the corner of his mouth. Fay could tell it was old because it was white and faded, yet it was a bright beacon across his tanned skin. He sat down in the chair opposite her and stared at her with a look of deep concentration.

Fay wondered why he was looking at her like that; no one ever looked at her like that. Like she was important.

‘Um, what would you like?’ she asked politely. She noticed that Jenova was watching the man with what looked like suspicion.

‘My name is James, and I would like you to read my palm,’ he ordered. His voice was low, cold and hard. It was also forceful, something that both Jenova and Fay didn’t like. Jenova’s emerald eyes narrowed at the tone and his pupils turned into angry little slits.

James leaned over the table and grabbed Fay’s hand, pulling her forward. Fay tried to drag it back, but James held onto it like a woman gripping her baby to her bosom.

Jenova stormed forward, his form becoming more corporal with every angry step, and balled up his hand, ready to punch James. Before he could do so, James lifted his hand and a ball of white electricity shot out. It hit Jenova smack in the chest and he froze.

‘Jenova!’ Fay screamed.

He hit the floor with an audible thud. Fay tried to run to him, but James still held her hand in an iron-clad grip.

‘Let me go,’ Fay yelled, panicking.

‘Sit down or something very unpleasant will happen to your spirit friend here,’ James said threateningly, gesturing to Jenova, who was laying on the floor, twitching with occasional spasms from whatever James had thrown at him.

Fay lowered herself slowly back into her small, cushioned seat. James took her palm in both hands and at first nothing happened. After a moment or two, her vision clouded and she sunk into darkness.

I was standing outside a building that was seven stories high. Teenagers my age and higher were hanging around, laughing and chatting. I could also see several adults standing at the edge of the group looking formal and serious. Suddenly, a bright green thing came flying at me and everything went black.

Fay gasped and ripped her palm away from James. ‘Leave. Now,’ she whispered, panting for breath. She looked over to Jenova, but he had disappeared.

James wasn’t listening. He was looking behind her at Julian who had come from the back room. He was holding a rifle and had it aimed at James. Fay had never taken Julian to be a tough guy, with a massive gut hanging out of his purple shirt (he liked purple) and a rusty beard covering the lower half of his face. He had beefy arms and short stubby legs. Yet at that moment he seemed frightening.

‘Get out,’ Julian ordered menacingly. His deep blue eyes glared into James’ hazel ones.

Julian released the safety and James vanished into thin air.

‘What’s going on – ’ Fay began.

Julian grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the room he had come out of.

He didn’t say a word as he pulled her through the back room, then through the back exit. He opened the door and turned to face her.

‘Run home,’ he ordered. ‘Don’t stop for anything.’

She stood frozen to the spot, so he shook her. ‘Fay,’ he shouted, shaking her out of her revere. ‘Do you understand me?’

She nodded, and he pushed her through the door. ‘Go, now.’

Fay ran, stopping for nothing and no-one. The whole way home, panic coursed through her veins like wild fire.

What the heck was going on?