The fear choking me deprived me of the ability to scream. I staggered back from the display case, flailing about wildly until someone stopped from me from falling with their body.
I whirled around to find my mother with tears in her eyes.
"I'm... I'm fine." I choked out, patting my arms to convince her and myself that I really didn't just catch on fire a second ago. I found several people holding their phones out and staring at us in morbid fascination.
"We need to leave here now." Mother whispered urgently, wiping the tears from her eyes. I nodded and we speed walked in one accord down the street.
Glancing around after we cleared another block, I spied a small boutique, just like the man had discribed.
"C'mon mum. Time for a little shopping." I didn't wait for a reply as I entered the air-conditioned store. The clothes in here looked pricey but I had Frank's money to blow so why not do it on designer clothes.
I shook myself, trying to get r
Evening was upon us once again. The journey to Llanwrtyd had taken the better part of two days. I was tired, cranky and weary. If I never took another bus or train again, it would be to soon. But somehow, I was inexplicably relieved. I'd been trying to gain entry into Llanwrtyd for centuries, each attempt a failure, but now, just when I was beginning to believe that the guardians had really been successful, I found my ticket in. I was brought up short by the thought that was mine, yet not. The voice had spoken in my head, but the thoughts were definitely not mine. I was nineteen years old and I never even knew Llanwrtyd existed before today. Why would I have spent centuries trying to come here? "Okay, I have had enough now." Mum yelled right in the middle of the street. Thankfully, there was no one to hear her. "That signs says we are in Llanwrtyd, Wales. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Wales is in the United kingdom. We are in another continent!" She roa
"Okay. Here is Gracie's BnB." He announced a small eternity later. I exhaled gratefully and jumped away from the truck. I'd never met aan who spoke for long periods of time as Bill. He didn't even care that we weren't contributing to the conversation.We knew literally everything about Bill. From the size of his ranch, to the names of his children, to that of his parents and his favourite spots in Llanwrtyd but the man didn't even know our first names.'Must love the sound of his voice' the voice piped up once again.The building he brought us to was antique and also charming. The wooden steps led to a brown balcony and a woman in a rocking chair and a black cat in her lap. She closed the book she was reading and clabbered to her feet."Guests! Oh, what a beautiful sight." She exclaimed happily, even clapping her hands together.'Sheesh, desperate much?' The voice sniped again.
She gaped at me but now that I've had the idea, it seemed like the best thing in the entire world. After I was able to force some food down mother's throat, I made her wear some new clothes. We would need a car and I needed to find something for mother to do during the days. Activity and interaction with other people were going to snap her out of her downtrodden mood.We braved Catwoman again and after an hour of her lectures on about all things Llanwrtyd, mum was able to get a word in edgewise and ask her for directions to a realtor."Looking to buy a house here? Oh, that's such wonderful news! I knew you were here to stay just by the looks on you." She gushed happily. "Why, my nephew works in the real estate office. I'm going to get you his phone number right now! You and I going to make truly wonderful neighbours." She prattled on but I'd tuned her out, frozen as I was in terror. Neighbors? I'd have to see her on a daily basis for the rest of my life?
"He swindled you!" She screeched."Why do you say that?" Mum wondered."That house is haunted. No one has been able to live there since Nana Baker died there over a hundred years ago.""Really?" I drawled in a bored voice. That was the latest excuse ever."Yes, really! No one has been able to live in that house longer than three nights. They either run away, run mad or die." She related with petrified eyes."Oh no." mother gasped, her eyes wide with fear. I was glad that she was being cognizant of her surroundings and taking part in conversations again, but I didn't want Mrs Clark scraing the daylights out of her."I doubt that's true mum. Ghosts don't exist.""It's not just ghosts but demons haunting that house. You think I'm making up tales?" Mrs Clark challenged dangerously.
Okay, so apparently, a new continent meant new rules. As I stared disconsolately at the old Victorian house three days later, I begrudgingly had to admit that the first rule was, NEVER ever go against Elsie Ballad. The building was ancient, asymmetrical and had so many creepy windows. It looked like a place where dreams went to die, not where future leaders were being molded. It felt like the gothic building was stolen from a medieval time.“You know, I'm legally considered an adult in this country. That means I can make decisions myself and shouldn't be coerced into going to school if I don't want to. Do you know that a sixteen year old can seek emancipation?”“Yes. But we’re not in America at the moment. We’re in Wales so the emancipation clause does not count. Also, I’m not forcing y
Holy, freaking sh*t! Where the heck was this?Several lockers were at the other end of the hall and that was the end of its similarities to other schools.First off, the damn lockers were not in a straight line. They were in a concave pattern, almost a circle, but not. Three half circle walls also stood about ten meters apart from each other, leaving the lockers to be about twenty feet away. The walls were short though, about three inches separated it from the roof.As if that was not confusing enough, these walls were made of a yellowish granite. It was kind of garish in the sky blue hallway. What was the point of the walls if they guarded against nothing and led nowhere? It was a freaking confusing maze out here.
Sarah was quite tall for a girl. She was at least 5’6 which put her six feet over me. She was not only tall but had the shape of a model, all legs and a very curvaceous body. She was blonde and blue eyed, ticking off each box for a heroine in every stereotypical high school teen movie there was. I just hoped she wasn't as vain and mean as them.I clasped her hand gratefully. “Nice to meet you Sarah. I'm Kiera. Kiera Ba….Brooke.”My new surname was going to take some getting used to. I don't know how mother had done it, but she had convinced someone at the records office that not only had we been victims of a house fire, we had no families whatsoever seeing as she was a single woman raised in the orphanage and my dad was dead.We got new names, papers a
The class we entered was small and compact, sitting at most fifteen students. I made a headcount and yep, sixteen seats in rows of fours.“Let's go. The middle seats are the best.”She enforced her words by pulling me along to the middle seats. The seats were plush, black -still rectangular- and very comfortable. Seats like this must have cost the school a pretty penny.Five seats were empty when we got to the class, three of them in the middle. I followed Sarah and sat right behind her.I made myself comfortable and brought out my textbook -one of several since I’ve yet to drop the ones I didn’t need in my locker- and arranged my pencils and pen just the way I liked on my desk. I also brought out my n